MOVE THAT BUS!!!

One of the many changes we made this summer to our 30 year-old home was to paint over the awful orange brick. It is hard to tell (I tried to get close), but we now have a brown brick (I call it mocha) house with a lighter brown for the house color and white trim(I call it almond color). Those of you who are color blind (eh hem Sara - i.e. it was a Jade Green dress) we may just have to agree to disagree on color names. BUT no matter what you call it I love it compared to what it was before! I had many people tell me not to do it - to not paint over the brick but my thought was "it can't get any worse." I now think of a cup of hot chocolate because that is what the colors together remind me of whenever I pull into my house - which is a big improvement to my prior thoughts of vomit orange!
The kitchen was one of our unplanned projects to pop up this summer (scroll down if you did not see the before pictures when we discovered the flood in July). This is the finished kitchen!! I am so excited to have it completed. I love it. At one point, we took out the entire ceiling in our kitchen (that was loads of fun in the heat of the summer) got rid of the old low-hanging ceiling and put in a modern lighting system. It truly was a huge blessing - although 2 months of not cooking got old in a hurry!
Harris's New kitchen angle two - the cabinets really did turn out beautiful - they are this wonderful sturdy hickory wood, and I am just thrilled with it!

An Empty Nest

I dropped Aubrey off for her first day of preschool as a 4-year old today! She was pretty excited and happy to go. It is much easier to say good-bye when they are excited to be going. I will have 3 afternoons without them this year. I know it won't take long for that time to fill up (especially as I will work one of the afternoons in Taylor's class), but I am taking it easy on myself today: no working out (ok that one was easy to give up), no cleaning, no grocery shopping, no phone calls. I am just going to sit back and do something I don't let myself do very often - curl up with a good book on a rainy day (Sara you and your obsession with Harry Potter has fired me up to finish the series I am on book 5). It is a perfect day to do that for sure. I have to admit the house is awfully quiet and it will take some getting used to. It seems like only yesterday they were both babies in diapers - where did that time go?

Taylor settles in to her first desk!

One thing I love about being a parent is all the new firsts I get to experience all over again - here Taylor sits at her first desk. I remember loving my new desk at the start of the school year.

Taylor starts school!

Taylor entered the first grade this last week. It was a challenging week for everyone as we got used to the longer school day and eating away from each other. It was a tough week on both of us, but I know we will get used to it. This apprehensive look is a more accurate portrait of how she really felt about 1st grade. I think it is safe to say she is going to be a "worrier" like her mother!