Toadfrogs and Elephants

I am once again trying to choose a paint color. I know I want a red dinning, but the shade of red is proving hard to pick. Everyone had told me that painting red was much more difficult than any other color. Knowing this, I took the advice of the paint person and bought a tinted primer. I was told this would save me from having to paint six coats of red. The funniest part is the horrible color of the tinted primer – yuck.

I now have three different shades of red on the wall and can’t decide. I was going to post pictures, but they all look the same in a picture. I think I am going to paint my favorite red and then repaint it in a few months if I don’t like it.

Horrible chandelier isn’t it? We are going to get a new one as soon as we have a table.

The Sundays our church meets are always extremely long days. We have to be at church in Greenville by 7:30 am, which means we are up at 6:30 am. Wade and I both work both services so we aren’t finished with church until 1:00 pm. Today we met Wade’s Aunt Louise and Uncle John for lunch at Stax’s Omega – they even had chocolate chip pancakes! After lunch Aunt Louise and I visited a flea market and Wade tried to fix Uncle John’s computer. At about 5:30 pm Wade admitted defeat. We got home, built a fire and started back in on the dining room. We got all of the crown molding sanded and primed. We even got a coat of primer on two of the walls. (I am only painting two until I decide if I like the color.) Tomorrow I will put the first coat of red on the walls – woo hoo.

Because I haven’t had a lot of work recently, my days all tend to run together. A Saturday is no different than a Tuesday. I got up this morning and drove Wade to meet his Aunt Louise and Uncle John. They were driving down to Atlanta for a GaTech football game. I stayed home and worked on the dining room. I was making good progress when I realized I had a baby shower I needed to attend. I quickly showered, wrapped the gift, and headed out the door. I was halfway there when I realized this is the first baby shower I have attended, but there will be lots to come. I know four pregnant girls in my church – three of them are due the same week in April. The shower was fun, but took most of the afternoon. I never got motivated to return to the dining room project. A movie in front of the fire with Wade was much more fun after dinner.

Wade and I took a few weeks off, but we have started another project. I am tackling the dining room. I know I want to paint it red, but I’m not sure which color of red. I finally decided to buy some paint and put it on the wall. I can always paint over it if I don’t like it. We asked Danielle’s husband, Johnathon, to help move furniture away from the walls. Then I got out my trusty heat gun and started stripping paint from the molding. Wade took pity on me and took over the heat gun. I got out the contour sander (the greatest invention ever!) and started sanding behind Wade. We got about half of the molding done tonight.

Here is a before picture:

All of the stores are decorated for Christmas and it has gotten me in the Christmas mood. Some girls from my neighborhood and I decided to start our Christmas shopping. We drove to Dawsonville, GA and spent most of the day buying Christmas presents. Emma, my two year old neighbor, was a really good sport about being dragged around all day. We had a fun time and I even marked quite a few people off my list. Now I have a bunch of gifts to wrap!

The first thing I do when I get up each morning is look out the window. If it is raining, the poor dogs only get a short run instead of going outside for the entire day. Well today when I looked out the window there was a man at our back door. I watched a minute and realized it was the trashman. He came up our driveway, emptied Wade’s shop trash can into our big one and took the big one to the street. How cool is that? I had decided late last night that it wasn’t worth the trouble to take our trash out in the rain. I wonder if I can call and thank him or give positive feedback to his supervisor.

Kendall and James invited us to spend the afternoon at the lake. It was a gorgeous day in Anderson so we quickly agreed. By the time we arrived at the lake in the mountains of North Carolina it was quite chilly. We all decided that playing card games by a fire sounded more fun than a boat ride on the lake. After a little searching, Wade found the wood and we had an awesome fire going and a deck of cards. We taught Kendall to play Spades and then she and Wade creamed James and I. Wade said we looked like a J. Crew ad. Young people around a fire in a woodsy lodge.

Wade convinced James and Kendall to keep playing cards even after they should have left to make their dinner reservations. Instead, Wade and I crashed the party joined the three other couples for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Like I ever turn down Mexican!

Today was full of fun. The morning started off with an auction down the street. The house was not for sale, but we did get to see inside. Until we noticed the house didn’t have central heat and air, we were seriously considering investing in it. Danielle, Emma, Wade, and I stayed for a couple hours and I bought two items for $5 each. I got a mirror with a “weathered” frame and a kindling basket. We’ve had a fire every evening so far.

Wade and I then spent the afternoon raking leaves. This yard is much more manageable than our last house. We have one big tree and then lots of dogwoods. Our neighborhood is great. You put anything you don’t want at the curb – furniture, limbs, trees, leaves, trash, etc. It disappears – sometimes the city gets it and sometimes a neighbor takes something.

We spent the evening in Greenville doing a little shopping and eating dinner with a couple from church. We had dinner at the Melting Pot and the three hours seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. The Wybengas are a lot of fun. Daniel and Wade are definitely on the same wavelength and Laurie and I both have to deal with them. My favorite incident at dinner – Wade told the waiter he wanted ice cream with maraschino cherries for dessert. The waiter faltered a minute and then explained they didn’t have ice cream, only items to dip in chocolate fondue. The waiter had been joking with Wade all night so I shouldn’t have been surprised when he served Wade a plate of maraschino cherries and a bowl of “melted ice cream.” Wade tried dipping the cherries in the bowl of milk but said it just didn’t taste quite the same.