Fruits of our "Labor" Day weekend

On the south side of our property, the neighbors put in a beautiful white vinyl fence. It runs from our front yard all the way down the side to the end of our backyard. The back of our yard is a chain link fence, but is almost completely covered with grape vines, so it looks nice and gives us privacy. The north side of our house, however, is a big old wooden fence. John decided he wanted it white so it sort of looks like the vinyl on the other side. (Katelyn insisted on helping, and ended up covered in white paint!) John did most of the work, but I pitched in a little and the project was finished in 2 days. It looks great now!

John has been planning on building a work bench in our garage, since we have enough space in there for a third car, but we've been waiting for the money to buy wood. We got lucky when our friend Shane took John to his old work site where they were giving away a bunch of benches and shelves. Here's the result, and John couldn't be more pleased!

Our other big project this weekend was to texture our ceilings upstairs. We finished scraping the popcorn off of our living room ceiling a few weeks ago, and the rest of our ceilings needed new texture because they're all different. So John, being the man who can do anything he puts his mind to, spent Saturday and part of Sunday morning finishing all of the texture. I'm so impressed - it looks awesome!

With our new beautiful texture up, I was excited to get going on the painting. Last night I primed the ceiling in the living room. Can you tell the difference?


I'm so excited to get this room done! Today I'll prime the walls and hopefully paint the ceiling. The walls will be Bonjour Beige and the ceiling and all of the moldings will be Antique White, which will continue through on all of the moldings in the house and the kitchen cabinets. I hope to have more pictures to show you tomorrow!

I have to add that we couldn't have accomplished nearly as much this weekend without the help and companionship of our good friends Shane and Becky. They spent over 12 hours with us on Saturday, and then when I thought they were sick to death of us, Becky and I were on the phone planning to hang out and relax Sunday night. We're so glad to live so much closer now!

Snakes & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

There is something so sweet and special about little boys. I have 3 sisters and no brothers. (I always wanted a brother, particularly an older brother. Katelyn is lucky because she gets the benefits of an older brother, but she doesn't see Tanner enough to get on his nerves or to get torchered and teased like all of my friends who had older brothers.) Anyway, when I got pregnant with Katelyn, I wanted a girl so badly. Lucky for me, I got what I wanted and have adored buying pink clothes and stuffed animals and dolls and all that goes along with having a little girl. When I got pregnant with Carter, I wanted another little girl. Not that I didn't ever want a boy, but I justified my desire by saying that Katelyn should have a sister close to her age to play with. Really, I was terrified to have a boy. Growing up with no brothers, I have no idea what to do with boys!

So I was blessed with my little Carter, and I have gotten to experience the love of a mother for her son. Of course I love both of my children, not one more than the other. But the bond between mother and son is different from the bond between mother and daughter. I can relate to Katelyn because she likes girly things, and doesn't prefer trucks and motorcycles and wrestling every minute of the day. But Carter is the loviest little guy. I can feel that he's going to adore me for the rest of our lives. I sit next to him at the dinner table and sometimes, in the middle of dinner, he'll reach over and hug me for no reason. I end up with food all over me, but it's the sweetest thing!

I think Carter is in a grace period. He doesn't get into things quite as much as he did a month or two ago - or maybe I've gotten really good at heading him off - and he's not quite into the terrible 2's. There are days when he throws tantrums and screams all day, and of course he is so wild that he's bound to break a tooth or dislocate an arm from time to time. But he is very sweet and I find myself thinking how awesome he is more than being frustrated with him these days. I'll have to make the most of it while it lasts, because thanks to Katelyn, I know what's coming.

Happy thought: I find myself feeling grateful almost every day that we bought this house. That is due in large part to how much I love the neighborhood. I never would have thought that would be the case when we started looking at homes in this part of town!