Happy Easter!!

He's alive.....and I'm forgiven!!



Hope you are all having a great Easter weekend so far.
As is par for the course here in Lubbock on Easter...it is cold and rainy. I should mention it has not rained here in like 5 months. One Easter a few years ago it snowed. It is like the Lubbock Murphy's Law Easter Edition...instead of if you wash your car it will rain, if you buy your daughters sleeveless frilly dresses and new sandals for Easter Sunday, it will be rainy and cold!

However, I don't have a daughter so this does not affect me...and I personally don't wear frilly dresses and sandals so it is all good!

In anticipation of a huge crowd tomorrow morning our church had a service tonight, which they really encouraged people to attend in order to offset the crowd Sunday morning. So we went to church tonight. Tomorrow morning we will have a lazy Sunday morning noshing on chocolate bunnies and Peeps left for us by the big bunny man himself!

Blonde rascal after church tonight......have mercy. This is BEFORE a big basket full of sugar. I fear tomorrow!

Last night was scrapbook night with the girls, at my house. There was very little, OK...no scrapbooking going on but lots of chatting and laughing instead. Good times indeed.

We have planned a big scrapbook/pool party/girls weekend at our "new" house this summer. However, in light of the recent revelation that a scorpion could crash the party, has squashed some of the enthusiasm from my girls. Sheeeesh, city girls. I assured them though, that I had a long conversation with the pest control man who is scheduled to come next Friday when I will be at the "new" house, for what is hopefully my LAST painting marathon weekend. I told "Ryan", my new best friend pest control man, that he better come to the house fully loaded with every toxic chemical he has in his possession. It will be a war zone...no scorpion will be able to survive.

By the by, I appreciated NONE of your comments on my last post!!!! What in tar nation is wrong with you people? Everyone has a scorpion story to tell and as a result I may never ever never ever ever never never never ever sleep peacefully again. (Kristen, I know without a shadow of a doubt you have a doozy of a scorpion story in you somewhere, but I appreciate you restraining yourself.... and sharing a BAT one instead....love you girl!)

Have a Blessed Easter!!!

Wild Kingdom

I am a city girl at the core of my being. When I moved to Lubbock 20 years ago from Houston, to go to college, I was a little taken back by the winds, hurricane force winds and blowing dirt. Dust storms that turn the sky an eerie brown/red. FLAT, open terrain. It all took some getting used to. Then after college I married hubs who has a passion for team roping which introduced me to horses and cattle and manure and boy stuff. We moved outside of town, hardly roughing it, but country living all the same. That started chipping away at the city girl in me.

Now we are moving 90 miles south to a little more rocky, a tiny, tiny bit hilly, pretty rugged area. Again our "new" house is outside of town.

I am afraid the city girl is about to be gone forever.

About 3 weekends ago when I was at the "new" house for a painting marathon, I was standing on the porch talking to hubs on the phone and a skunk ran out from under my car and directly below my feet, where I was standing on the edge of the porch. After I screamed at the top of my lungs into hub's ear, I was sort of amused by the skunk. He was very fat and cute. Luckily he was not at all alarmed by my shrill screaming. He happily waddled off. Thankfully bold Missy, who was also outside at the time, never saw him. I can guarantee she would have been all up in his bidness... and one very stinky pooch after that.

Always in the back of my mind is also the fact that our "new" house is in rattlesnake country. Watching your step and common sense will keep that risk at a minimum....AND there is a hospital in our little city Praise God. I try not to dwell on this new issue. I have not seen one... yet...but when I do, I just might lose my mind.

I do not like guns, mainly because I do not like loud noises. I will be purchasing some of those noise canceling headphones and hubs will be teaching me how to fire some weapon out of his arsenal. Mama will shoot a rattlesnake if necessary. I will be like Annie Oakley...with ear protection.

Our "new" house is surrounded by deer and wild turkeys. That is fun to see. They don't bite or smell (well, I bet they do smell but you know what I mean) or hurt you. AND if the economy completely tanks and we spiral into another great depression...Mama can hunt for dinner, while shooting rattlesnakes. It's all good.

