Honey, I'm in the kitchen!

As some of you may know, we have had quite the transformation at our little North End abode.

{For a refresher, click HERE}

There has to the despise of my husband,

been even more transformation!

{Chris may kill me if I get anymore wild hairs about "decorating" that actually involves him doing even more manual labor}

We all know that during the process of the "labor,"

IT SUCKS.

But the end result is AMAZING!

Here's the transformation of our kitchen from beginning to end!

We started with this...

{Don't judge}

Eggshell walls,

pink counters,

flooring that had seen better days

{better days as in 20 years ago}

And a kitchen sink that was stained more than our hardwood floors.

 I saw the potential our sorry excuse for a kitchen had.

With a lot of paint, we turned it into this...

{not too shabby}

We painted the entire thing,

{please shoot me if I ever get the urge to paint the inside of an entire house again}

We changed out light fixtures, appliances, and cupboard hardware.

But we still had the awful pink counter tops,

And old flooring that never seemed to look clean.

{You can't clean old}

Something still wasn't right.

I got the urge to change something again

so I changed the light fixture.

I even went to Home Depot all by myself,

picked out the connector-thingy's and spray paint!

(not to mention, the guy that was helping me asked if anyone ever thought I looked like the Fox 12 Fitness trainer...uhhhh, yeah buddy, that's me. Thanks for your help).

A little spray paint here,

A little twisting of the connector thingy's there,

and viola!

{Yes, Chris installed it}

A new kitchen light!

Then my amazing husband and father-in-law

went along with another one of my crazy ideas

and installed a new floor for me!

Glorious!

But did I stop there?

Did U of I beat Boise State?

HECK NO!

{insert attitude and side-to-side head shake}

As much as it pained me sarcasm to get rid of the

pink counters, I just threw up a little bit,

they got kicked off the island;

they got fired;

they did not pass go;

they did not collect $200;

They HAD to go!

My husband and father-in-law were such good sports

and installed new counter tops and a new sink!!!

They are the owner's of Lighthouse Homes and Remodeling.

They are amazing.

Shameful plug, I know =)

{what a hot tile-installer}

Taaa-daaaa!!!!!!!

Here it is!

My amazing,

totally transformed,

makes me want to cook,

kitchen!

And because it's fun, let's compare side-by-side photos:

___________________________________________________________________

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Welp, what do you think of the transformation?!



Where I want to wiggle my toes:

I'm on the hunt.

On the hunt like a "something that hunts" kind of animal.

A new rug is my prey.

Prey that is a non-smelly rug because "hunter-animals" usually sniff out their smelly prey.

The funny thing is that at this very moment, as I type away and laugh histerically,

my husband is saying "oh geez, you're blogging again, aren't you."

Yes Dear

=)

Maybe I should put out a personal add for my new rug.

{I'm more of a lover than a fighter, so I'm doubtful that the "hunting" thing will work out}

I like long walks on the beach.

I like cuddling.

I like picnics in my front yard.

I like candle-light dinners on my coffee table.

I like to wiggle my toes on fluffy new rugs.

Are you my new rug?

What about you?

You're nice, but...

You would go over like a fart in church.

{Everybody notices, and nobody likes it}

{And some people even smell it}

#fail

The search continues.

Equal Sign, Parenthesise =)

Today, I would like to start with an experiment.
{Probably stemming from my psychology degree and it is something that has striked my fancy lately}

How would you read a phrase with the same words, "written" differently?

Have a nice day!

Have a nice day?

Have a nice day =)

Have a nice day =/ 

Have a nice day =(

Have a nice day =X

Have a nice day =P

Have a nice day...haha!

Have a nice day...lol

Have a nice day.

It has come to my attention that (obviously), despite the words being the same, the punctuation (and now "smiley faces or words that deem laughter) determines the "mood" of the sentence, despite proper grammar.

Experiment number 2.

Imagine you have had an amazing day...the sun is shining, you found $20 in your skinny jeans, birds are chirping, you got a huge bonus at work ($), your grandma sent you a present "just because," your significant other got you flowers and chocolate, and made you dinner (<3) and now you are relaxing after your lovely day.

You check up on your 700 facebook friends.

You read:
Have a nice day

No punctuation. No good/bad/angry/tongue-sticker-outer-smiley.

How do you read it?

