As promised: The kitchen (before pics)

When we were dating, I was still living at home and Noah was in Annville. I decided I would make dinner for my parents and I...well, it didn't go well. Knowing that my skills in the kitchen were sub-par, I figured making spaghetti would be easy. Boil the noodles and put the jar of Prego on top. Simple right? Well when it was time to drain the noodles, I knew exactly what to do. I've watched my mom cook for years and she just holds the lid on and drains things. I can do that too!

Yeah right...

As I was draining the boiling water, I realized that the steam was quite warm on my arm and needed to rotate my arm a bit to keep my arm hair from burning off. When I did, the worst happened.

You know how when you dump pasta, a few noodles ALWAYS stick to the pot. No matter what right? Why doesn't every noodle come out of the pot? It's like someone added super glue to the pot when the noodles were boiling. Well, not when you're me. When I rotated my arm, EVERY, and I mean EVERY noodle, dumped right into the sink.

If you know me, you know that patience is not my strong suit. I immediately threw the pot and lid into the opposite side of the sink, picked up a STEAMING HOT pile of pasta, threw it in the pot and ran back to my room like a pouting child dragging pieces of spaghetti noodles behind me like my blankie. At that time, I called Noah crying that our children would starve because I can't even make spaghetti. He assured me that we would be fine, as would our children, but at that moment, I was completely over the kitchen and all it offers- or in my case, lack thereof.

So needless to say and as I've mentioned before...I hate being in the kitchen. It is probably my least favorite room to work in, clean, and organize. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy when the job is done but because I don't usually cook, getting rid of stuff is not my favorite task. The kitchen is Noah's sanctuary. He is such an amazing cook and really does enjoy working in the kitchen. Apparently it relaxes him. I don't understand how because I just get more anxious and worked up while cooking, but apparently it's stress relief for my wonderful husband.

Well, Noah is also a gadget guy. We have EVERY man-made gizmo that slices, peels, holds, chops, minces, dices, or any other kitchen based step. We have it. And of course, Noah wants to keep for that one time when we make that fancy dessert that calls for this and has to be presented in a fancy way.

Meanwhile, you can picture the look on my face. And my thoughts...well... those shouldn't be written in blog format.

So here are the before pictures of our messy and cluttered kitchen. I will warn you that some pictures will not be posted out of sheer embarrassment. The updated look and pictures will be posted as soon as I get the entire kitchen the way I want it. I'm still working out small kinks but it will be by the end of the week, I assure you.

And please don't judge...I'm usually avoiding this part of my home.

spice cabinet

my kitchen table is a dumping ground- this is a great day

everything is on the counters- no work space

yeah that's where the plastic high chair tray should be- on the STOVE?!

stuff all over the island

in the sunroom, pots and pans just sit out because we can't fit them in the red cabinet

this is the red cabinet- drawer is broken and the doors don't shut because of so much crap

high chair tray and the hand held Dyson...on the chair.

try getting something out of the back of that...yeah

it's ok but the cabinets are bowing from too much weight

there are 14 Nalgene bottles...for 2 people that raring hike. yeah...again

This cabinet is really deep but you can never get to it

we can never get the measuring cups figured out

cook books that are NEVER used because we have the internet

gadget drawer

how many pairs of tongs does one chef need??

at least 3 apparently? and yes that keeps the drawer from opening

top of the fridge is the second most used dumping ground