10 Year Reunion

This past weekend we loaded up the car and headed to Marshall for my 10 year high school reunion. I can't say that I was super excited about going but I wasn't dreading it either. I decided to keep my expectations low. In high school I was not part of the popular crowd. I was shy and quiet. (I know this is a shocker to those that know me now : ) I was in band (which some may consider nerdy) and most of my close friends were from band or my church. I always tried to do my best not to stand out but rather blend in. Well apparently I succeeded. Not only did Gabe (who didn't go to our school) get more waves and "hello's" from classmates but my one friend that I keep in touch with from high school (Chad) had to introduce me to several of our classmates. The funniest was when a classmate walked up to our table and started talking to Chad. To be polite, Chad turns to me and says, "And you remember Stacy." Implying of course you would remember Stacy. She gets this blank stare on her face and then a long pause followed by incomplete words as she tries to come up with a reason why she doesn't remember me. It was quite awkward for all sitting at the table. We couldn't help but to bust out laughing after she quickly walked away.

Another favorite comment, "She looks familiar. Do I know her?" Chad's reply, "She went to school with us."

It was as I expected. Few people I knew showed up and most people seemed to revert back to the way they acted in high school.

Our kitchen is finally coming together. Gabe and I stayed up until 1 am tiling last Thursday and got up the next morning and grouted. We finally have our new counter tops and are hoping to paint sometime this week.

Evelyn is changing rapidly before our eyes. On the way to Marshall she learned how to play peek-a-boo. She holds the blanket over her face, waits for me to say, "Where's Evie?" and then pulls the blanket down. Her top front tooth is coming in. She is standing for longer periods without holding onto something. And when she walks with her walker, she pulls it back and tries to turn around after running into something. My mom had a little birthday cake for her when we were staying with them. She wasn't sure what to think of the candle but had a great time eating cake and icing.

Evelyn and Neal Playing

View from the living room

The finished back splash

View from the entry way

"Where's Evie?"

"There she is!"

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"If I play dumb, I might be able to eat it all before they notice."

"Is this some kind of trick? Why are you all staring at me?"

"Who cares, this is good. I'm eating it all anyways."

A funny thing...

So a funny thing happened today at Starbucks. I locked Evelyn in the car. Thankfully it had been raining so it was a little cooler than the usual crazy hot. I quickly ran into Starbucks, borrowed a friends phone and called pop-a-lock. (Which is free if a child is trapped inside.) Within minutes we had a fire truck and ambulance team working on the car. After what seemed like forever standing in the now pouring rain, the fireman was able to open the door. As if things were not already embarrassing enough, apparently the back door was almost closed but not quite so if I had only closed the door completely then it would have activated the never-lock-your-keys-in-the-car system and I would have been able to avoid the three ring circus. The fire man was kind enough not to make me feel even more like an idiot when he pointed out how I could have unlocked the doors. Oh well, now I know and we can all laugh at it. For those of you who already knew this handy info about the door, please don't write and tell me. You were not there standing in the rain watching your kid cry inside the car.

Our kitchen is looking better. The pipe was able to be moved. We are just waiting for our counter tops to be installed, hopefully tomorrow. This weekend we will put the knowledge gained from watching HGTV into practice as Gabe and I install the tile back splash.

Last week we took in a new housemate . My friend's younger sister, Haley, needed a place to live while going to Blinn, so she is living with us. We are getting a refresher course in the complexity (or lack thereof) of college life.

We just passed 11 months with Evelyn. I can't believe she will soon be a year old. She loves it when I chase her around the house, and she is enjoying the extra attention from Haley.

We are thinking of leaving the lights exposed. It gives the room that warehouse feel.

Evelyn's new favorite toy is a pair of lemons. She crawls around everywhere with them, or at least she did until I cooked with them.

She loves pushing the walker around. We are actually training her to mow the lawn.

Keep us posted,
Gabe and Stacy

Demolition Day

This past Saturday was demolition day. My parents and brother came into town and helped us tear down the kitchen cabinets and the sheet rock off the wall. In about 3 hours my brother and dad had it all taken out. Way to go guys! We could not have done this without you. Gabe, my mom, and I helped with the clean-up. As a side note, let me say that Gabe would have helped with the demo but he was working at the hospital all morning saving lives. He was very disappointed that he did not get to tear down the wall. My mom, Evelyn and I came home from running errands to a layer of sheet rock dust on everything. I did not think to cover the book shelves so we had fun dusting every book in our living room. Here is our kitchen in it's current state.
We are hoping the pipes can be moved. If not, this could all have been a horrible mistake. Any ideas on how to camouflage them.
Evelyn loves playing with cords. Look at that face. She is almost daring me to come and take it away from her. Let's see what happens.
She looks it over and thinks, "I wonder what this will taste like?"
And into the mouth it goes. I might add that Evelyn was not harmed in the taking of this picture as I quickly removed the cord from her mouth.

August. And, uh, stuff.

Life is staying busy at the Neal household. We are very excited about our upcoming kitchen remodel. In effort to save some money we've decided that we would do some of the work ourselves. We have never tackled any projects like this so we shall see how it all turns out. I've been doing my homework and watched a fair bit of HGTV while in Chicago. I don't know if that qualifies me to remodel our kitchen but it sure inspires me.

We are also looking forward to the opening of our church at it's new location and the start of our fall bible study. Evie keeps us busy. We occasionally catch her standing unsupported. Maybe she will be walking by her first birthday?

I've recently joined the world of facebook. If you're on, leave us a note.

Gabe starting the demolition of our kitchen. Yes, he is wearing a dress shirt and dress pants. And, yes, the shirt is pink.

Now on to more important pictures. The many faces of Evelyn as she enjoys a teething biscuit for the first time.

Pure Delight

Curiosity

A Full Mouth

Happiness. And two little teeth.

Satisfied

That's all. No more pictures please.

My what big teeth you have Evelyn!

Big teeth!? Let me check this out.

Oh no!! What happened?