Then, I painted and painted and painted! I do not like to paint. I do not. I have no patience for it and it does not like to wait for me either. But, I did it. We had our house painted two years ago and up at the very top it was flaking off in HUGE GIANT pieces! So, up I went. I am a little scared of heights. But, I did it. I crawled out the window and held on to the window trim with one hand and scraped and painted with the other. It was really windy and HOT that day and the paint will probably fall off in a week. But, I tried. I see a home improvement loan for siding, shingles (THEY ARE BAD!) and windows in the near future!
I went up there.
The view from up there. It felt higher than it looks!
I also got up on the ladder and cleaned all the leaves, debris out of our gutters! I was very brave. I discovered an old honey comb up there and kept praying I wouldn't come across a new one while up there. I didn't. Whew. I also touched up several of the windows around the house. The ones in the back were really in need of painting, but Tim said I could stop as we were going to get new ones. YES!!! I didn't get all of them done though, as the temp's were in the high 90's and Tim didn't have time to take off the bigger windows for me anyway. Blessing in disguise. I was tired! (Was gonna try and get the trim done around the bottom of the house too, but I ran out of time.)
Then I found a recipe for grout cleaner on Pinterest. (I LOVE THAT SITE!) I decided to try it on the bathroom floor tiles. I have tried every cleaner out there and they do get them clean, but they still have that dark look that they didn't have when new. I got down on my hands and knees and used a little scratchy pad thing. It was a miracle! The tile grout is almost white! My finger nails were literally wore down to the nubs and hurt so bad, but it was so worth it. Sorry, no pictures. It hurt to much to press the camera button. Ha!
I also cleaned out cupboards and closets! Threw out a ton of crap, I mean stuff. Man does that feel good! Also went through the bedrooms and basement. Didn't throw much there, but got a mental list going on in my head of what's going next. I repainted the hallway and trim as it was starting to look like we had 3,455 family members going up and down those stairs every day. I bought some really bad paint that shows every single finger print when I painted the hallway a couple of years ago. Because I have a whole gallon of it and it will last 8,455 years, I am stuck with it. Until I decide to change colors which might be soon. Change is good!
Then I decided I wanted to paint my kitchen. I've been seeing this really pretty blue/green almost robins egg type color everywhere. It reminds me of the kitchen my grandma had when I was a little girl. (She had pink cupboards to go with it! Not so much my style there.) I found the perfect paint at Menards. I can't tell you the color as half the can spilled over on the floor going down to the basement (can you say NIGHTMARE?) and it covered the name.(and my cat Clyde! Another nightmare!) Once I got it home, I was afraid I wouldn't like a whole room of it though, so I started to paint stuff. That I liked!
I painted my chalkboard. It was an off white color before and kinda just blended in with my yellow walls. This is much better! Then my niece Grace, helped me cut and glue my dc kids pictures into canning jar lids. We stuck a magnet on the back and stuck them on the chalkboard. I made little domino magnets to accent it a bit. I also painted a little bench/step stool thing so the kids could reach the hooks better to hang their coats. (no picture) Then I went to Hobby Lobby in search of a shelf or something like a breakfast buffet for my kitchen. I was tired of the washtub full of dc toys and wanted something for ME! (You might want to refill that coffee cup here, as this is a long story...) I walked into Hobby Lobby and right there in the entryway was the perfect shelf! It was $269 (Ummm......No.) marked down to $134, (Oh yeah, now we're talking!) but it had a broken board on the bottom. I went inside and asked the cashier if there were any others available. She pointed off to the right and said there might be a couple more "over there." (Customer service is not what it used to be!) I went "over there" and searched until I found two more! One of them had a broken board like the other one and one of them was just missing a few screws. (Story of my life.) I all but sat on those boards to make sure they didn't break and then I went to tell the cashier I wanted the one with the missing screws. (It was an easy fix!) I asked her if she had a tape measure I could borrow as I wanted to make sure it would fit in my car. She did. It would. I told her I wanted a shelf but still wanted to look around and could she help me bring it up to the register and put my name on it. She said, "Oh, I'll call Kevin and you can show him which one you want." After waiting 4,555 minutes, "Kevin" shuffled up and said, "Yeah. What ya need?" I told him I wanted a shelf and could he help me bring it to the register. He had a dolly and he walked behind me a mile and I waited by my shelf for him to catch up. (Why, oh why do I always get these guys?) The four boards