Thanks Nana!

If you've read here much you've read about my favorite aunt, or "Nana." I received another care package from Nana this week! :0)







I posted here about a poem Nana wrote after I sent her an email that simply said "Life's a Blog, waiting to happen." My care package this week? Nana had a tshirt made for me with those words on it!

Thanks Nana, I love it!!!

Does This Mean What I Think It Means???

I sure hope that seeing these all over my back yard means spring is almost here!!!

It's Finished!

I finished painting the geometric design on the walls tonight. Later this week I'll start the next room.

Here's the finished room, although not a lot different than the last photos posted. These photos are taken from each of the 4 corners of the room.

It's ALMOST Finished!

After work tonight I went to work on the painting project, hoping tonight would be the last night on this room. Not quite. I have one more coat to add to the orange stripe on one wall, then the blue tape can come off and I will be completely through with that room. Tonight I added another coat of paint to everything and finished the 4th wall. After I finish the orange stripe tomorrow I'll start the 2nd bedroom.

If nothing else, this project has given me a whole new appreciation for how hard Marty works. He often will work a full day, then go straight to another side job until late at night....and for many more days than what I've done. And he works much harder than moving a paintbrush up and down! :0) I certainly don't know how he does it!

Day 3 of Painting Project 1

Because it's been a busy weekend of church events, there was no evening service tonight. Having a free afternoon gave me some extra time to work on my painting project. As soon as lunch was over with friends and the church's out of town guests, I headed to work. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. I wanted to be completely finished with the main 3 walls I'm working on so all that would be left was the 4th wall consisting mostly of closet doors. It didn't quite work out that way, but I still got a lot done. I just have a few areas that will require another coat or two of paint, then I can move onto the final wall and be finished with this room. The teenager to whom this room belongs is thrilled with the outcome so far. Tonight before she left for the evening she came to take pictures of the progress also and told me she really likes how it looks. I'm glad she's pleased. :0)

It didn't hit me until I was headed home tonight how tired I am! I was feeling pretty energetic most of the afternoon and evening as I worked. I was sure hoping I'd still feel that energetic once I arrived home, but that was not the case. I didn't even have the energy to bring the supplies out of my car. I carried one load in and asked Heather to finish emptying the car. Thank you Heather!

Here are photos taken today. Click here to see the progress prior to today.

Painting Project 1 in Progress

I have some painting projects I've been hired to do. The first project is to add some colorful designs to a teenage girl's bedroom walls. One wall is bright orange and the other 3 are white. She wanted some geometrical shapes and she found the basic concept she wanted so I created a design using a rug pattern she'd found and made it work with her colors. I did not take any photos on day one because all I did that day was pencil the shapes onto the walls and the lines would not have been visible anyway. The project is going well and going pretty fast so I'm hoping to have it wrapped up soon.





There's a lot of construction going on in the house where I'm painting so people are in and out quite a bit. A big plus is that the guys on the construction crew taped off the floor for me saving me a lot of prep time. I warned the woman I'm working for that I tend to be messy when I paint but that I'd have plenty of drop cloths to catch any falling paint. I've never been quite as messy as I was yesterday!!! I dropped the can of green paint not once, but twice! What a mess!!! I decided after the 2nd time it was time to call it a day. As I was cleaning up my supplies I spilled my soda all over the floor too.

Right now I'm working on the orange wall and 2 of the white walls I can access while the bed is shoved over by the door. After I finish all these walls I'll move the bed to another corner and work on the final wall, which is mostly closet and wardrobe space and will go very quickly...barring any more messes!




Here's the progress so far:

The corner by the window, before color is added. (Day 1)

Same corner, with the green and orange designs. Today I'll had her blue ovals and more coats of paint on the green and orange. If I can manage to keep enough green paint in the can to finish the job! (Day 2)

The corner between the orange wall and white wall before designs are added. This is the corner the bed will go in when I'm finished moving it all over the place. (Day 1)

Just waiting for the blue and white ovals to be added... (Day 2)

My mess. After it was cleaned up! :0)

More photos of this project coming soon!!

Agape Feast

Tonight was our church's annual "Agape Feast." The Agape Feast is our annual Valentine banquet. There's always a catered meal and a gospel music group provides entertainment. This year the group was Shiloh.





It was a fun evening and a great excuse for everyone to get all dressed up for the evening.

Marty and me at the Agape Feast.

Erica and Jason .

My Valentine

You joined your lives as one

And swore to stick together

Through the rain to see the sun

Look how far you've come

And everything you've shared

All the little things you've done

Just to prove you cared

For a hundred more years

To come and go like the last

Just keep your dreams alive

And don't dwell on the past

May you always be in love

And in all the years to come

Be blessed by angels from above.

This poem was written to Marty and me by our friend Dar for our first anniversary.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Although we won't be celebrating Valentine's Day ON Valentine's Day this year, I decided I'd still devote today's post to it. Marty and I will both be working the evening of Valentine's Day, but we have events planned for both Friday night and Saturday night so don't think we aren't celebrating at all.

