SNOW DAY!!
Every decade or so we get snow in McKinleyville. Here is the view outside our rental at about 11:00 this morning. There was a lot more snow earlier but I didn't take a picture then. I was taking it easy, having a snow day. That means staying inside, leisurely reading, not exercising, not putting makeup on and not doing my hair. I did finally take a bath and brush my teeth just so I could stand myself.I am in sweats and a sweatshirt and staying warm. I would love to make cinnamon rolls and have hot chocolate but I am on the Cabbage Soup Diet this week and that doesn't fall in that diet. Darn! (I am 2.5 pounds over the goal I set to be at for this time so have to resort to drastic measures). I usually don't fall for extreme diets but have found this works well to jump start a healthier (Weight Watchers) diet or to just lose few more pounds to keep me motivated on WW. I don't make the soup the way they do (it's horrible!) - I just make a regular vegetable soup with cabbage. What I really hate about the weather though is that the builders aren't working on my house!! Oh well, I did finish my taxes today and now I think I'll watch an episode of Oprah I taped, read a good book I'm reading (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) and take a nap. Oh, and have some cabbage soup and vegetables. Yum.

NEW PICTURES OF THE HOUSE

Here's an update of the house. They framed in the 2nd floor. The trusses go up next week. The pictures show the great room with higher ceiling than the kitchen. The entry is 2 stories high. I wish I had taken pictures of the view from the 2nd floor-it is really gorgeous. Will do that next week! I am getting excited!

DISASTROUS VALENTINE MEAL
Last night Lee had a Stake Presidency meeting so we had dinner reservations at 8:15 pm. We have a restaurant at our local (small, 1 gate) airport that we go to sometimes when it's a last minute thing. It's owned by two couples who went to school with Chris (The Lakey boys, one married Mandy Cherney). We try to support them occassionally even though the food is just "okay". We got there and were seated only to have Mandy ask if we minded being moved to a smaller table about 15 minutes later. No problem. We ordered filets and beer batter prawns. Our salads and bread came and they were good. We waited for our meal to arrive. And waited and waited. An hour later, still no dinner. It got pretty comical as we listened to everyone around us complaining. We kept joking about it and laughing at the absurdity of this small restaurant being so ill prepared. Our waiter even mentioned that we seemed to be having a great time, not knowing that we were laughing at them. Finally, dinner came almost an hour and a half later. Filets were overcooked, marsala sauce on them horrible, mushrooms almost non-exixtent and prawns were not beer battered but in some sickly orange water sauce. But hey, because of the wait, dessert was on them. We took home our carrot cake (didn't want to wait longer) and Lee had some last night and said it matched the meal. Needless to say, the Silver Lining won't see us for another Valentine's meal but at least we didn't feel like we had completely wasted $70 since we like the couples and could at least support them in their venture. If only they would get more cooks..... We did have a wonderful meal of salmon and yellow fin tuna last Friday at Jambalaya in Arcata-a great restuarant!! Next year we'll go there.

WATCHING SUPERMAN, THE MOVIE, WITH SUPERMAN AND CLARK KENT

Ammon spent the night last night with us. It was hilarious. He has been Superman for quite a while now. He always has his Superman cape on (thanks Aunt Kasey). So he has the cape on and we start the movie. He runs out of the room suddenly and reappears with a shirt on over the cape and Grandpa's reading glasses on. Now he's Clark. A little later in the movie he is tearing off the shirt and glasses and has become Superman. He is now standing on the coffee table with his arms up like he is flying. Mind you he is not looking at us to see our reaction he is just totally into character. Just before Superman becomes Clark again, Ammon is redressing with the shirt and glasses. He has the movie completely memorized so that he can dress right on cue. When it was the time that Lois and Superman fly in the sky, he comes over to me and says, "Lois, you need to stand up so we can fly!" So we did. Seriously, it is the funniest experience in the world.

PROGRESS

Last week they got the first floor framed in. It is exciting to see how the rooms are laid out and imagine living in there. I wish I had made some rooms larger but then again, there is only two of us at home and we are supposed to be downsizing.

I need some opinions on lighting for my kitchen. I will have a black square table in the kitchen and kitchen island with granite on it. (white cabinets, black granite) I want pendant lighting over both. Here are my two options. Please let me know what you like best.

#1 Pottery Barn: http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p3442/index.cfm?pkey=clgthngpen

I was thinking of three small white pendants over bar, one large over table.

Choice #2-Home Depot: I couldn't get these to pop up. Go to Home Depot and, under lighting , check out -Hampton BayBrushed Nickel w/Frost Glass Island Light
Model EJJ7113 for over the island and Hampton BayBrushed Nickel w/Frost Glass 1 Light Pendant Model CEP8191 for over the table. Let me know.

NEW HOUSE
Go to:http://www.eplans.com/house-plans.hwx/Q/Plan.HWEPL11097
It's a sketch of what our new house supposed to look like when it is done. We changed the floor plan quite a bit so that it has 2 walk in closets in the master bedroom in between the bedroom and master bathroom which now is in the back with a jacuzzi tub and walk in shower. The great room and kitchen are also all open to each other. It is now about 2800 square feet. Some walls went up today-more pictures soon!

IT'S STARTED!!!!
Yes, finally! They've started building our new house. There is an end in sight to searching through boxes in the garage to find things. The pictures above show the site of our house. Hopefully it will be done in 5-6 months depending on the weather. I am just so excited that it has begun. Will keep you posted on updates!