Then this past weekend is about where it all ended for the city girl turned country bumpkin. I almost threw in the towel on country livin'. I was on another painting weekend. It was Sunday morning, hubs and blonde rascal were on their way to the "new" house. I was sweeping the baseboards, which I was about to paint. I moved a light fixture box from Lowe's (which hubs was coming to install) with my foot...my foot that was still in my slippers...and I notice something moving on the floor. At first glance I thought it was one of those ugly wolf spiders. But no, it was.....


A scorpion.


I should mention that the only "Scorpions" I like, would be the hair band from the 80's.


I screamed bloody murder "OHGODHELPME!" and beat that thing with the broom like a possessed woman! Then I grabbed a can of wasp spray and sprayed the living daylights out of it. The scorpion was very, very dead at that point.

It was all flattened out, from its beating, and was 2" long. I was traumatized. I decided right then we would have to move somewhere....somewhere with no critters. But where would that be? Every place has their own species of some disturbing critter or another.

This entire SW region of the country is scorpion territory, but I have never seen one. Certainly it could have come out of the Lowe's box. But, also our "new" house has been under some construction with open walls, etc... So it also stands to reason that a scorpion could have easily wandered in.

I will be calling pest control to come spray before I sleep there again on my next painting marathon weekend. AND I will put our house on the regular quarterly spraying schedule. No question about that.

Of course I took a picture. Not a zoom though, because I did not want to see it up close. Had I found it OUTside I think I could have looked at it up close. But there would have been nightmares had I studied it up close while in my house. Weird neurosis, I know.
It is right in the middle of the picture, amidst the pool of wasp spray. I know it is hard to see due to the construction dust covering the floor. By the way that is our new floor and I lurve it, dust and all.

(edited to add I cropped the picture so you can see the little beast. Y'all thought I was imagining it on my dirty floor! It is blurry from being cropped, and it rotated the picture for some reason...but it still gives me the heebie jeebies)

Lord have mercy. It is a good thing this "new" house has a pool, that is the only saving grace considering the conditions I will be enduring.

Well, the pool and this........"Brazilian Jewel" granite counter tops. It was installed last week and is so completely gorgeous. I didn't take a picture of the whole kitchen yet because they had not grouted (is that a word?) the back splash yet.

DO NOT leave a comment saying you had a scorpion in your bed, or shoe or whatever...because you will cease being my friend!! My fragile mental state cannot handle that info right now. Just lie and say that was probably the ONLY scorpion within 200 miles of our house...that is what silly hubs told me.

He better be thankful we have a pool, and granite that I adore.

There is power in some prayin' , folks!

The whole house selling thing is so wrong. Such a pain in the hiney. Stress. Compounded by the fact that we own 2 homes now. Woo hoo! Owning 2 houses sounds great...unless they are only 90 miles apart. One house to live in and then another in say Lake Tahoe or Cabo, THAT'S what I'm talking about!

We have a great house....but it will have to be a special buyer who is looking for a horse property. But I am trying not to focus on that small detail. This is West Texas after all, not Philadelphia or something. We do have horse people around here.

We had a couple of word of mouth bites on our house early on, that got our spirits up, but never panned out. We set this past Monday as the day we would list with a realtor. Sunday at church when I was filling out the attendance card, there is a section where you can put prayer requests and they have a prayer team that prays over all requests every week. So I put "pray for a buyer for our house".

A couple weeks ago on a whim I put on Facebook that our house was for sale. On Sunday, a girl that I lived in the dorm with my freshman year of college sent me a message saying they would love to see our house. (I was a freshman in college in...yikes...1989...I haven't seen this girl for 20 years!!)

Also on Sunday our banker came over to our house to rope with a bunch of guys and he told hubs that he and his wife had been talking about our house.

On Monday a friend of hubs called to say that a couple he is in an equestrian club with are looking for a horse property. He told this couple about our house and gave them our name, it turns out I worked with this woman at the job I had before I had blonde rascal!

