The Joys of Painting

I absolutely love to paint.  Seriously.  I am still amazed how paint can transform a room.  My mother, mother-in-law and I painted every square inch of the Little Blue House (walls, ceiling, trim, doors, etc...), as well as strip down layers and layers of wall paper.  I love old houses... the stories that you uncover while renovating... wow.  

So I have been chomping at the bit to paint Lil' C's nursery.  Hubby and I moved all our office furniture to what was sun room/craft/painting room last weekend, so I could paint over Fall Break.  I didn't waste any time getting to work.  I have had intentions from the very beginning to do a gender neutral room (leaning more toward "boy" colors... I am not a girlie girl), even though we are finding out the sex.  This has perplexed a lot of people.  Even if they don't actually say it (unlike my bestie, who said, "You know if it's a girl, you will totally have to re-do this room."  Love you J.B.), they most certainly have a confused look on their face. Well, I'm not going to re-do.  I like what I like and that's the end of it.  

Below are the before pictures of the wall.  I love this color (Benjamin Moore, Lenox Tan).  We used it in a few other rooms, too.

And here are the after pictures.  I had intentionally wanted the walls to be a light grey color.  It turned out  light blue with a very little hint of grey.  It will do.  No actually, I really love it.  It is very peaceful and serene.  Just what a itty bitty baby needs, along with mommy and daddy.  There will be plenty of pops of color elsewhere.

Is this little Molly Dog not precious!  You can find it here on Etsy.  This was the very first purchase I made when I found out I was pregnant.  It has been my inspiration.  I love all the happy colors.

Below here is the color palette, give or take a little on the shade.  The curtains are going to be the cute kiwi dog print and the pop of red is going to be the glider.  

Happy Weekend!

My Kinda Morning

(Molly Girl last winter next to her heater.  She is her momma's girl, no doubt.)

Coffee.  Ryder Cup.  Big Chair.  Plug-in Heater.  Need I say more?  Oh yeah, most importantly, no school due to Fall Break.

Oh Baby Baby

Exciting things are happening in the Little Blue House.  Where to start?  Well,  I have decorated for fall, we are in the midst of fundraising for the St. Jude Half Marathon, Trey won $100 last night at his work meeting, my Fall Break begins in a week, aaaaaannnndddd, we are expecting a lil' Baby C in March!  Yes, mid-way through a shotty summer, we got a little surprise.  I am currently 14 1/2 weeks and feeling wonderful! We will find out the sex November 2.  
I am super pumped about decorating Lil' C's room.  In all other aspects of my life, I tend to procrastinate, but not this.  Here is a sneak peak of the fabric that will be used.  It was love at first pup!  More to come later.

(Magnolia Fabrics- Pups, Kiwi and Vanilla)

My New "Play Pretty"

When I was a young girl, my sweet grandmother (the grandkids and friends of the grandkids call her Caca... thanks to my older cousin John) would call all my toys "play pretties."  Well, I had completely forgotten all about play pretties until my mom got a new ipod touch, and Caca called it "your mother's new play pretty."  Baahhhaaahhhaaa!  We all just died and now everything we have is a play pretty.
Here is my newest addition:

This was Trey's birthday gift to me back in June.  He's good to me... in all honesty, probably too good!  He was feeling sorry for me that I was sitting at home, bored, bum hand, with my antique laptop.  Really, we were planning on purchasing a new computer anyway, he just decided to surprise me a little bit earlier than planned.

I was previously a PC gal, but I have turned over a new leaf and I am t-totally in love with my Mac!  I'm still learning all the new tricks.  Luckily, I have my sis-in-law who is somewhat of a pro that I can call on for expert advice, because I am not tech-savy whatsoever.  

Anyone else have a new "play pretty" that they are excited about?

Saturday Sunrise

{Saturday sunrise 5:30 a.m.  Picture from my phone.  Camera is dead as a doornail.}

Good morning from the TN River.  I love it here so much!  We are so blessed that we can come anytime we feel like it.  Trey's parents have a house on the river and it's only about 30 minutes from where we live.  It's a perfect getaway spot and we definitely needed some time away.

We came down yesterday afternoon and enjoyed happy hour, a delicious dinner and cards with Trey's Aunt Judy and Uncle Billy who have a vacation house next door.  We must be a charity case, because they have fed us 2 nights this week.  Whatever, we don't care.  She is a fabulous cook and even though I love to cook, I am pretty limited on what I can actually do right now, so bring on the charity.

