Hi! Kids are recovered, finally. Camryn went to bed really early the night of her party but she slept lousy. She was overtired and overstimulated. Grant was so tired but completely wound up until about 9pm, then crashed. Last night, both kids went to bed at 6:15 and slept about 14 hours each, pretty much all night. They were catching up. Now it's my turn! :-)

Oh my goodness....I rarely come here anymore and today thought I'd see who was still around. I don't recognize a lot of the names anymore. Steph and I both can be found on Facebook. She stays busy with the kids. Grant will be 5 in July and starts Kinder in the fall. Camryn was 2 in January. They are such fun. I only live a mile away so see them everyday. Things for me have been really sad. My sister Jan is in the hospital on a ventilator right now. She has COPD and has had such a rough time since January. It is very very sad that her life is so hard right now. Some of you may remember my talking about her in the past. She had struggled with alcohol for many years. Little over 2 years ago she stopped drinking and worked very hard to put her life back together. She has her own apt now and was doing really really well. And now her health is so bad that she will be living in a nursing home if she survives this. It is just heartbreaking that she won't be able to have the good life she has worked so hard to achieve. Thanks for asking about us!! Here are a couple of recent pictures of the kids.

Guess Steph hasn't seen this note. Thanks for asking about the kids! They are wonderful. I am so fortunate that I live so close and get to see them everyday. They are just so much fun. Here are a few pictures. Grant camping with his Uncle Rob Camryn in the Easter overalls I made. An outfit I made for her

For a while, I was really going for that stone bumpout and glass tile by the range. Now....I am back to waffling. I'm terrible. lol Quartz is kind of at or near the top of my wishlist (see how wishywashy I am still??). Until I figure out cabinet finishes, I can't really figure that out. But, I like the clean, consistent look of some of those quartzes. And, some of them have "natural" tones I really like (cement, limestone, etc). I still like the idea of earthy if I can get it. A tame counter would also allow the option of having some fun with the counter-to-ceiling tile for the range hood nook, if I dare. lol I'm also really drawn to linear counters, but I'm just not sure that works for us? I haven't totally ruled out the few corians I like (rain cloud, et at) that are linear'ish. I also see some cool quartzes that have these swirly lines through them. And...I haven't lost my love of quartzite - I'm just not sure the budget/project really fit it? I'm not feeling any granites so far... Soapstone is still on the table, too. It didn't work out with the designer of that kitchen I hired. She's not a KD yet. She passed the dimensions on to the KD, who drafted up a kitchen that was wrong in every single dimension, i.e., made my ceilings taller, made the peninsula so long it cut off the entry to the kitchen and so deep it cut off the hallway access. On top of that, the quote for their frameless cabinets (low end, Katana, called their "IKEA competition" was $19,000... I'm like, um, IKEA would cost like $3500, I'm not think this is competitive... So, they gave me a refund. I'm basically nowhere. The most I can say for myself is that: 1 - I bought a range 2 - I still love the light I picked out 2 years ago 3 - I am almost done with a layout. 4 - I found hardware I like This in something like 2 years...lol! My partner, though, is kicking it.