Hi hi!

A quick update on whats been going on around here lately… For about 2 months, we’ve had a non-functional kitchen. It started with an leak under the sink, which lead to the discovery of a black mold epidemic inside the wall. We had to have out kitchen sink, dishwasher and all the lower cabinets on that wall torn out and the wall “re-mediated”. Then, since we already had half of the kitchen torn out, my parents decided to go ahead and remodel it, since it was probably about 50 years old. Sadly, I didn’t take pictures of the old kitchen, but I do have some pictures of the new one! They aren’t completely finished yet, just a few more touch-up type things will be done tomorrow, but then we’ll finally be able to move stuff back in and start cooking again! We probably wont be cooking Christmas dinner at our house though, so we’ll be going out again (we did at Thanksgiving too).

So, the main differences? Well a lot! Its much brighter now, although I hate the yellow/green paint my mom chose for the walls – luckily its mostly covered up by cabinets and the tile.

Yay, lots of light, we added under-cabinet lights because it used to be really difficult to see what you’re doing.

We had to get a new dishwasher cause the other had mold on the back.

We tore out these horrible pantry shelves that had folding doors, they were shallow and half weren’t really accessible because the doors were in the way. Now there is a blank wall. The other part of the corner used to have a built in desk and a few bookshelves above, now its all cabinets – which are our new pantry / appliance storage.

Needless to say, during all this we haven’t been fostering kittens. We did three batches (I only posted about the 1st litter). Also, sadly, just before the renovation we had to put out dog to sleep. She was 17, and had a huge tumor on her shoulder. She finally stopped eating and my parents decided that it was time. I went with them, sat on the floor with her, and she lay down on my foot / against me, like she always used to. Then she closed her eyes and was gone. 😦 I cried for a long time there in the vet room, and so did my mom and dad. Brownie was my dog for 16 years, you know 😦

I pulled it out of a video, so its not the best pictures of her… Just a few months ago, she was still very alive. See the white part on her shoulder? That’s where the tumor has pushed her hair up so you see her undercoat.

Since our living room area is kinda messed up with boxes of stuff, we didn’t put up our big tree this year. We got a dinky little one for $24 at Whole Foods instead. I found this Star thingy which I’d never seen before, tucked right in the top of one of the decoration boxes that is stored in my room (well in the tiny closet in my room). Don’t know where it came from, but luckily it had a short string of lights attached to it – we thought maybe w didn’t have any lights anymore, since our big tree has them built in.