Where Do I Start?

Man.

Getting into the groove of back to school is tough this year. I feel like the days just FLY by and before I know it, it's time to go pick up the Noodle from her bus stop. And what have I accomplished?
Nada.

So what's been going on here at Elizabeth Hill?

Well, last Friday my sis-in-law, Myrna, (I don't like the whole in-law thing. From now on, I'll just call her my sister) had a jewelery party and right when it started, her 79 year old Mom (Fran) got sick. Faint, weak.... the whole scary 9 yards for a woman that age. Myrna was pretty cool about the whole thing. She has a gazillion siblings (11 or 12), so her sisters were taking care of Fran and ended up taking her to Urgent Care.
Well, from Urgent Care Fran was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Then Myrna decided to leave the party.

The jewelery lady gave a couple of pauses and, "oh my's" during the whole goings-on but largely ignored the whole thing. It was kind of weird......I don't know. I guess she already had it all set up, but.......you know, the hostess LEFT!!! HELLO?!?

So, turns out Fran is okay. Though I'll need an update from Myrna to be sure.....But she was in the hospital all weekend and probably went home yesterday (Tuesday). Poor Myrna (and her gazillion siblings, I'm sure) was soooooo tired. I always feel so helpless when stuff like this happens. What can I do for someone in this situation? Pretty much nothing. I just watched the kids.

So anyway, that all happened during the weekend. Then, Monday I had the whole Sparkplug group over. Remember Sparkplug? I talked about her here. Sparkplug Mom (Noel) had a class and Sparkplug Dad (Joel) is a scientist and out of town working in the field, so they all piled on over and we all went to swimming lessons and then I took them home until Mom got home.
These girls are so great. They put on a "birthday party" for the Noodle! They all dressed up in some finery, Noel made cupcakes during the day (as if she doesn't have enough to do. But, hey...she is a Sparkplug, too! This is where the children get it from!), and they even gave the Noodle a great big Build-A-Bear gift card! What the heck? Those girls are sweet as pie, I tell ya. Here they are:

Aren't they the CUTEST? Such nice girls, too. And this is the first time I've gotten to hang with the youngest Sparkplug, who is on the far left in the yellow. Sooooooo cute. I had soooo much fun with them.

So, earlier that day, I picked up some kale at the new Lowe's near us. Ooooo.....I LOVE that place! And the kale was only $2 a pot. I'm making the big ol' pot o' kale from Cottage Living magazine. Here is a photo of the Noodle with the kale from last year:
Oh. I guess I'm kind of late in getting this potted. This was her back to school picture from last year.

Anyway.

I had Franklin yesterday.
He hates me.
He's all smiles once Mom gets back to pick him up, though. We did have a little break through moment of singing and play, which is HUGE. But he pretty much cried the rest of the time.
But look at that FACE!!! He looks just like Mommy. Maybe a little bit like Dad, too. His dad (Richard) is a freakin' riot. Really, he should be a stand-up comic.

Last night we had the "Second Grade Dinner" at the Noodle's school. I TOTALLY didn't want to go. I thought I had a hair appointment, but when the shop was closed and locked up tight when we arrived, I realized the appointment is TONIGHT. GOAH!!!! I do stuff like this all of the time!
So, basically, I had no excuse not to go. AND I was so confident I wouldn't be going, that I didn't bother to make anything (it was a potluck). So we rushed home, stopped at the market to purchase a couple of ingredients for the casserole I was planning on making, and by the time I got home, I decided that I didn't have the time to make that casserole. So I went out into the garden, picked some grape tomatoes, and made a yummy Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Red Onion and Cilantro.

Oh, and of course we had a great time. The parents in the Noodle's school are awesome. I've made some great friends there.....Sandy and John, Kris, Noel and Joel, Linda, and Bill and Stephanie. And the weird thing is, I've met them all by coincidence or there's been some connection in a "7 degrees of Kevin Bacon" sort of way. Seriously. And then our kids end up in the same school. St. Paul is really just a small town.

Like, Noel? The Sparkplug Mom? I met her at gymnastics when our girls were three or four. I found out that she teaches at the school I went to as a child (well...kind of. It was torn down and re-built in the same spot). Not only that.....she and her husband come from a town a couple of hours north of here and went to high school with my dear friend Hilary's husband. And they were both teaching at my old neighborhood school!!!! AND Hilary and Paul bought my Zuddy's childhood home.

Is that confusing enough for you?

So that's what I've been doing. No kitchen work, no special projects....my ceiling in the dining and living rooms still isn't finished. The end panels of the kitchen cupboards still aren't painted, the hutch hasn't been touched and I have piles of laundry downstairs.

Wish me luck.

My New Crush......

We couldn't wait until Thursday to see each other this week. I thought it was going to be a fun little tryst with my new guy, but I think he's mad at me!

What do you think? Does he look mad?




Ha haaaaaa! Look! It's my new crush, baby Franklin!!

Remember when I said my cousin moved into my neighborhood? This is her little man and I get to baby sit him! Aren't I lucky? He's 9 months old and boy, was he angry that we couldn't go to the park and swing today! We had some heavy rain, so even going for a walk was out of the question. We had so much fun at the park last week, and I forgot to bring the camera, so I couldn't capture a "happy shot"...so here's what you get instead. Poor guy.