I know the house will sell in the Lord's time...which I also know may not be my time!!! We had hoped and prayed to sell w/o a realtor in order to save some green...and that may not pan out either. However, this new interest in our house, all in one week and all right when we were about to call the realtor, sure feels like a pat on the back from God. Like He is saying "Quit worrying, I have this one handled" and I am sooooooo thankful for that!

We have packed up all clutter, the closets are cleaned out. That leaves the heavy duty cleaning....blinds, baseboard, light fixtures. Blah. Touching up paint. Primping and fluffing.

I started Sunday afternoon...painting the front door, planting some flowers, cleaning windows...

Ugh.

Yesterday I started on the blinds and went full force all day from there.

I should also mention I ran on the treadmill yesterday morning and today. That equals six miles of sweat followed by non-stop cleaning.... and I have not had a shower since Monday. EWWWW! I just dropped into bed last night. I couldn't even muster up the energy for a shower. (Poor hubs!)

I promise I will be showering momentarily....after I prune the rose bushes. Which I might add is happening way later that it should, but oh well.

We are showing the house Thurs. and Fri. evening. So my friends, PRAY!

I also cleaned out blonde rascal's drawers, switching out winter for spring/summer clothes. This morning the forecast showed 77 on Thursday ...and 39 on Friday. Wheeee! That negates my whole wardrobe switch AND flower planting. Thanks a lot mother nature.

I will leave now, to go do the pruning and then I can assure you I will be in the shower. I am starting to attract flies.

Boo hoo, Spring Break is over.

Well, actually after taking blonde rascal to the grocery store with me a few times the past week...I am glad school is back in session. Those trips are so much quicker and definitely more sane sans children!

Last weekend I was in Snyder painting. Duh. Two of my girlfriends came down on Saturday to help me paint. Let me just tell you how I adore them for that. Seriously. They were quite a team, Angie and Staci, they came armed with step stools, paint rollers... and margaritas. They were like the Red Cross coming to my rescue! They painted 2 bedrooms and then we may or may not have sat around drinking margaritas. Paint fumes, good friends and margaritas, it is what all good house remodels are made of.

Blonde rascal and hubs came on Sunday. Hubs was safety supervisor as I precariously painted the crown molding, which I guess is about 12' at its highest point, dangling from the extension ladder. Hubs then headed back to Lubbock since he had to work Monday, while blonde rascal and I started our Spring Break week.

Monday I painted some more and got everything ready for the floor installers who were coming the next day. That evening some friends in Snyder came by to see us. I caught wind of the fact that they raise miniature dachshunds. They had 2 left from the most recent litter. They brought them over so we could love on them.Seriously. Puppy breath, soft fur and that sweet face just about sent me over the edge. Luckily, something about the thought of simultaneously remodeling, moving and puppy potty training kept me from caving in and getting one.

Tuesday we made a trek an hour and a half south to Abilene to go to the zoo. Our first stop was in the creepy critters house where, lucky us, Tuesday is feeding day. So much to blonde rascal's delight we wandered around in that dark building while snakes were digesting mice and there were spiders and my skin was crawling.

We thankfully got out of there alive and I was pumped up by the thought of using my big camera lens at the zoo. My first subject was this stunning leopard......who I happened to catch mid yawn....Clearly the Abilene Zoo does not provide the animals with Crest White Strips.


Hello gorgeous...
We got to the zoo around lunch time and were excited by the thought of consuming zoo food... hot dogs, nachos...you know some greasy gut bomb fare. The dang concession stand was closed. I am sure it is only open in the summer, but come on it was Spring Break! There was a lone vending machine chocked full of peanut m&m's, chips, etc...and it was out of order.At the ticket booth they sold packs of these dry, wheat, rye, cardboard-like crackers that you could feed the animals. We bought some and by the end of our visit, WE were nibbling on them. Good thing the drink vending machines were in operation.


I was glad I could zoom in on this guy....from a distance.


Something about this grand creature made me want to hug his big furry neck. However that may not of ended so well for me.

We got back to the house in Snyder and blonde rascal decided to play in the hot tub. Still enamored by my zoom lens, I sat on the other end of the porch and took pictures. Which is fabulous because since I was not in his face, he had no idea I was snapping away.

There was splashing....
shooting hoops...
...and dancing....

