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.

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.

Thanks for Coming!

Some of my family came to stay with us last month and it was SO much fun! It was great because I had an excuse to go do all of the fun things here in Florida. We went to Disney World, the beach, Vizcaya Gardens, the Everglades, Miami, shopping, Mexican restaurants, and celebrated Mark's birthday. Unfortunately, there were a couple bad parts about this trip. For one, I am now obsessed with going to Disney World. Mark couldn't go with us because of school. Luckily, I can go back with him soon, right Mark? Two, now I miss my family a ton! I honestly moped around the house the day they left. I missed them especially when I had to wipe Mollie's cute fingerprints off the windows and clean up her creative coloring pictures. Thanks for all the good times Julie, Cory, Mollie, Mom, and Emilee! (sniff sniff) Come see me again soon!

We celebrated Mark's birthday at his new favorite Mexican restaurant Azteca. He liked it so much we went there twice while my family was in town. Too bad I found a hair in my burrito the second time so we won't be going there again. Sorry Mark!

Here are our cute beach babes Emilee and Mollie at the Fort Lauderdale Beach:


Orange Grove on the Way to Orlando

Magic Kingdom:



Animal Kingdom:


Alligators at the Everglades:


On the last day, Julie, Mollie, and I drove to Miami to visit Vizcaya Gardens. I know this next picture is way too close up but I couldn't help posting Mollie's cute face.

Trip to Kansas

My Mom and I took a trip to see Jenny and Blake in Kansas a couple of weeks ago. It was so fun that I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed my Mom and the Hansen's for a week straight after I got back. We did a lot of fun things like visit the Russell Stover Chocolate store, the Brown Vs. Board of Education schoolhouse, the Hallmark Museum, and a recreation of "The Land of Oz". We also saw downtown Kansas City and Lawrence. My favorite thing about the trip (which may really surprise Jenny since I was tricked into going there) was eating those tasty fries from the BBQ place inside the gas station. I overcame some of my greatest fears from this trip...eating food from a gas station and being able to survive in Jenny's house. This is not because Jenny's house is gross or scary. It is really nice and clean. She just scared me with all her horror stories on her blog about brown recluse spiders. Especially after I had that nightmare about them attaching their fangs into my arms with their beady red eyes looking at me. You'd be scared too. Anyway, thanks for the good times Hansens! I want to come visit again soon!
This is us just outside where we went to lunch. Hallie insisted her hood should be on everytime we went outside because it was "too windy." :)




Here is Mom in front of the Kansas City Library. They had books all lined up the size of the building. It was pretty cool.

Brown Vs. Board of Education schoolhouse

Here is proof that we ate at a gas station.


And for my personal favorite...the munchkin pictures at the "Land of Oz. "