the remaking of a kitchen

A year has passed and I haven't posted a darn thing.  It's been an amazing year....Hudson was born to Jewlee and we love him so much.  Siena is a kindergartner and is a total joy to all.  Don and I are rumbling along...not doing a whole lot and that is the good news.  We are healthy septuagenarians and how did this happen??  I hope this is not my last post for the year.  :)

i am a blog slug......the anniversary of the blog was on sunday, and i haven't posted anything since august.  sluggery is real!  we were in omaha over the weekend and were able to see several friends and eat several meals and it was all good.  i plan to post more often, but we shall see if that really happens.  :)

we just celebrated our 50th anniversary.....amazing!   we went out to dinner and it was all lovely.  a great meal and a waitress we've had previously who is great, so all good.  our gift to ourselves was new landscaping in our front yard.  when we moved in, the landscaping was two or three railroad ties high creating what i saw as a fort.  inside were numerous arborvitae shrubs and some potentilla that were overgrown.  lots of river rock which did not keep out the weeds.  over time, the potentilla died and don dragged away a couple of layers of ties and removed some of the arborvitae...hurrah for don.  however, there remained numerous arborvitae which don had trimmed to attractive shapes, but the whole thing still extended a good 20 feet into the front yard!  so, it is now 8 feet at the deepest, and since we changed the porch last year, the plants run along in front of the porch, but only 2 feet out from the porch itself.  i love the whole thing!!  yay!
we went shopping for plants and tree numerous times, we even agreed on some things.  we have various colors of leaves.....greens, yellows and dark red, plus blooms in orange, pink - white - yellow and yellow.  most everything is small for now, but hopefully we have placed it so that growth won't run it into the house or the other plants.  it was quite an adventure and at this point we both like it a lot.  there are some areas that need a few more plants, but that will happen either later this fall or next spring.  

We are just back from California where we celebrated Siena's 4th birthday.  It was great fun to watch her with her preschool friends sharing cupcakes baked by Sarah.  We had given her presents the day previous which was the actual day and of course she had to wear her new dress to show her friends. 
We actually missed the family party on Saturday as I caught the flu bug that was being circulated from the school.  ;(  I felt a bit contagious and washed out and Don was afraid he might be a carrier and get sick himself, so stay away we did.
We spent some time alone with Siena.....were with her one evening while S and D went in opposite directions, picked her up at preschool one day and just filled in between comings and goings another day. 
Siena has changed so much since her visit with us in April.  She is totally in control of bodily functions!  Goes to the bathroom by herself and needs minimal assist now and then.  She gets herself ready for bed.....takes clothes off OVER HER HEAD all by herself and even uses pull ups which she manages herself!  She is pretty proud that she can do these things on her own.  She still loves reading in the snuggly chair in her room of course.....and we do too!  ;) 
We spent most of a day in San Francisco with Jewlee and Jeff.  It was nice to finally meet Jeff and spend time with him.  He took us to Twin Peaks which was amazing.  None of us had been there previously so it was a great treat.  Jewlee and I went to the Ferry building and purchased some gluten free goodies and Don and Jeff surprised us with ice cream when they met up with us.  We went to the Oakland waterfront and saw the Hornet and other ships retired there.  Jewlee had worked several catering jobs on the Hornet, so there were stories!  We had a lovely meal in Alameda......I guess it was a late lunch.  I think maybe Cambodian fare and it was delicious! 
So, now we are home and needing to make some decisions on landscaping which should begin next week some time.  We are doing this as our anniversary present to ourselves....our 50th which seems absolutely impossible.  We are making the area in front of the house much smaller.......reducing the area of planting from 20 feet to more like 8.....now we just need to choose some plants! 

last night we had a spontaneous gathering on the porch.  we broke out the other two chairs which had been hiding in the garage and then brought out the wine.  diane and paul wandered over with teddy who shortly was banished to his own house due to a rapidly swishing tale in the vicinity of wine glasses. 
it was an amazingly lovely evening.....almost warm and no rain, so we sat and visited and enjoyed the wine.  just what we envisioned when we added it!  i love it when ideas come to fruition! 
we are waiting to hear from the landscape designer who visited with us a week or so ago.  he will come around again the week after next with a plan and an estimate.  i hope the latter is in our budget!  it would be lovely to have it all just DONE!! 

April 20 was the blog's birthday......lo those many years and how very long since there's been a new post.  oh well, life continues to happen.  we had a lovely visit for chrismukkah....david, sarah, siena and patrick were here.  i think we all had a grand time.  siena played in the snow and we all loved seeing that.  patrick pulled her sled up and down the hill in the backyard.  yay!
sarah and siena visited again in april, so we got to enjoy them all over again.  sarah, siena and i were outside in the remaining snow drift.....sarah threw a snowball to siena and she caught it!  woohoo. 
we are finally getting to enjoy the new porch...we purchased chairs and a small table, and plan to share adult beverages with the neighbors soon.  ;)

this will be short post with more to follow. i took a shot of our finished porch including the re-bricked corner of the house. we worked with a guy who had a good sense of design and he was patient as we hemmed and hawed in making a decision. he was even patient when we suddenly altered the plan a bit at the last minute. we are delighted to be rid of the blasted planter and found great joy in the destruction of same. ;)