With Kids You Get What You Bargain For

It is so funny, Landon has been into bargaining lately. If he wants something then he will tell me what I want to hear first and then what he wants. For example he wanted to go play in Grandma's backyard on the swings. I said he couldn't because we were leaving to go to his gymnastics class. He then said to me " We go to gymnastics, come home, eat and then play in the backyard right?" Just now he tried to bargain with me. We have these gummy bear vitamins. Well actually they are Melanie's but she has been giving them to Landon. He wanted some just now but he already had some this morning. He then said, "I eat dinner and then have some ok mama?" Nice try Landon. See for this reason I am not an advocate of having medicine and vitamins look like candy. The other funny thing that he does is when he is trying to bargain he tilts his head, talks in a higher voice and nods yes. Good try on the body language persuasion. I then realized that he is learning his bargaining from me. I always say he needs to do something first like put away his toys before he watches a movie, eat before he goes outside etc and that is where he is learning the skill. He even has my body language down to a T. What a good observer.

Don't Take Good Service For "Granite"

***Warning this post is long***

I am so close to finishing the kitchen I can taste it! I can't wait for it to be done. I sick of the chaos of not having a schedule and just having everyone else watch my kids while I work on the kitchen. I just finished painting everything but there are a couple of places where I need to touch up on the ceiling. I got the cabinets in and they look fantastic. I picked out the tile for my backsplash. The flooring has come in but I can't put it in until the stone is in on the fireplace.

So this is what it looks like so far. We put in the ovens and they look great. We still have to cut the notches out of the island granite for it to fit around the posts. The frige is my old frige but I put it the the spot just to see what it looked like. I am going to get a new stainless steel frige when the flooring is done.

So now I will tell you about my horrific experience with the granite. I bought the granite from this place close to my house because I was able to get a good deal. I needed the island edge finished and a opening cut out for the sink. They gave me a name of a guy who usually does it for them. I called him and he said no problem that he would pick up the pieces, finish them and then take them back to the graite place for me to pick up. I left the kitchen plans with all of the dimensions and the sink template with the people at the granite place. He picked them up finished them and then I met him at the granite place to pay him for the service. I paid him and then noticed that the sink opening was cut at the wrong place. I mentioned something to him and he said "Oh no it's right, you were planning on cutting one side so then it will be in the right place." I trusted that he knew what he was doing and then went home. I still kept thinking that it was wrong so I looked at my plans, calculated the inches on where the sink opening should be and concluded that it was majorly wrong. It was only supposed to be 15 inches from the right and it was about 30 inches. I then drove right back to the granite place and told them what happened. They called him and had him come back. He came right over and the first thing he said to me was, "I know where I messed up. I added the inches instead of subtracting. " He then said he would get another piece for me, cut it and get it back to me in two days. I was glad that I didn't have to argue with him that he messed up so I was just going to leave it at that. He then said, "For your troubles I will cut the piece to length and drop the granite off at your house." Well he didn't have it done in two days like he said. When we found the problem it was Saturday. He said he would pick it up on Monday and drop it off on Tuesday. I kept calling him and leaving messages but he never called me back. I then talked to him Wednesday afternoon and he said he hadn't even picked it up yet. He will pick it up on Thursday and drop it off on Friday. He then calls me on Friday and says that the sink template got thrown out and that he needs to pick up the sink and just cut it from the actually sink. He came over picked up the sink, double checked the cabinet measurements and said he would be back at 5:30 to drop it off. He then called me at 3:30, two hours before he was supposed to drop it off, and said I have another job I need to be at and I can't drop it off. I will take it back to the granite place and you can pick it up there. I said that was unacceptable and that I planned on him bringing it to my house. I then asked if he could bring it to be early Saturday morning. He then said no and that he was only doing this as a favor for me. I reminded him that it was his mistake that put me back a week on my kitchen and it was at his suggestion that he would bring it to my house. He said "Oh well I am going to drop it off at the granite place and you will have to figure out how to get it." Then ended the coversation. My dad only had Saturday to finish the granite and so we were planning on it being there. When Adam got home from work we made a plan. We would go to the granite place right when it opened and have some guys from the ward to help carry the massive island piece in the house. Adam made some phone calls and I have to give a shout out to the guys who came over at short notice. Thanks to Adam Laret, 4 missionaries, Bill Freeman, and Nathan Brady. We were glad that you guys were willing to help us out. Well we tried to put the piece in and found out the guy didn't cut it down like he said. He cut the right place for the sink but the faucet hole was off center by half of an inch. We had to take it off and put it down to cut it to size and to top it off the granite broke! AHHHHHH can this get any worse!

My dad said that he has fixed broken granite before and that you probably won't even know it happened. If not then I will have to buy another piece and pay for someone else to cut the opening for the sink. I am definately not going to that guy again!

