Not finished but getting there

Now that the kitchen is almost finished, I'm brave enough to post some before and during pictures. Don't be jealous of the kitchen we started out with. The previous owners decided instead of replacing ugly laminate countertops from the 60's they would just unevenly put tile over top of the laminate and put wood on the ends. These things just looked dirty, and you couldn't do anything on the countertops like write notes because of the huge grout lines. Don't you love how the tiles were not cut to really fit around the sink?

I've never been so big on faux painting, but these cabinets were hideous and also just looked dirty. The original stove and windows from the 60's didn't make the kitchen very appealing either. I'm not sure what the people who picked out this hardware were thinking either.



And a close up of the faux painting on the backsplash. Notice the switchplate cover which has more holes than switches in a lovely faux copper.

These 2 walls are still a bit of a mystery. There was wallpaper painted white above the chair rail and no wallpaper below the chair rail. Under the wallpaper were these odd bright yellow walls. Of course, the wallpaper came off in a mix of decent sized and tiny pieces. That was a very frustrating weekend.
The tile really wasn't bad in the kitchen, but we figured dark floor and dark cabinets would make the room way too dark. Dave took out enough of the tile to put the cabinets against this well and let the contractor take out the rest. There was lovely vinyl flooring under the tile though.
I'll post some of the pics with the new countertops, appliances, cabinets, flooring and painted walls soon. We need to get outlet covers and replace the ugly light fixture, but most everything in there is finished. Wish us luck on that and the rest of the house.

Why Daddy doesn't take many pictures

Typically I am the one taking the pictures of Jordan. However, when I was taking some pictures a week or so Dave decided he wanted to take a few. Here are some of the results (which I told him he was not allowed to delete).


This one wasn't too bad. I think that is supposed to be a smile.

Yes, the camera has auto focus, but you would never know it by this picture.
We had an unusual day today thanks to a water line break which required my office and the day care to shut down completely. While the attorneys were supposed to work from home, Jordan didn't make that task so easy. She did take a 2 hour nap this afternoon, which is a very long nap for Jordan who usually does more of a cat nap. Now that Dave is home, I guess I need to work for at least a couple of hours.

Big girl bathtub... on a sad note

Jordan graduated to the big girl blow up tub a few weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting pics. I was afraid for a while that she would fall back into the water, so we waited to put her in the blow up tub until I was sure she could hold herself upright well enough. She LOVED being in the deeper tub so she could splash until her heart was content. Check out those rolls!

Cheesing for the camera. Dave was brave enough to get in the tub and ended up wishing he had worn swimming trunks!

She had to check out the new tub completely, including the useless hardware stuff.

And now for the sad note. When I was growing up my mom had several good friends that were always around. As I got older, I grew close to several of them and came to value their friendships, as well. Everyone needs at least one friend willing to start gossip with "don't you dare tell your mother I told you this..." For me, this friend was my mom's friend Ruthy. She was a very good friend to Mom and I for many, many years. I spent countless hours when I was in high school and college sitting in her living room discussing everything and nothing at all. She had not gotten to meet Jordan yet and jokingly gave me a hard time about it when I last saw her several weeks ago. On Saturday I called her to take Jordan to her house to meet her, but she wasn't home. On Tuesday she was found in her house having passed away. She was a beloved mother, sister and grandmother and was far too young to pass away of natural causes, but that is exactly what happened. Now I'm trying to remember if I hugged her the last time I saw her and regretting that I didn't try to get Jordan to her house sooner. Even for those of you who didn't get to meet Ruthy, I ask that you please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Jordan's first Easter basket

As I mentioned before, things were so hectic at Easter that we didn't even get to the Easter basket. No worries though, Jordan got to have a good time with it later. I'm glad we went with a plush Easter basket because Jordan loves being hands on, and I prefer when she cannot injure herself with things- call me crazy. She had to grab the bunny's ears.

She generally likes playing with the plush blocks that were in there, though she wasn't very interested in the book.

Of course, I think her favorite was the purple Easter grass stuffed in around the real presents.

Well, the pediatrician still isn't sure exactly what is going on. Jordan is now taking Zyrtec in case it is allergies, liquid Albuterol in case she wasn't getting enough of the treatment through the nebulizer and we switched her formula in case it is a food allergy. He also gave us a referral to a lung specialist for next month. Since she threw up on Dave last night and didn't sleep very well, I'm not sure if this is working yet. She is with Dave's mom this evening, and we'll get her tomorrow some time. Thankfully the pediatrician doesn't think it is anything serious since she is healthy aside from the cough, but we are trying to figure this out. It is so pitiful when she coughs and cries.

Crappy day

Today did not go as planned, not that much in my life does. Jordan awoke at about 5:30am, so I put her in bed with me until I was ready to get up at 7. During that 1.5 hrs, she spent much of the time trying to grab my eyeball through my eye lid, trying to stick her finger up my nose and grabbing my lip. It was lovely. Then, I put Jordan in the bouncy seat while I took a shower, and she fussed much of the time. She was whiny most of the morning but fell asleep on the way to get her pictures taken by a real photographer for the first time. She was in a good mood to begin with until she nearly hit the floor while sitting in a small chair against my better judgment and never fully recovered. I HOPE there are at least a few good pictures in the bunch. It really was a terrible experience with her in the mood she was in. Then, she made it at daycare for about 3.5 hours before throwing up all over the place, including on the poor lady giving her a bottle. So, we came home early and waited on the guy to come measure for the countertops. He never showed up, so that necessitated another call to Lowe's. He is coming tomorrow instead. Jordan has her first temperature of her life, so we are headed back to the doc tomorrow morning. Boy, what fun.

But anyway...

Jordan is thinking about crawling, but she can't seem to get going in the right direction.



She was not too happy when she realized she was stuck under the chair. Don't ask me why we haven't taken the paper off the feet of the chair yet.

And a random smiling pic since we haven't seen too many smiles today. I think this expression is a lot like the one of her during her diaper change in my last post.

Keep your fingers crossed that things go well at the doctor tomorrow and that the countertop guy shows up. Of course, it will be another 2 wks after he does the measurements before the counters are actually installed...

Jordan is loving life

We are still getting settled into the new house, even if we haven't found half of our stuff yet. Most of the kitchen cabinets were installed today, and the rest should be installed on Monday. The kitchen floor should be re-tiled early this week. Hopefully the new countertops will be installed within a week or so. We are getting back into our routine, and Jordan seems to be doing well. However, part of her routine is getting up earlier than we want to roll out of bed.

She is so funny during most diaper changes that I can't resist the occasional picture. This one cracks me up.


And almost everything she gets her hands on these days ends up in her mouth, especially the turtle on the Exer-saucer. (Have I mentioned that we could not live without the Exer-saucer?)

Jordan is going for her first pictures with a real photographer on Wednesday, so wish us luck. I REALLY want it to go well.

I'll post before and after pics of the kitchen when it is finished. We love the way the cabinets look so far, but there is still a lot to be done.