Meanwhile, a little closer to the floor....
Pretty, pretty, princess Missy...
...had rummaged up a horse hoof trimming that she was happily munching on. Ewww.

The little shaggy dust mop...
Blonde rascal, who had for whatever reason gotten in the hot tub fully clothed instead of in his swimsuit, had stripped down to his undies to dry off. He was in a fit of giggles as I threatened to take a picture of him in his drawers....

He'll kill me for this.....



"The End"

Tobacco Road is the bomb.

Any fan of The Nester knows that she claims that Tobacco Road is the end all do all wall paint color. I wanted a warm, cozy, draw you in color. Not khaki or tan, been there done that...but more of a golden brown. I decided to trust Nester and use T.R. for the majority of our house.


Here is the living room when we bought the house.

OK, but the red accent and with stark white walls is too severe. The brown brick is just blah.


Fast forward to some crown molding added, the ceiling painted a fresh white, the mantle painted white and the glorious Tobacco Road....Tobacco Road blends perfectly with the brick....totally changing the look. Brilliant paint color, I tell you! Please note that this picture is mid-way through the project. That is just primer on the molding, second coats, cutting in, etc... are still on the 67 page to-do list.

Hubs loves the color. He was delighted. I think he holds his breath when I decide to paint. He was beyond pleased with Tobacco Road....could not stop staring at it and declaring how perfect it was for the house. (T.R. is a Duron color, but we don't have a Duron store within 500 miles of us...so I used the Lowe's version that the Nester gives.)

In case you were wondering, Missy approves too. She got a smudge of T.R. on her bootie (I told you she would) and thinks it looks fabulous with her chocolate coat.


I am working on a "before and during" house tour....it's coming I promise!

Lacking in sleep

After 4 solid days of working on our "new" house, I am beat. Today I feel like a zombie, an arthritic zombie.

Last night we got back home about 6:00 and I changed gears to prepare for the week. Then after a dose of Tylenol PM, I was in bed by 10:00 totally exhausted. Deep in a sleep like the dead...only to be awoken at about 2 a.m. by a sick blonde rascal. Diarrhea. Great. This required a jammie change. Back in bed...and woken up again at 3:00. Sheet change, sitting a spell on the toilet, giving a dose of Imodium (sp?) which was immediately thrown up. Back to bed and woken up again who knows when...another jammie change, starting a load of laundry. Back to bed, woken up again and then I just stayed up. Poor little guy.

What is even MORE tragic about the whole situation...I decided at 6a.m. to go to Wal-Mart to get 7-Up, crackers, soup, etc.... to be prepared for the sick day. I got dressed and tapped my comfortably snoozing hubby to tell him I was going to the store and to listen for blonde rascal....he startled awake and asked why I was going to the store so early. Obviously YOU slept well, dear! Men.

Oh well, if there is one person in the world I would stay up all night for it would be my little guy. I have the rest of my life to sleep, right?

The beautiful thing was that here is what WM looks like a 6a.m.

Sweet.

Oh, and I stopped here at 6:30a.m.


Even more sweet. (Sorry...took that picture w/phone and really don't care to take the time to flip it)

I had planned on posting pictures of the progress in the house...but blogger is now acting up. It won't save and therefore won't let me add pictures. Arg! So I guess you'll have to wait.

I really need to organize all of my pictures stored on my computer, that would make posting pictures SO much easier. However the Canon software is honestly not so user friendly...it is smarter than I am. I should switch back to iPhoto...because you know Mac makes it easy. I wanted to use the Canon software because I had aspired to be all cool and use the photo editing capabilities. Ya, well that is a pipe dream at this point so I might as well switch back to my beloved intuitive iPhoto!

All potentially contaminated surfaces have been sterilized, multiple loads of laundry completed, blonde rascal is 100% recovered and eating everything in sight. I guess I should go think about what is for dinner.

No pain, no gain

That is the back of hub's pickup loaded up with 14 gallons of various paints. I am leaving in the morning for Snyder to submerge myself in a 4 day paint-a-thon at our "new" house. Hubs is going to be Mr. Mom for a few days. He and the blonde rascal will drive down Saturday morning, which is when hubs is going to install the laminate floor in the bathroom.

