Office/Playroom

We're continuing to make progress on our office/playroom remodel. It takes along time...especially all the prep work...caulking, drywall, mudding, etc. Now that we've got most of that behind us, the painting is definitely coming along. We've got two coats of paint on all the trim now. We've decided to go ahead and paint the laundry room too while we're at it. Allen's priming one of our walls now, but the American Tradition Tintable Primer we got seems really watery. I wasn't sure about the woman in the paint department at the Lowes where we went (she was not very happy)...so we might try to take it back. We're not sure. I wanted to have things done (things always take longer than you expect) before my next blog about this, but I've had several people ask about our progress, so here are some new pictures. You can compare with those in my previous blog if you want.

Fun with Aluminum Foil

Everett had a little fun this morning while I was working on the computer. Why is it that the minute you're occupied in something they are getting into everything they are not supposed to? It was funny though to see him in the kitchen with all that shiny foil. I had to use this as a photo opportunity. It made his life kind of flash before my eyes as I thought about one day showing his wife/kids about what Everett did when he was little.

Demolition Begins

It's Saturday and we're in the process of remodeling our playroom/office. Allen has taken off almost a whole wall of chair rail and about half a wall (below the chair rail) of drywall. It's good to get it started but we've got a long row to hoe. It's interesting and somewhat scary to see what's behind your walls...especially when your house is older.

On the list for our playroom is new shelving/cubbies for books and toys, new carpet and new paint. We're starting with the painting, which means patching holes in our walls and doing some drywall work first. We're trying to decide between buying shelves from Ikea or making them ourselves. I'm voting for Ikea, but we're heading there tonight to see if the ones we like online are really what we would want. We were thinking about doing hard wood floors, but now we're thinking about berber carpet, just because we're constantly on the floor playing with Everertt and carpet is just so much more comfortable.

Here are some photos of our demo work:

Also, here are a few photos of our new desk:

The best part...a cabinet that holds our towers and all our cords.

Rachel Ray

I love the new Rachel Ray show. It's so much fun to watch with so many good tips, advice, and of course great recipes. I think it's really changed the way I cook. I used to make so many recipes with those canned soups. I guess I never thought there was another way. It feels so good to use more fresh ingredients now and like RR says you actually know what your putting into your food and it's so fast too. Maybe all of you out there already knew all of this but since we just have basic cable, I've never watched much of the Food Network before. I will say that the shows of RR's I've seen on the FN were really scripted and this one is so much more real. It comes on at 3pm...which is usually right in the middle of E's nap, so I usually catch it. You can't print the recipes until after 4pm and I'm usually sitting at the computer waiting to print the day's recipes...unless it has mushrooms like today's recipe did. :) Yesterday she had a ton of great recipes using leftover chili. I haven't tried any of them yet, but I'm planning to. You can get them off her website, http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/. Just check out Thursday's recipes.

Return to Normalcy

I feel like things are finally back to normal after the holidays. We had a great time with my family in Atlanta for Christmas. Brian and Kate and the kids and my mom all stayed with us for about 5 days or so. We went down to Andy & Shelby's house for Christmas dinner. It was nice that Allen had so much time off over Christmas...it was a much needed break for me. Everett had a blast playing with all of his nieces and nephews. I think he's kind of in withdrawl now from all the attention he was getting. You can see tons of new photos on our flickr site.

Lindsay and Michael's Vietnamese reception was here in Atlanta last Saturday. It was fun getting to see them again and having Allen's parents stay with us. They all stuck around on Sunday because Allen got installed as a deacon at Intown. It was a nice service and I'm so proud of him. It's such a perfect fit for him and I know he'll do a great job.

We now are back to working on our house projects. On Saturday Allen and his dad went all the way to Acworth to pick up a desk we bought off of Craig's List. It is perfect and it was only $75. It's got tons of drawer space and a big cabinet on the left which holds our 2 towers. Now Everett isn't getting into all of our cords. It's marvelous! Also, we took a ton of stuff to Goodwill...no more TV's in our playroom, Kate! :)

Now we're going to finally start painting our playroom and kitchen and we'll be working on shelves for our playroom. I'm really looking forward to finishing these projects and it looks like we'll have some time the next several weekends to get a lot accomplished.

