I love all of your pendant choices but the only one that really goes with the chandelier is choice 2- 1 is too mission and 3 is too modern IMO. Is your kitchen open to your family room? My kitchen is similar in size to yours and is open to my family room so I did recessed lights over my island so that it would not be too hanging light heavy on that end of the room. If my kitchen was a separate room then I probably would have done pendants over the island. The lights that I do have in my kitchen are made by Wilmette and I really like there quality. Lighting was definitely one of the hardest choices, I went through so many lights and still have some in my basement that could not be returned. Good luck!

Ebean - your doctor may not have said it, but you should be very proud of what you went through and 5 years must mean something! It sure beats not getting to 5 years!! I wish you many more anniversaries and hope you get to the point where you vaguely remember the day because it was so long ago and you have lived so much life in the interim. I lost a high school friend this week unexpectedly and our sons' bus driver passed this morning from being in an accident on Mon with a tanker truck on the way to picking up the kids for school. Not everyone gets a second chance, so your story is wonderful because there is no ending to it ;). The fact that you are here to share your daughter's growing up and what is to come and are also here to grow old with your husband (someday, not yet), makes me tear up some. I want to go wake the boys and give them big kisses, but will wait til morning. Dh is recovering from "minor" surgery yesterday, but it is not an easy recovery nonetheless. I am so grateful he that each day will be better and his problems were "fixed" in one shot. If he were not sleeping finally(!), I'd want to wake him too!

Evan, you're too kind! You know how much I love frogs..As much as I love my citrus,....lol Thanks buddy That's a cute one.. Monica, that's crazy..All that distance but far worth it. I love how the RED leaves come out and change color over time..It even pretty with or without the flowers..It's a keeper I'd say. Boston is wonderful. I take time once every month or so to take a train in by myself and just walk around. It puts me in my own world..Guess, that's weird..lol As long as I don't spend money by staying out of the stores I do fine. Getting ready to bring the Hoya in(((. They don't tolerate the 40's at night and wet and cold usually kill mine. So I have to make sure they are clean of bugs and then in the sunny room they will go. How much I am going to miss mass watering them with a hose easily.... Laura, that beach looks pretty nice. Wish I had time to go one last time before fall sets in, it's hot today and no time..(90's today..I'm afraid this kind of weather will not come back after it leaves tomorrow...

Thanks Rita Re alternate cooking weeks: some things you do for maintaining marital harmony :) because our grocery shopping, meal palnning, our cooking styles and our clean up routines are so opposite to each other.. in fact that's true for a lot of how we both think and work... so different .... reminds me when we were at Sedona many years ago and got our auras read(it's the new age method where they read the energy you generate as colors ). And our aura reader was amazed that DH and I were Married because our auras were so contrasting, none of our colors matched..except this teeny tiny bit of green ..and she claimed that's what made us click in the cosmic sense. We both had a good laugh about it afterwards anyways back on the kitchen : our current kitchen is one cook\one eat space. Wonder if our cookin schedules will change with our new kitchen ....