DIY Kitchen Reno

These last few months here have been a little crazy with homeschool, a kitchen remodeling project, Thanksgiving, Emily's birthday, Christmas, my Dad's five day stay in the hospital, a 3-day drive to Florida, a week in Orlando (in the COLD!), a week on a Disney cruise, a 3-day drive back home, more kitchen remodeling, and Olivia's birthday... BUT, we're all hanging in there and doing fine. I've posted some pix below of our kitchen progress:

BEFORE. November. Our lovely orange oak and a floral border.

DURING. Two days before Christmas granite counters were installed. In the weeks before, Andy replaced the doors and drawer fronts, painted the boxes, and added crown moulding ...

DURING. The day before Christmas...wondering if we were going to have a working sink on Christmas day...

BEFORE of the old pantry and desk before they were torn out.

BEFORE. The only thing staying on this wall is the fridge.

DURING. January (two weeks ago). The soffits and desk were torn out on the fridge wall. Pantry demolition happened one week later.

DURING. Today (Feb 6). The unused desk was replaced with pantry cabinets two weekends ago...the old built in pantry was torn out and today the final cabinets are going in :)

DURING. Today (Feb. 6). The new and improved fridge wall with floor to ceiling pantries on both sides of doorway.

DURING. Still to do: spacers, knobs, crown and base moulding, garbage and recycling pull-outs, paint on wall, etc.

DURING. Today (FEb 6, almost midnight). Andy installed the fridge cabinet and surround today! The last two cabinets (where the old pantry had been) are being installed as I type :)

Somebody just turned SEVEN!

Olivia turned seven yesterday. Wow, hard to believe!

vacation pix

While I procrastinate getting back into the real world of homeschooling, laundry and our kitchen remodel, I thought I'd post some vacation pix :) We spent a chilly week in Orlando then a week on a Disney cruise (W. Carib.). A third week was spent in transit (3 day drive each way). It was too chilly to get off the ship in Key West, but we enjoyed some days in the low 70s in Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Disney's private island in the Bahamas. In spite of the arctic blast, we got a few warm days and still had a great time. The girls want to know when we're going on a Disney cruise again already!

They never tired of seeing the characters! Here is Cinderella at Epcot.

The girls got their faces painted at our resort while I used my (May) birthday spa gift certificate. Ahh...what a nice treat!!

Not sure what Emily was...looks like a butterfly, but there was a spider between her eyes??

Andy and the girls at dinner on the Disney cruise. You can't see them here, but the girls and their (Target 18") dolls had matching outfits. I was thrilled to find some Dolly & Me sets on the clearance rack for $6.99/set!! Your Sears might still have some.

It was always fun to see what towel animal we got with our chocolates at our nightly turn down. Kind of miss those chocolates!

We didn't bother to get off the ship in Key West since it was only in the low 40s and we'd been there before. Fortunately it was in the low 70s at our second port, Cozumel. Andy and Emily ventured into the water here at Paradise Beach, but Olivia preferred land surfing and castle building.

The water was beautiful, clear and blue, but chilly!

Our ship, The Magic, in Cozumel, Mexico.

The girls loved the beach at Disney's private island in the Bahamas.

Andy's parents are not beach bums, but we all appreciated having sunshine and 70s...until the rain came anyway!

Hello from chilly Florida

I don't have a lot of time, but wanted to quickly post some vacation pix. On our first full day down here we went to visit Olivia's orphanage friend, Jack, and spent the day with his family. We even got visit the beach right by his house, but did NOT go in the water. It was great to see them all again.

We drove three days to get to warm weather, but have still not found it :( It's been in the 30s to low 50s here and unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going be much warmer during our entire week here. Good thing the outdoor pools are heated though and the girls don't seem to mind the weather much. On Saturday we're going on a Disney Cruise and hope we'll get at least a few warm days there. Looks like Key West will only be in the 40s though... Yes, I know it's better than at home, but just not exactly what we had in mind. We're still having a great time though and the girls don't seemed to be bothered in the least :) I don't think they've complained once so we're having a great time. We may have to buy some warmer dressy clothes before the cruise on Saturday though!

Tomorrow we plan to go to Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Winter coats, gloves and all!

From their faces, you'd never guess that the air temperature is only in the low 50s. Good thing the water was much warmer!

When not IN the water, it's pretty chilly!

Ummm...no, really we're NOT encouraging Olivia to be a swimsuit model...

Emily was happily swimming and doing cannonballs in an empty pool, seemingly unaffected by the chilly weather. Oh, to be young and carefree!

Cannonball!!!

All bundled up and at the beach by Jack's house.

Two cute kids from RongXian, GuangXi, China: Olivia & Jack.

Prince Charming & Princess Olivia

Visiting the real princess: Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom.

Disney just isn't Disney without the Dumbo ride, right?

And of course, we had to visit Minnie & Mickey!

TEN!!

