LeslieK's Xanga

Monday, May 28, 2007

Mon, 28 May 2007 16:25:48 GMT

Ok, so I've been a grown-up now for a long time and had my own kitchens. Lots of them, actually. The first one was a tiny 30-year-old kitchen that wasn't terrible, but wasn't great. When we moved to Memphis we lived (very briefly) in a 20ish year old townhouse with not so many cabinets, but a huge walk-in pantry, which gave us plenty of room for all the stuff and junk that ends up in the kitchen. Then we moved to Missouri and bought our first home that had a small, but very nicely equipped and beautiful little kitchen. See...

See those deep drawers on the left there and then the island had drawers and beside the fridge was another wide drawer- plenty of space for stuff.

And THEN we moved and bought another house. My cabinets were not as high quality, but I still had plenty of storage space.

And, yeah, I even hung the same wallpaper.

THEN we moved AGAIN and into another 20-something year old townhouse in Ohio with another small kitchen that managed to be functional because of a pantry and quite alot of drawers.

And then guess what we did??? Yep, we moved again. Into a house with a pretty big kitchen- not so high quality cabinetry and only THREE drawers in the whole thing. It drove me a little crazy. I used baskets for things I would normally have in drawers and our "junk drawer" was actually just a moving box that we never unpacked and stuck in a cabinet. We had to dig through it when we wanted something out of it. I guess I got used to my lack of drawer space because when we moved AGAIN (here), I immediately took the kitchen apart to refinish the cabinets and I took all the drawers to the basement for the project.

That was nine months ago. Nine months without a drawer in the kitchen. Nine months of my silverware organizer living on top of the microwave. Nine months of stacking dishrags and towels on a shelf in the cabinet (the cabinet with no door since those were in the basement with the drawers).

Yesterday I finally finished re-staining the cabinets and today I started putting the kitchen back together. I didn't even know how much I missed my drawers. This kitchen is very small and ugly as sin (even with the refinished cabinets), but I now have seven drawers. Seven drawers that I haven't had in NINE months. Imagine taking everything out of every drawer you have in your kitchen and finding something else to do with it all. For nine months I have bitched and complained about how much I hate this rental house and looked at my stripped bare cabinet frames in the kitchen- what a dummy I am! It's still going to be FAR from my dream kitchen or even a kitchen I like to use a little bit- but I can tell you already that these drawers are going to go a long way toward making me less miserable about our current home! I was nearly giddy taking things off the cabinet shelves and putting them in drawers- foil, Saran wrap, sandwich bags, phone books, batteries, pens, pencils, dishrags and towels, notepads, measuring cups... I could go on and on.

Now run into your kitchen and thank your drawers for all they do. You'd be lost without them!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 13:22:01 GMT

I hardly ever post anything here because the majority of the people who read this stuff also post with me on message boards and know every, single, boring thing going on in our lives. But once in a while I look at my sitemeter and see visits from people who do not post with me elsewhere and I feel guilty for never updating. So here we go...

I finally found a job! I had a few interviews that didn't pan out (breaking my streak of getting every job I ever had a face-to-face interview for), and I was starting to worry I'd never find anything that I wanted and end up working in retail to help pay the bills. I had become absolutely certain that I'd never find a job I enjoyed as much as the one I left behind in Columbus, but I was wrong! I answered an ad for a receptionist position at a dentist office and got the job...and I LOVE IT! The people I work for and with are all fantastic. We start each morning with a short meeting, devotional and prayer- it's a very nice start to the day! Dr. Wortham and his wife (who is the office manager) are just wonderful, gentle, loving people and I feel so blessed to work for them!
Grayson is absolutely thrilled that Mommy goes to "work work" Monday thru Thursday because he gets to spend the day with Nana and Grampy! It's such huge change from leaving him crying with the sitter in Ohio. He jumps out of bed in the morning and starts asking for clothes so he can wait on the porch for Grampy to come and get him. Yes, Grampy even comes here to pick him up and see Justin off on the bus since I have to leave before the bus gets here. How's that for babysitting service??

My birthday is 2 weeks from today and Todd has been taunting me for weeks about my "birthday surprise." I heard something on the radio the other day that made me think I might know what he had planned and then he accidentally confirmed it the other night. The Chicago Cubs are playing the Cardinals in St. Louis on my birthday and Todd got tickets to take me to the game. The big surprise part, though, is that our friend Steve is coming down from Ohio for the weekend to go with us!! Steve has been my dear friend since before I even knew Todd and he's like a brother to me. When we lived in Columbus we saw him and his family nearly everyday, but we haven't seen them in almost 8 months now, so this is a GREAT surprise. WTG, Todd!
Our rental house is still a wreck! I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't finished my refinishing project, so 8 months later I STILL don't have cabinet doors in the kitchen or even any stain on the bare frames. BUT since we'll be having company in 2 weeks I intend to get it finished before then. HMMM...Now I'm wondering if Todd came up with this birthday surprise just so I would finish the kitchen???

That's all for now- pretty sad considering I haven't posted anything in so long, huh? I'll leave you with a picture of my cutie boys on Easter morning.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:32:14 GMT

It's Mohawk Claus

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:47:23 GMT

My friend Carmen posted pictures of her 2 year old son, Braeden, after he got into her mascara, which sent me right down memory lane...

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 06:32:58 GMT

It's been awhile...

I managed to get everything packed and we did make that flight to Florida.
The trip was pretty great and everyone got along. It was really lovely!
I wish my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and niece and nephew lived next door so we could hang out together as often as we'd like.
It still amazes me sometimes that there were these people I didn't even know existed in this world a dozen years ago and now they're part of my family and I love them. YK?
We had a fantastic Christmas! Everyone got lots of great gifts (including me!) and got to spend lots of time with family and we didn't have to leave to go back to Ohio afterwards.
Now it's the middle of January and we're back to the usual grind of school and homework and all that boring stuff. I wish it could be summer vacation all the time!
I still don't have a job. Blah! I don't really WANT to go to work, but I want to have a paycheck.
I won $800 playing Bingo last week!
I'm having fun spending it!
Todd had a vasectomy Monday and closed a chapter of our lives.
It is such a relief to me to know that I will never have to worry about losing another baby to miscarriage.
My mother doesn't really share my joy in this closed chapter...
I miss my friend, Carmen. She moved TO Ohio just a few weeks after we moved back from there. She has kids the same age as my kids (and a few extras too), and I'm sad that we're not hanging out and gossiping all the time while our children become best friends.
Todd's job is going really, really well! He loves his new boss, and it appears the feeling is mutual. He hasn't been bitched at a single time since starting with the franchise. He has, however, been praised repeatedly, given a raise AND 2 more weeks of vacation time per year!
I need a hobby. (Or a job!) I hear about people being so busy all the time, but I feel like I never have anything that HAS to be done. No time constraints (other than bedtime for the school-aged child- back to that perpetual summer vacation I wish we lived in), no deadlines...no real reason to get out of pajamas half the time. It's a deep, deep rut I'm living in! LOL!
Some of our good friends are getting divorced and it's breaking my heart.
This house we're renting SUCKS!
A dog came with our rental house- we call him our rental dog- and he's such a sweetheart. He's old, old, old and he gave us a scare earlier this week so we're babying him and breaking the rules of the landlord by letting him sleep in the house at night.

And that about covers it. I think Darla needs to give up her "Blog Bore" title to me, whadda ya think?

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:51:08 GMT

If I get off the computer and pack our clothes so that we don't miss our flight, we'll be in Florida this time tomorrow night. YAY!

Wish us luck, though, we're going for a family reunion of sorts that involves Todd's divorced parents and my SIL who hates them. Should be interesting. The last time we were ALL together (in 1998!), Todd and Dawn got in a very ugly screaming fight because of...well, see above.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 04:54:07 GMT

I dressed the boys in matching (hehehe) shirts today and took them to "The Barlow House" to take pictures for our Christmas card. They both cooperated and it took all of five minutes. Yay!

This is my second favorite...my favorite is the Christmas card, so I can't post it until after everyone gets their card from me.

And what I love almost as much as the pictures I took today is the fact that I came home and uploaded my favorite to Walmart.com, chose my card, placed my order and picked up 45 perfectly printed cards an hour later for $18.00...and they even give you envelopes!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:20:13 GMT

I know it's just a little thing, but it bugs me half to death...

I've seen it numerous times already today. I see it so often that I'm starting to question whether I'm actually right about this. LOL!

YOUR is not the same as YOU'RE.

You're = you are.

WRONG: Your correct.

RIGHT: You're correct.

WRONG: Your awesome!

RIGHT: You're awesome!

Yeah, I know there are far more annoying things, but when I read "your" instead of "you're" my brain won't just let me zip right by it...I have to note it and process it and be annoyed by it. I CANNOT just ignore it no matter how hard I try! YK?

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:47:33 GMT

GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

I know telemarketers have a job to do and they have to be pushy, but they make me CRAZY!

I've contributed to M.A.D.D. for many years now in the form of magazine subscriptions. I just got the yearly call that always starts out the same way... "Unlike other organizations, Mrs. King, we're not calling for a donation today." (Bullshit.)

"In the past, Mrs. King, you've subscribed to T.V. Guide, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Parents, and People which one of those would you like to subscribe to today?" So I asked about People because I already get the other ones besides TV Guide, which I don't want or need. I could have People for 1 year for $112.00.

I'm not willing to pay $112 for People right now. I don't have a job. It's nearly Christmas. If I were going to spend $112 on myself today, it would not be on a trashy magazine. YK?

So I TRIED to ask her if it would be possible to just make a donation to M.A.D.D. since she had already said that their profit (my donation to them) from my magazine subscription would be 12%. I'd be happy to give them a donation of MORE than 12% of the cost of People magazine, but I cannot spend more than $100 for a magazine right now.

So WHY did she have to interrupt me and absolutely make it impossible for me to speak? Why did she leave me no choice but to hang up on her???

GRRRRR!!!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:44:03 GMT

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers! Everything went great yesterday!

Grayson's new smile is just perfect!!

A VAST improvement from this.