I am not sure what the day will bring... right now though, my sweet husband has fixed some delicious smelling coffee and is waiting for me to join him on the deck.  Happy Weekend!

sad story

well, i have been mia for a couple of weeks now, unfortunately.  first of all, please forgive me for typing in all lowercase, as i am typing with one hand.  it has been a difficult week and a half.  our sweet anna girl (above) was hit by a car last tuesday.  we happen to live on one of the two busiest streets in town.  i was in the backyard and i heard it.  i thought it was a finder bender at first and then i saw my neighbor from across the street run into the road and yell for me to come down.  my poor anna... how could i have let this happen? she never went near the street.  i still don't understand why. well, she had been hit hard and my only instinct was to get to her and try to comfort her and get her out of the four-lane.  well, as soon as i put my hand on her head she turned and bit down hard.  never in a million years would she have hurt me if she had been in her right mind.  i knew that when dogs are in pain and great distress that this is their first instinct.  did i think of this?  no.  she bit down and would not let go.  thankfully, my neighbor was with me and we both got her jaws open enough for me to kind of tear my hand out.  while i ran back to the house to get something to wrap my hand with, 2 other neighbors came to the rescue and got anna out of the road.  i have wonderful neighbors!  i cannot thank them enough.  it would have been so much worse if they hadn't been there.  trey was on his way home from work and arrived shortly after.  to make a long story short: anna had to be put to sleep, i have had about 25 stitches overall, 2 surgeries due to infection and a few days in the hospital.  i am now home and the pain is much more manageable and the infection is under control.  i have been blown away by all of the prayers, phone calls, cards, visits, dinners and much more that by all my friends and family.  through much therapy i will return to normal, eventually.  its been an adjustment having to need so much assistance on the simplest activities, such as washing hair/fixing hair, opening pill bottles, typing,  dressing yourself... so many things i took for granted.  wow.

We are still missing our anna very much!  her bed is still in its place, food and water bowl are still there.  we can't really tell if molly is sad or not.  i have joked that she has just enough bitch in her to be ok with it just being the 3 of us now.  she loved and depended on the fuzzy bear though, as did we.  we miss you sweet anna girl.  you had a heart of gold.  thank you for loving us.

{anna and molly cuddling}

'Coon Catchin'

Yep, that's right.  We've been 'coon catchin' (short for raccoon catching...it's a southern thing) at the Little Blue House.  We have known for about a month that raccoons have been shacking up in our attic.  The attic is above our two garages, attached to the house, but you have to go outside to get to it... thankfully. 

Momma 'Coon was caught last week.  We went to our local state park and let her go.  In all honesty, I really figured there was more than one of these things, but I have taken comfort in the fact I haven't heard there scratching noises above my bedroom... until last night.  I was in bed reading, Trey and the dogs were sound asleep, and I heard it.  Scratch, scratch, scratch.  Crap, crap, crap.  About the time I heard it, so did Molly- dog.  She is as old is dirt but can hear the tiniest sound a mile away.  Trey wakes up and I tell him that "their back."  He doesn't seem to be too concerned, because we did have a trap set, just in case they came back.  I couldn't sleep and they kept on making racket, so I trucked outside in the wet grass, up the stairs, opened the door to find 4 baby raccoons.  My exact words were, "What in the hell are we going to do now?"

I go back down stairs.  Trey is awake.  I tell him all about my discovery.  He is still not concerned, "What can we do about it right now, Grace?".  It is 10:15 p.m.  He goes back to bed.  I can't sleep.  I google pest control companies. I call Orkin 24 hour hot line.  They told me that my local company would call me within 48 hours.  48 hours?  Oh my...

About this time, Trey is up, he can't sleep either.  We decide to go give them another look.  They are still there, but one is in the live trap and the siblings are freaking out.  We decide we can catch them ourselves and put them in a dog kennel.  Trey leaves and tells me to keep an eye on the babes.  He comes back in blue jeans, no shirt, knee length camo muck boots, and neoprene gloves up to his elbows.  He had a 'coon catchin' outfit on.  My man was prepared, sweeeeet!  He wouldn't allow a picture, unfortunately.  I was pushing my luck as it was.  We caught 3 out of the 4 coons.  I have the job of trying to catch the other one today while he is at work.  Awesome.  I wander if I should wear his 'coon catchin' outfit (including a shirt)?  It is times like this when I am so glad I married a good ole country boy that is not afraid (or concerned) of a few of these little cute things.

Last Night

Well, I actually remembered my camera last night.  Unbelievable. I forgot it the night of the rehearsal dinner, of course.  I was wearing the cutest, cheapest outfit, too. Oh well, I will do a post later on that outfit once I get pictures from a friend.

The wedding was such a cute, fun, summer wedding.  It fit the bride and groom perfectly.  I sang.  It went fine.  I was super nervous, sick to my stomach (One would think after singing in over 40 weddings, this wouldn't happen anymore.  What the heck?) and had the cold sweats all the way through it.  After the fact, I realized in my rush to get ready, I forgot to put on my deodorant.  Awesome.  It was not 150 degrees outside either.  Luckily I live right in the middle of our little town, so it was no problem to run home before the reception and alleviate this issue.  Enough said about that.