I am taking my trusty assistant along with me...
Determining just exactly how helpful she will be is a total crap shoot.
90% of the time she is afflicted with severe ADHD.
So while it is doubtful that she will help me paint...
....I can guarantee she will inevitably get paint ON her.
I won't have internet over the weekend, but I will be documenting the whole ordeal with my camera. So tune in next week for the play by play...assuming I am not still high from paint fumes... or in traction.

Based on the pictures I have just downloaded from the past week, here is the long story short since my last post....

If you will recall hubs was out of town last week, Friday night b.r. spent the night with a friend so I rented "Nights in Rodanthe" during which I surprisingly stayed awake. Incidentally, it was not the best movie ever made.

The next morning I was calmly drinking my coffee in the glorious lazy silence, when all of a sudden Missy starts barking. I glance up looking out the front window and what do I see.......none other than these chumps in our front yard. It is Murphy's Law that they get out when hub's is out of town. I called my kind next door neighbor, and he came to my rescue.

Here is how God rewards me (That is how I prefer to imagine it anyway...He is happy I am taking care of my ticker, right?) for getting up at 6am to run on the treadmill....
...this is the view right in front of me as I step off the treadmill at the end of my run. That's good stuff.

There was also a major master bedroom closet clean out....but I only have before pictures because the afters can't be taken until hub's tackles HIS side of the closet. I know you hate that you can't see that. Maybe someday soon children.

Keep your fingers crossed for me this weekend. I hope to put a huge dent in the painting project...but come about Friday night I might drink beer for hours while sitting on the porch I fear I might fall into bed and sleep for 16 hours from exhaustion.

I'm still alive...I think.

Be forewarned that due to my exhaustion this post will be full of completely random and unrelated information. It is also possible that it will be infested with grammatical error. Don't say I didn't warn you.

In a nutshell, all of my time has been spent packing up, de-cluttering and prepping our house for sale. Then we go to our "new" house and unload, into the barn, all of the crap we packed up. Then I paint. And paint.

I am worn out. My lower back is done. I feel like I am walking like our UPS man. He walks with his upper body kind of at an angle...like his lower back hurts....

I have man hands as a result of all my recent manual labor. I told hubs that there was a massage/mani/pedi coming to me at the end of all this nonsense. Like a smart man he said "whatever you want dear"

To top it all of I have had the sneezes/runny nose. It could be spring allergies, but I suspect it is from all the dust I am stirring up. Makes me think I should do a thorough cleaning on a more regular basis.

I moved the treadmill from the guest bedroom to the newly repurposed "office" which used to be my sewing room. Heaven knows the hell hole of a mess that was my sewing room could not be alive while showing our house! Our 4th bedroom has been officially staged as an office/treadmill room. From the 10.5 million hours of HGTV I have watched over the years, I know that each room needs to have a clearly defined purpose when selling your house.

I ran 3x this week, which I was happy with considering my ailments. The swaying of the hips while running actually loosens up the lower back and it ends up feeling better....after the first excruciating minute or so. To add to my cleaning a little more often list, which I can honestly say I did not notice until I moved it, the sweat splattered dust encrusted film on the treadmill. I don't have my contacts in when I run in the morning...good excuse for not noticing it before, right? Disgusting.

Our house should be ready to show by next week. We are hoping to sell it quickly and not have to list it. Now, I know Realtors need love too, but dadgum we are trying to save money. We have some friends who when we first mentioned moving were very interested in buying our house. But, sadly they have decided it is not the right time for them. Now we have a few other people who might be interested due to word of mouth. Namely from our neighbor's and MIL's mouths. (I think they are anxious for us to move or something?!) Dear friends please pray that God will send a buyer our way!!!!

Hubs has been out of town at a conference since Tues. and will be back tomorrow. A little blonde rascal has slept in our bed all week as a result. Tonight b.r. is spending the night with a friend so I am about to go park my happy self in bed and possibly rent a movie....I think that Diane Lane/ Richard Gere chick flick is on pay per view.

