Pudding Cups and Potatoes

Three pudding cups


Three potatoes mashed



That's it. That's all I've had to eat all week.

Dentists. They have never been a fear for me, but over the past year I dread them.

The Novocain or whatever "Cain" is used in dental offices these days makes my heart feel as if it's going to jump out of my chest. The dentist gets really irritated with me because my body is shaking uncontrollably. This time when it started happening, I asked for the gas. I inhaled that so deeply and quickly I'm surprised I didn't pass out. BUT.....

If I hadn't taken the gas, I would have been able to save myself from this diet I've been forced to eat all week. Before going into my little room, I had new x-rays taken. Letting the nurse know what tooth I wanted worked on, she pointed out another one that needed tending to. I was all for it.
Getting it over with in one visit suited me just fine. So, with the one she pointed out and the one I went in for in the first place, I believe that's two teeth? 1+1=2.

As I'm getting all settled in, in that lovely reclined position, the dentist tells me what he's going to do. Our conversation went something like this:

Dr. Quack: I numb bottom first then come back and numb top. Ok?

Me: Um, why the top?

Dr. Quack: Because you have tooth there. Three teeth I do today. Ok?

Me: Uh, no. It was just two. This one and this one.

Dental assistant: No chart say 3. Ok? Ok.

Me: (thinking I may have missed something). Well, ok.

The procedure starts and I begin the gas after my body goes into it's well known fits. I'm going to get as drugged as I could and hopefully just fall asleep.

Just as I was as high as a kite in the sky in spring, and felt the pressure of the dentist pulling the tooth I knew nothing was wrong with, I hear the dental assistant tell the dentist. "Oh, here's her chart. We had the wrong one."

It was too late and I was too drugged to make sense of it to fight back.

So, this is why soft foods are on my menu for the week. Id rather have a root canal any day over an extraction. I'd also rather have one of these rather than another pudding cup:


Such is life.

I Need a Vacation

My best friend moved back home from Dallas a couple weeks ago, so this week we have been catching up and switching out kids.  She has a daughter who is a year younger than Emily, so they have spent the entire week together over here or over at my friend's.  Needless to say, it's kept me from being able to do too much of the work I intended to start doing the minute Clayton left for work, which in turn has put me in a non motivational slump.  So, I decided to drown myself in some Pinterest to get energized and get busy before I'm completely settled in for too long.

One of the projects I was bound and determined to do (and surprise Clayton upon his return) is to do a complete makeover of one of our bathrooms.  Since we have had so many PAST plumbing problems in this home, I've learned a lot about plumbing.  I even think it would be fun to accomplish something like an entire bathroom without the help from a man. ;)  I can do this!  

As I was trying to figure out just which of the 3 bathrooms to do, I realized something I had never realized before.  There is not one closet in any of my bathrooms.  I mean, I've KNOWN that, but just realized these are the first bathrooms I've EVER seen without some type of linen closet or something in them.  No wonder I could never figure out storage in them since we have been here.  To add salt to the wound, there's not really any place to put one.  The doors open straight against the wall where I can't put anything.  My only hope is the fact that the vanity in each bathroom doesn't have to be as big as it is.  They aren't huge, but they do take up quite a bit of precious space.  That's where I can win the battle of no storage.  I think.

I'm still looking and thinking for the right kind of storage, but I don't know if I'll get there until the bathroom is completely gutted and everything is ready.  Guess it just may have to wait a while.  Bud has moved into his own apartment and is in dire need of furniture and everything else that is needed to live.  It'll be fun to shop for him and help him get on his feet.  Adam is moving into a dorm, so there's not much he needs at all.  Next year, I'll have Morgan's apartment to furnish, but I have all year to kind of stock and save up for that.  I may actually get around to my house sooner or later. ;)

I'm also trying to gear up for the new school year.  Fall is the busiest time of year for us, even with homeschooling.  When things change and our daily routine has to be sacrificed, it's hard to get on a new track.  We've also been looking for a new way to do school.  I believe we have found our answer, though.  You can read about it here.

Also, we have decided to switch bedrooms with Morgan.  She's looking forward to having the big bedroom, but I'm not looking forward to repainting, moving the heavy furniture and totally disrupting the house now that I'm just now getting it back in fairly livable conditions after what we've done the past couple months.  Oi!

On a brighter note, we have decided where to go for our family vacation!

Here's a clue:

It will be richly needed.

Epic FAIL!!

So, today I went to Home Depot to get the color I wanted to paint my kitchen cabinets.  I couldn't wait to get home and try it!  I even picked up some new knobs in a oil rubbed bronze finish to match my new french door handles since I love that finish so much.

I got home, whipped out the two samples of paint that were pretty close together in color.  It's just not going to happen.  The color I chose was more on the khaki side with green being the undertone.  Green dominated once again in my house.  It failed in every way possible.  It was too dark, it was too green, it didn't go with the new knobs, it made my "maybelline" paint in my dining room look pink.  The knobs?  Well, they will work for now, but they aren't even right.  They don't have enough bronze seeping through and look solid black from only about 3 feet away.   We will get there, though.  No worries.  So, for now, it's back to the white, which won't hurt.  The cabinets were already in need of a fresh paint job.  I'll do my temporary counter top resurfacing for the time being and be fairly happy.  I'll also rip down the soffits which will give me a great deal of happiness.  No banquette yet until we decide on the table and measure the benches from it.  Do you understand how I've been looking EVERYDAY for a table?

