Introducing Rachel

The newest member of our family joined us August 26.  Meet Rachel Liebhardt, Kaylee and Nick's cute little daughter.

Nick just got her all jammied up and ready for bed.  She's very alert and wiggly!

It takes MUCH concentration to give her a bath.

And she likes it. :-)

She went to her first Dr. Appointment, and was measured and poked and prodded and weighed.

It's a good thing she's wearing a diaper now, because once it came off, Rachel really let loose!

On the ride home from the Dr. Office. Whew. That was exhausting! And she's still smiling!! What a good baby.

Big YAWN!!!

AND me, enjoying some snuggle time. :-)  It's been fun...

Be sure to check Nick and Kaylee's blog--lots more details and plenty of pictures to come.  Their really cute newborn photos are showing up on Facebook, too.  Just adorable.

A "Nothing" Day

You know how sometimes, when someone asks you what you did on this particular Saturday, you say, "Nothin' "?

I was prepared to say that tonight. (I have to hostess at Shakespeare for a bit. I do enjoy that.)

But this morning, just because we didn't get up early and go fishing or do anything spectacular, it still ended up being a full of nothing day.

For instance:

I slept in.  I absolutely TREASURE the days that I let my body wake up on it's own.

I fixed a nourishing breakfast for two.  Steel cut oats, apricot nectar, toast with apple butter. I should note that the apricot nector and the apple butter were "home-grown" and very yummy.

I read the paper and did the crossword puzzle.  And the cryptoquote.

I put away clean dishes from the dish washer and loaded up up with dirty ones and cleaned off the counters.  Sort of.  Just the work areas.  I also swept the floor and mopped up the dirty spots [on my new hardwood kitchen floor].  These are NOT things I do every day, sadly.  Mike's been helping with the dishes of late, so I kind of got out of the habit.  But sink-cleaning always needs to be done.  Well, and ALL the rest of it! ha.

I did laundry.  Off and on all day.  I can say that it's almost all put away now.

I went on an emergency run to the library for about a half hour.  The University Call Center called me to say the alarm wouldn't set, the campus police was there and having problems, so I rode my bike down (very swiftly, I might add) there to turn off the alarm, check on codes for public safety personnel, find and meet with the new Dean, assign him his personal back door code, and give HIM a tutorial on entries and exits at the back door during closed hours. He was the one who initially set it off, coming in without an assigned code to disarm the building.  It was a rather exciting little half hour.  And I'll bet you didn't know I had such power and authority over my building, did you?

I cleaned the back entry of our home.  Vacuumed the steps and rugs and area around the shoe cupboard. I even scrubbed off the concrete steps with a rag because there was a lot of sticky spotty things. Probably drippy  Otter pops and other popsicle kind of things that drip during the summer when lots of kids are around.  And Mike accused me of becoming a bit OCD. HA! Like I have EVER cleaned my steps before or ever will again until I really notice some serious grime --that would come in onto my shiny new hardwood kitchen floor.

I chatted with Mike for a bit between HIS errands.

I prepared a nourishing lunch for us .  Mixed greens salad with lots of veggies and smoked salmon, with a side of cole slaw.  Because I like it and we have a bunch.  Home grown, nearly every bite (and the salmon was caught by us, too!).

Then we watched most of a movie that was on TV.  Because sitting around and eating and visiting is so exhausting, you know. ;-)  "It could Happen to You" with Nicholas Cage. I like Nick Cage.

I fielded a couple of phone calls, picked up a voice mail message to relay.

Then Mike and I were going to put up a blind in the kitchen window over the sink. We could not figure out if it worked or not!  It was so confusing.  So we went to plan B, but the hardware wasn't there for Plan B blind.  So he left to do a chore for his mom and I got curious and did some searching on the internet for Levolor blind installation.  Did YOU know there was such a thing as cordless mini blinds?! They are childproof. Meaning, there are no dangerous dangling cords. Well, apparently they are stupidproof, too!  We were so surprised to find that you just grab the bottom and pull--they come down.  Push the bottom UP and they go up. Who knew??!! HA!  Certainly not us. But now I have a blind in the window over my sink.  Most of the time it will stay up under the valance, but when I'm working with the sun shining in my eyes, it's going to be SOOOOooo nice to have.  After all these years.  (I always meant to make a Roman shade to put there.  With the remaining IVY FABRIC I've had for twenty-some years.  Oh, dear. I'm done with ivy, remember?)

