Home!

This beauty lives at the Georgia Aquarium.
We're back from Atlanta, yays. A great time was had by all but now it's time to get back to work.
I really needed that time away from chores and 'the remodel' and the school and my role as Chief of Household Operations, it helped me get my priorities in order and make some decisions on the upcoming holiday/auction season. I have put a lot of projects on the back burner for a while now and I think I am about ready to get to it.
I am sometimes jealous of the folks I know that can be creative and spend most of their time working on projects and things they WANT to do as opposed to the things they HAVE to do. Like the dishes, heh.
I made a promise to myself a little while ago that my family would not suffer while I am all off being creative all by myself. Now I'm not saying that I always keep to that promise but I am getting better at managing my time and somewhat pleased with myself when I have a couple of hours in the evening to work on something ....you know after the kids are clean, PJed and safely tucked in their beds, the dishes are done and the laundry is at least folded. Who am I kidding, I mostly just want to pour myself a glass of wine and fall asleep on the couch.
Being away from home for a week has made me see that I've been slacking a bit lately and like I said it's time to get back to work.
suzanne

I've got mail!

Yes, I am a geek......why do you ask?

Cake!

Cupcake cake is still cake.
It's been a while since I made anything sweet.
J-Boy's birthday is a great reason. He likes German Chocolate so me and my 'Crazy Aunt Betty' whipped up this gooey delight. Devils food cake made it extra chocolaty. This is 29 cupcakes, I just couldn't fit that last one on there.
Next I'm going to make a cupcake cake using mini-cupcakes. So cute.

New Kitchen

Like I've said before......demolition is my favorite part!
Finally making big time progress on my new kitchen. We are major weekend warriors when it comes to working around the house and waiting for custom stuff doesn't help. But we are getting closer to a completed, sparkley clean and new kitchen.
yay

Farmer Gigi

The garden has totally gone to seed but she doesn't care.
"See mom...... there is still lots of good stuff."

reboot

I have logged on a dozen or so times to post and can't get past Stephanie's face. I forget what I am going to say and I change my mind about posting anything at all. I have even thought about deleting the post or the whole blog altogether but there is too much good stuff on here and that just doesn't seem right.
This is my good news blog and there is good news to be told.
Therefore I am declaring this an official 'reboot'.
Reboot my head and reboot this blog.
I'll post something a little later today, I have lots of remodel pics.
Now I have to go do my chores. Fun.

Steph

Stephanie Kaye Wilhelmi
One year ago today heaven welcomed it's most beautiful angel.
She seemed to know that her 17 years was a lifetime and she lived it to the fullest.
Oh Steph.....we miss you so much.
Peace and love babygirl.....peace and love.
Suzanne, Ben, Jacob and GiGi

Sheetrock...rocks!

I love this stuff. Just look at the lovely new walls. I can (finally) almost imagine what it's going to look like when we are done. The sanding is hard and dusty work, my allergy pills are working overtime but it is soo worth it. I'm building muscles too.... so it ain't all bad. There is also this little voice way back in a corner of my mind that whispers oh so quietly 'hard work is good for the soul'. I like that voice, it's the same one that tells me to eat cake. I should listen to it more often. I can't wait to move on to the next room.
I thought having all my craft/art supplies packed away would be kind of stressful but I have so much going on that it has been kind of a nice break not to have a project to finish and with the mindless mudding and sanding I am stashing away in my irontrap of a memory(ahahahaha....ha) lots of ideas for when we are done.
This real life stuff is majorly cutting into my way more exciting online life as well.
Oh and then there is the mealmaking, housecleaning and care of the children......sigh.
I'm going to need another cup of coffee.

Remodel

Remodel is another word for pick your house up, give it a couple of good shakes, hit yourself in the genitals with a rubber mallet and then write a huge check for the privilege.
We cashed out a bit of equity to do a quick update of our kitchen, yay. Of course this is us and our house we're talkin' about. We never do things the quick and easy way......we never get the chance. The joy of owning a cool old house is always balanced by 80 years of (sometimes) surprising quick and easy fixes that were deployed before us. Things like extension cords hardwired into outlets and cheap garden hose for internal water lines. And so our kitchen remodel begins ....in the laundry room...no wait....the spare room closet.
Soon to be part of the laundry room....(destruction is my favorite part)
wow.... look at all that room!

Laundry room/craft room.....yeah baby!
Lots to do.
I can't wait to start on the kitchen.

Ridge to River 2007

'Sister's Superstars' made their first appearance at the Jr Ridge to River last Saturday.
They overcame spinouts in the kayaking, loose training wheels in the biking and the 'slide of doom'...I mean 'rockslide'.Part climbing wall part FTL Drive this scream machine was hardly even given a second thought as the Superstars crossed the finish line in 25th place overall but 1st in guts and spirit.
Nobody got hurt. Nobody cried. Everybody had fun and they all got ice cream at the end.
We can't wait for next year.