Name Game.....

So - My buddy, Kim, from Vintage Pretties tagged me for this cute little name game. Here are the rules:



Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.



Okay, I'm not going to use my middle name. It's too unique and since I'm already idiot-enough to have my last name in my email (I've been meaning to change this for sometime.....), I'm going to just use my first name for this . The rules say to pick a middle name you'd like to have, but I don't want to think that hard.

Here it goes:



M - Minivan. I always hated them. Hated the way they looked, hated the way they were always going so slowly in the fast lane, hatedhatedhated them. Well.....of course now I have one. Zuddy made me do it. Now I love the stupid thing. Love it. For the next car I get, I want a totally pimped-out-soccer-mom-bee-otch version of the one I have now. Oh, yeah baybee.

A - Auto-pilot. I'm on auto-pilot a LOT. The other day? I drove to the neighborhood coffee shop totally on auto-pilot. I drove past the shop. Parked right in front of the shop and walked in the door. When I looked up and there was NOTHING in there. Well, except for the construction worker GUTTING the place. So he looks at me, smiling and and I stomp my foot a little bit and say, "What.... no coffee?" Then he points me to the new location across the parking lot.
I'm such an idiot.

R - Reading. The Noodle took a reading class this summer at a nearby college. I love to read. I had to stop for a while in college and when the Noodle was a baby because I can't put books down once I start reading them - I ignore everything once I pick up a book. One of the many ways I show my little compulsions. Right now the Noodle and I are starting on the Little House series. She loves it!

T - Thursday night is Zuddy's night out. He doesn't come home after work and gets to do whatever he wants. My night out is Wednesday. We had to devise this after having a very colicky Noodle. I highly recommend this little agreement to all families. Everyone needs time to do
their thing, you know?

H - Happy. I'm usually very happy and tend to steer away from unhappy people. Life's too short, people, and I've gotta laugh.

A - Autumn. My favoritefavoritefavorite time of year. I love everything about it - rainy, gloomy days. Sunny, chilly days (like today...54 degrees). Honey Crisp apples. Ornamental kale. Mums. I could go on and on......

That's it! Now I want to tag, the Tattered Nest, Mrs. Jones, Penny, and the Garage Gourmet.

My blemish-free countertops are coming on Monday. Then I'll be able to do some tiling. I think I'm going to take a class and try doing it myself.

And thanks to everyone who gave me advice about the tile! I really needed it....

Oh. And I have some earth-shattering news.

I haven't been blogging much because I've been seeing someone - we only meet for a few hours on Thursdays, usually. It's totally platonic, but we are really starting to connect. I'm totally crushing on this guy....and I can't stop thinking about him. And you know what? I'm not even feeling the least bit guilty. I need a little excitement in my life. I'm not doing anything wrong. Zuddy knows him and thinks he's pretty cool, too.

More later! We're going to Comales (Ricardo's restaurant) for dinner tonight! Have a great weekend!

Sink Hugger.......

I believe it's the opposite of tree hugger.
Metal.
Made by a big polluting factory somewhere.
Bought at an evil big box store.

Oh Sinky......I love your shiny newness.....your hefty strainers (sold separtately, I found out.) ....your new gooseneck-faucety-goodness!

Sigh.......who knew it would be love?

I know it's wrong. To love an inanimate object.

But you don't get to pick who you love, people. Love just happens, right? I mean, who knew??? I never really hated my old sink, but it was old and small.

My dear friend, Hilary has the same sink as the new one I bought. I copied her. She got it when she remodeled her kitchen a few years ago and I liked it and decided it was the one I'd get when I re-do my kitchen.

It's waaaayyyyy bigger and deeper than my old sink - I wasn't even sure it would fit in my petite little kitchen.

And the faucet? I think it dispenses better water than the old one.

I'm sure of it.




Sigh.........I'm in love.

Oh - and school started this week. Here's the Noodle and her pals at the bus stop:

Yeah, they're cute.....but did you see my sink?
Ha ha.

Oh - and the counter top issues: Somebody came by on Monday and said they'd replace the top again! And I got a letter of thanks for our "graciousness" and patience from the kitchen designer with a bunch of restaurant gift cards enclosed.

You know, they have been really nice. I'm still pleased with the service I've received and how they've handled everything. I'd still recommend them to people. I've never had to actually complain to get my way.......they've fixed everything right away. I'm not sure when the new tops are coming in, but I don't really care because the kitchen is functional, so it's all good. Oh! And did I mention my sink?

One other thing: I went looking at tiling ideas for the back splash. Do you think that white subway tiles are going to be too stark for the backsplash? I was going to do those with a gray grout color. I'd love some feedback on this issue.

I found some awesome marble subway tiles at the tile shop, but MAN! They were expensive. And I think that going with marble would be a little goofy with a laminate counter top, don't you think? But, boy - were they beautiful! They had some fun veining and color variations that made them really warm-looking. Someday, when we (if we) do the dream kitchen, I'd love those tiles with a soapstone countertop. That's my dream.

Anyhow.....