Memory, all alone in the moonlight...

While I was in Arizona last week I went through a box of old school papers my mom had saved. I only took pictures of about 5 percent of the material, there were so many papers!

Here's a picture of my kindergarten class. 

After reading some of the work from that year, I'm pretty sure I was in a bilingual class. I wish some of the Spanish had stuck!

Aleks thinks I should have been seeing a therapist after seeing this artwork. I don't know, it think it's pretty normal for a elementary school kid. Since my name is in cursive, I'm guessing it's from sometime between 3rd or 5th grade.

Also, roller skating. Apparently it was a big deal as it was a reoccurring theme throughout my writings from that age.

I found a journal I had written from when I was nine. It's pure gold people.

"But cats are cute so I don't know." Hey, I've always been open to learning and exploring different opinions!

"I'm not pretty, does that mean I have to be pretty?" Here we can trace the beginning of my feministic slant.

I found this piece about the '89 earthquake. I was eight at the time.

I found this poem and it's not clear as to whether it's something I wrote. I feel like if I did, I was a child prodigy and should have been published.

Or maybe the assignment was to copy it from a book and I just forgot to cite the author. In which case, I was a childhood plagiarist.

Either way, it's a great poem.

This is from a short fictional story I wrote when I was in middle school. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I found myself impressed at the detail and writing craft. It's a good story. I might loan you a complete copy if you ask nicely.

I'm pretty sure this was printed on a dot matrix printer.

It was surprisingly exciting and invigorating to read through all my old papers. It wasn't painful at all. I thought that I might be sucked into a vortex of self loathing, but really, I was an interesting kid. I'm sure my teachers told stories about some of the things I wrote.

One of my high school students told me about a podcast called "Grownup Read Things They Wrote as Kids." I have yet to check it out, but apparently I'm not the only one who thinks their kid version was pretty funny.

Ruby Ann is 5

My little surprise peanut. Entering the world quietly, but mightily, pulling the oxygen tube out of your nose those first six hours. Already telling us that you were going to do things your way.

Those big eyes captured us from the start.

Though you may appear quiet and unassuming, you are not to be underestimated. Your little head and heart are capable of so many wonderful things. Your capacity for love and cuddles far exceeds anyone else in our little family.

As does your conviction. Your will is unlike anything I have ever encountered and now that you are better at self control, I'm so grateful for it. It will serve you well in your life.

Our world is more fun because of you.

You are a brightly shining light in our lives.

My little curly haired moppet. Whose outside resembles dad, but inside is a lot like mom.

 Happy birthday my love. You are a gift to us all. We're sure glad you were born.

Kitchen updates

Finally! Our kitchen remodel is finished! (ok, that's not fully true. I need to repaint the cabinets, but I'm going to wait a few weeks for that and I wanted to share pictures with you now!)

The entire process took longer than we expected. The tile job ended up taking a week, after which they said it would be done in 2 days. However, it all looks beautiful, so I've already forgotten how annoying it was to have workers in our house for over a week.

Here is the before:

Aleks and I HATED this sink.

Here it is mid-construction. They ended up re-drywalling some of the areas in order to have a smooth surface for the backsplash. I was not expecting to see studs, but it always has to get worse before it gets better, right?

Drum roll please....

Apparently there were supposed to be some seams in the granite piece that includes the sink cutout. Thankfully, the granite guy asked them to cut it without seams, which looks really good, but made the piece extremely heavy. Watching 3 guys walk it into our kitchen was almost as nerve wracking as watching piano movers move a grand piano.

And our new sink and faucet. I'm seriously in love.

Aleks questioned me all along the way. He wasn't sure 2 different granite colors would work. He wasn't sure the faucet should be silver, maybe it should be black to match the sink. He thought the dark blue paint wouldn't look good. Thankfully he knows after 12 years of marriage that he can voice his opinions and then just go along with what I think.

I told the granite people as they were installing that having this updated kitchen makes me want to be a better person.

It's true.

Now, who's coming over for dinner?