{The happy couple.  Excuse the bad photography.}

The reception was a blast, too.  They had a great band and about 1 zillion sorority sisters and fraternity brothers from UT.  There were also lots of friends there from our hometown (Trey and I grew up with Ryan and Shannon) which is always fun to get together and have a good dance party.

{Nathan, Emily and I.  Nathan and I have been best buddies since diapers.  Love him to pieces.}

{Great friends, Doug and Megan}

{Hubster and the father of the groom, later in the evening apparently}

All in all, we had a fabulous time.  It was a really late night, especially for the two old farts that go to bed before 9 every night.  It will take us a few days to recover.  Trey is still in bed sleeping, while I had to get up with the kids (dogs).  They are on a bit of a schedule.  Anna, our huge golden, is obsessed with food.  She starts to freak out if we are late feeding her.  I swear she knows when it is 6 a.m. or p.m. on the dot and if it is five minutes after, she goes into a panic.  It's ok though.  I can catch up on my beauty sleep later.  Wanna know why?  "Schools out for summer!!!!!!!"  Ok, that's the last time I will mention it, but it just feels soooooo goooooood!

Woo-hoo!

Summer is finally here! Today is my last day of school... about dang time.

We have a very busy weekend planned. Our sweet friends, Ryan and Shannon are getting married and it will be one heck of a party, oops, I mean reception ;-).
Trey is in the wedding party and I am singing. Hopefully, I will remember to take my camera... we'll see.


Next week consists of:
-Running, since I haven't done that ANY this week. Yikes.
-Anna needs a grooming visit
-My jeep is desperate for new tires
-My half-painted adirondack chairs are finally going to get a new look
-Then, weekend at the river. Yes!

Hopefully I will be back with pictures soon. Happy Friday!

New Favorite "Smell Good"

I have a new favorite lotion from Bath and Body Works that is to die for. It is the best summer smell, very fresh and airy.... light coconut, light vanilla=perfection! I have also realized that the sweet smell stays with you basically all day. What more could you ask?

I bet the body spray would be awesome, too! It really makes me wish I was at the beach right now with my feet in the sand, good book and a cold beer. Instead I am on my lunch break at school. Booooooooo.... Also, our family summer beach trip to Dauphin Island, AL has been cancelled due to the oil spill. Major bummer! I guess we'll settle for the TN River.

Seven Days

(Fancy Nancy center in Pre-K... can you say divas?)

To all teachers... most of you are already on summer break. Congratulations, you made it through another school year and now you get a couple of months off to regain all of your now dwindled patience you'll need for the next bunch of kiddos.

To all mothers... have a fun summer with your babies. They need your love and attention so much!

Well, I have 7 days left of school (not that I'm counting or anything). I am more than ready for some time off! I have had a challenging class this year, behavior- wise anyway. I have also had a very sweet, funny bunch of kids, too. They absolutely crack me up. The little blond haired girl in the picture below has stolen my heart. She sometimes acts like she is off her rocker, but she is hysterical. She was a shicken hawk (chicken hawk) for Halloween this year, she bosses all of the boys around and they actually do what she says, and her pants are always falling off of her (because she is a size 3...teeny, tiny little thing) and she doesn't even notice. I will miss little things like that in all of my students that are going off to the big world of elementary school. BUT I am still very ready for summer! I need to recharge my teacher, nurse, custodial batteries (yes, I am all of those things on a daily basis).

What am I going to do for the next 6 weeks to rest up for next year?

-train for my 2nd 1/2 marathon (also, helping my mom train for her 1st 1/2)
-mow the yard

-paint a bathroom
-power wash sidewalks and Little Blue House
-overhaul my sun room
-clean up and beautify "Secret Garden"
- hopefully read lots and lots and bake in the sun occasionally

(Aloha Summer!)

Let's Try This Again...

(Totally unrelated picture, just too cute. They love each other so much.)

OK, so I'm going to try this blogging thing again. I tried once and completely failed... failed to keep going that is. I think I quit writing because I felt as if I had nothing worth while to write about. I still feel that way, but maybe "nothing" can be good or at least occasionally funny. I also felt (still feel) very intimidated by all the fabulous blogs out there in the blogger world. I mean
there are some fantastic, witty, gorgeous women out there. I actually have a "crush" on a few of them. I guess you could call me a blog stalker, I'm not ashamed.

So what am I going write about? Lot's of people write about their cute kids and since I don't have any, other than my precious puppies (see above), I guess I can write about average, everyday stuff... oh well, whatever, I'll figure it out. Bare with me please.