The kitchen.

ooooh, the kitchen. the mom's domain. the homemaker's retreat. the woman's room, right? if there's one room in the house that i, the mom/wife/woman should have complete say over, it's the kitchen, agreed? so how do i convince leroy of that? i say 'light and clean', he says, 'dark and earthy'. i say 'canvas colored cabinetry with a darker island' he says, 'NO WHITE'. (it's not white, it's CANVAS). i say 'bluish grayish walls' he says 'almond-y tan'. while part of me is impressed that he can describe a color as almond, the rest of me is really annoyed that i have to fight so hard to have the kitchen of my dreams! speaking of which...


isn't it beautiful?!

yes, this is a lot bigger than my kitchen will be, and in place of that awesome hood, i'll have a window, and i'll have to have more than 2 barstools thereby eliminating the cool doors in the island, but it's something to go off of. i love the frosted glass in some cabinet doors, how the island is a different color, how good the stainless steel looks in it, the straight lines... ahhh. this is the kitchen in which i'll start cooking healthy meals, where i'll have fresh baked cookies waiting for Teah when she comes home from school, the kitchen i'll ALWAYS keep clean... well, a girl can dream. time will soon tell if i have any negotiating skill, and the proof will be my kitchen.

Happy Father's Day LeRoy!!!

Trip to San Diego and Disneyland

I took these off Jayme's camera (hope you don't mind, Jayme!)

It's really happening... FINALLY!

This, we are proud to say, is our house. Well, it soon will be our house, we're thinking it will be done by Christmas or (hopefully) sooner. We bought this lot about 4 years ago and have waited and waited to live here, and now it's hard to believe it's really happening. This is a picture of LeRoy and some friends (I helped too, really!) raking gravel for the concrete to lay on. Ya, it sounds easy enough...

With the help of friends, family, subcontractors, and LeRoy's amazing ability to do everything, this is about as 'do-it-yourself' as a house can get. From the plans (I downloaded a free 30 day trial of AutoCAD and drew the house plans), to excavating (LeRoy did the measuring, his friend worked the machine), the concrete pouring was subbed out, then the framing starting tomorrow (LeRoy and his cousin), we are in a bit over our heads, but hopefully we'll survive.

Hello Finland!

I have two words for my blogging friends: Google Analytics. I told you that as I get into blogging, I'll share some of the cool things I find out, and this one is a favorite. Google analytics (no matter how many times I type the word 'analytics' it never gets easier) is completely free, you sign in with your google/gmail/eblogger ID, and it will give you a code you can copy and paste at the bottom of your blog (by the way, if you don't see anything on your blog, you didn't do it wrong, you're not supposed to see anything).


Here's what it does:

When you log in after a couple days of letting people look at your blog, it give you a report of all the traffic your blog is seeing. You can see the amount of hits your site receives each day, the amount of time they spent looking at your site, bounce rate (not sure exactly what that means), whether they found your site through someone else's or if they typed your site directly, percent of new visits, etc. The one I like to check is the map- it tells me where the hits are coming from. My site has had hits from 14 different countries (including Finland :), and 27 different states in the U.S. You can get as specific as what city is looking at your site. It's enough to make you a bit nervous... but I'll stay public for a while. Most of the hits from cities where I know I have no friends or relavites only stay for a few seconds (long enough for them to realize I'm not what they were looking for :).

Anyway, I just thought this was something worth sharing... I hope I don't scare off any friends or family!!

I think it was when we were in the car on our way to Anaheim when I went to take a picture and realized I'd left the camera card at home. Extra batteries: check. Camera: check. Camera case: check. Card: dangit. Luckily we had Jayme and her camera to capture a few moments (like when Havi wouldn't let go of Winnie the Pooh and kept running back to give Tigger one more hug, and Teah's beautifully painted face).

I'll just hit the main points. Car trip: long, but not bad. We took my mom's car, and had me, my mom, Jayme and the girls and their car seats. Disneyland: SO FUN!! Sometime during the day, Teah said to no one in particular, "This is the best day of my life." I believe it, she had so much fun. We started out with the Buzz Lightyear ride, did Pirates of the Carribean, the Carousel, Winnie the Pooh (Havi could go on these, and she was so scared) and Splash Mountain. Teah discovered there's more to Disneyland than just princesses when you're 40 inches tall. She was tall enough to go on Splash Mountain, the Soaring over California ride, and a couple others we went on. They always wanted to measure her, and I'd get a little nervous each time, but she marched right up to the measuring post and stood there with so much pride while they checked her height, then when she passed she just beamed. My mom, Jayme and Havi went back to the hotel after lunch for a little r&r, but Teah wanted to stay at Disneyland, so she and I hung back. She listened to princess stories, got her face painted, rode a couple rides in Toontown, saw Mickey Mouse, danced with Mary Poppins, and rode in the Haunted House (she was so scared). At the end of the day we got on the bus to go back to the hotel. When my mom asked Teah if she wanted to sit on her lap and fall asleep, Teah didn't hesitate. I looked back about 2 minutes later, and Teah was sound asleep. We all slept really good that night.

The marathon was next- what an event! Checking in on Saturday was actually really cool. It was at the San Diego convention center. There was tons of traffic, and inside was a huge expo. That night we ate at Pat and Oscar's, delicious, of course, and we sat at a table next to Pat and Oscar and their family. The next morning my mom took Jayme and me to the starting line early (we had to leave the hotel at 4:30am). At 6:30, the guns went off and Jayme, me and 20,998 other runners, including several Elvises, took off. There were so many people, the run was crowded the whole way. It took me about the first 10 miles to weave in and out of people before I could get into a steady pace. We ran around downtown, along the 163, by Fashion Valley, around Mission Bay, then the wonderful, glorious finish line was at the Marine Corp. I finished at 4:26:00 averaging a 10 minute mile. I had hoped for better, but I'm just happy I finished. There will be another one for me. Jayme kept going and going and finished around 5:45. I'm so proud of her! Thanks for letting me talk you into doing this with me, Jayme! There were bands playing every couple miles, and people cheering almost the whole way. It was a very energized race, and while it did get hot at the end, it was a an experience I'm glad to have had. After we both finished and met up with my mom and the girls (who were so wonderfully patient, thanks mom) we went back to the hotel, swam, ate at Islands, got dessert from Claim Jumper (mmmmm) then went back to the hotel and crashed. I've never slept better.

Monday we went to the beach. I love the beach. The girls played- Havi wasn't too sure about the water, but loved collecting rocks. Teah played in the water, dug for sand crabs, squealed when they tickled her hands, looked for seashells, and just played. All too soon we had to say good bye to the beach and hello to the car seats. Jayme stayed at a friend's for the night then went with them to their annual beach camp in San Clemente (so fun). My mom, the girls, and I drove to Mesquite then to North Ogden the next day. And back we are. We got home at 5pm, had Joy School graduation at 7, then came home and slept.

After training for this marathon since December, these last couple days at home have been... unusual. It seems that when I'm not trying to do it all, it's hard to get anything done. At least I still have the girls, LeRoy, reffing, oh yeah, and the house we're building to keep things busy. For now, I can look at my "run a marathon" goal and smile with satisfaction.