Weekend Update

Megan has a black eye. Take a wild guess where she got it. Anyone?

That's right, her sister. She ran into Megan when she was playing with a blanket on her head.

Makena has developed a love for eating with chopsticks. Here she is at yummy Szechuan Palace!

I have a few more house pics. I hope you're not getting tired of them! Our kitchen cabinets have been installed! I LOVE my hood!

See that little nook with the beadboard backing over the spot where the fridge will go? That's for my cookbooks.

In the next picture, you can see where the dishwasher and sink will go.

We're getting a farmhouse or apron style sink like this. We'll have a different faucet.

We modified the plans and eliminated part of the wall between the kitchen and the living room. We'll be able to see the TV above the fireplace from the kitchen. I didn't get a good picture of it, but the openings on the right are where the ovens and warming drawer will go. The warming drawer is being re-named Phil's drawer because he will probably be the one primarily using it.

I love the oil rubbed bronze hardware. And I love the cup style drawer pulls. The kitchen is starting to come together. It's going to look like a cross between the picture I tore out of Southern Living and the Neely's kitchen off of the food network.

We used the same hardware in the laundry room, only with a different finish.

These are the cabinets in the master bath.

We chose basic hardware for the kids' bathrooms. Eventually, I may change it to something a little more cute. Right now I don't have time for cute.

This is the laundry shoot in the linen closet in the girls' buddy bath.

Here is Makena standing in the unfinished built-in bookcase that will go in the playroom. I wanted a central location for all of the kids books. We've started doing bedtime stories together and it would make it easier. (The playroom is upstairs with the kids' bedrooms.) And now we don't need to buy a new bookcase for Megan's room.

This is the butler's pantry. They got the measurements on the lower cabinets wrong and are going to have to make another cabinet. I'm not sure what's going to happen to this one.

The basement bar cabinets have been installed. We're going to put some kind of Wake Forest artwork in that open space.

Here are pics of the latest dress-up session. I love the way Megan Sleeping Beauty and Makena Hannah Montana are hugging each other. Megan looks like that little old lady who puts on every piece of jewelry she owns to go out.

The End is Near...

Phil only has one more month of fellowship! He has worked so unbelivably hard throughout his residency and fellowship. I have no idea how he has had the stamina or desire to get through the training. I can definitely say that this last year has been the most difficult for us (at least for the kids and myself.) He works so much. He goes in around 5:30 or 5:45 in the morning and gets home very late. He often gets home after dinner and when the girls are in bed....even when he's not on call. He has been on call this weekend (Friday-Sunday.) We have probably spent a grand total of 2 hours with him all weekend and part of that time he was napping. It's now about 10pm on Sunday and I have no idea when he will be home. Shoot, he may not even be able to come home tonight....he wasn't able to last night. He has a presentation at work on Wednesday that he's trying to work on in between consults, operations and other problems at the hospital. He is running on fumes.This is not the way I wanted to spend Memorial Day weekend. And I know he would rather be doing something else, as well. I cannot tell you how happy we will be when he finishes his fellowship. I feel like a single parent a lot. I take the kids to do almost everything by myself. I've been doing almost all of the work on the new house. I'll usually pick things out and then have Phil give the okay when he gets home from work (even if he rolls in from work all sleepy-eyed at midnight.) I cook dinner while managing the kids and often eat by myself, or without Phil at least. I am really looking forward to having my husband back. And I know the kids are looking forward to having their dad back. Yesterday, Phil had been at work all day and was finally able to come home to eat dinner with us. He hadn't even been home for 30 minutes when he got paged and had to go back to the hospital. Makena cried when he left. She hadn't seen him all day and when she finally got to, he had to leave. I know it broke his heart, too. Phil is going to have the entire month of July off and I can't wait. The kids and I are going to do our best to soak him in before it's back to the grind. Although, the new job shouldn't be nearly as demanding. I apologize for venting, but we have been through a lot this year and I want to document it. I hope I'll be able to look back in a few years and read this and think...remember that year of hell we went through? Well, it was all worth it. Look how good we've got it now.

Chick-fil-a Princess Night

Tiffany had taken some pictures for me at Chick-fil-a's Pirate and Princess night a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for sharing these pictures, Tiffany!

Ella and Makena

Tiffany Deonanan Pics #2

Here are some of the pics Tiffany took at our house. They are wonderful!

I love the pictures of Megan with her Pooh Bears.

We had to incorporate Potty into the photo shoot.

This one is going in a frame.

So sweet.

Perfection!

Makena and Ella