Christmas is Here!

We are in Augusta right now for Christmas and it's been so nice and relaxing. We got here late Wednesday night and will be here through Christmas Eve. Last night we went on a hayride to look at a big Christmas lights display. One problem is that it started raining on our ride and we all got pretty wet. It was a fun experience though. We had a nice dinner afterwards of country fried steak, rice and gravy, green beans, and biscuits. It was delicious! Then Allen and I went out to see the new Will Smith movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. It was very sad and hard to watch at times because of the struggle of the movie but it was very good too. I think it was especially touching thinking about Everett.

Here are a few photos of us before the hayride...before getting drenched:

Here we are after the rain...very soaked!

Lindsay's Wedding

Lindsay's wedding was wonderful this weekend. Everything went really well. The ceremony was beautiful and so was Lindsay. We had a lot of fun at the reception too. Allen and I are exhausted after all of the events though! Since we were both in the wedding and had Everett tagging along with us we were running around a lot. It was fun though and we're so happy for Michael and Lindsay. They will make an incredible team! Here are a few photos:

Thanksgiving

We had a great time at Thanksgiving in Augusta. We went to Allen's grandmother's house for lunch with about 35 of his relatives. It's a big group! The day after Thanksgiving Allen and his sister's finace, Michael, left for Michael's bachelor weekend. They went caving and rock climbing and saw the new 007 movie! The day after Thanksgiving Allen's mom (Deb), his sister (Lindsay) and I all went shopping at 7am! We had an adventure of our own, a more girlie adventure though. We found some good deals at Target and at the mall. It was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday we had a family wedding shower for Lindsay. Afterwards Everett and I drove back to Atlanta to meet up with Allen.

On Sunday we started hanging up our Christmas decorations and more than half of our lights weren't working. Major frustration. Today I went to Target to buy more and one of the strands I bought wasn't working. More frustration. Needless to say, the house is looking good and we're planning to get our Christmas tree tonight. Hopefully this will make it feel more like Christmas because right now I'm not really into it. Could be because it's still November?

Christmas is getting more and more rushed each year. What's up with that? While Allen was stringing up the lights on our trees outside he said, "I'm only doing this for Jesus." It was funny, but it did make me wonder why we really do all of this. I picked up our Advent devotional from Church on Sunday and hopefully Allen and I can go through it together so it can give us some perspective.

The Park

We had a great time at the park today despite the cold weather. We went with our neighbor Rasa and her daugther, Aura, who is almost 1 year old. She and Everett get along great and always have a lot of fun together. It's nice because they live in our neighborhood, just up the street. Everett is sleeping very soundly now after playing so much this afternoon. It was a lot of fun and I got some pretty cute photos...




We are heading to Augusta this week for Thanksgiving...I'm really looking forward to the break.

Our Weekend

We had a very busy, fun-filled weekend. We went to visit Santa at Lenox Mall Friday night and we also rode the Pink Pig. Everett did suprisingly well with Santa. He cried when we first handed him over but calmed down very quickly. It was fun. I know it was early to visit Santa, but it was so nice because there was no line whatsoever. We went with a big group of friends, which made it a lot of fun.

Saturday we were up early to run the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta 5K. It started and ended at Turner Field, which was really cool. We ran with a lot of folks from our Young Couples class at church. We had a team of 24 runners. This was Everett's first race. Allen pushed him in the stroller. Neither Allen nor I trained whatsoever for the race so we were a little nervous. It wasn't too bad though. Allen finished in 35 min. with the stroller and with staying with me for the 1st mile and I finished in 39 min. Sad that I used to run 5Ks in around 27-28 min., but I was still happy with my post-baby time. :)

We then drove down to Columbus, GA, for my nephew's 2nd birthday party. It was a fun party and we stayed in Columbus for the day. We got back late that night. It was a long day and Allen and I were pretty sore getting out of the car after we got home. I guess that's the price we pay for not training for the race.

There are tons of new photos on our flickr page of all of these events...but here are some of my favorites: