Follow Me Boys (...and girls)

Today I would like to explain how to become a "follower". But wait - one of my bestest buddies, Emily, has already done so here. Wow, that makes my job a lot easier. Now all you have to do is scroll to the end and follow her easy step-by-step instructions. You don't even have to create a blog, just a username. And come on - add a picture! We wanna see your beautiful face!

People I hope will follow me:
Brianne (haha - caught you, now you HAVE to)
Joe Brunk
Raynolds
Grady Bray - these 3 boys have no excuse... if they read this, that is :)
Alexis W. (you don't even have to make a photo blog of other people's kids!)
Louise (it's okay if you don't - I still love you)
Heidi (see above comment)
My mom (wait - does my mom even read this??)
Patricia/Jessica
And YOU!!!

Man, I'm so clever.

**By the way, Twitter is pretty fun too. You can let everyone know what you're doing, like, all the time. And the best part is, you convince yourself that everyone cares!!

This weekend:

• touch up paint in living room (still... don't ask.)
• 2nd coat in kitchen (no, we haven't done it yet!)
• paint hallway
• paint all 3 bedrooms

Ready? Set? GO!!!!

Room of the...Eating

As promised here are some before and (mostly) after shots of the kitchen/dining room area!

BEFORE: The wood cabinets blend into the wood paneling above them which blends into the wood ceilings...

AFTER: We painted the walls (and primed the back splash - more on that below)!

BEFORE: The yummy orange-brown carpet blends into the wood paneling walls which blends into... oh wait. I've already explained that part.

AFTER: We painted the paneling!! ("we" is Jason, Keith, Becca, David, Emily, Patricia, and me). This color is called Gallery Taupe, which is basically a light gray with a brownish tint (again, I'm so great at describing colors...) What we are going for in here is breaking up the "blends-into-factor", and hoping that when you walk in you immediately notice the AMAZING wood ceilings.

BEFORE: That awesome carpet. No words. And the curtains? Do you want those?

AFTER (sort-of): Jason ripped up the carpet and we (David and Emily, not me really) put primer on the bookshelf in the back.

Negative: the linoleum is now two shades instead of one... one was under the carpet and the rest has been affected by sunlight for 30 years.

Becca spent the majority of her time priming the back splash in the kitchen. Jason (we) still don't know what color to paint it, whether we should use the same grayish color that's on the walls or a different, darker accent color. Your thoughts?

The counters, small back splash area, and the rest of the back splash are all this beautiful confetti... concoction. (I've run out of nice things to say about things...)

Tonight is another Dave Ramsey class - have I talked about that yet? No, I guess not. Expect a post on that later this week. HAVE THE BEST DAY YOU CAN POSSIBLY HAVE!! And let the little things roll off your back today. Ahhh.. doesn't that feel better? :)

Room of the Living (aka Living Room)

Remember just a few short weeks ago when the living room looked so "beautiful":

Wow... that's a lot of carpet. Who wouldn't wanna just curl up and hang out in there?


THEN we ripped out the carpet and were OVERJOYED by the truly beautiful hardwoods!!!


Well, my friends, it has now officially been painted!! (Of course I stood by the lamp that makes the room look like an orange creamsicle, but...) It's a really pretty tan-ish, orange-ish, suede-looking, ever changing color called "Pumpkin Butter". And once this room actually gets furniture, curtains, art, better lighting, and clean floors, YOU WILL BE AMAZED. No, really. You will. Come see it.

Oh no!! Don't hurt Emily!!! She's our friend!!!

• This weekend was incredible. We have the most wonderful friends. On Saturday we decided to go ahead and prime/paint the kitchen paneling, which ended up being a bigger undertaking than we expected. LUCKILY, Becca was planning to come help at some point and she brought Keith along (Kate was also a big helper - she's great with a paint roller). Then Emily and David came too! So all 6 of us (and Jason's mom too!!) primed and painted the first coat, finally covering the "gorgeous" wood paneling. (Pictures of the kitchen to follow tomorrow!) We would have gone CRAZY trying to paint the whole room by ourselves... they saved the day!

• Then Sunday after church, AT came by to help paint the living room! So AT, Jason, J's mom, and I painted and painted and painted all day. (If I don't have to paint trim again EVER, I will be a happy girl.) Then at like 7 o'clock I wimped out and said PEACE - I'm going home. (Well, I went grocery shopping and THEN home... details.) Luckily, AT stayed and they really got just about everything done.

AGAIN I SAY - WE HAVE INCREDIBLE FRIENDS!!!!!

Don't Hate Me Because I'm...

Stupid.

This weekend we did a TON of work at Jason's house: let me show you all the pictures I got.








Ooooh this is my favorite...






No, you're not going crazy. Yes, your page has fully loaded. There is no "right click - show pictures". There ARE NO PICTURES.

Sadly, I didn't remember my camera on Saturday (painting day #1) and I did remember it on Sunday (painting day #2) but my memory card was still in my computer at home. Grrrrrr... So please don't hate me because I'm stupid!!

*Check back tomorrow to hear about all our amazing friends and because I'm going to take a TON of pictures tonight.

My dearest Becca,

I finally changed my blog header.

I hope we can be friends again now that your face isn't chopped off. :)

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Put Yo' Train Up, Girl.

So like 2 years ago, when Cara was home from Athens, she told Nick (little bro) that the next time she was in Chattanooga, we could all play "Mexican Train Dominos". Well, something always comes up - holidays, other friends in town, etc - and we just haven't had the chance to get Cara over to play. So......

Sunday she came over and we finally got to play!!

First you each take 12 dominos each, hiding them so others won't see...

...they look like this and you start your train with a 12 dot side, (then the next round you start it with 11, then 10, until you get to 1 or just get tired of it all - we made it to 8?).

This was my train at one point, ooooh ahhhhh!!

Sorry, I'm really blanking and I really don't want to explain it all, but here are the rules. :)

Then when we were done, we got real bored and started making designs! I think mine's the best, but I may be biased.

It was sooooo fun!! WE LOVE CARA!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARA!!!!!!!!

The big 2-3 in 0-9! :)

House Progress (Weekend 1)

Here are the promised pictures from the weekend!

Look at this place!!! Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!?!?!

We pulled lots of carpet out. Look! There's the horse room carpet and the rainbow room too!!

Here's my bestest buddy J-dog doin' his project of choice - prying up the tack board.

Oh, and just in case you didn't belive me on this whole "rainbow carpet" thing - this stuff was WALL TO WALL!

We have had so many wonderful friends stop by to see the progress!

To name a few: Kasey, Kristin, Alex, Forrest, my family (mom, dad, Nick), David, Emily, Harley, AT, Ryan, Evelyn, Keith, Kate, Becca, and Todd.

WE LOVE YOU!!!