hello again

There are several reasons why I haven't blogged recently. the two main ones are:
1) we've been SO busy!
2) apparently my picasa space is full and I can't upload new pics to my blog until I decide to pay google some money, or delete old ones. I plan to go the delete old ones route and haven't gotten around to it (see number 1 above).

but we are still busy doing fun things and living life, so here's a picture-less "snapshot" of what we've been up to lately. there are two major things: our house & christmas. :)

Nov 10 - leave for San Diego; pictures coming later. had an awesome time. sea world, the sd zoo, even one day at disneyland.
Nov ?? - pipe breaks in our kitchen
Nov 14 - we return to our flooded kitchen / family room, etc
Nov 15-30 - we live with my parents and blake's parents, switching back and forth.
Dec 1 - The REALLY loud fans are gone, and so we move back home. Our stuff has all been boxed up, and we build a barricade of boxes to block off the parts of the house the kids can't go in. They are very good and never try to go where they shouldn't. Ethan often reminds us that "our house is broken, needs new batteries."
Dec 6 - we meet with Bill the cabinet guy. he's going to make us new cabinets.
Dec 7 - I fly to new york to see my awesome brother darren's awesome play Unhealthy. It was awesome. This is also the day they repaint our house in the new colors we've chosen. Gone is the green granite, gone is the green backsplash, gone is the green carpet (well, it had green in it, it wasn't all green) so when they offered to repaint our green walls, which were the only remaining green thing in our house, we said, "yes! but not green please!" we extended the neutral yellow that's in the living room into the rest of the bottom floor, it's our new neutral (before white and light green were the neutrals). the kitchen we painted purple. this may sound crazy, but there's not that much of it (btwn upper and lower cabinets mostly) and we really like it. we also choose a bright blue for the family room accent wall which may have been a bit exuberant. but whatever, it will be easy to repaint if we decide to because it's just a square wall, no windows or doors or funny things to tape around.
Dec 9 - I return from NY and get to see the paint colors for real, instead of just the pictures blake texted. :)
Dec 10 - cabinet prices come in, we have a few hours to decide what changes we want to pay for and which we don't. we make all the decisions over the phone (blake and I are both at work and I'm putting on the staff christmas party that day)
Dec 12 - cabinet drawings are done. we race home from the christmas carol sing at church to make sure we can call bill by 8pm.
Dec 19-21 - we're kicked out of our house so the floors can be put in and finished.
Dec 21 - cabinets are delivered! this is awesome, as it's the main piece we were waiting on. then it's the weekend, and christmas eve and christmas though, so cabinets don't get installed until...
Dec 26-28 - cabinets are installed and we get a new furnace too. on the last day of cabinet install they also install our oven/microwave combo. although we got many wonderful christmas presents, this is probably our favorite. the ability to cook w/ something other than a toaster oven is... amazing. also, the carpet in the family room is installed on the 28th.
Dec 30 - today. granite countertops are being installed as I type.
Dec 31 - tomorrow a plumber comes to hook up the dishwasher, kitchen sink, and fridge, all of which had to wait until the granite was put in. oh also, we have 16 people coming over for a new year's eve party.
So I guess I better go resume cleaning. as you can imagine, our entire house gets covered in sawdust almost every day. we vacuum every day or two, no exception. and it still looks... well, really dusty.

There's still a bit more work to do after tomorrow. like I'm not sure when our range gets put in the island. It had to wait until the granite was in I know, but I'm not sure who hooks it up or when they plan to do that. Also our floors will get sealed again and we'll be kicked out again for that, and a few things broke, like the latch to the bathroom door downstairs because the wood of the door swelled up so much when it got wet, and I'm hoping there will be a bit of touch up paint happening... and we have to install the cabinet handles ourselves (well we don't have to, but we're cheap, so we're going to, once they arrive next week), and we have the backsplash to do too... but hey, once our appliances are back... it's going to be so great.

So that's what I have to say! Life is looking up! Christmas was great, and this experience has been almost like being in the hospital. All sorts of people help you out (like letting you live with them and providing extra babysitting so you can go granite shopping) and we just feel all warm and loved by all our friends and family.

So Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year!