I prepared for my primary lesson for tomorrow.  Cut out badges, made copies of Noah's Ark handouts, made wordstrips, etc. etc.

Warmed up leftovers for my dinner. Mike wasn't hungry or interested, but I knew I had to leave soon for USF, so I ate anyway.  And then curled my hair, washed my face, put on makeup for the first time today.

Updated my blog.  Visited with Pam Christensen for a few minutes and set her home with some veggies from the garden.

Then, I hostessed at The Utah Shakespeare Festival, came home and enjoyed a nice root beer float with Mike while watching a thriller movie on TV ("Cellular")-- creepy!

Something and a lot of nothing all day long. Never scrubbed a bathroom or vacuumed a carpet, shook a rug or even stepped into my yard or garden. Never paid a bill or sorted any papers or "stuff." You know the stuff that just PILES up around here.  But it's been fun.  I need a day of "nothing" once in a while.

Kitchen closer to being done!

Here's the finished paint and valance and floor for those who asked.  I still don't have new rugs or new towels yet. I still haven't put stuff back.  Hmmm. It still is getting cluttered. It's a losing battle.

This is the "Before" And I think I like it better when it's filled with lots of family!

New tile backsplash behind the stove.

I did remove the yellow lining from the large valance and replaced it with white lining. I like it MUCH better.

I didn't re-do the smaller valance over the window. But the window sill is less full. The spider plants are gone. It was a pretty sunset this evening, too. But the pinks don't show up in the photo.:-( 

Yep...here it is again...all the clutter and stuff.  General Messiness.  That's Nick cooking breakfast for us last  Saturday on the 2nd of August.  He'd been hiking and canyoneering the day before and was heading home later that day. And I was busy so invited him to make breakfast while we were getting ready. So he did.  It's hard to tell your Mommy "no," no matter how old you are. :-)  

A Food Story. By Linda

A funny food story from the American Library Association Conference in Las Vegas, NV. 

June 29, 2014.

I went out to eat with some people while at the Annual Conference.  One of my co-workers, Steve, was sitting next to me on my right, and there were about 8 others that I didn’t really know.

We ate at Buddy V’s Ristorante. Apparently Buddy is the Cake Boss from TV, but it was a nice Italian Restaurant and the line for the bakery across the way at the Venetian was HUGE.  Luckily, the restaurant didn’t have huge long lines.  

We perused the menu a while.  It was short, so that was nice.  But I really didn’t know exactly what to get!  It all sounded good.  Steve and I decided we could split an appetizer of eggplant. That sounded good.  They brought us three slices and I had one, he had two.  Seemed fair.  Then when it came time to order, he opted for the shrimp scampi or something and mine was meatballs and pasta.  It was a “Family favorite” or specialty or family SOMEthing.  I don’t think it was “Family Style”, but it did mention three meats, like lamb and sausage and meatballs. But I figured that the meatballs had three kinds of meat. That’s normal.  And I decided I wanted a vegetable, too.  So I ordered some brocoletti or broccolini  or something close to broccoli.  

I also had a discussion with the fellow to my left who (probably appalled by my choice of meats for dinner) was a vegetarian.  I suggested that he ask for the appetizer eggplant to be made into an entrée for him, as it was really good eggplant parmesan.  So that’s what he ordered.  They just doubled the appetizer size and he got six slices.  “Oh,” he said (he was a very slight man) “I’ll never be able to eat all this!”  And, true to his word, he ate only three and left the others untouched.  He offered me them, as he noted that I’d called it the “best eggplant parmesan I’ve ever eaten.”  I declined at the time.  [ I don’t know that I’ve ever eaten eggplant parmesan before, actually. ]

Well, they brought out all the food for everyone about the same time.  Steve’s shrimp dish was a nice big bowl of pasta and stuff.  And most everyone else had A bowl of something similar.  But *I* was served a large bowl of large pasta with sauce. Oh my. Huge serving.  THEN, the meatballs were actually meatballs (3, I think) AND lamb (2 chunks) AND sausage link (cut up into 3 pieces).  It was in a cast iron oblong skillet thing ON a serving plate. The guy next to me had to re-arrange table settings and glassware to make room for it. THEN the waiter tried to put the vegetable on the table, and the people ACROSS from me had to move THEIR stuff to make room for it.  

