Winter Wonderland

It started snowing before we left for school this morning and it's been snowing all day. The weather man said we haven't had a snow like this in 20 years. We just don't know what to do with ourselves. The kids at school were crazy. Most of them have never seen snow before. We got to leave school at 1:00 and we don't have to go in tomorrow until 10:00.
My goofy kids couldn't wait to get home so they could play in the snow. Of course, the first thing they did was start throwing snowballs at each other.

They did decide to put on some warm clothes. It took awhile for us to find gloves and caps and those things since we don't have much reason to wear them around here.

Check out Tom's teeth. No braces! I've been noticing teeth lately and I just have to say, "Parents, get your kids teeth fixed!" Have you noticed all the bad teeth in the Olympics? We've been watching every night and it's just something I can't help but notice. You would think that if you have the money to train an Olympic athlete that you could pay to fix your kids teeth. Now, Apollo Ono and Evan the figure skater have beautiful teeth, but there are others that make me cringe.

Katie has a ways to go before her braces come off, but I can tell they are going to be beautiful.

This is a Texas snowman. You can tell by all the dirt, twigs and leaves rolled into the snow. By this time tomorrow the snow will all be gone. It's been fun to watch and to watch the kids have such a good time. It may be 20 years before this happens again.

We're Finally Doing It

We moved into this house 12 years ago. At the time, we knew there were many things about the house that we would like to change. We didn't like the tile, counter tops, appliances, paint color, light fixtures, or even the door handles. So we've been replacing things over the years. We completely remodeled our bedroom and bathroom, and the kids rooms. The only thing that was left from the original house was the sheet rock and we painted that. Now we are going to do everything else. When I say "we", I mostly mean Alan. I have a little input on the choices, but as far as the work goes, It's all him.

This is what my kitchen used to look like. I never liked this tile or the laminate on the counters. I don't think you can tell in this picture, but the sink is pink. In fact there were rooms painted pink when we first moved in. I've lived with it for 12 years so even though I can't say I ever liked it, I just stopped noticing it.

The tile has been cracking and coming up for years now, but we just lived with it. The carpet? It was one of the only things I actually liked when we bought the house. It's had a rough life. 2 kids have grown up here and the dogs think they belong in the house. We've tried to enforce that rule about no eating on the carpet, but our heart wasn't really in it, so the carpet became nasty. Well, it's gone now! Along with the tile and the counter tops.

Alan has pulled it all out. He's going to tile the floors and we're having granite counter tops installed. The granite guy is coming today to measure, so in about a week it's going to look so different. We are also going to install a new range that I am very excited about. It's self cleaning! My other one is not.

Alan has been working on this for about a month now. He's exhausted and sick, but he just keeps going. I think he really enjoys the demolition part. I have to say that he is amazing. He can do anything. He can fix anything, install anything, or tear anything out.

Here is my kitchen now. What a mess, but I keep telling myself that it's going to be great. Just keep the end in mind.

Every one is invited to our house this year for Thanksgiving. I'll finally have an oven big enough to cook a turkey and we will have a dining room. It will no longer be used for storage.