More pictures

Morgan really enjoyed being Natalie's chauffeur.
Ashley's first ballet performance. It was 76 trombones from the Music Man!
Natalie
Ashley (she loves modeling for the camera)
Alona

Reunion pics

The Stoddard Family Reunion Picture
Charles and Rebecca swing dancing

on our way

Kitchen remodel update

The kitchen is coming along. You can see the beautiful tile job my dad did. I helped grout. I am no expert. Morgan helped cut tile. Thanks bro! It was nice to spend time with Dad, Morgan, and Anna while they were here. It was a short stay and Dad worked the whole time. Maybe next time we will be able to relax and spend time together. We did get to bond over grouting. :) The cabinets are all installed now. You can see we still have to paint the last upper cabinet. It was installed on Sunday. We have the beginnings of a counter. The edging should be in Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have the counter completely finished. Then doors and drawers for the cabinets. The sink is being plumbed as I type. Yay! Running water! No more washing dishes in the disgusting bathroom. We have all the trim and beadboard sitting in the dining room waiting to go up. Hopefully over the next week and 1/2 we will get that all done. Still have to finish mudding the walls and then paint. Things have been stacked in front of the walls, so I haven't been able to get to that. But now that the cabinets are not on the floor, I can move the moulding out of the way. I am so excited to get it all done. Hopefully the next pics will be of a completed kitchen.

Laura's progress (if you could call it that)

I have been walking 4.5 miles 5 to 6 days per week at a good pace. I went to the Naturopath on Monday. She suggested eating for my blood type. No tomatoes, avocado, chicken, wheat unless sprouted. There are more things as well, but I won't list them. I should eat lamb, rabbit, and venison as meats. Lots of fish too, but no shellfish. I can eat lots of low fat dairy, veggies and fruits. The grains aren't too bad, just no wheat. But I have discovered spelt. It is an ancient ancestor to wheat. It has a nutty flavor and isn't bad. I made pancakes with spelt flour this morning. We used pure maple syrup since that is okay. It wasn't bad. I think it will take a little time to get used to it, but it can be used in place of wheat flour in most recipes. Unfortunately, the waking just doesn't seem to be making me lose weight. Maybe the change in diet will.

Our Kitchen Remodel

This corner will have the sink. The upper cabinets will have 2 glass front doors to reflect the window. The dishwasher will have a panel across the top and down the side so there will be no gaps around it. We have 37 inch cabinets instead of the traditional 36 inches because we are tall and it hurts my back. It will be a huge improvement from the low 35 inches we had with the super thick backer board and tile on the floor when we moved in. (That was removed weeks ago. It was white with white grout. no one should have that unless they are immaculate and never go in the room.)
The face of this corner cabinet had to be reworked, but should be in tomorrow.


It is coming along. Jeff's Dad, Rich, will be putting the trim around the dishwasher and the cabinet front for the corner cabinet in on Monday night. Then we can paint. Yeah! Of course we will still have the upper cabinets above the sink and stove left to do, as well as the bar area. Our kitchen will pretty much be functional again if we get this section painted and put the counter and sink back in. That may not be until after the family reunion though. This will be the second week without a sink or dishwasher.

more pics of the girls

From the top: We have Alona all dressed up. This was when I was packing for Florida. I heard something hitting the floor repeatedly and came out to see Alona all dressed up, shoes and all. I told Jeff we just had to get a picture. Next is Natalie eating Alona's sucker. She was so happy to have it. Natalie sure loved her birthday cake. And we have the pictures to prove it. The last picture is a little older and is just too cute. I need to start taking more pictures of Ashley

our kitchen remodel

So here are some pics of our progress on the kitchen. We installed the refrigerator cabinet today. There will be a lower cabinet next to it as well. Jeff's dad is working on it now. Unfortunately we had to cut into one of the lower cabinets to get the fridge cabinet in place. Oh well, its coming out eventually anyway, right? It is so exciting to see the progress. Oh, and by the way, we are painting the cabinets white, so they won't look like this when they are done. (and the fridge will have panels to match the cabinet doors). Its so exciting!!!!!!