I'm Baaaaack!

Wow. It's been a busy couple of weeks.....the Noodle and I were sooooooo sick. Seriously. In bed for a week. I don't remember the last time I was that sick. And now I haven't had a voice for over a week, but I feel sooooo much better.

We headed to Chicago last Thursday. We've had this planned for months, and I almost had to cancel. Luckily, I started to improve on Tuesday night. So we just went for it.

We spent the night on Thursday with my dear friend, Peg, in her beautiful home in the 'burbs. Then Peg, her 2 1/2 year old daughter, Beauty, the Noodle and I took the train to the city and had lunch at American Girl Place for the Noodle's 7th birthday! It was a great time. The Noodle got to pick out a new dolly and it was pretty much a dream birthday. Probably not the brightest thing to do for a 7th birthday. I don't want her to expect this every year, but she's at a great age for traveling. Plus, I hadn't even met Peg's other 1 1/2 year old daughter yet! That's a crime, people! We try and plan a yearly get together, and it had been too long.

So - about Peg. We met about...hmm.....17 years ago?? Wow! That's a long time. I don't think I've fully accepted that I'm 37 yet. Anyway...I had a roommate, Tracy. Tracy had a friend from college, Peg. Peg and I barely knew each other, but we both ended up working at a department store together. Peg was going to college at a big school in the Twin Cities and I think I was just taking a class here and there at a community college and working at the department store.

Anyway, one day Peg happened to have her parent's car and offered to give me a ride back to my apartment after work. How nice was that? We hardly knew each other. Well, we didn't have much to talk about but my roommate, Tracy. So I just told Peg that Tracy had just been accepted to "the college of Advertising" at the U of M. And Peg said she didn't know that (they both went to the U.)! But it was called "the college of Journalism", not Advertising. Nooooo....I distinctly remember her saying Advertising. Peg did know that Tracy aced her Spanish final. Hmmm.....noooo......Tracy had actually dropped Spanish because it conflicted with another class, I told her. Hmmm.......Peg just spoke to Tracy about this, so she knows she didn't drop the class.

Are you getting the idea here? Tracy lied about everything and we each a different story of every event in Tracy's life. It turned out that Tracy dropped out of school all together and pretended to go to class every day. After a while, we started plotting. We'd totally egg her on and encourage the lying and then compare notes. Isn't that mean?? Ha! I'm sorry.....someone who lies like that is asking for it, sister. So! 17 years later, Peg and I are still pals and we have no idea where Tracy is.




Here's Peg and her older daughter, Beauty. Doesn't Beauty look just like her Momma? Her other daughter, Pretty, is just as gorgeous. I wish I had gotten a picture of her. They are both the sweetest little pumpkins. Beauty is so smart, too! You should hear this child talk! And so well-behaved! We've decided to make this girl's thing an annual event. It's so nice when you can travel with another Mom and kid. And I truly treasure being in Beauty and Pretty's lives. I want to get to know them much better and be a special Auntie to them. I'm in love and I miss them already!



Here is the Noodle with her birthday cake at American Girl Place! That cake was incredible, friends. Best cake ever. We all inhaled it - and being a foodie, I'm picky about my cake. So is the Noodle. She usually doesn't eat cake. They do a great job over there at American Girl Place. It was a very special day.





So - on the Kitchen front: Zuddy got the under-cabinet lighting hooked up, the beaded board ends on the cabinets all put on and the holes in the soffits patched!!! Wow! What a trouper! All he has left is the trim on the bottom of the cabinets. Then I can paint all of the beaded board and trim. Then I will be all done painting! Oh - and I need to pick up the cabinet hardware. Maybe I'll do that today.

And Dudes.

You know what my favorite part of this face-lift is so far?? The under cabinet lighting. It's amazing how much it adds to the ambiance of the room. I'm really glad I went with the Xenon lighting, too. It gets plenty hot - I can't imagine having it get any hotter, like I've heard Halogen gets. It's important to me because of the amount of time I spend in my kitchen doing actual paid work. It's my office, people. And I hate being hot.


Now I need to schedule the new counter tops, sink, faucet and garbage disposal to be installed. And I need to remove the wallpaper. I need to wait on that for 2 reasons: I spent too much on the Noodles birthday :) and I'm working on a project where I need to be in the kitchen. So I will wait a week before I schedule any of that.

I know Kim over at Vintage Pretties has been removing wallpaper at her house. Does anybody have any advice for me? Should I rent a steamer? I've gotten a little of it off, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. I used fabric softener mixed with hot water. I think steaming would work better.