9 Years So Far

So on April 28th Adam and I had our 9 year anniversary. It's nice because since we got married in 2000 we can always remember how long we have been married. In 2025 it will be our 25th anniversary. Well Adam decided to plan out this anniversary celebration and scheduled a couples massage. I laughed at first because Adam pulls away and gets uncomfortable when people come up and just rub his shoulders. How is he going to do with a whole hour massage? He said that he was doing it because he knows I love massages and he wants to be with me. What a selfless husband I have. So he scheduled it for the Saturday after our anniversary at Mellow Me Out day spa. Our appointment was for Saturday at 4pm but Friday night we both started throwing up with the flu that we got. He called them right when Mellow Me Out opened Saturday morning to cancel. The phone said "we cannot answer your call at this time please leave a message" he then left a message canceling. Later that day we got a message on our answering machine with an annoyed voice saying..."Where are you guys? It's 4:20 and your appointment was at 4. If you don't come we still have to charge you." Adam then called the next day a couple of times to fix what happened and they kept saying "We will call you back" A week goes by with no phone call. I then looked at my credit card statement and they did charge me! I called to fix this and they put me on hold twice for 15 minutes each time. I was furious by then and called back demanding to talk to a manager. I finally did and they credited my card. That is the worse service I have ever had and we hadn't even gone there. Never will I attempt to go there again. Adam chose another massage place downtown and it was nice. My lady was a little fast with the massage but Adam got a girl that was good and he actually enjoyed it. He said it was really relaxing and he would definately do it again. I was surprised. After that we went to the Firehouse Restaurant in Old Sac. I have always heard about that place but had never went there. It is really nice and expensive but fun to do once in a while. Adam got the Filet Mignon and I got the Lamb. Both of them were excellent. Cooked perfectly and the seasonings we great. It was kind of funny but our waiter kept saying, "How are the flavors?" Well it was a much needed night for the both of us. Adam and I rarely see each other now especially since the start of the kitchen remodel.

Interior Decorator Coming Out

So here is the stuff that I have picked out so far. Hope you like it.
There are a lot of pictures so bear with it.

This is the granite I picked out called New Venetian Gold

My main cabinets are knotty alder stained a medium tone with a glaze
(see the darker in the creases)

My island is the black with sanded edges

These are the paint colors. The main part of the living/dining area will be the beige on the left. The arches and kitchen will be the greenish/brown on the right. The maroon is an accent wall in the living room and the offwhite is the molding.

These are my fabrics. The paisley one on top is going to be the seat cushions for the chairs of the table and also some pillows. The bottom plaid fabric is also for pillows and the roman shades for the windows.

This is an idea of what I am going to do for the roman shade in the plaid fabric.

Customized Blog

So I decided that in the abundant spare time that I have(ha ha yeah right) I would change my blog theme every month to fit what was going on. Well in June it's Adam's and Addison's birthday plus it's Father's Day. Hope you enjoy all of the songs and pictures.

Yeah Man, Sheet Rocks!

So we have put up the sheet rock and we will start texturing the walls on Monday. It's getting closer and I can't wait. This sickness has definately put us back on the project though. After the texturing I have to paint. I still need to figure out what colors I want to do. Adam says that he loves the autumn colors that I decorated with before but I am afraid that with the new cabinets my current burnt orange color might be too dark. I was thinking of just going with a neutral beige and then just accenting with fabrics but is that too boring for colorful me? My cabinets are a knotty alder that has a medium color stain and a dark glaze just in the creases plus my island is going to be black with sanded edges. I think I will go to the fabric store and get inspiration there. Suggestions anyone? I cut all of the holes for the in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and ran all of the wires for the surround sound. We are getting built in cabinets made to surround our fireplace and are also going to get a huge flat screen TV to mount above the fireplace. Let me tell you...Rock Band is going to be awesome on our TV and surround sound.

Swine Flu!

My parents house is busting out of the walls with people and now all of us are sick. My sister, her husband and kids are living with my parents now and we are here everyday because our house is in shambles from the kitchen remodel. Well it all started with Melanie getting sick on Sunday. Then on Wednesday night we woke up to Landon throwing up. He got better on Friday and that is when everything else when haywire. Adam came home from work throwing up then it went Mykell, My mom, Addison, Casey and now me. So all at once 6 people were struck with the flu. Lets just say we were glad that my parents have 3 bathrooms. I wasn't feeling right on Friday but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. I had a really bad headache but didn't feel nauseated. I just felt blah. I decided to call into work sick because I have been up all night for the past 2 nights with Landon and I was exhausted. Well good thing I did because in the middle of the night I started throwing up. It is so funny because when I called into work and they were asking me all of these questions thinking that I have the swine flu. I think this swine flu scare is ridiculous. It's just like any other sickness....stay home, wash your hands, stay hydrated. The regular Influenza make millions of people sick and unfortunately some die. Why is the media playing up this to be ten times worse than the regular flu? They should educate people, not cause mass hysteria. Well I will get off my soap box now. The only people who haven't gotten sick from this is my dad and Kaylee. Then again my dad just said...I just don't feel right. Uh oh he is the next victim. So we aren't going to be around people for a while until this passes.