So inspirational

This movie makes me cry.

Weights and more

I went to Eugene for Dad's birthday over the weekend. It was nice to see the family, have dessert at Sweet Life, enjoy mint mojitos with Heids, and see Tanner and Jordan.

I went to the gym with Heids and did the dumbest thing I have ever done. We were putting weights on the machine and I dropped, yes dropped a 25 lb plate from waist height onto my toe. It swelled, turned black and blue, but did not break, lucky me.

We found out that the sink we chose is not going to work, so I will have to take that back and get a new one. Also, we will not have countertops as soon as we had wanted-we will have to wait because the concrete place has to order some template something or other before they can pour.

I am very tired. I didn't sleep well last night.

House, running, etc

Well, we are partway through June. Nick and I have made it past our 6month's married and 4 years together. Summer is always kind of bittersweet. While it is nice that the sun is out, the days are long and warm and people are all around happier, it is also a hard time because it means that my husband becomes an absentee mate. ~well, I guess it is not like he gets to work in town much during the rest of the year, however, at least then I get to have 2 days with him as opposed to one per week. Sometimes I just want to sit down with the owners of the company and say "ok, I am going to make it so that your wife is gone 6 days per week, and while she is gone, I am going to keep her so busy that she will only have the energy to talk to you for like 10 minutes per day-I am going to do this for 2+ year." They might think twice about sending Nick out of town ALL the time~maybe, just maybe. Of the 6 months that we have been married, he as been gone in Ontario, Hood River and now Toledo. With 100% honety, I can say that I have spent fewer nights with him since we have been married (and before we were married) than I have without him. Anyway-I sound like a wimp-not a wimp, just wish that the owners would think about us as a couple for even .5 seconds.

We have decided to go with Concrete countertops. I will be sure to show pitures when they are done, in about a month. The cabinet guys have not been back since last Thursday and I didn't get any kind of indication from them if they were ever going to come back and finish the job. They didnt say, we will be back in 2 weeks, 2 days, not at all..nothing, nada. I have not heard from them at all-hm.

I have been running again. I am trying a new running technique-it is called marathon training for busy people where you focus on running for a certain period of time, rather than miles. If you are fast, you run more miles, if you are slow, less. Tuesday was 45 minutes, same on weds and Thurs (today) was 50 minutes. Friday will be an off day, and Saturday is 1.5 hours.

Today I ran 50 minutes out in the country (since that is where I live). I saw 2 deer and finally found the -wait THE hill that everyone keeps talking about. Um, yeah, this hill is long and steep. I admit, I walked over half. The day that I run the whole thing, I will scream, yippee! Funny thing about the hill, the street in the middle of it, where there is a small, itty bitty plateau, is called Heidi street (in case you dont know, that is my little sister's name). So naturally, I begin coming up with names for this hill. On a good day, it might be Heidi Hill, if it is kinda tough, maybe I will call it Devils Heidi (you know, there are always places on the ocean called Devils elbow and stuff). I have other, less flattering names for it, but I am not sure that they are appropiate for the blog.

More House Pictures

Here are some pictures of the house and some updates on the countertops:

The front of the house, all the plants in the front are going to come out and I will do something else. The gravel is going to go away and there will be a stamped concrete or concrete paver path that goes to the back yard.

The side yard, the rocks are going to go. The yard goes way out to the road which you cant see from this picture.

This is the back yard, it goes all the way to the fence. There is a lot of work that we will do for the back yard but we will work on it over the next year or so.

The cabinet with the trim on top.

More trim on top

The back of the island, partially finished.

Cabinets are partially in...

I came home last night and the contractor had some of the cabinets in! I am so used to having nothing in the room that having cabinets was so strange! They are BEAUTIFUL! None of the trim work has been done and the island still needs to be completed, but it is nice to see progress! We will see how things look when I get home from work tonight-should be pretty cool!

So I get home last night and there was a note on the island that said:
McKenzie:
The island has been placed, move it around until it is where you would like it to be and keep in mind that there will be a 3" pony wall behind it and counter top overhang. ~Tyler.

Um...place the island??? I thought that was supposed to be on the plans! Needless to say, the task was tough. Nick is out of town Monday - Saturday, so it is me, all me that had to move the cabinets around to decide where the island would go. And if it is in the wrong spot, I will take the heat for it.

I got out the measuring tape and some blue painters tape. I taped off where the fridge would open to, where the dish washer would open to, where the counter would stick out to, etc. I even made some custom countertops, see below for detail. I am such a visual person that I had to "see" how much room there would be between the counter and the wall.

The wall cabinets, no trim yet, but I love them. The totally CUSTOM counter top. The actual one will be two level. Note all the blue tape on the floors. Nick laughed at me for setting up the chairs-but it gave me an idea for what it would look like in real life.
More custom countertop
And one more view.

Oh, and by the way, countertops are a ways off. We can't decide between concrete or granite. The granite we like, as can be expected, is expensive-so anyway, we will see how long it takes for the countertops to be in...

House progress!

After a long wait, I have some picures for you to see. We are on the way to having a HOME

Before

After-Our BEAUTIFUL hardwood floors-The walls still need color and the trim needs to be put in, but what a difference some floors make!

The crazy number of branches that I cut off from the tree, see below.

This tree was so overgrown. It had branches all the way to the ground with pine needles covering up the bottom branches because they were so over grown. I cut each one with a hand saw, see above for quantity-and drug them all over to the driveway. Not only did I rock the house by cutting this all myself, I did it in a skirt because I started the project and got too involved to go change. Boo ya for me!

OUR CABINETS!!!!!!! IN BOXES-WAITING TO BE INSTALLED!

Blogging Slacker

My last post was May 19, May 19! And a sorely lacking post at that! Here are some updates:

• Nick is working in Toledo (by Newport Oregon) and will start Saturdays this week-
• In July, Nick will work 40 days straight!
• The cabinets got delivered today and the install will happen Wed and Thurs!
• I have been working on landscaping and limbing the trees that have been over-growing for the past, oh 10 years. There are these pine trees with needles that have spineties, yes, spineties, that eat you up and poke holes in you, and they hurt, and scab over, and make you look like you got in a fight! Ouch.
• I got a new Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottle that is pink and I love it!
• Travel season is coming. For work I will be going to Seattle, Chicago and El Paso, Tx. For pleasure, Nick and I will be going to Disney World!
• I need to get travel to visit Amanda figured out soon!
• Work is work, still plugging away.
• Been running and working out more, makes life more fun and interesting!
• Gotta run, must work!