the kitchen cupboards

This was my kitchen 4 weeks ago

We painted them when we first moved in. They were all scratched up and needed something.

We took the easy way out...paint.

It worked and we really liked them

But the paint started to chip and they needed to either be repainted or scraped

Chris had 2 BUSY weeks so I decided to go ahead and try and sand off the paint. I emptied out the cupboards and got ready. I thought I could get it done myself by the time he was done. hahahahahhahahahah. I started sanding and a few hours later I started to cry... sanding wasn't working so well.

I had tried this before in our bathroom and it didn't work too well,

but decided to give it another go

imagine my joy when I saw this

is there anything more beautiful

look how easy the paint is coming off

at this point it was actually fun

the wood under the paint was beautiful

after many days of paint remover and scraping

this was my kitchen. At this point I just wanted to cry. I was tired. I needed my kitchen back. Trying to make dinner for our family was next to impossible. I had a few surprise dinner show up which were a blessing. I had a friend come a few time to help scrap and then do some sanding. Have I ever said how great my friends are?

At this point Chris was done working and we had a small vacation to Old Forge. He got out the sander and got to work. We worked together every night for another week or so and now this is what our kitchen looks like....

isn't it beautiful? We think so.

we went darker then we first wanted to, but I really like it.

I am SO happy to have my kitchen back. We still have to do the walls,ceiling, and up next...

the counter tops. Stay tuned.

Red Wings

We started out Spring Break at a Red Wings game. A first for us as a family (thanks Sara)

The kids were so excited...until we sat down.

The pitcher for the other team kept walking people. I said he needed to learn to pitch. C said it was OK because he was pretty sure this was just the minors.

free cow bells are always a plus

Beautiful

punk...handsome though

We told the kids we got free hot dogs. The game started at 4:00 and at 4:20 they were starving and begging to go get the hot dogs.

We told them we couldn't get them until 5:00. She watched the big clock like a hawk!

YUM

They got bored fast

I don't know how anyone gets bored watching a baseball game. I love them!
I guess I get that from my dad.

We decided to try it again when it was warm out and to bring money for cotton candy.
We made it to the top of the 5th.

Old Forge

A few weeks ago we decided last minute to go camping for the weekend. We packed up the car and took off. Chancho did great on the 3 hour drive. Only throwing up once we got there. (and not once on the way home) He was strapped in the whole time and slept. The kids also did great this being our first long drive without a DVD player in the car.

We had a cottage right on the lake which still had ice on it when we got there Friday night.

By Saturday morning it was gone and the water not too cold. The kids couldn't wait to pump up the boat and row over to the beach.

We sat on the beach for a few hours. We had the place to ourselves. Chris and I sat in chairs and talked and read books and watched the kids dig and play with the dog.

While the boys were getting the fire going the girls went fishing. One of their favorite things!

We also spent some time at the playground....again we had it to ourselves. It was so quite up there. Perfect for relaxing after two very stressful weeks at work for Chris.

We went in to town to visit my favorite place...the Hardware store. It is so fun to walk through. We had a blast and hope we can get up there again soon.