Based off of how your day is going?
{Your sunny, shinny, glorious, beautiful, everything is beautiful day}

Have a nice day!
Have a nice day =)
Have a nice day =P

Or do you read it based off of how you think the other person is saying it?
{what if they are in a bad mood?}
{what if they are in a great mood?}
{what if???}


Experiment number 3.

The next day after your amazing, perfect, sun is shining, no one could burst your bubble day, you wake up on the other side of the bed (the wrong side), and it is downright ugly awful. It's raining and snowing, your cat hates you, your car wont start, your dog pooped in the refrigerator, your pets heads are falling off (that's a movie quote for those of you who don't know)...basically it is a crappy day (which we all have now and again).

You again, check up on your 702 facebook friends.

You read:
Have a nice day

How do you read that same phrase, same words, on this day?

Based off of how your day is going?
{Your horrible, hide in a hole, I think I'll go eat worms day}

Have a nice day =/
Have a nice day =(
Have a nice day =X
Have a nice day...grrrr...

Or do you read it based off of how you think the other person is saying it?

Or do you read it based off of the 'quarky things' that run through our head a million times per second-based off of our mood/emotions?
{they don't really want me to have a nice day}
{why would they want me to have a nice day}
{they are just bragging about their great day when my day sucks}


I ask these questions because "written words" (text, facebook, twitter, etc) has transformed the way we, as a society, communicate with each other.

Do we read what people write based off of that person's character or based off of how you are feeling that day?
Maybe someone says something (with no punctuation, God forbid) and they are "saying" it with a smile, but because of whatever goes on in another person's head, it becomes totally misconstrued.

It also makes me wonder what the true view is of our friends.

We no longer need to call our friends and catch each other up on our lives because we saw each other's status updates all week.

We no longer need to bring photo albums to work to show off pictures our kids because our co-workers saw the latest twitpics of our trip to the zoo.

Now please understand, that I am, by no means, against social networking.
It has been a great resource to re-connect with old and new friends, keep my grandma that lives across the country "in the loop," post pictures of my random cat, and give my clients nutrition resources/information.
{and to put up thoughts like this one}

I just think that personal communication and vocal communication has become somewhat like a house phone or a vinyl record

(uhh, who has those anymore...I'm sure someone can text you a list of who still has that stuff)

equal sign, parenthesise

I admit, I do it too. I text. I network socially. No one is perfect (thank the good Lord).

I am trying to work on spending more face-to-face, in person, time and/or speaking voice-to-voice time with family and friends.

I also am working on reading the things on my 'wall' through the eyes of love, through an attitude that gives people the benefit of the doubt, and tries to see the best in each person even if I have had a bad day and there is no smiley or punctuation.

I can choose to see people how Jesus see's them.
{even though I will always fall short}
As a treasure. A special gift.
His beloved.

Have a nice day

Was that the guy from "The Hangover?" Oh, wait, that guy will be hungover in the morning...

Snug as a bug in a rug, we were.

Not a creature was stiring, not even Jackson.

The clock struck 4am.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

{whathe?!}

Living in the North End, we expected there to be "interesting moments" of trendy yuppies mixed with high-flying hippies, but this? A disturbing banging at our door at 4am?!

{There goes my beauty sleep}

We are now wide awake.

{AWESOME}

My burley husband immediately grabs his police issued batton and yells in his deep man voice,

"Who is it?"

{We figured if it was someone we knew, they would let us know who they were, we would let them in, then we would smack them around a little bit with the batton for waking us up at 4am...all out of love, of course. Feel free to visit anytime}

No answer.

Chris immediately goes into James Bond mode

{minus the suit and gun because Chris is in his skivies and has his police issued wack-a-man stick}

He hides in a corner.

{He is very stealthy...unlike Jackson}

Chris Tip-toes over to the wall.

{He is quick like a cat...but not our cat}

He peaks through the blinds, out the window.

{Insert James Bond Theme Song}

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Chris see's a large hairy man with a beard on his face that would put Zack Galifianakis to shame.

He is stumbling down the sidewalk.

Away from our house.

{Bye Zack}

Crisis averted. No breaking and entering. No drunk Zack Galifianakis autograph.

No usage of the police issued beat stick.

Whew. That was a close one.

But now it's 4:04 am and we are AWAKE!

AWESOME.

{insert sarcasm}

Next time, when someone (probably drunk), knocks on our door in the middle of the night,

 maybe they will use our cute door knocker that we got as a wedding present.

It even has our name on it.

Because that's what it's there for.