Miss March

I took these photos a couple of weeks ago but then forgot about developing them what with the craziness of work.  I made the rainbows with pots of gold as treats/handouts for the lesson I was teaching at church to all of the 12-18 year old girls.  The theme for the year is "Arise and Shine Forth" and I wanted to talk about getting through times of adversity.  Rainbows seemed like a good image to go with the concept of "shining" through difficult/darker times in life.  Plus, I had seen these licorice and rolo rainbows on the Our Best Bites website and they looked so awesome that I really wanted to make them. 

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House Remodel Phase 2

Thanks for all the supportive comments about that last post, friends. I really love being validated. Is that so shameful?

 

So I thought I would share what Paul and I have been focusing on lately, which is preparing for House Remodel Phase 2. Last year Paul and I (but mostly Paul) remodeled the bedrooms in our little 1958 home. They were in desparate need of work and we did a top-to-bottom overhaul complete with wall texture, new closets, paint, new windows, trim, carpeting, electrical - the works. And we have been so happy with how the bedrooms and office turned out.

 

For the past couple of months, we have been thinking about doing another huge remodeling project that will bring our home into this century and make it much more enjoyable to live in. Basically, we are going to rip out the existing kitchen, pull up all of the flooring in the living room and hallway and kitchen, and redo the whole thing. By the time we are done, about 90-95% of the interior of our house will have been totally remodeled and only the two bathrooms will be left to do in the future.

 

Right now, we don't have a dishwasher, our oven is miniature and can't even fit a cookie sheet without sitting on a funky angle against the back of the oven, the linoleum is gouged and horrid and stapled down in places, tiles have been messily glued back onto the counter by previous owners when they have snapped off, and we have a half torn-down wall that we have been living with since the day we moved into the house and decided we couldn't handle with the wall separating the kitchen and the living room and Paul started ripping it out.

 

 

Paul has already begun some of the remodel work by patching cracks in the ceiling drywall, which are commonnplace in old California homes that have seen their share of earthquakes. He also assessed the lighting and electrical situation and researched how to properly light our main living space. In doing so, he determined that we had too many "dark spots" because there were insufficient can-lights installed and they were poorly spaced. So on Monday night he re-wired the living room and installed 6 new can-lights, which has made a huge difference from how things were before. Paul also plans to redo the kitchen, hallway, and entry lighting as well.

 

We picked out stainless steel appliances a few weeks ago and have been getting bids on flooring, cabinets, and granite from a number of different places. Since we are not trying to create some high-end dream home, we think that we are just going to go with cabinets from Lowes. We met with a really highly reviewed Yelp! cabinet guy, but honestly, his prices were out of our budget and we loved the lady at Lowes who spent 2 1/2 hours with us Saturday evening designing how it would all look and creating computer drawings of how the layout would look. She provided a better design that was more in line with our budget and interests and Lowes even carries some of the same cabinet lines as many of the higher-rated cabinet designers in the area. We are planning on moving the refrigerator, oven and stove to different places than where they currently are and we are adding a dishwasher (happy day!) and a slightly larger island. We like a fairly simple, clean look in our furnishings so we are going with a sort of modified shaker-style cabinet in "divinity" (aka, creamy white) with glass inserts in the cabinets on either side of the microwave.

 

We are leaning toward either hickory (on the right) or walnut (on the left) for our hardwood flooring. Anyone care to comment on which option they like best?

 

Hickory

Walnut

The whole project is going to take a long time because Paul will be doing most of the work himself in the evenings or on weekends, but I can help with a lot of the basic stuff like painting and sanding. We are hoping to be done by the end of the summer, but we don't really know how long it is actually going to take. For now, Paul is just tackling the smaller prepartory projects where we can still use the kitchen and living room before we jump into tearing the whole thing out - things like patching walls, replacing doors, lighting, etc. - and we are hopeful that the actual period of being totally kitchenless except for whatever makedo kitchen we can rig by moving our current fridge onto the back patio and using only a microwave, grill, and hot plate to cook our meals lasts less than a month or two. Besides, we are acutely aware that we have a very busy girl who has been teasing us about taking her first steps so we need to make sure to keep our home environment safe for her and her needs to explore.

 

It is going to be a lot of work and a big expense, but we are looking forward to a brand new kitchen and living room as the end result!