folded down and the metal parts folded in. Kevin started forcing the board down, scraping them on the metal. I mini freaked and reached out to help him. He stuck his hand up in the air like a traffic controller and said, "I got it." Inside my head, I was cussing that dude out! On the outside my mouth said, "Please be careful and don't scratch the boards." I believe Mr. Wonderman Kevin, rolled his eyes and I was thisclose to sticking my own hand up and telling him to forget it! But, he finally "got it" and got it up to the register. When I was done shopping, I went up to the register and told the cashier I was going to need help getting the shelf into my car. She said, "Oh, I'll call Kevin." Inside my head I was screaming, "Pleeeeeeease Noooooooo!!! Not Keeeeevin!!!" About 4,555 minutes later, Kevin shuffled up and said "Yeah. What ya need?" He saw me and I swear his eyes rolled. I was fantasizing about super gluing those eyeballs, yes indeed. Anyway, he got the shelf out to the car and as I opened the back door, he said, "Oh man. That's not gonna work." I told him I had already measured it and that the feet would have to rest on the two headrests. It would work. He mumbled and grumbled and as he tried to lift it up into the van I could see he was struggling. So, I reached out to help him and damit if he didn't stick his stupid hand up again and say, "I got it." (I have a horrible time with stupid people. Horrible time.) So, I stepped back and let Mr. Wonderman Kevin do his thing. He grunted and groaned and finally after a million years, got it almost into the van. The feet still needed to be lifted up and set on the headrests. Kevin proclaimed that it wasn't gonna happen. That there was no way to lift it up. It was too heavy. So, sweet wonderful me, pointed out that maybe if we opened the driver and passenger doors and each lifted a leg together, we could get it up there. (It was so simple and easy it was frightening!) Mr. Wonderman allowed me to help him do that much. He didn't even say "have a nice day" or anything when I thanked him. I really want to write a letter to Hobby Lobby, but I am afraid he might have kids to feed or something. Customer service is not what it used to be!
My wonderful shelf! It was so worth the trouble. I have a few of my favorite things displayed and every time I look at it, it takes me to my happy place. I let the dc kids have the bottom shelf. I put their color boxes and books in two red trunks. It's nice to have that off the table, so now we can look at each other when we eat and not boxes of coloring stuff! They like it too!
I have two little school desks. One has a little chair and one has a built in seat. I painted the little chair red and it came out pretty decent. A few days later when I went to paint the desk, I found my red can of paint empty. However, Landon's skateboard and a few other boards were painted very nicely in red! (grrrr...slow burn here) So, I ditched the red desk look with a chalkboard top and went with blue and left the top as is. Of course I only got the other desk half painted when I ran out of blue paint! They don't sell it here in town, so it will have to wait. If I had to make a living as a painter, I would starve to death.
Fourth of July! Landon and his dad picked out some fireworks and then we went to Shady Hollow to watch the big sky display. I haven't a clue what a $159,1600 Special Firecracker sounds like, but I know I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!! Hate firecrackers. Hate them, I tell ya.
Landon's cousins Grace and Jack came over and they turned Tim's deer stand into a boat/fort. Love their imaginations and love them doing things like this soooo much better than those ds games!
They went toad hunting and freaked me out a bit...
Also picked apples off the neighbor's tree...shhhh....
Nasty things....
Checked out Landon's new pool.
I picked up a simple (HA!) trampoline for the dc kids. Landon and I spent hours trying to put it together. In the rain, in the dark, fighting off 6,789 mosquito's!!
We got smart and decided to bring the parts inside to assemble it. We got the base done and Tim was going to help me put the springs and mat on the next night after work. Didn't happen as Tim and Landon decided to go fishing. Maybe tonight. Maybe next year....
Then it was finally time for Tim and I to have some fun with our BIG friends!!
We went to a Fargo Redhawks game. They were playing the Kansas City T-bones.
Had to get a fun picture in first!!
The game lasted for hours, but it seemed like minutes.
I suppose you aren't suppose to talk and gab through the whole thing,
but we did.
This might have had something to do with it.
The boys were having a good time too!
I think they were hitting the ball or something here.
They had fireworks after the game!!
Went uptown afterwards,
and Tim & Kenny surprised us with
roses! There's hope yet! Just kidding!
Don't you just love how Nancy and & I
(unintentionally) are dressed like Bobsey twins?
Thanks for the good times, Kenny & Nancy!
So, that was my week off. I probably left out 3,222 other things I did, but that was the biggies. I am so ready for this winter when I get to take another week off and just RELAX! Is it December yet?
