Ryan and I made the trek to buy our kitchen cabinets yesterday. We rented a cargo van and headed for Chicago. We got into Ikea 15 minutes after they opened and headed upstairs to the kitchen department. Happily, we found Neil, the same guy we talked to last time. They had received my fax so our order was already in the computer. We went over the draft and realized I had forgotten a cabinet. Oops! We added it back on and then paid for our order. While they pulled our order we shopped for various other things: pulls for the cabinets, wine racks, and a bed for Hudson. This time we were in and out in under 3 and a half hours (including loading all the boxes into the van!).
Ryan cleaned and sealed the slate today, along with assembling a few cabinets. It looks like the house is going to get more crowded before it starts getting better.
Brooks went bowling for the first time on Saturday. Some friends from church had their 4th birthday party at the Purdue bowling alley. He had a great time!
He liked to lay down and check out where the ball was going. It was too funny!
Dad (and Mom, Dan, Jess, and Beck!) came to help out this weekend. Ryan and Dad worked really hard and were able to lay most of the slate tile. Ryan finished up the rest of it this afternoon. As you can see, since the slate is natural the colors and texture can vary widely. We like it!
I thought I had the perfect granite picked out, but after comparing it with the floor, the granite color looks too cool. I have a couple others in mind that might work. Looks like I'll be making another trek to Indy. This time I will bring along a slate and cabinet sample.
We are so thankful that Dad was able to come up and help out. He was a huge help.
Ryan has been making some great progress on the kitchen. He is doing an awesome job! As you can see in the picture above, he's gotten the subfloor laid in the kitchen and foyer. Menards delivered the slate yesterday. The boys were excited to have the Menards truck come to our house! Dad (Pawpaw) is coming over this weekend to help out.
So where did all the stuff that was in the kitchen go? See below....
It's been interesting living without a kitchen sink and stove. We wash dishes down the hall in the bathroom and use lots of paper plates. We definately have not been eating as well and we usually do!
So the countertop choices are driving me bonkers. I drove down to Indy this morning to look at granite at a huge supplier. I think it made things worse. All the other kitchen decisions so far have been easy, but not the countertops! Aaah!
We took a trip to Southern Illinois this past weekend. My Grandpa was up from Florida, so we thought it would be a good time to take a trip to the "compound". The boys got to go fishing for the first time. They had a great time! I don't have any pictures, because I was off shopping at the Mennonite bulk food store with Mom.
Memaw and Pawpaw babysat the boys Saturday night so Ryan and I could have a date. We saw Up and had dinner out. Up was so good. We highly recommend it! We had a surprisingly good dinner at a new restaurant in Marion. I had the tuna, which was the special of the night. They seared it perfectly, still nice and raw in the middle.
Unfortunately, Hudson came down with a cold and was not feeling too hot Sunday. That's why he looks so weird in this picture! We enjoyed some BBQ before we hit the road.
Thanks to Aunt Pat and Uncle Dave (Buddy Buddy) for letting us stay in the "Pioneer House"!
We ended up taking Hudson to the Dr on Monday because he was still coughing and had a weird rash on his neck. He's taking breathing treatments and feeling much better!
The kitchen renovation has begun. Ryan started the demolition this morning before I woke up. Yesterday we took a trip to Ikea in Bolingbrook to check out their kitchen stuff. We were there for...4 hours! We started out with breakfast in the restaurant. Their small breakfast of eggs, potatoes and bacon is only .99, don't let the small confuse you, it was a big portion. The kids loved sitting at the little tables at the kids dining area to eat. We were able to get Brooks into Smaland for an hour. It's a supervised play area, so that helped out. Hudson was really well behaved while we talked to the kitchen guy. Before we knew it, we had been talking to the kitchen guy for over an hour and Ryan got paged to Smaland. They are pretty strict on the time limit. We finished up by doing some shopping. We got a new cushion for our Poang chair (picture yesterday), a new mirror for the guest bath (marked down 50%), and a few other odds and ends.
We then got back on 80 and headed over to see Ryan's Aunt Barb. She treated us to pizza at Louisa's in Crestwood. It was really good! Great Chicago style pizza. We had one with sausage and spinach. They used fresh spinach and tomatoes on it and the crust was light, crispy, and not too buttery. I didn't feel sick after eating it like I do when I eat other pan pizzas. The kids chowed it down.
I brought home a bunch of boxes from work today and have already filled them up with stuff from the kitchen cabinets. And I loaded up the back of my car with stuff to donate to a garage sale. And there is still more stuff in the cabinets. Guess I'll need to bring more boxes home tomorrow!