Giving Notice

When you are a type-A corporate litigator (what other kind is there after all?) like me, the last thing you want to be considered is a quitter. So instead, when I walked into the office of one of the main partners at my firm this morning, I told him that I was there "to give notice" instead of "to quit." I can admit that I left his office with a dirty streak of masacara trailing down my right cheek, but I am proud of myself for pretty much keeping it together the whole time. The four or five tears that leaked out of my right eye only (not the left - weird, huh?) were just from the relief I felt when this particular partner shut his office door so we could continue the conversation in private and proceeded to commend me for the decision Paul and I are making and talked about how family is absolutely the most important thing. He told me that I am a "great lawyer" and that I do excellent work and should I ever want to practice law again once our kid(s) is/are older that I will have no problem getting back into it because, according to him, I have what it takes to be a great litigator. (Sorry if I sound like I am tooting my own horn - I am just trying to record some of this encouragement as fuel for the future when I may feel some hesitation at picking up my career as a lawyer again after some time off while our children are young.)

I don't think that this blog is the right place to go into all of the details or rationale behind my departure, so I won't (sorry FB friends who want all the sordid details). But the gist of it is that Paul and I don't feel right about both of us working at big firms full-time with Clara in daycare for the bulk of her waking hours. And work has been unbearable for the last few months anyway and I feel differently about the kind of law practice I am in now from how I felt when I was looking for a summer associate position at a big firm back in 2008.

So for now, I am looking forward to being able to stay home with our Clara-girl and not having to drop her off at daycare every morning. I'm looking forward to actually cooking dinners again instead of consuming yet another frozen pizza or picking up Taco Bell after work. I am pretty sure that Paul is looking forward to having his (mostly) sane wife back who doesn't break down at least once a week in great wracking sobs where she can barely get out the words "I ... can't ... do ... this ... sob, sob, sob ... anymore!! ... wail, wail, wail" after getting not enough sleep and only a handful of minutes with her little girl for a couple of days in a row. (Yes, I hate to admit it, but it has been that bad on multiple occasions).   I look forward to blogging more than once every couple of weeks.  (Can you believe it was two weeks ago that I last posted?!  Shame on me

We are very thankful that Paul has such a good job and I am so grateful that he works hard to make it possible for me to stay home with our cute kiddo. We are going to have to be a LOT more careful about sticking to our budget (historically not one of our strengths) and we aren't going to be traveling anywhere super-exotic in the foreseeable future because we won't have nearly the disposable income that we are used to, but we feel strongly that this is the best decision for us and for our family.

So yay for quitters notice-givers!  I am feeling crazy amounts of relief tonight, even as my blackberry has been pinging me once every ten minutes for the last couple of hours.  I will not miss that annoying little beep and red flashing light, that is for sure!

Ghosts of Leap Days Past

I thought it would be interesting to try to figure out some of the details of the 8 Leap Days (or at least the time periods surrounding the 8 Leap Days) I have experienced in my (ahem) 31 years.

February 29, 2012: Working full-time at a large law firm as a litigator; feeling totally overwhelmed with my cases and clients and experiencing major burn-out; loving my smart, gregarious, supportive, handsome, and hard-working husband for all he's worth but feeling bad because I feel like I have leaned on him pretty hard in the past few months as I have struggled with this working-mom gig; feeling so lucky and blessed to have the most darling, happy girl in this world who clings to me with ferocity, laughs all the time, and who has just learned how to clap her hands; not loving the extra weight I am carrying around but haven't done a thing about since I barely have time to do the basics of life (get dishes washed and laundry folded) let alone engage in a weight-loss regimen.

February 29, 2008: Studying hard as a second-year law student at BYU's J. Reuben Clark School of Law; Paul rides the bus to school early every morning and gets home late, at which point we forego studying and instead watch tv shows like "Lost" or go for walks in South Provo where we were living and debating whether it would ever be financially possible for us to live in California; I had not yet started the blog and instead spent lots of time reading Twilight and fooling around on Goodreads; missing Germany where we had lived the summer before and conniving ways to travel to exotic places again; having fun having my sister Jessica living in Provo as a Freshman and worrying about my sister Jennie who was planning a wedding from BYU-Idaho (I was much too protective and not very supportive of her during a time that was very exciting for her and when she probably wanted me to excited for her, which I am ashamed of to this day).

February 29, 2004: I was fairly recently returned missionary who was newly engaged, planning a May wedding, and living in a house south of BYU campus with some great girls (5 of the 6 of whom were also returned missionaries); I worked as a teacher at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah preparing mostly 19-24 year old men and women to go all over the world and be missionaries; Paul and I were practically inseparable even though we weren't married yet and we ate most of our meals together and were taking a dance class together; I was doing the Finance core at BYU.

February 29, 2000: I was a lowly college sophmore who had moved back into the dorms after a miserable fall semester off-campus; I remember feeling friendless when I moved back to the dorms and embarassed to be around all the freshmen--like I had failed at living off-campus--but I had my own tiny private room that was scarcely the size of a closet in Deseret Towers (now demolished) and I poured myself into German and Calculus classes and running on the BYU indoor track; I took up swing dancing and went to dances every weekend by myself where I stood against the walls and watched the other dancers until I learned enough of the basics to start dancing myself and asking some of the guys who seemed to be willing to teach if they would help me learn; I didn't know it, but Paul and I were in the same ward that met in the Law building where I would eventually obtain my graduate degree and he had been eyeing me for two months trying to get up his courage to talk to me.

