Paint by Numbers

Remember back when you received your first Paint by Numbers kit. You probably received it as a present from a relative or from a birthday party as no parent in their right mind would purchase something with paint to be used in their own house.

Well, as I refocused my attention back on the needed painting that I was avoiding, I started to think up my own Paint by Numbers program.

1. Remove all items from paint surface or that could possibly get paint on them if I get close to it.
2. Fill in all the holes that seem to be in the wall...didn't we ever fill them from the previous owner when we painted...obviously not.
3. Tape off what needs to be taped...I'm down to taping only on my wood surfaces...getting pretty good at my ceiling to wall line.
4. Put down the plastic...especially over my NEW carpet.
5. Sand the fill.
6. Wipe down from the sanding & any other splashes on the wall.
7. Prime where necessary or if changing from dark color to light color.
8. Finally Paint & Paint & Paint
9. Clean up
10. Put it all back together.

Of course while painting the kitchen, which I completed yesterday, I also had to add cleaning the top of the cabinets into the mix...as well as general cleaning afterwards. I tried to avoid the proverbial Spring Cleaning of all the drawers well I was at it, as I needed to stay on focus to get the painting completed, so more trim can be nailed.

Off to do the Family Room today :)

Family Portrait

A very rare opportunity to have our picture taken together as a family. Usually, I'm the one behind the camera, which I have noticed a lot with working on the kids' scrapbooks. So here we are, ready to go to Mama Mia 1.5 weeks ago; picture taken by one of Emily's friends in the living room.

A Rose is just a Rose

I received Flowers yesterday from all my special people....

From Richard

From Emily

From Andrew

Oh Happy Day...

So, as I sit here and contemplate the 42nd year of my life, I realize a few things...

(1) I'm not as young as I once was...
It's Tuesday and I'm still exhausted from a whirlwind weekend. The weekend started on Thursday for me. I head over to Lexington in the afternoon for a scrapbooking extravaganza with the "A-List" Scrapbooking Club. I work hard on Thursday...well not so hard...have a drink or two, and listen to all the chatting with the 5 of us that arrived on Thursday until 1:30 am in the morning. Then, I crack down and work hard on Friday...lots to do...have another drink or two...and more chatting once the remaining group arrives on Friday night until again 1:30 am in the morning. Saturday arrives. I am targeted to leave for another fun filled event at noon, but an determined to get a lot more completed in my albums. I'm up at 7:00 a.m. cranking out the pages. By the time I leave, I've completed 37 pages...WOW...I never do that...of course they need to be journaled, but that's okay...at least the pictures are on a page.

I hop in my car and head off for Chelsea for a DDD overnight gathering, a 2.25 hour drive from Lexington...there just isn't any good way to get there :) So, as I sleep my way over...not kidding...I'm tooling along pretty quickly to get there in time...I have no idea where I'm going, but I have to be there by 2:30 pm. I arrive just in time, toss my bag in my room, change into my dress pants, re-evaluate my lipstick, then join 9 others for an afternoon at the Purple Rose theater, dinner at the Common Group, and an overnight stay at the Chelsea Victorian House Inn. Chatting occurs all evening with all those I haven't seen in a while, some as long as 3 years, many it had been almost a year! So chat continues until the wee hours of the morning once again...and then up at 7:00 a.m. thanks to the Church bells across the street. I was told they chimed all night, but I obviously must of added those into my dream world.

So, when I finally get home, I unload the car from the whole weekend, go upstairs and crawl into bed for a nap. Monday comes around; thank goodness no exercise today, as was planned, just totally exhausted.

Now Tuesday comes around and I'm still exhausted, and wondering what day of the week it is. The cappuccino I had a lunch didn't do anything for me...except dilate my eyes with the caffeine.
So I'm sitting here and thinking back on the all nighters I use to pull...heading up to MSU to meet up with Alisa, stay up half the night, get on the road and head to Fenton for work the next morning. Then I think of all the times I usually don't sleep much and read half the night, but I guess this was more physical or mental relaxation as I have difficulties staying awake...and the day isn't over yet :)

(2) I'm not as old as I think I am....
Although I'm not good at multiple all-nighters...or multi-night short quantity of sleep, I still can get up and make it to Lifetime for my brutal workout. I'm still up with my kids when it's time for school the next day. I have all my original parts, some of them freshened (my eyes...what did you actually think), and I can still tie one on and still remember and laugh about the memories for years to come (especially if they are scrapbooked). My adrenaline seems to be endless at times and I feel I still can conquer the world. I'm sure I'll look back years from now and think...those were the good ol' days when I could do so much!

I keep remembering what Scarlett O'Hara said "Tomorrow is another day" and figure it's better than Rhett Butler "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

No Tickie, No Laundry

So, I show up this morning for my daily workout at Lifetime...today is Hydro Training. I get lucky and obtain the absolute BEST parking spot. I get my bag, get out of the car, and realize that I don't have my LT card nor my license, as I forgot to grab my purse on the way out the door. Usually I don't take my purse, so I didn't think anything of it. I keep my wallet in my coat pocket, but over the weekend, I changed purses & we took the kids to Mama Mia, so I put my wallet back into my purse...which is where it still sits. So, I see Kathy pull up and I think, that's fine, I'll be her "guest"...can't do that either without a license or picture id. So I'm standing in the parking lot chatting with her when she suggests we go to breakfast, but then realizes she only has $5...she didn't have her purse either, just her id requirements.

So, I'm hoping through all the excitement, I got my heart rate moving and a burned a couple calories...

Book Reading Resolution

As I finished Pillars of the Earth yesterday, I started thinking about my Book Reading resolution of 50 books for 2007. Now, I'm not really concerned about making it, but since I have several books on my list that are nearly 1000 pages, first being Mary Queen of Scots, next Pillars of the Earth, then World Without End, and History of Scotland, I starting thinking, next year, I should make it a total number of pages, as these books represent approximately 2.5 books based on the average of 350 pages in typical book I read. So if I calculated that out, that would be 17,500 pages, which would target ~1500 pages. So far in 2007 I have read 3594, so I'm right on track. But the way, I wrote it up with 50 books, I have to read 4-5 a month, and I'm sitting at 7....well, I'm still close to being on track. Next group of books are research books for Scotland...so I'll be curious how quickly I breeze through them.

BTW: I would recommend this book. This is my first Ken Follett book, recommended reading by my sister, Jane. Mr. Follett has a unique writing style which I enjoyed; his format of writing helped pull me into the story quickly. He introduces multiple characters into his story and they ties them all together in his plot. Although I believe this book could probably be 100 pages less once you remove some repetition, but on the flip side I was disappointed when the last 100 pages tossed you in 10-20 year increments and wished for another couple hundred pages to slow down the time and give added credit on the successes made in the end. Although lengthy, it would be a great Book Club book as the discussion on it can be endless. I don't recommend it on tape/CD. I tried it and found the reader not appealing.

Looking forward to my turn at the Library arriving for World Without End (I'm #23 out of 34 on hold), which is a continuation of sorts of Pillars of the Earth, but a 200 years later. Little Birdies told me, it's even better. If anyone has the hard copy...can I borrow it :)

Lunar Eclipse

As the world watch the 2008 Total Lunar Eclipse last night...next one not occurring until 12/2010...we as a family made plans to stay up and watch.

So by 10:00 pm we were huddled in Andrew's room, looking out the window & taking pictures until we steamed up the window. Then we moved to Emily's window and laid on the floor watching it go mostly dark talking about all the colors we saw until we decided we couldn't stay awake any longer. It was pretty awesome!

Stay tuned for a Total Solar Eclipse on August 1, 2008.