I made this chicken for lunch on Sunday. I've made chicken many times in the crockpot before, but this was one of my favorites! It had a great flavor and was so juicy. I omitted the onion. I had a knife/onion incident last week that my finger is still recovering from. :(
I baked a double batch of these muffins this morning. They are really tasty and good for you! The boys liked them. I used brown sugar, yogurt and oil for the options and did not use raisins. I do not like raisins in baked goods, ick. The worst is when you think you're taking a bite out of a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and it's a oatmeal raisin cookie. :(
My breadmaker died. Remember this one? It would sometimes turn on, and sometimes not. And then just not. I had been looking for a replacement since garage sale season started with no luck. I asked Ryan to check out the church garage sale when he was dropping Brooks off at Bible Camp. Guess what he found for $5? Yep, a replacement breadmaker. This one is a different one, but looks like it hadn't been used. I used it the other day and it worked great. Lets hope I don't kill this one as quick as I did the last one.
The Crockpot Ravioli is a super easy recipe. I also added some cooked sausage that I had in the freezer.
I had never bought chicken thighs before, but Marsh had chicken thighs on sale for .78/lb. I thought we would try them for that price! The Ranch Chicken Thigh recipe turned out crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. I served it with roasted rosemary potatoes and roasted green beans.
And who doesn't like chocolate chip bars. At least they are kind of healthy with all those oats. Right???
Pour about half of the pasta sauce in the bottom of crock pot.
Add frozen ravioli.
Pour additional pasta sauce, tomato sauce, water, and red pepper over ravioli (I usually pour the pasta sauce on first and then shake together the tomato sauce, water, and red pepper in the empty pasta sauce jar to mix them).
Sprinkle Italian seasonings over sauces.
Sprinkle cheese on top.
Turn crock pot on low and cook for 4-5 hours (until ravioli are tender).
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda pinch of salt 3 cups rolled ("old-fashioned") oats 12 ounces (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1. Cream butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla with electric mixer on high.
2. Stir in flour, salt, and baking soda, all at the same time. Stir in oats. Last, add chocolate chips and stir them in (or use clean hands, if the dough is too stiff).
3. Press cookie dough into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Dough should be somewhat flattened.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until lightly golden and cookies are set in the middle.
I took Brooks on a date to see "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fair(l)y (Stoopid) Tales". The local youth theater put on the production. "Stinky Cheese Man" is one of his favorite books, so I knew he would love it! We had front row seats and Brooks was transfixed the entire time.
We have been potty training Hudson. He is doing really well with it, as long as we remember to set the timer! He stayed dry all day yesterday so we celebrated by going out for ice cream. Hudson had some watermelon sorbet that he scarfed down. The boys didn't used to care for ice cream, but now they love it.
We took a trip down to Southern Indiana the past couple days. Ryan had a mountain bike race at Brown County State Park on Sunday. He had a good race and was happy with his results.
Brooks participated in his first kids race. He has been training all spring (that's what he says). It was a really long race for kids! I think he was the youngest one in there, he definitely had the smallest bike of the bunch.
All of the kids got a cool medal and a tshirt.
After the race, we headed further south to Lincoln State Park where we stayed in a family cabin. It was a nice cabin, with 2 bedrooms, kitchen and screened in porch. We were all pretty tired so we hit the sack early. Shortly after I turned our light off, I heard a strange noise. It sounded kinda like paper rustling, but louder. I got Ryan to go out to the living area to find out what was going on. Hudson was sound asleep, so it wasn't him. Ryan couldn't find anything. As soon as I turned the light back off, the noise started again. What the heck was going on? I had visions of some wild animal out there. Ryan went back out, and the noise stopped, but he looked on the kitchen counter and remembered he had left part of a SoyJoy bar out there. Well the bar now had some pieces missing and there was small black things on the counter. Yep, it was a mouse rattling the wrapper. He never did find the mouse, but got rid of the food on the counter. Ick.
We woke up early the next morning and took a short hike on not so nice trails before we headed 5 miles down the road to.........................................HOLIDAY WORLD! We had a great day there. Brooks loved the kiddie roller coaster this year. They both loved Splashin Safari and the Turkey Whirl (tilt-a-whirl) along with countless other rides. They enjoyed seeing the Holidazzle's show, Hudson even went up and gave "Sparkle" a hug and kiss after the show. Hudson cannot just give you a hug, he has to give you a kiss too!
Brooks taking a little break from all the action!
I did get to ride Pilgrim's Plunge! It was fun! I was glad I had my swimsuit on though, because I got soaked. That thing is crazy tall for a water ride.
We drove back home today. Along the way we stopped and got some fresh strawberries, half of which I plan to make into strawberry jam in the morning. And maybe some strawberry ice cream tomorrow night! We also stopped at West Baden Springs. I had been wanting to see the hotel that was recently restored. It was pretty amazing! It had the world's largest free spanning dome when it was built in 1902. I would love to stay there sometime.