February 29, 1996: I was sophmore in high school and bored out of my mind in North Platte, Nebraska; I had no friends and still hadn't heard of email at that point to keep in touch with my friends from Southern California where I had moved from the year before; I joined the track team since no other extra-curricular program would have me and I spent February training for distance races where I always came in last place; I took my sisters to the local rec center just down the street from our house many times a week so that we could swim at the indoor pool or sit in the sauna together.

February 29, 1992: (It is getting hard to remember what was happening now that we are this far back...) I was 11 years old and pretty much the only thing I did of note other than elementary school was I participated in a singing and dancing group and I think I was busy with rehearsals for the musical "Annie," where I played a hobo and a maid; I had one line in the play and I remember the director getting frustrated with me for always smiling while I was onstage as a hobo and her telling me that I was supposed to look downtrodden when I delivered my only line ("My fingers is freezin'!") instead of gleeful, but I was just so excited to be performing that I smiled like a dimwit every time.

February 29, 1988: Not a clue what was going on in my 7-year old life other than that I was living in Omaha, Nebraska and my best friends were Toby Meusberger (who the means kids at school would call "Toby the Tuba" since he was chubby) and Jenny Wood (who lived next door to me and whose mom I still email on occasion although Jenny and I haven't talked since I went to her high school graduation in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1999, although we are FB friends at least).

February 29, 1984: Are you kidding me? I was 3 and I had an older brother and a younger brother who I probably terrorized and bossed around.

Phew, that was an exercise in recall. Happy Leap Day.

P.S. An amazing friend of mine (who also happens to be an adoptive mama) is involved with a volunteer organization that is looking for volunteers to go to Honduras to spend some time working in an orphanage. If you or anyone you know is interested, you can learn more about the opportunity (which sounds amazing) on her blog: http://fyionrachandry.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-need-your-help.html.

Visit from Grandma Cici

My mom flew out to see us (well, mostly Clara as she told me more than once) over the long Presidents' Day weekend.  She got here on Thursday evening, which was great because it meant she got an entire day of one-on-one time with Clara while Paul and I were at work on Friday.  They went for a walk, Clara took naps, and my mom read books to Clara. 

I had to do some work on Saturday morning, but we were able to spend the afternoon shopping.  Paul worked outside in the yard the whole time since the weather was so perfect and my mom and I helped with the weeding in the backyard too.  I despise weeding and felt bad that my mom was weeding our yard for us, but she said that she doesn't mind weeding so much and the weather was really beautiful. 

On Sunday after church, we drove over to Santa Cruz.  It was way breezier and colder than I had anticipated, but luckily Paul had brought an extra jacket for himself so after putting Clara in her own jacket we zipped her up in Paul's extra jacket then wrapped her in a blanket to keep her warm.  Only her little face poked out. 

We couldn't believe how many surfers were out on the water.  My  mom counted 80 surfers just out in the bigger swells, which didn't include the big groups closer in toward shore where the waves are smaller.

On Monday, we decided to go up to St. Helena in the Napa/Sonoma area.  Wine country is absolutely beautiful, even with the totally bare winter vines.  My mom had never been there before and we all felt like a drive would be nice, so we headed out after Clara's morning nap.  I had to send some emails on my blackberry for work later in the day but for the most part I was off the hook for the first time in a while, which was nice. 

We stopped at Gott's Roadside, in St. Helena, for lunch.  They have the most amazing food there and the line was crazy, but totally worth it.  We ordered burgers, onion rings, a California Club sandwich, and chocolate and strawberry milkshakes, which sounds greasy and heavy but Gott's has a surprisingly fresh and organic approach to burger-type places.  Incidentally, I know that Gott is just a family name for the restaurant, but I can't get over the idea that the german translation is "God's Roadside."

We actually backtracked to this field of mustard flowers where loads of people were taking photos.  Clara had fallen asleep at this point so she didn't make the family portrait, which my mom took of us.  The fragrance was a heady weedy/floral one and it was thick in the field.  I made Paul take a video of me "frolicking" but I'm not posting it here since it turned out kind of dumb.  In one take, I was attempting to twirl in the flowers but I kept tripping up on the plants and falling over.  Paul joked that it looked like I had imbibed too much on Napa's famous wine. 

It was so sad to drop my mom off at the airport on Tuesday morning so she could go back to Utah.  Clara kept looking around for her that evening and was really excited to see her again when we Skyped.  I can't wait for her to come back out again this summer with my sister and nieces!