On another note...

I'm getting my grandmother's piano from my aunt sometime soon.  Maybe this week, if I feel like more traveling.  I really really want my writing desk in my dining room and a comfy chair in the corner by my fireplace, so that leaves me without a place to put the piano.  I also found another piano today at Goodwill for $100.  I will be getting that tomorrow!  Since it's second hand, I won't feel bad about refinishing it.  It's already repainted black and has a mirror on it that will definitely go and what I plan to do with that area is looking quite nice in my mind.  In my mind.

I have this cubby shelf thing from Ikea in my living room now:

It's great.  It holds quite a few things and I've never been able to fill it up completely.  I plan to take it out of there and put the Goodwill piano in it's place.  What I will then do with that shelf is DIY me a Pottery Barn shelf  for my kitchen like this:

I adore.

It's fun falling back in love with your house again, right?

Maybe it's Maybelline

Well, here it is.  The PRE-after pictures of the wall we put up between the kitchen and dining room.  I'm in love and can't stop staring, even though I have no decor up, crown moulding or a whole bunch of other stuff.  I'm chomping at the bit, though, to get it done.  It's seems to be taking forever!  This is just one wall too, so I may go completely insane before it's over.

Drywall dust and all.

The casing used around the french doors was NOT what I had in mind, but it will work (for now) I was forced to get something at the moment and refused to travel out of town to a Lowe's or Home Depot.   I was in my car all day that day as it was.

So, where did the title of this blog come from?  Ha!  Well, let me explain a bit.  

I had the WORST time picking out beige paint.  That's been going on for over a year and a half now.  EVERYTHING looked green in my house.  EVERYTHING!  The green undertones of the different beige I was choosing would dominate once it was on the walls.  So, this time around, I had the same problem, but actually took the time to bring home paint swatches instead of gallons of paint at a time.  I compared it to white, I compared it in light, I did it all.  Only a few weren't green, but instead, yellow.  Too yellow.  There was one that I stuck up on the wall on a whim, and even though I felt it was too tan, (with orangy undertones) I decided I'd try that if anything.  It was the only thing working and it was really darker than I had planned.  I decided to take that swatch in and try to find something a little lighter.  Still a little unsure, I found a color and went with it.  The entire time I was slapping it on, I had that makeup jingle in my head because it looked like I was painting with foundation.  Of course, I began to hate it just because of the thought of it looking like makeup, but kept on trucking.  Turns out, I love it.  Such relief!

As far as decor, I have a small writing desk I'm putting in on the right side of the doors and I plan to do something like this on the left:

I will put something like that somewhere in my dining room.  I love it too much.

So, there you have it....for now.

We have had family in and out for the past couple weeks and after things slow down a bit, then maybe I can catch up on all that needs to be done.

Can't wait to see what the FINISHED product will look like!  Wait..is there a such thing as finished?

The Hunt for a Table

I found what I thought would be the perfect table for our kitchen banquette for only $25 on Craigslist. Just before I made plans to pick it up I realized it wouldn't work. Why? Because it had four legs and I knew the only way it would fit with the benches would be to have it scooted all the way up...in other words no room for human legs. That just wasn't going to work.

Clayton said he could build a pedestal but it would be more squared off than I would like, so I put my thinking cap on to try to figure out a different approach.

These ideas may not work in the real world but in my mind they work out perfectly.

What about using a concrete birdbath?












Or maybe even a large heavy urn?








Why not?

Stolen Pictures From Morgan's First Single Recording

Eye Opener

Don't you just LOVE trips to the emergency room?..especially those late at night when you are tired beyond measure?

Last night, Allison was walking around the yard talking on her phone and she grabbed some leaves and berries off a Chinese Tallow tree.  She played around with them in her hand while she talked, smashing and all that jazz. (you know, the things we do like doodling when we aren't realizing it)  She then rubbed her eye and it started burning.  Like terribly.

So, after looking at it, flushing it out, running to the store to get some Visine, etc.  Nothing helped.  Three hours later it was still burning so badly she couldn't stop complaining nor could she sleep.  I decided to look up to see if this tree is toxic.  Sure enough, it is.  Be warned.  Some people (actually everyone I know) calls these trees Chinaberry trees, even though they are called Chinese Tallow.

Of course, after finding out they were, in fact, toxic, I started reading everywhere how if gotten into the eye, it can cause serious damage.  So, off to the ER we go.  I knew if anything, they'd at least give it a good flushing....

...and flushing they did.  

It made me weak in the knees.  Eyeballs are just not my thing.

If you have never seen a Morgan lens, this is what they look like.  That contact lens type end goes into the eye and rests on it.  Eww.

It was disgusting enough for me just to see the tube coming from her eye.  These are the moments when Clayton is the preferred parent because I'm sorry at comforting when I'm grossed out.

About an hour after we got home, she was still hurting but finally fell asleep.  She's a lot better today, but her eye is still so irritated.  Thankfully, though, it's not hurting.

I got very little sleep after we finally got home and Morgan has to be in Dallas today.  Bud is taking her for me, though.  YAY!