I talked to the Marine this morning. He is stationed at Camp Lejuene, which is where Pres. Obama was speaking at this morning. So I called to ask him if he was guarding The Big Boss. He said in fact, no. His company had just returned from the "e course"....what? He forgets he is talking to a civilian...that is the survival course. He went on to explain that for like 55 minutes they RAN through this course, in full combat gear carrying a pack and a weapon through thigh deep mud, a chin deep freezing cold swamp and finished it off by crawling under barb wire.

He said he was bleeding, exhausted and smelt horrible.

I do believe that being a Marine is payback for his teenage years. HA! Ho ho ho har har ha!

Anyway he said that security on base today was NUTS. Obama had just landed when I was talking to him. He said there were fighter jets flying all over the base. He said it was pretty cool.

In a completely unexpected turn of events, I am about to make it big on Ebay. This is it folks, we are about to hit pay dirt, bigger than the lotto. Yep. You see in all my cleaning out, I came across a little gem in blonde rascal's room.

A baseball signed by Pete Rose! I realize that Pete spelled his own name wrong, not to mention used what appears to be a pink highlighter, but considering he is an alcoholic...or was it steroids...or gambling....or all 3...it stands to reason that he would spell his name wrong!

I scored an unbelievably wonderfully sweet antique little dresser and chest on Craigslist this week. I could just die I love it so. I haven't taken a picture yet, sorry. I will get on that. AND I will begin to post remodel of the "new" house pictures....when I have the time. In about 6 months.

I am kidding! I promise. Please come back to see me again before 6 months.

Budget Smudget

I painted the kitchen/dining room/living room ceiling at our "new" house on Sunday. The ceiling starts at 8ft. and slants up to probably 13 ft. or so. (I assigned myself the position of chief painter after the contractor told me what he estimated it would cost to have the inside of the house painted.)

Midway through the ceiling painting torture, in a weak moment, I informed hubs that I was through saving money.

(Remember hubs had rotator cuff surgery in Oct. so assisting in painting is out for him! In his defense, he did kindly offer to hire painters to save my fragile little self. Yet, I firmly & perhaps ignorantly remain cheap and determined when it comes to saving money.)

The trauma of schlepping the 12 ft. extension pole for the paint roller, wearing a shower cap and goggles (it's a popcorn ceiling...messy painting), hyper extending my neck and shoulders for 8 hours and the blisters on my hands...really, it was not fun.

However. It looks fabulous! It is amazing how a fresh coat of white ceiling paint brightens up the place.

It is all a distant memory as I have regained most of the movement back in my neck and I will bravely paint the walls of the house now. WALLS, not ceilings.

The good news is that The Marine was in town for the weekend and we had the strapping young man rip up the rest of the tile. He is used to physical torture by now.

On a different note, blonde rascal didn't have school Monday so we went to see "Hotel for Dogs"....totally cute. I even teared up at one point.

My mission this week is packing up excess clutter and "staging" the house for showing. Clutter....where does it come from and why do I have it?

It's fun to be a copy cat!

I have "co-room mothered" with the same 2 moms since 1st grade. At every holiday party for the class, they roll their eyes at me and grumble while asking what cute thing I made this time. I am always 100% honest and say I copy ideas right off the internet.

I don't get specific and give them blogs to go find....I mean seriously, I don't need another mom trying to one up me!

But I will tell you guys, cuz I'm nice like that!

Chris at Just a Girl posted this idea and it struck my fancy because blonde rascal's adorable teacher is a germ-o-phobe deluxe. What is not to love about a teacher that always has a Clorox Wipe in her hand? Stomach bug be gone!

In a moment of grandeur I decided to make Bakerella's cake balls as blonde rascal's Valentine treats for his classmates . Mine looked nothing like hers, but they are oh-so-good. Rich beyond belief but undeniably yummy! Oh, and I should mention....e-a-s-y!

Blonde rascal glued the Valentine tags together and we were done. Our contribution to the sugar crazed holiday.

Just a few hours of laundry and straightening the house and then I am bravely going to his class party...aka the sugar frenzy.

Go forth and be a copy cat today!