Fresh Paint

Ahh, I am sitting in my office that was freshly painted yesterday! It looks fabulous! Of course the trim still has to be done and my desk is pushed to the middle of the room and the only other thing in here right now is my chair, but I am so happy to have a fresh coat of paint! The light blue color was terrible and now it is a homey brown. I am so pleased with how it turned out - it was questionable there for awhile. LOL. The paint was a "mistint" at Lowe's so we got if for 75% off, and there was only 1 gallon. We thought, the office is so small, maybe 8x8, that one gallon should be plenty, right? Well, yesterday morning John went in the garage to get the paint can so it could be warming up, as I knew I wanted to at least get the edging done. This was around 11:30 am. He brought it in and started to shake it a bit and it flew out of his hands, hit the hardwood, dented the can, lid came off, and a half gallon of paint gushed out and made a huge puddle on the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was mayhem! John started scooping up the puddled paint with his hands and amazingly salvaged all but about 10% of the gallon. I thought for sure we would be refinishing the floor, but thankfully after cleanup you can't even tell! John felt terrible, but I told him it could have just as easily have been me that did it, plus no one got hurt (can you imagine if that had fallen on his foot?) and no harm done. One of my small area rugs did get ruined, but that's not a big deal. So! Since we couldn't put the lid back on the paint can, I got to painting right away! I did the edging, two coats, while John got Allie laid down for her nap, and then he rolled the walls for me. There was just enough paint for one thick coat, and we weren't sure it was going to be enough. I know these paints say they only need one coat, but in our experience we always have to do two coats. Well, we left it to dry and didn't come back to check on it for several hours, as it just made us nervous to see it drying as you know how as the paint dries you can see lines, etc. When we came back downstairs that evening, it was dry and looked GREAT! It really didn't need a second coat, I can hardly believe it. It was the Olympic brand of paint from Lowe's we have never used before, but I think I will be using it again as I haven't been crazy about any of their Valspar! We also smoked ribs/beef round yesterday. We had thawed the meat Saturday and then John put on the dry rub that night. Well apparently even 30 degrees outside is just too cold to keep that smoker going at a good temp, plus it was windy still and we didn't think it would be. So John had to bring in the ribs after a few hours and finish them in the oven. The house smelled so good with those ribs cooking - the beef round we put outside in our toaster/convection oven and it turned out just as good as the ribs. Ash absolutely loves ribs, and Allie dug in, too. Saturday morning John got up first to take care of the dogs/kids, as I had my scrapbook crop on Friday night and didn't get home until 12:30 am, then couldn't go to sleep until almost 3 am!!! That is NOT good! I only managed to sleep until 9 am and then the whole day felt weird. I don't know if I can keep going to those Friday night crops. I enjoy getting out, but at the same time I can never fall asleep until 2 or 3 in the morning and then the rest of the weekend is weird because of that. I was cranky with the kids and felt tired all weekend. Anyway - on Saturday while Allie napped, John and I steamed the wallpaper border off the walls in the playroom. Ash also helped me move out all of the things from the office into the middle of the playroom, except for the desk, it just got moved to the center. He also unscrewed all the outlet covers and light switch covers in both the office and playroom. He wanted to help with the steamer but that made me too nervous, so instead he helped pull some wallpaper off. John says it will take a week to repair the drywall where the breaker panels are, from the generator installation. He hasn't gotten to start on it yet, and with his work/call schedule it will be hit and miss. So I may be without the playroom for quite some time still. I am going to concentrate on finishing up the trim in the office, and then decorating in here. The toys are downstairs, just in the bigger area, so the kids can play down here. I need to clean it up a bit and then we should be good to go for awhile. A few cute things I have been wanting to get down. Last week Ash started calling me "Mom" which is so funny to hear. I finally said to him after a few days, "You sure have been calling me Mom lately, are you too big to call me Mommy or Mama anymore?" kind of teasingly, and he said yes, that he likes Mom better now. LOL. My little guy is growing up fast! Oh, I am also so proud of him with school. He has been on green since before Christmas break. And we got his 2nd Quarter Progress Report and he has improved greatly! After the 1st Quarter, he had scored a 72 out of 100 on the "exit criteria" for Kindergarten. Well, after the 2nd Q he scored 98! Wow! Mrs Hughes also wrote in the comments: "Asher has really grown during this nine weeks! I am very proud of his behavior!" We are, too! He is so sweet with Allie. The way he talks to her in a sing-song voice, and how he plays with her and teaches her. Yesterday when she got up from her nap, he started telling her, "Allie, do you want an apple? If you eat an apple, you can have a piece of cake! Not apple juice, but a real apple! OK, Allie? OK? You gotta eat your apple so you can have cake!" As I had just told him if he ate his apple he could have cake and he wanted that for her, too. I absolutely cherish their relationship and do all I can to help it grow. Allie is also getting more and more adorable! She is repeating practically everything. The other day Asher said "Awesome!" so she said it, too, plain as day. She loves to help around the house, no matter the task. She picks up, throws things away, hands me the clothes out of the dryer, loves to pour and stir while cooking/baking, hands me the dishes/utensils from the dishwasher, puts up groceries, just basically anything and everything I do she wants to help do! When she gets scolded, she will go sit herself down in her "timeout" seat which is so cute, as we didn't tell her to do it, so she puts herself in timeout. She is absolutely in love with all of her babies. She got a stroller/bassinet/swing doll set for Christmas and she carries them around in those, puts them to sleep when it is her nite-nite time, and of course each and every one has to have a blankie (her old burpies/loveys I made). She is obsessed with Clifford The Big Red Dog and calls him "Flifford" which just started last week - she was just calling him "dog-dog". I bought her a handmade Clifford apron on eBay for her birthday I know she is going to love! She also can be a real stinker. She furrows her brow and cuts her eyes when she gets into trouble. She can shriek louder than I thought humanly possible. She is getting more and more independent and wants to do everything herself, her way, with no help. This includes brushing teeth, getting dressed and eating. The rule with brushing teeth is, I (or Daddy) get a turn, then she gets her turn. This is what we have been drilling into her head. So early last week she figured that out and has now started saying "Turn! Turn!" when she wants to do something, whether it be helping cook or brushing teeth, etc. So now we work on manners! "May I have a turn, please?" we say and she says, "Turn, please?" We are also working on breaking her of the "MINE!" bug that hit while we were on vacation. These children are such a joy and I am reminded daily of how fast time goes; I am so glad I chose STILL for my OLW as I want to slow down and enjoy these moments! Oh, and it's Monday! My Scripture this week is: For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. ~Psalm 100:5 And the Quote of the Week: Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed. ~Cavett Robert I hope everyone has a blessed week.