About a month ago, we ventured to the circus. It was one of the best circus performances I have ever seen. We've been to B&B several times and this one was done quite well. And much to our surprise, the guest master of ceremonies was none other than Gene Simmons, lol! Apparently he has a good sense of humor......
wearing the Bello clown wig


man, those packederms can poop; just ask Ian!




what a bunch of clowns
for the record, that's ONE shared hat/cotton candy; since one costs as much as a KISS concert ticket in the 70s.

FOUR WEEKS......it's a turning pt. for many things.....it's the point at which some women start to figure out they are pregnant -- BUT that is NOT why four weeks is so important to me. And four weeks is not the number of weeks until my kids go back to school (that's even better --TWO weeks) It's significant to me BECAUSE that is how long it took for my kitchen to go from demolished to polished; YES, you read that right. 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks! Now we still have to put up the peninsula lights; get the tile backsplash picked out & installed; and get the ceiling re-drywalled (don't ask, grrrr!) and figure out why our new micro. keeps blowing the breaker. Little details that mean nothing b/c I can WASH DISHES again in a real sink and I can make dinner w/o attempting to grill (keyword: attempt).

Lookie: this is waiting for granite, oven, & cooktop



granite is Verde Peacock

cooktop & oven sans pull-out pantry


This is the LOVE part of my Thursday post. I LOVE my new programmable coffee pot.

A little taste of our summer vacation (minus the stress of an overflowed toilet; my Suburban getting towed; NO fish being caught on the overnight fishing adventure)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Still trying to catch up on assorted pics. Happy 4th of July! (a wee bit late)....we spend a great afternoon at a friend's house where the kids ate endless amounts of fruit and swam, swam, swam. Topped off with homemade snow-cones. Aaaaaaah, summer!

What would summer be without baseball? Good old' ANGELS baseball. We made a family trek to the game vs. the Pirates (honoring Amanda who was our t-ball Pirate); she was torn but couldn't bring herself to wear her Pirate shirt to an Angels game.

Halo-cane perfect for keeping cool!



Ian didn't even make it out of the parking lot; We'd be set if we had a pro-football team!

Thursday (7/19); and ready for mass destruction (smooch: see ya, ye' old kitchen)
what I returned home to on Friday 7/20
where the old oven was/ new fridge going here.


what it looked like when I came home from vacation.........doing the happy dance!

Now that the dance recital has come and gone, I had to put away the make-up and hair nets. Maggie had a ballet and hip-hop dance; Amanda had a pre-lyrical one. They both did really well and this year Maggie is trying tap & acro-jazz; Amanda is doing ballet & a tap-jazz combo.

Amanda and her best buddy, Marin

Time to put away my inner pageant Mom.....

I LOVE that the beach has this effect on Ian..........

COMING BACK WITH A BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's my 100th post!!!!!!!!!! Who's gonna be the 1st five commenters :)

Life has been one giant whirlwind. I still have so much to update on and toss ya pictures for, but first I'll give you a few pictures of the madness I am currently living.
the herb garden/useless sink removed; new window
the painfully ugly & barely working old range hood circa 1969
the cupboard over the peninsula
the view of the kitchen with ceiling panel removed and above cupboards removed
view to the left of above photo; old micro. & tiny oven

More pics. to come since the new, beautiful cupboards are in. Now we're waiting on the granite & sink. Off to Costco for more paper plates...........