I was so embarrassed.  There was everyone else with one dish of food in front of them, and there I sat with THREE LARGE PLATES OF FOOD.  I could have crawled under the table.  I offered Steve a meatball. He took one.  I offered others.  They declined (I didn’t offer the vegetarian to my left any meat). I offered the green vegetable around. No one had vegetables!  Yet, they all declined. 

So the feast began.  I made a stab at it.  I made a dent, but I knew I was going to be taking it home. I was leaving for home right after dinner, going to my air-conditioned car and could put it right in the fridge. It would be enjoyed the next day for lunch and I have no qualms about asking for a box.  And, since the fellow on my left AGAIN offered me his un-touched eggplant, I took him up on it and thanked him very much.

When the waiter came and was taking away our food, etc. I asked if I could please have a box so I could take home my leftovers. He said he’d be happy to take it and box it up FOR me.  “Thanks! And I’m taking his eggplant, too,” I said, pointing to the food and person to my left.

“Oh!” said the waiter. “Did you ASK HIM first?”   

“Yeeeess.”

“Do you need them in separate containers?”

“No. You can put them together. That will be fine, thank you.”

“Well, Okay, then! I’ll be right back that that.”

He soon returned with my prettily-wrapped-up leftovers and started in on the rest of the table.  Then he checked with Steve, who still had a lot of food in front of him, and asked him if he was going to be taking any of his food home with him.  And Steve said “No, thank you.” [Steve and his friend were leaving for France the next morning on vacation.]  So then the waiter looks at me and says, “Will YOU be taking his, too,  Ma’am?”

Oh, I just laughed and said, “No. He ate all the shrimp!” 

Going on around the table, the waiter comes to the couple across from me and Steve.  Again, lots of left-over food.  They were not taking it. So the waiter AGAIN asks ME if I want to take it, too!

Seriously, I was laughing so hard.  It’s a good thing I have a good sense of humor. It was funny. 

Maybe I should have taken all their food. I wouldn’t have had to cook for a week or more.  As it was, I had some of mine for lunch the next day and I fed Mike the rest at dinner.  Granted, they were not huge portions by then, but it was more than adequate.

And, yes. I DO hate to waste food.  My waist attests to that fact. And now I have the reputation that proves that fact. Ha.  I wondered how much they talked about me when I left before dessert was even ordered! I had a long drive home and it was almost 9 pm before I got to my car, and I’d forgotten about losing an hour.

Here's the menu.  I had "Valastro Sunday Gravy" on page 2, highlighted in the box.  And Broccolini.  It all seemed so innocent at the time.

Lesson learned: Read menus more carefully and ask the waiter for ALL the leftover boxes to go home-- with ME!!

Photos of the Kitchen process

There are no true "Before" photos.  Because we all know what my messy, cluttered kitchen looks like, right?  Well, here goes!

First of all, you need to realize that it took Mike so long, even WITH some help, because

#1.  He wasn't here every day, and we don't work on Sunday.

#2.  Our Kitchen is not exactly square.

#3.  He only had a certain amount of each type of wood--not enough of either to complete it using one solid color.

THIS is the outline of our kitchen floor space.  Ridonculous, huh?
The pink highlights are where he put darker wood.  Back door entry, edges mostly. and one center area that just was not square enough to do anything else and still have things match up.

They moved the refrigerator out from its spot and put it in the dining area.  All the dining furniture lived in the front room for a couple of weeks.  We frequently took our meals out on the front porch and ate on the lawn chairs.  Breakfast in the morning was particularly pleasant.

The entry area is darker, as is the outline of the dining area (with the mis-placed fridge in the middle!). There is just one random board laying there with the tools. It's not installed quite like that. ha.

This photo makes it appear as though there are three colors of wood, It is the flash effect.  There are just two colors and they coordinate well.

After the floor was completed, we covered it all up, chose fabric for new valances, THEN selected paint.  We had to paint primer over all the stenciling. I feel a bit sad about that.  But, it HAS been about 21 years. It's time to let it go, Linda.

We masked the kitchen cabinets, too, because the ceiling got painted!  No more spaghetti noodle outlines up there. ;-)  Yes, it would have made FAR more sense to paint first and then do the floor.  But we weren't sure we were going to paint until we had the floor done. And it looked so nice, it just screamed for new paint!  And new chair seats!  And new window treatments!  So we listened.