:-) Happy Anniversary

We have been soooo busy lately trying to get the kitchen back to a usable state and trying to keep the house a decent trashy. The laundry has sort of been forgotten and piled up high enough to fall out the back door!! That might be a little exaggeration, but you know how it is when your behind on things it might as well be the worst situation because it seems you'll never get it done!! :-) But we have the cabinets in place and clean out, I had a great time putting things away. Just looking in the room it feels like the same amount of space but I am getting more junk in those things than I ever did in the old ones!! We have only a little more work on finishing the walls, flooring and some trim. My cook stove is hooked up again, YEA! I am going through the house one room at a time cleaning and throwing away while waiting on my kitchen. Soon the sawing and hammering will be done hopefully and I will be able to tackle the final layer of dust. I'm about ready for "shop" class to end! :-)

A friend asked me about posting some pictures and telling about what our family does during the week, It's funny you usually don't see your own life as all that interesting to others but I guess with my seven kids people wonder what in the world I do with them all! So for anyone interested I'm going to be posting soon, a day to day picture show and comments of a week in the life of 9ndhouse. Hope no one dies of boredom! :-)

As for the anniversary title, yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary! We took time out and went out for a date. We even left the kids at home! :-) We went out to dinner with a couple whom we are good friends with, it was also their 42nd anniversary. I stuffed myself silly with BBQ ribs, chicken strips, onion rings and the softest honey glazed croissant rolls I've ever had. I have ever mentioned how much I love food! :-) It likes me too, and tries to stick around awhile. After dinner we went to see the movie Fireproof. It was sooooo goooood!! I have been listening to friends and reading blogs of all the people who have seen it and it was a wonderful movie, every bit as good as they said. I did bring my hanky thinking I wouldn't need it but I laughed till I cried so many times, then bawled a few times just because I'm a girl! All in all we had a great night out, it's always fun to have some Mommy and Daddy time!

Photo of the kids recently taken on a field trip to the Harry S. Truman Birthplace in Lamar, MO. :-)

It's a mess around here!

The noise level was almost ear busting, dust so thick you choked and forget about seeing anything till it settled! A new gaping hole is now staring at me from the kitchen floor! Where moments before the stove had once stood with dinner simmering and THEN.......Just Kidding!!

Actually the hole is where the sink and cabinets once stood, or at least stood the best they could on a floor sooo rotten it was like walking on a swinging bridge! OK, not quite that bad. But bad enough this poor short gal was bending over more and more each day just to reach the sink! :-)

So, that's what we've been up to lately, or rather down to. Reconstructing the kitchen!! Yea!!

It started when I got this really great idea to put a want ad for used kitchen cabinets on Craig's List. Michael, my husband was working on the down stairs bathroom putting up walls, doors and all that good stuff, he wasn't really looking for another project and since he was skeptical that I would find anything anyway said he would check out any REASONABLE priced "finds" that I could come up with. I was about to give up hope, "new to me" cabinets and a solid kitchen floor was fading fast when I finally got an answer, someone in a town nearby had some used oak cabinets sitting in their garage waiting for me! For a REASONABLE price of course!! A few days later I'm moving the living room furniture around to make room for this wonderful find while Michael watched me with that "you owe me" look! ;-} Of course he wanted to wait and......I don't know why he wanted to wait. But anyway, I started tearing up, tearing out and causing all kinds of destruction to my kitchen. It was really stress relieving, very nice. It wasn't so nice when I bent his hammer though, word of advise...."DON'T TEAR UP YOUR HUSBAND'S HAMMER!!" It makes for a not so nice look on his face when he finds it, not to mention that you'll "owe" him again!

I was all prepared to tackle this project and be the push behind the man (well I couldn't do it all alone! ) and help make this kitchen a reality when.......Aren't friends wonderful!.......GREAT! really!......a truck pulled up and out came a great friend who started helping Michael finish the destruction I had started. While his wife and I kept the dining room chairs down and all the kids out of the way, the men went to work behind the sheet I had hung up to keep the dust contained. In they went with all manner of tools and contraptions, banging and loud noises came forth from the "operating room" while we waited. Soon another wonderful family happened by and soon he and his boys were got caught up in the excitement, his wife too took a chair and we talked and waited. In went more tools and lumber and out came loads of debri and dust. It began to get late and I was beginning to wonder about the guys, I slid glasses of tea and brownies under the curtain to keep up their strength, the soup and cornbread had gotten cold on the table.

Finally, the noise stopped and quietness buzzed in our ears. The proud dirty men emerged from behind the curtain, they were tired and hungry. We peeked into the kitchen to find a wonderful new floor where the gaping hole had been just a few hours earlier. They had torn out half the floor replaced the rotten joices and flooring and it was now ready to take on and hold up the "new to me" cabinets! I was sooo impressed with the amount of work done in one evening!!

A few days later the truck pulled up again, and as Michael and our friend began to work he mentioned that his wife was waiting for me and the kids at their house. I quickly pointed out the food, brownies and tea grabbed the kids and ran. I could only imagine how much work they could accomplish without the distractions!!

They installed half the cabinets that night and while the work isn't completed yet, I'm one HAPPY Momma! The old early 1940's homemade cabinets are being replaced with more modern custom built one's from the 70's with a few new plug ins thrown in for fun! What MORE can I ask for!!!

Michael is groaning, he knows I'll think of something!! :-D

Photo: My wonderful husband, laughing at me about something. I forget now what, but I'm sure it wasn't funny!! :-)