Hard to believe our tiny little 1.5 pounder is TEN already! Emily's birthday was yesterday and we had a whirlwind of a day with church, a kids' party, and pizza with family in the evening. It was a fun, FULL day, celebrating with our favorite ten-year old in the whole world.

Serendipity

Serendipity: the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.

November 20 marks three years since we got THE call asking if we'd consider adopting a four year old from China with a heart condition. (November 20 also marks my mom's birthday!! Happy Birthday, Mom!) We'd started the adoption process a year + prior seeking a healthy baby girl...then after a while we broadened our scope and requested a baby with special needs. After all, our then almost seven year old, Emily had been a fragile "special needs" baby and deserved a chance...and we thought maybe we could help another baby who might be otherwise overlooked. But a FOUR year old hadn't really ever crossed our minds. One or two years old maybe, but we never even thought of a FOUR year old. But God did :) He was preparing our hearts for the perfect child for us.

Shortly before we got THE call, I'd felt drawn to some blogs of families who'd adopted toddlers and older children. Reading about their successful bonding began to open my mind to new possibilities and we agreed that yes, we could fathom adopting a two year old. As we waited, we knew that IF we were presented with a child on the list that we'd have the opportunity to scrutinize the photos and medical records before agreeing to accept any child. As word came that a new list of special needs children had arrived at our agency we prayed that God would find a child for us. We agreed that we did not want to play God by picking and choosing and we prayed that He would present the ONE who was meant for us. We prayerfully agreed that we would not reject any child presented to us whether it be boy or girl, young or old, healthy or not. Surrendering that decision seemed to be a critical point in our journey because within a day or two of coming to that decision our pone finally rang. We got THE call from our social worker!!

We were at the bottom of the waiting list, so there were no guarantees that we'd get a call at all. The list had been in for almost three weeks now so our odds weren't looking so good. By the time we got the call most of the children had been placed and they only had one girl left who had been deemed too old by others. When our case worker made it to our name on the bottom of the list she sounded shocked when I immediately said yes, we would consider a four year old with a heart condition. I was a little thrown by the age myself, but Andy and I had JUST recently come to this decision and I knew God had His hand in the process. When our case worker assured me that we could take a pass and wait for a baby as we'd requested I had to explain the prayer we'd just prayed. We'd prayed that He would present us with child that was meant for us. And He did :) Three years later I can tell you it was a scary leap of faith at the time, but He did know what He was doing!!

Olivia has been the perfect fit for our family!! I'm so glad we let Him do the choosing because at that point neither Andy nor I would have ever had the courage to seek out a FOUR year old. Left to our own devices, we would have really missed out on one of our biggest blessing!

How about you? I'd love to hear what kind of serendipitous events have happened in your life. Have you had any leaps of faith that you're thankful for now?

P.S.
I'm so behind on scrapbooking that my "current" photo is really pretty out of date since she's now missing her two front teeth! I'll have to take some new closeups to post what she's REALLY looking like today :)

Homeschool Family Camp

Just realized I never posted this (click image to enlarge):

Any guesses?

Yesterday, at our homeschool co-op, we were all supposed to dress up as historical figures. I dressed up as Amelia Earhart. Can you tell who the girls were supposed to be? Their figures are not in the same century, but we've learned about them both in our history studies. Please leave us a comment if you think you know :)

Random October photos

Aren't they cute? On this night when I headed for bed, I noticed Emily's bed was empty. I quickly found her in bed with with her sister! Fortunately they were sound asleep and didn't even notice the flash from my camera.

Andy and the girls are enjoying their new membership at Lifetime Fitness. In fact that's where they are as I type!

Yes, this little poser is the same girl that hated cameras in China!

Both Daddy and Emily enjoy the water slides at Lifetime!

The girls thoroughly enjoyed our co-op field trip to a pumpkin farms with animals, slides, bounce houses, a corn maze, hay ride, train, etc.

Pumpkin carving time. Check out Olivia's garb--she put on tights, a swim suit and a skirt pulled up over her chest. My little fashion diva! Emily on the hand, doesn't really care about fashion as long as the seams and tags aren't bothersome!

Minnie got a check up from Dr. Emily before heading out for trick-or-treating.

After getting their own loot, they love to give out candy. It's sometimes hard to coordinate the door with a dog, so they came up with an ingenious solution that prevented Chelsea from getting out! Olivia (our not so shy one!) was yelling to kids through the open door, inviting them to come and get some candy!

Rock candy and tea parties

In science we learned about evaporation and made our own colorful sugar (i.e. rock candy!) by adding food coloring to sugar and water...and waiting a few days for the water to evaporate.

Today Olivia had a tea party for all her dolls and apparently invited Chelsea to join. In spite all the thrilling imaginary food, Chelsea fell fast asleep right on top of some dishes and with the side of her head nestled in glass bowl! Doesn't look too comfortable, but I guess she didn't want to miss a party!

Evaporation helped us to make our own rock candy!

Imaginary food just didn't keep Chelsea's interest!