Baker Buddies

Baker Buddies

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Kitchen Pictures

I am finally giving into the requests I have gotten to post pictures of our condo. I originally wanted to wait until the whole condo was finished but since it has taken a lot longer than I imagined, I'll just post room by room as it gets done. When we bought this condo from an old couple, I thought that it wouldn't be that difficult to fix up. I figured that after replacing the carpet, the light fixtures, and painting there really wouldn't be too much left. Boy was I wrong. Little did we know that it had mold, the entire place had been wallpapered, ripped half-way off, and then painted over, and that it hadn't been cleaned in what looked like to be 20 years to me. It was disgusting!! What made it all worse was that before Mark started his first year of Dental school, all we had gotten done on the place was 3/4 of the kitchen which meant the rest of the condo was pretty much up to me to fix until Mark had more time. Well anyways, luckily that is in the past and we are almost all finished. All we have left to do is finish stripping the wallpaper off one of our bathrooms, hang up some decorations, and tile the balcony. Hallelujah!
Here are the before and after pictures of our kitchen:

Notice how in the before picture that the grout in the tile is black. That's not because it was supposed to be black like I had thought the first time I was there, it was because it was filthy. I scrubbed every little crack twice with acid to get it clean. Obviously, not a great memory-- especially when the cleaning water was black after I had cleaned just one crack.









Sunday, May 17, 2009

I Love Birthdays!

Unfortunately in April, I (along with 160 others) was laid off from my airline job because of the economy and poor management in the company. Although I was pretty disappointed that all my future traveling was coming to an end, I was able to get in a couple last trips before my benefits ran out. After flying home for a couple days for my sister Ang's birthday, Mark gave me an early birthday present and let me take a trip to Boston with my Mom. This was seriously one of my favorite trips! I loved every second with my Mom-- our slaphappy early mornings, the amazing New England clam chowder, our duck walk, our interesting shuttle rides, the free boat ride-- it was all so much fun! I also had no idea there was so much history in Boston. All those cloudy memories of what I half learned in 5th grade became so much clearer after this trip. I loved learning for real this time. Here are some of my favorite parts:

We mostly saw the sights on the Freedom Trail. This is in Boston Commons where the trail began. I ate the most amazingly good sandwich from a deli across the street. I will forever love pesto because of this sandwich. Mmmm!

This was the coolest old cemetary. We saw so many famous graves including those of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, people in the Boston Massacre, and Benjamin Franklin's parents. It was so neat!

Paul Revere's Grave

Here I am in front of the gravestone for Samuel Adams and the men who died in the Boston Massacre.

The Old North Church where Boston was warned that the British were coming.

Faneuil Hall

Paul Revere's House

Red Coat keeping guard ;)

Boston Harbor

We got to walk through the city park that the storybook "Make Way for Ducklings" was written about.

Of course we couldn't miss going to the place "where everybody knows your name". :)

Site of the Boston Massacre

Bunker Hill Monument: This was when I knew I was really out of shape. To get to the top you have to climb exactly 294 steps. I could barely feel my legs after this because they were so wobbly. I guess it was a good thing we only had one more place to walk on the Freedom Trail after this because I seriously couldn't make it much farther than that.

View from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument

USS Constitution

Last of all, I don't want to leave out the fun I had at home before I went to Boston It was so fun to celebrate Angelee's birthday with my family. Happy Birthday Ang!

I was blown away at how big some of my nieces and nephew have gotten. They are so cute and so fun to play with. I can't wait until I can play with all my nieces and nephew again.

My sister Katie was nice enough to take some family pictures while we were there. She is a great photographer! Here is one of our favorites.