House O' Sullivans

A few weeks ago when we ripped out the kitchen cabinets and flooring, I started herding the kids outside to the covered patio for meals.  Thanks to our neighbor Annie's donation--an old redwood picnic table--we still had a place to eat.  Thankfully, the weather during the last few weeks has been AWESOME.  This week Casey started cutting the counter top from a slab I picked out at the stone yard and he took over our secondary table. So NOW we are eating at the tertiary table in the middle of the backyard.  It's constructed from a large piece of wood, supported by Casey's giant boulder and an old sawhorse (that doubles as the girl's practice soccer goal) and stabilized by a few additional rocks.  Hallee just about dumped the whole thing over at dinner tonight. I'm REALLY hoping that we can get the kitchen done before it gets cold.  Or before we get moved to a quaternary table.  This is getting really CRAZY.

I never believed those people who professed to "forget their age."  I also thought it preposterous that some people would stop and think, calculating from the year of their birth, their age.  Was it really possible to NOT KNOW how old you were? Well, I am now one of those ridiculous people.  A couple of weeks ago someone asked me how old I was.  I paused to quickly tabulate the number, then said, "I'm almost 38!"  Whoops.  I didn't realize THAT mistake until a couple of days later.  August 23rd turned me into a 37-year-old.  I think.  I ordered my own birthday dinner--Papa John hooked me up.  His cinnamon pizza was MY birthday cake.  Yum! Early in the day Sophie made me this special "birthday necklace."  When she handed it to me she said, "This has most of the letters from my name mommy."  Sophie DOES know how to spell and write her name and does so with regular accuracy.  I'm not sure how...