Here's The After

Cabinet courtesy of IKEA

Granite courtesy of Solid Rock

Sorry for the "flash", but I hope you get the general idea, glass doors, lights in the top of the cabinet. Three side shelves, the antique pitchers were my mom's.

Before & After

A long over due blog.

While visiting in Ohio in October, we received a phone call from Melissa, telling us one of our kitchen cabinets had fallen off the wall! WHAT? She took pictures for us (and insurance purposes), and started cleaning up for us. Glasses, dishes, platters, antique serving bowls, you name it. Malc came after work and helped clean up the disaster area, which reached from kitchen to living room.

Approximately 1 month ago, Stan replaced the broken cabinet with an IKEA glass door cabinet with a light. Wow. It looks great. We also were unable to match the manufactured counter top (DARN) not really, so we had Jupurana Persa Italian granite counter tops installed. Oh my gosh, it looks so nice, I just love it as does Stan, and it definately changes the looks of the kitchen. I am lovin it.

Stan has been travelling more recently, and there will be more in the near future.
He hopes to see our newest mother to be,Sarah, for whom we are so excited and Katie, and cutie patootie Casey Lee whom has mastered the army crawl.

Connor is now walking and jabbering, and developing his personality.

My mom continues to decline, although yesterday she was more aware, and asked about Stan.

We have enjoyed about a week of warmer weather, we are expecting snow tomorrow.

My 2nd Christmas, and more of my 1st Birthday

December is a big month for this guy.

The 14th is the birthday, with Christmas following, 10 days later. We have all decided these events should be celebrated

as two.

Tooth #3 has emerged, the next milestone will most likely be walking. He is fast on all
fours, he will be running circles around

Gramma soon.

Happy 1st Birthday, Connor!

December 14, 2007

The celebration of C-Man's 1st birthday was a well attended event, with lots of friends and family, and of course gifts and well wishes.

He was diagnosed the same week with several food allergies- wheat, eggs and peanuts. Needless to say we are all on alert, reading food labels, and thinking twice before we give the little guy anything to eat.

I made him this little cake for his high chair, he didn't quite dig in to it like his Uncle Michael and his mommy did, back when they turned one! We bought the mixes at the local health food store, no wheat, gluten, eggs, sugar etc. He has taken 2-3 steps by himself, and also stands alone briefly. It won't be long he will be walking.

Winter in the High Country

Once again, Stan went on a business trip, and "old man winter" arrived in Flagstaff!

We received 17 inches of snow at our house, and 5 feet up at the Arizona Snow Bowl ski resort.

Arizona is welcoming the snow, as we have experienced drought conditions in the past few years.

Our snow blower was put to use by our neighbor Steve, he blew through the snow at our house and at his own. (I do think he enjoyed playing with the new toy).

Flagstaff will have a White Christmas this year.

Aloha

Stan and I spent 10 terrific days on The Kona Coast, The Big Island of Hawaii, in September.

This island is where my family lived for 8 years in the 80's. We were busy everyday, driving around in our little Ford Focus rental car, which by the way, got 34 MPH. Wow.

I had an itinerary in mind for our visit, and we pretty much stuck to it.
The evening we arrived, we were met at Huggos on the Rocks www.huggos.com , right on the water in downtown Kailua-Kona, by Jenny and Dain, friends from 1979. Jenny and I worked in an OB/GYN clinic, and have kept in touch over the years. I was also a patient there while expecting Melissa. We had such a great time, and Stan enjoyed their company as well. She is a kind and giving person, with a very infectious laugh that I just love. She greeted each of us with fragrant plumeria, pikake, and cymbidium orchid leis, & Kona Coffee. We had some great tropical drinks and "pu pus", which are appetizers. That evening there were hula dancers and Hawaiian music. What a way to begin a vacation.

We also drove around the island to Kilauea volcano, which is an active one, but of course no lava flow the day we were there. Other attractions, Akaka Falls, Mauna Loa macademia nut factory, Hilo Farmers Market, sugar cane fields, rain forest, anthurium farms, coffee farms, the black sand beach and miles of beautiful coastline.

On Wednesday, Sheryll and Guy (more old friends we met in La Maz class in 1980), took us to the Kona Village Luau http://www.konavillage.com/ (she also has the "spirit of Aloha" in her) I have to say it is the best one I have ever attended, (and I have seen a lot), it told the story of old Hawaii and the dancers and music were exceptional. The food was authentic, from Kaulua Pig (which means the pork is cooked in burlap, buried in the ground with hot lava rocks on top to cook it. The meat is covered in ti (tea) leaves, which are long green leaves. Other authentic foods were served buffet style, chicken long rice, lau lau, lomi lomi salmon, poi, fish, turkey, white rice, haupia coconut (pudding) which the local people eat, 3 times a day, fresh fruits, and purple sweet potatoes, Oh, and of course Mai Tais! It was great visiting with them also. Everyone loved Stan.

We discovered a few new beachs, Stan swam with the turtles and snorkled and used the boogie board too. Not me, I am not a fan of the water, so I sat on the beach and read magazines, very relaxing.

We ended our vacation with a sunset/booze cruise where the food was good, music excellant, and the Mai Tais were flowing and going down easily! We danced into the sunset, doing the Macarena, a Conga Line, and shaking our booties, till I tore my achilles tendon. 18 days later I am still in an air cast! I guess I am not a young chick any more!

We are still talking about the fantastic Hawaiian vacation, and we hope to journey back again in the near future.

Arizona Road Trip

We recently took a trip to Southern Arizona in the fifth wheel. We stayed at this old style rv park, and ate a great breakfast ! Stan will post pictures of the late model Airstream trailers and more.

We also visited Karchner Caverns, Bisbee, and Tombstone.

More on the trip at a later time!