Remodeling ... and miscellany

We have donned the "home improvement" hats once again. Since Labor Day weekend, our kitchen has taken on a decidedly grotesque appearance. The doors and drawers have all been removed from my cabinets and the contents of their cluttered interiors now stare down at me reprovingly from the exposed shelves, as if to say, "You really should organize in here." Sixty-some years of paint layers have been stripped from the cabinet skeletons, leaving bare wood semi-crusted with the residue of paint remover. Most of my pots, pans, dishes, silverware and utensils have been relocated to other parts of the house, making meal preparation exceedingly cumbersome, and our driveway now holds, in addition to cars of course, all of the orphaned doors and drawers and a number of other sundries necessary to kitchen remodeling.

Why would we do this to ourselves, you ask? Good question. I suppose it is because, in some realm of fantasy, we believe that the finished product will be so devastatingly adorable as to make the entire project worthwhile. It is this optimism which spurs us resolutely on, even though what originated as a weekend project has metamorphosed into a remodel of seemingly epic proportions, expected to last a month or more. But it will be worth it. We hope.

Next time we undertake a massive remodel project, please ask us to get our heads examined first.

One saving grace is that we will soon be taking a nine-day forced break from paintbrushes and rubber gloves. We are going on vacation with my family to the Outer Banks (in North Carolina) for the last week in September. It is so much fun to hang out with all of them. My brother Michael is back from China, so this will be the first time we have seen him in over a year. Joel and Dan were able to get off of work/school for most of the week, so they will join us on Tuesday. And the "younger" siblings are just such a blast; they change so much from visit to visit that I really prize whatever time I can get with them. I have been crossing days off my desk calendar for a month. ;)

I'm also looking forward to this vacation because we will get to see both sets of grandparents. My maternal grandpa has been in and out of the hospital several times in recent months, and my other grandpa (the one with Alzheimer's) is having more and more difficulty recognizing and remembering people. I know that you never have "enough" time with the people you love, but I also know that aging and death are inevitable, so I intend to make the most of my time with my grandparents as well.

I can't remember if I blogged about this, but we finally found a church to call home. We've been getting increasingly involved over the summer and we're planning to start up with at least one of the small grounps, now that they're back in session for fall. Finding a church has blessed us both tremendously. It's so nice to start feeling like part of a bigger community here in Sacramento.

And speaking of community, our very fun and friendly next-door neighbors are moving to Texas. We are very sad they are leaving us. So sad, in fact, that we have had dinner with them four nights this week. Normally I'd worry about them getting tired of us, but they're leaving in a week or two anyway. ;) In all seriousness, it's been really fun spending time with them and their five-year-old daughter. Plus, we've taken turns providing the food, but we've been doing most of the cooking at their house, which has been a HUGE help to me given the afore-mentioned state of my kitchen. :) We are hoping and praying our new neighbors will be as nice as our current ones.

So that's the latest news in the Thompson household. And I should get back to work. After all, deadlines make no concessions for blogging. ;)