Spring Break!

It's Spring Break time around here! Lin and Ruby are both out of school for the week, so Dave and I took a week off of work, too. I believe it's the first time we've had a full week of time off together since our trip to China in June.

And of course, how do we choose to spend our much-deserved vacation? Remodeling the kitchen! A week of rest and relaxation is for wussies! We're Go-Getters in this house!

**Please, no one remind me of the slight emotional break-down I had yesterday morning, standing in my disasterous kitchen, Ruby running through with a paintbrush painting everything except the walls, Lin being impatient about why it's taking so long, and Dave looking at me and saying "What? It'll be fine!" **

Anyhoo, I'd say we're about 75% done with our project. The painting is done and our brand-new dishwasher is installed and working like a champ (it's my first dishwasher! Can you believe it?!?). Our new kitchen island is supposed to be delivered tomorrow and after that it's just the details that need to be finished. I'll post before-and-after photos when we're all done.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of Ruby. So much of this blog has been dedicated to Lin and our story of older child adoption, but I can't let you forget about our 4-year-old cutie!

Here's Ruby with her most-beloved posession, White Blankie, sometimes referred to as White Blank. For the record, White Blankie is a "she" and Ruby can hardly stand to go anywhere without her, although we do make White Blankie stay in the car when we go places (and yes, White Blankie is often perched on top of Ruby's head).

As you can see, Ruby is a thumb-sucker. But she really only sucks her thumb when she's holding White Blankie. Sometimes all Ruby wants to do is lay on the floor, sucking her thumb and cuddling White Blankie. I try to discourage this, however, and I often find myself telling Ruby to put White Blankie down and go do something!

Here's Ruby (and White Blankie) playing in the box the dishwasher came in.

A favorite game of Ruby's is to pretend she's a baby. Her baby name is "Baby Cherry" and the dishwasher box quickly became Baby Cherry's crib.