A Great Day to Get Older

I decided I must need to blog about my birthdays since I can't remember what I did last year. Is that a sign I'm getting old? I always have trouble remembering how old I am too, and I think I'll keep it that way for the next few years actually. This year's birthday has been spread across the week! Tuesday night we ate at Mom and Dad's and had Gigi's cupcakes. Yum! This morning when Brennan woke up Mike told him today was my birthday. His response, "Let's go eat cupcakes!" The kid has it figured out.  I had lunch with my two favorite guys, and got lots of cards from them. Tomorrow, I'm going out to lunch again. Mike and I are going to Atlanta for my requested gift, a shopping trip to Ikea, in a few days. I've also gotten several nice cards, messages, and gifts over the week. With birthdays this nice, I'll keep them coming.

What's Going On?

Guess what's going on at our house today? Progress has finally started on our master bedroom! If you've ever wondered what termite damage looks like, here you go:

 And the whole wall looks that way:

We found this damage soon after we moved into the house, 2 1/2 years ago. It started with a leak and realizing that the drywall was mushy. Mike decided to tear the drywall down, and found all this. During our closing on the house, we had been handed documents saying there was evidence of past termites on the outside of this wall. These documents were a surprise to us all, even the previous homeowner I think. It was a little late then to ask for more information or have it checked ourselves, but that little document cleared anyone else of responsibility. Nice huh. There's more to the story, but long story short we are just getting around to finishing the room again. They will replace the two windows and put up all  new drywall. After that a little more work will be done in our bathroom. Then we will finally be using every room in our house for its intended purpose. I can't wait for everything to be in it's place.

These two had a tough time waiting out of the way while the supplies were moved in yesterday. Maeleigh said," But we can't see anything from here!" Ha Ha!

Happy V Day!

Tomorrow's the big day! I'm one of those people that loves Valentine's day, or at least I love getting ready for Valentine's day. I've had some fun this year. Last week, I packed a few Valentine surprises in Mike's bag to start a seven day countdown to Valentine's. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to make the cute tags and decorations for the bags I had planned, so it was definitely the thought that counted. I got the idea from Pinterest, of course, and chose items that he would appreciate (like the Bounce bar because he has wanted to try it for awhile and I thought it was kind of expensive).

I have one more surprise for tomorrow! It's another little Pinterest inspired project that I think he'll like. Brennan and I also made some Valentines for him to hand out. He mostly put stickers on other paper while I made them, but he's super excited about them. He gave them to his Sunday school teachers yesterday, and will give them to some family friends at lunch tomorrow. He goes with Nonna and Papa to eat at our friends' store most Tuesdays.

They are Moon Pies with the tag attached. By the way, if you haven't tried the mint Moon Pie crunch they are very yummy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun, Fun, Fun

I found some inspiration for the bathroom:

In case the color doesn't show too well, the rug has a dark blue background with turquoise and kiwi green. They are very vivid in person. These are my favorite colors! I decided to stop at T.J. Maxx yesterday and just see what I could find. This may be the first time EVER that I've gone looking for inspiration and found it on the first try. I usually find the stuff I love when I don't need it. The rug background matches the counter, so I'm going to paint the room and then decide how I like the counter blue. I want it to look clean and fresh, so something lighter may work better. I plan to add a white (or green :) mirror and white shelves. I also want to paint a little chair or stool one of the bright colors, and put the pillow on it. Now to decide on a paint color. I have several options in the barn to start with, and I'll go from there. EEK! I can't wait to get started! I hope the hubs likes it, since he's seeing it for the first time with you!

Bathroom Update

I have a whole list of projects I want to get done inside before the weather gets nice outside and I'm super busy out there. I started to feel a little panicked when we got back from Hawaii and the weather was so nice, and all of our flowers were springing up already. I've lived in Alabama pretty much my whole life, so I'm very familiar with crazy winters and spring snows and such. I still found myself kicked into high gear feeling I've got to get on these inside projects. Last week I worked on some organizing and such.

Yesterday, I started working on our downstairs bathroom.

In the Beginning

 It had not been touched since we moved here 2 1/2 years ago. It had thick wallpaper, worn out vinyl flooring, and a bright blue counter top with two large mirrors over it. This bathroom is right off the playroom. It is used most when we have play dates here, and in the summer when people come in from the pool. My first step was taking down the wallpaper. I've had a terrible experience with this task in the past, so I was very apprehensive. At my last house, they had not primed or painted  behind the wallpaper in my master bath. When I took down the paper, or I should say when my poor cousins were wrangled into taking down the paper (yeah, I still owe them for that), it ruined the drywall. Today's task went much better! Hallelujah!

This paper had paint behind it! I sponged Diff wallpaper remover onto the wall, pulled off the top layer, sponged Diff on again, and then scrapped and pulled off the paper backing. The first layer pretty much came off in full sheets, and the second layer came off in mostly large pieces.  I couldn't believe the difference! It still took awhile, about 4 hours, but WOW it is done.

One Step Down

Now to decide what color to paint and how to decorate! The fun part! I'm really drawing a blank on what I want to do though. I can keep the dark blue counter, not a color I would pick but I think it has possibility, or try painting it. My dilemma is whether to go with a bright fun room or a serene spa feel. On the one hand it is used a lot by kids, on the other it has a Jacuzzi tub that I use on rare occasions. Hmm, any ideas, suggestions, insight? What color would you use if you were doing a bath right now? Any good pins I should check out? It's really a blank slate, so I would love some ideas!

 Should it stay or should it go?

It's definitely going. Should I try stick down tile? Any experiences?

Super Bowl Sunday

It's that great day of the year we anxiously await! Hilarious commercials, great food, crazy half-time performances, and oh yeah--football. I love college football, but don't care that much about the NFL. Mike loves the NFL so we do watch every week, but it never matters too much to me who ends up in the Super Bowl. I would have had to stop and think if you had asked me today who was playing, but I have had the date marked on the calendar for awhile. We usually celebrate with friends. Today, this was our guest:

Miss Lola Kilgore-Coffey
She's vacationing with us for a few days, and being such a good girl.

Mike has been traveling a lot, and was gone all last week, so we had already talked about having a quiet family night. Then he came home Friday with Strep Throat, so that sealed the deal. That didn't stop us from having good food and enjoying. I made a family favorite, stuffed shells. I just stuff mozzarella, ricotta, and Parmesan into jumbo shells and cover them with spaghetti sauce. I also made Ghirardelli brownies with chocolate icing and some M&M's on top. All with the calories taken out of course!

This little guy enjoyed the paper while he watched the game.

Congratulations Giants fans!

Picnik

Picnik is closing! GASP!

If you aren't familiar with Picnik, it's a great, mostly free, website for picture editing. You can upload a picture and make changes to the size, coloring, texture, even add suntans and take off a few pounds. I use it all the time, so I'm very concerned that it is closing. They are moving over to Google+, so hopefully the same great services will still be available for free. In the meantime they are offering all services on their site for free, even the premium ones. They will be up and running until the middle of April.

Here is a picture I edited tonight:

Before:

 Pretty cute

After:

A little closer, a little gritty--just like a little boy should be