Never Before Seen

A rare moment of peace in our house. So rare that I photographed it.

(Click to enlarge)

We got nearly a foot of snow on Friday. We are tiring of winter and needed some outdoor fun. I filled an old shampoo bottle with pink water and Jia had a blast making the snow pink (with a little Brilliant Brunette thrown in for good measure).

Mardi Gras Fun

Just lots of silliness and dancing. That was about the extent of our celebration.

Facebook is creeping me out

Many people love Facebook. The majority of my friends are on it, as am I. I joined a while back because I'm on the board of a charity and a board member suggested creating a group on it.

Let me first say why I like Facebook. It has allowed me to connect with some lovely people from my past.

Now let me explain why I'm thinking of ditching it.

I have an assortment of "friends." They include work colleagues, charity partners, professional contacts, old school chums, folks from the adoption community, other moms, old friends, neighbors. One of the guys who worked on my house for one day wants to be my friend. I have "friends" who I've never even met before. That's all fine and good but because my assortment includes various professional folks, I'm not ever going to say anything sassy or funny or post things about my family, etc. I'm going to stay professional, i.e. boring.

Then there's the fact that when you log on you see all the status updates. I enjoy fun banter but one day it all changed for me. Someone posted that he ate a burrito for lunch. I realized that I can't handle sifting through this minutiae. I simply don't care what he ate for lunch. I won't ever care. Even if you're my husband (love you), I won't ever care what you ate for lunch. If you're my child, I may care, but mainly I'll just want to know how much of your lunch you ate.

Further compounding things, someone who I haven't seen since high school posted a photo of me from a party in high school. There was nothing terribly embarrassing about the photo. I do have super huge curly hair and I'm wearing a white shirt tucked into high-waisted white shorts (which we all know is a good look), but it's not awful. But do we really need to go there people? I think some things are better left as they were, in the past.

Then there are the little applications that people send you. I always think it's nice that someone thought of me and I've tried doing them but they often make my browser crash. So then I feel bad because I can't send a plant back or whatever I'm supposed to do.

I think I enjoy blogs more because I can deliberately review, on a deeper level, how the folks I care about are doing, rather than reading surface-level quips. But some good friends don't blog, and I do like Facebook because it allows me to check in on them.

I may soon have an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude. But for now I think I'll stay mainly in blogland.

Musically challenged

(In response to the previous post: Yes, you all were right, Carmel. It was just lovely. Thanks to my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Jim for hosting us!)

I posted earlier about Jia and Willa's fondness of the Wiggles. Thankfully, I think they are fine too. I did however recently decide to introduce some of our music to the kids. Jia has been choosing the music from our CD collection and we've been listening to whatever she grabs. I am now questioning my strategy as Jia will now only listen to the Beastie Boys. I kid you not. And Willa, if she could ask for it, I'm certain she would request the Beastie Boys even more loudly than Jia! She loves them! At least they're in agreement on something.

They've also started to play a little together lately. And it is the best kind of play. Jia is willing to do all the things that I tire of so easily! For example, Willa will sit in the booster seat and tell Jia whether she wants the tray on or off. Their dialog is so funny:

Willa: Off!
Jia: You want the tray off, Willa? Okay, I'll take it off.
Willa: On!
Jia: Sure, you want the tray on? I can do that, Willa!
Willa: Off!
Jia: Oh, ha ha, you want it off again? Okay!

They are both just gleeful about it and it cracks me up!

Where am I?

Joe gave me a wonderful Valentine's Day present. A weekend trip with a friend to visit relatives. How great is he?

So where am I? Any guesses?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Before and After Remodel Pics

When I look at these photos I realize what a big transformation this really was. Our kitchen was covered in white and green tile so I decided to buy a bunch of Talavera pottery and deem it a "cocina." I did some Mexican-inspired painting on the ceiling fan and made a clock to match the tin metal art pieces. It worked for a while but then the tile, grout, cabinets, appliances, sink (everything!) started to fall apart.

Even though we had the room to expand out back, and our kitchen isn't large, we decided against it. Our kitchen layout worked quite well. We also got rid of the soffit so we gained a lot of cabinet space up high. There are still some projects to complete (window treatment, paint details, etc.) but we're nearly there.

Here's the before:



I let Jia and Willa draw all over everything before we gutted.



Here's the after:



I was thrilled that we were able to salvage our hardwood floors (original to our 1926 house). They were hidden under the tile. We had them salvage some extra wood from covered areas and lay it in a diamond pattern between the rooms to replicate the diamonds in the backsplash.

The backsplash is Italian travertine. I like it because it is slightly rough so it makes a good contrast to the traditional cabinets and stainless appliances.


When I was a kid I collected rocks and knew all their proper names. So I knew from the start I wanted a granite countertop. This granite is from India and is 570 million years old. It is like having my own agate right in my house. There is so much movement to it. It reminds me of a warm sandy beach and I love it.




We added seeded glass in the cookbook storage area (and there is seeded glass in the pendants too).


Thanks to the ladies in New Orleans for helping me choose these Fleur de Lis at a French Quarter market for over the big window.


Now for the mudroom. Living in Minnesota you need outerwear about 85% of the time. And often that outerwear is snowy or sopping wet. We also do not have much closet space in our old house, and our back door opened into our small stair landing, with no space for coats or boots.

We were lucky in that we didn't need to lay a new foundation for the mudroom. The mudroom foundation came from a ceiling to a secret room Joe found in our house a few years ago. He was poking around in our basement storage room and found a false wall with a room behind it! It was original to the house, but was outside the main square footprint of it and was hidden under our deck. We're not totally sure of its use but we know it's not a root cellar or bomb shelter. Anyway, it came in handy to us now!



Was all the hassle worth it? YES!

Update, and more Jia-isms

Thanks for the wishes about my dad. He was just released from the hospital and is on the road to recovery. They are still uncertain about the source of the infection, it's somewhere internal so that will be a hurdle, but at least he's home now!

I had to laugh because I made vats and vats of beet soup for him (he loves beets) and my mom made him a favorite dish as well. Both our recipes called for a little alcohol (e.g. sherry) and even though it's cooked out, he still can't have the meals because alcohol causes major side effects when combined with his new medication. Guess the food will have to be frozen for now!

Here are some more Jia-isms (because they just keep coming!):

"Mama, my love is growing for you. It's growing right now! Let me show you [gives me hug]."

Jia, at three, is already having an mini-life crisis: "Baba and Mama, so here's how it will go. Willa will become a mama before me. Then I'll become a mama. Then, well, then I don't know what I'll do!"

"Mama, when are you and Baba going to die? I need to have parents for a really long time."

I was carrying Willa and about six bags and rushing Jia to the car saying, "C'mon, it's 20 below windchill!" when Jia replied, "Mama, little kids are just kinda slow!"

Me: Jia, where do raisins come from?
Jia: Boxes!

"I'm really goin' to town on this mac 'n cheese!"

Jia: Mama, tonight we're going to play a game called, "Mad."
Me: Umm, okay. How do you play?
Jia: It's when you tell me what to do.
Me: And what do you do?
Jia: I jump and throw things.

"If my body tells me to eat ten cupcakes, I won't listen."