Advice

Ok ladies, and gentlemen! I need you!

As we put our kitchen together, there's something I'm not thrilled about and I need advice as to whether I should do something about it, or live with it.

The cupboard about the fridge is not the deep standard cupboard that I'm used to. It's only 1' deep instead of 2' deep. It's all put together, and hung on the wall, but not permanently. First of all... can anyone tell me if Ikea will take it back once it's all assembled? And second of all, is it ok to have the short cupboard up there. It must be "ok" or they wouldn't sell them. It is one for on top of the fridge. I'm pretty sure I can live with it. But if they would take it back... I might consider it. I'm not going to need the extra storage. But I need help deciding.

Please help me!

The Big One

Here's what we accomplished so far...

On Friday we

• cleaned out the grout!!! That took all evening.
• removed the counter top
• pulled out the base cabinets
• installed a shut off valve under the sink
• put the fridge and stove in the living room
• removed all the broken tiles

This could not have all been accomplished without our wonderful friends! We love you Shannon and Shawn!!! Thank you so much for offering to come help us!

On Saturday we

• cleaned the remaining mortar out from under the broken tiles
• cleaned the grout out from the edges of those tiles
• hung the rails for the top cupboards
• built 7 cupboards
• filled holes
• sanded
• painted
• cut the molding to fit half the top cupboards
• hung the top cupboards
• mixed mortar
• layed all the tiles

Big shout out to my SIL, Tammy, for sticking with us almost all day to help out! Love you! And to Dad Hohn who came over and helped us straighten the cupboards against a not straight wall.

On Sunday we

• mixed grout
• washed the whole floor
• grouted the tiles
• washed the whole floor
• washed the whole floor, again
• cleaned the table off and washed every surface that isn't filled with tools
• cleaned out the garage so that the van can fit in it once again.

Big huge shout out to my MIL who kept the girls ALL weekend so that we could actually get this stuff done! And is having us for supper tonight so that I don't have to figure out how to cook.

100 Push ups

Check out THIS site. I'm going to try this along with the other things I'm doing.

It's not going to be easy. I couldn't even do one regular push up :( so sad... but I will start with doing "knee" push ups and work up from there! GO ME!

Just a reminder

Alright, I'm feeling better today...

The reason some things were messed up is because when Ikea had their kitchen promotion, they didn't just have kitchen people working up there, it was people from all over the store, some who didn't know what they were doing. Unfortunately, we had one of those people. So, I got our corner cabinets today! Which means we are a go for this weekend! I'm starting to get excited. I know there's a lot of work a head of us... but it will be so worth it!

Also, I had a huge change of attitude today. While I was at Ikea, I was fine. Not grumpy or anything... then I left with my stuff and had some medium sized stuff and also one heavier box. Well, as I was getting close to the van, across the way from my van was a girl in her 30's with a really big long box just standing there. She said, "I'll help you if you'll help me" So I helped her with her box and she helped me with mine! It was so cool. Then as I was leaving... I just had this feeling that God was there with me. That he made that work out. It was the neatest feeling.

God is in this, and I need to start being thankful, and remember to focus on that. I don't usually find it hard to be thankful, but I had forgotten. And God reminded me today :)

Advice

Here's a piece of advice for my dear readers.

If you ever need to remodel your kitchen and are thinking about getting your cupboards from Ikea... DON'T!

I'm only half kidding. If I knew it was going to be such a gong show, I'm not sure I would have gone there.

For one, you have to wait at least half an hour to talk to someone there. Trevor put in our order during their big promotion. Last night I was there to order the dishwasher and another customer had to re-order something because his order didn't exist. This, after waiting for a few weeks for his order to come in. That really freaked me out because we have our corner base cabinet that we're waiting for. So, Trevor called this morning. Guess what! Our order doesn't exist! So, I have to go today and buy our four or five items that were on order... at least they're all in stock! For now...

I'm also going to double check on my dishwasher and make sure that really does exist. I don't want to wait 2-3 weeks for it and find out it doesn't exist. Especially after I paid for it!

Ok... I'm good... I think.

Under appreciated

THIS blog really hit home to me today. It's all about feeling under appreciated, and how to deal with not getting your "gold stars" from other people. I found it really uplifting.

I see where she's coming from. I think most women need to receive their "gold stars" from other people in one way or another. I want to be appreciated for what I've done. But I think, as a Christian, it's different because I know there's something more. I know that just doing things for me would be misdirected. As is doing your work for other people.

I want to have my focus on God. So that I'm working for Him. Everything I do is for Him. I don't want to need that appreciation from other people. I think I will appreciate it more when I don't NEED it.

I know many Christian's who say this, but it is also true in my life. At the end of my life, the only thing that will matter to me, is to have God say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Time Waster

I'm loving THIS site! Here's a good time waster for you, Shannon :)

Shhhhh...ower

Brooklyn had her speech pathologist appointment this morning. It went really well. The lady was so nice and really good with her. She talked to me for a little while, then looked through a special book they have to get Brooklyn to say certain words so that she could see how she says them, and so that all the sounds were covered. There were 3 or 4 sounds that Brooklyn hasn't developed yet, but only one that is slightly behind. The others are developmental and she just hasn't reached those stages yet, since they usually come around 6 or 7 years of age. Also, the sounds that she doesn't say in words, like "sh" and "th" she can say and will say, once she practiced them. She also said Brooklyn was very mature (which we already knew) in that when she mispronounced something, like "shower" she said "sour". So the pathologist would present her with a question of which is correct and Brooklyn would always say the correct way. And, near the end of the appointment Brooklyn started correcting herself! Which is huge and the pathologist was really pleased about it. So that's the sounds we're going to work on now, and she's hoping that it will kick start the rest of her speech development.

Now, on the downside. Brooklyn started to not feel very well about half way through the appointment. She said she had a tummy ache. So we went to the bathroom to see if that was the problem. It wasn't. We continued on. She did really well, but got obviously worse so we finished up (we were pretty much done anyway) and started to walk out. She started whining and saying her eyes felt "prickly". I think she was feeling dizzy or something. So I picked her up and put her in the car. She walked to her seat, sat down and started to throw up. So I struggled her to the edge of the van, but unfortunately, most of it still ended up in the van. It wasn't very much, but she went completely pale and slept on and off on the way home.

She's feeling much better now. She layed on the couch for a while and had some water, and then told me she was hungry and wanted some food. So I gave her crackers. Now she's up and playing. I have a feeling it might have been the realization that the pathologist was actually testing her, or something. No one likes to be assessed. Especially on something they don't feel they have the ability to change. I think she just felt overwhelmed, or something along those lines. She was fine first thing this morning, and she's fine now. She actually just ran across the room. :) But what a morning ...

*Updated - I just remembered this now. The lady was showing Brooklyn her flashlight because she was going to check Brooklyn's mouth muscles and make sure they were developed. She shined the flashlight into her own mouth and showed Brooklyn. Brooklyn said, "I can see your uvula". The lady took a minute and then sort of chuckled and said, "I don't many people who know that word". My smart little cookie :)