I am a packrat. I keep way too much stuff and it clutters up everything. Despite my attempts to do better, I still have a bunch of STUFF. One day when I'm gone Heather will be going through all this stuff trying to figure why on earth I kept it all. Sorry Heather...it's in the genes!!! Because it's Valentine's Day I dug through some of the stuff I've kept to see how much of it is Valentine related. Turns out...a lot. I pulled out a few things. I have a box that contains stacks and stacks of letters Marty wrote me when we were both in Arizona going to school. There are letters and poems.....and m&m wrappers. Even way back then he knew the way to my heart was through CHOCOLATE. He'd bring me m&m's almost every day after school. He'd bring me poems that he and Tree would sit and write when they were supposed to be taking notes in class. Just scanning through them quickly, the earliest one I found he'd written was dated 2/8/90.

I also found many other cards and valentines. I found a card my brother Levi made me when he was little, a card from my grandma, cards from Heather, even a card from Nana that was in my childhood scrapbook. Amazingly it's one of the few things in that book that isn't ruined.

My card from Levi.

Cards from my Grandma, Heather, my sister in law Courtney, Nana, Heather's former dance teacher, and one to Marty from Heather.

Valentines for me from Heather.

Marty and me as we celebrated Valentine's Day at the church's annual Agape Feast last year.

May this Valentine's Day be one you'll always remember!


Happy Valentine's Day, Babe! Can you believe we've had 18 Valetine's Days???

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PS Happy 37th Birthday Tree!!!

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So Long Basketball

The dance team danced their last half time show of this season. The final basketball game was tonight and our boys were defeated by Austin Akins. It was a good game, despite the loss.

The dancers performed their kick routine and did a fantastic job! How those girls can kick their legs that high is beyond me!

Heather.

Starsteppers Again Take the Court

We learned late last week the Lady Matadors Basketball team made it to the playoffs and they would play tonight at home. Since the cheerleaders are still out of town for a competition, the dance team once again provided the half time show. They did the same jazz routine as last week, but their costumes have arrived and they've much improved their moves in this dance! Great job ladies and good luck at this weekend's dance competition!!!

The basketball team got stomped (I don't even know what the final score was, but it was a pretty steep loss.)



Here are several photos of the dance team's half time performance:

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It has been birthday central lately!

Happy 39th Birthday today to Jason

and Happy 37th Birthday to my friend Dar!!!

(Dar, can you believe the first year we celebrated your birthday we were 19 years old??? My how the time has flown!!!)

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Happy 40th Birthday, Bill!

Our friend Bill turned 40 last week but he and his wife went out of town to celebrate his day. After they returned his wife Denise, Erica and I planned a surprise party for him at my house.

I emailed Bill and told him since we couldn't celebrate his birthday ON his birthday he and his family should join us for dinner the following weekend. He agreed and as far as I could tell he didn't know what was really in the works. The plan was for them to join us for dinner and several more friends would join us for cake and ice cream afterward.

I was afraid I was going to give it away as I hurried to finish cooking dinner in plenty of time to get it eaten prior to the other guests arriving. But, apparently Bill never caught on! As we finished dinner and sat in the living room I thought Heather was going to give it away. She didn't know about the surprise party after dinner because I didn't want her to inadvertently say anything. As we sat in the living room before the rest of our friends showed up, Erica called to let me know she was waiting at the end of the driveway for the rest to show up and they'd all arrive together. Just after hanging up with her, Heather and I were sitting on the couch facing the window that looks toward the front of the house. She kept watching a car drive back and forth and she kept commenting on it. As soon as Bill looked away I nudged Heather and told her to hush. Marty pulled her into another room to explain to her why the car (Erica's) was at the end of the driveway. It was very funny as it all unfolded and Bill was still clueless! At one point Erica's husband Jason (who's out of town for work) even called so he could tell Bill happy birthday but Marty explained to him that it was a surprise party and that Bill didn't know about it yet so Jason waited and called back later.

I was sure Bill would hear the 3 trucks pull into the driveway and park, but as they arrived at the house Marty started coughing to cover up the sound. I could tell the cough was fake and knew exactly what Marty was doing, but Bill....still clueless! I was surprised Denise and I could keep straight faces as all this was happening. As soon as our friends all walked in Bill figured it out just as they all yelled surprise!

What a fun way to celebrate with a friend! Happy Birthday Bill and thanks for being a great sport with our surprise! And thanks everyone else for helping us pull this off and for coming to help us all celebrate!!!

Thank you Denise, Erica, Darla, Dean, Billy, and Lisa!!!

Uh..how many people does it take to put 40 candles on a cake??? Apparently 4 + 1 to hold the fire extinguisher!!!

The birthday boy!

Good grief Bill you sure filled my kitchen with a lot of smoke!!!

Hope you enjoyed your birthday surprise Bill!

Bill's daughter Katie waiting for a piece of cake!

Never a dull moment when Bill's around!

While the adults visited, all the kids made pallets in the playroom!

For more photos of the night's festivities check out Erica's blog.