Empty Bowls

Spent the weekend glazing about 120 ceramic bowls for my kids' school Empty Bowls Soup Project. Every year all the kids (Pre-5th, about 150) work on this project starting in the fall with making soup kits to sell. The money from the soup kits goes to buying unglazed ceramic bowls and supplies. The kids then paint the bowls and sell them at our annual Empty Bowls Soup Supper in April with all those proceeds going to our churches food bank.
With just a 'little bit' of grown-up help they decorate, serve and clean up on the night of the supper. It's really cool to see the kids work so hard on this project.
The soup is donated by local restaurants and is delicious. There is usually a wide variety and you can eat as much as you want! I love soup, in the winter I make it a couple times a week. The rolls they serve are pretty yummy too.
Glazing the bowls took a lot of time and a lot of counter space but it was worth it. I can't wait to see them after they are fired. I have a kiln in the basement that needs to be put together and it's a good thing I can't do anything with it right now or I'd be firing these bowls myself along with some of the vintage greenware (naked lady ashtrays, tiki masks etc..) that I've been hording, the last thing I need is to start another project right now so I'm glad the weather is getting nicer so I can distract myself with some yard work or something.
Yay Spring!

Gigi pictures

Gigi likes to take pictures......lots of pictures. Pictures of the dog.
Pictures of her friend.
Pictures of her brother.......lots of pictures of her brother.
She's pretty good too.
Better than her mom.

Here birdy birdy birdy..........

During her visit over Christmas break my mom kept her hands busy making popcorn garland for me. I had heard from a few people that it was kind of a pain in the butt but we wanted to try it so a couple of months before I had begun saving all the leftover popcorn in a big paper bag, it got really stale. We're talking chewing gum popcorn stale. Well the staleness made it so easy to string! We tied small pretzels on the ends for anchors. They looked so cute on the Christmas tree, very homey and traditional.
When I took the tree down the day after Christmas....what too soon?!?.... my feeling is Christmas is over, get on with the new year already...anyway, when I took it down we strung the garland on a tree in our backyard. The winter birds loved it.
I have a big metal tray that fits perfect in the top branches, I usually load it up with stale bread in the spring and summer but in the winter it gets full of snow so I usually don't bother with it. This was a fun way to give the birdies a little treat. Recycle, reuse, renew.
It's torture for the dog, because it's cold and she's such a baby she doesn't want to go outside to chase them, she might get a chill.
I love how the popcorn looks with the birdhouse in this picture.
Looking out today at the rain and all the yards that are muddy and brown.........I miss the snow.

Happy ...early... Valentines Day!

It's a good old world,
This world of ours,
With its sunset skies,
And its summer showers;
Its flowers to bloom,
Its birds to sing,
Its wintry gloom,
Its buds of spring;
Its goals to win,
Its work to do,
Its love,
Its hope,
Its dreams,
and......YOU!
...........................................................Maurine Hathaway

ME.......by Jacob
Crazy, silly, sleepy and funny.
Brother of Gigi.
Loves pie, chocolate mousse and video games.
Fears Alien vs Predator the movie and black widow spiders.
I want to fly when I grow up.

Veggie Lasagna

Lots of lovely veggies! This is one of my favorites even though lasagna is kind of one of those foods that can be really bad for you, a big stack of cheese, pasta and meat, usually pork sausage, can't be good. I like to make this version with no meat, half the usual amount of cheese and tons of veggies. Assembled and half-baked the day before give the flavors a chance to 'kick' and my food planning ....urge, habit, fetish, hobby.... yeah that's it, my hobby is satisfied. So after about 20 years I think I'm getting pretty good at this cooking thing.

Chicken pie

Chicken and veggie pie I made a couple of weeks ago. I had forgotten that I took a picture of it. I do that all the time, I either get so caught up in the cooking and the serving that I completely forget to grab my camera and snap a few or I take a ton of the same thing and never use them. I get distracted......damn you real life.
Anyway I like to use a springform pan when I make any kind of pie. You can make them nice and thick and if you let them cool enough slicing and serving is as easy as .....mmmmpie.

gigi

"Gramma Pete.......if you wanna race you hafta go FAST!"

Mail call

So I did my Christmas cards the day after Thanksgiving...call it 'Holiday euphoria' or whatever but they were signed and safely in their addressed envelopes by November 25. Yay for me! So early, so productive, so on track for a stress-free holiday. But this is me we are talking about. 'Queen of Procrastination', 'Duchess of don't do it know' 'Mistress of the multiple incomplete projects'....heh that's my fave.
I have yet to even buy the stamps to mail them, oh yeah...they sit in a neat little bundle right next to my computer so it's not like I lost them or can't find the time to go to the many different places that I already go to that sells stamps and it's not like I don't drive by 5 or 6 pretty blue mailboxes every single day. The mailman comes to my house personally for Christmas sake! Pathetic, I know. I think it's because I think greeting cards are one of the biggest rackets that we buy into. $3 to tell a 5yr old happy birthday....I think the kid would rather you spend $2 on Pla-doh and $1 on a dilley bar from DQ. At least Christmas cards are cheap and if it really bugged me I could make my own but the paper arts are just not my thing. I know I know paper correspondence is a dying art and it's important to keep in touch with people you don't see all the time...you know the people who you can't remember the last time you saw or talked to but every year you send them a card....and they send one back. Cycle complete. Relationship intact. I should probably even do one of those sooo popular family newsletter type cards that let everyone know what you been up to...2 so far this year....but that's why I have a blog and if you don't already know what were doing then I probably don't want you to know. So there!
I think I'm grumpy today, might need a cookie or some bacon.

"Mom...

....how do people get old if they don't have any kids?"