Friday, December 10, 2010

Miss Y'all!

Painting Project
I know I've been away for a WHILE, but I couldn't help it.  I've been so busy.  We decided to paint the Kitchen before Christmas, so I had to get BUSY!  The painting project is well on it's way.  Here's proof:

Before Pictures:

After Pictures:


As you can see, we've painted the cabinets "Cream Delight."  I love them.  It's like getting brand new cabinets.  It was a lot of hard work and 8 days later, we finished our cabinet project and think they turned out better than I first thought.  I've never done anything like this better, so I was extremely nervous.  I knew we had to do something and now I don't regret it at all.  If you are planning on painting your cabinets from a oil based varnish, I recommend "Zinsser Cover Stain Primer (Oil-based Interior/Exterior) Stain-Blocker/Bond Coat.  It works great!  I put a couple coats of primer and I'm ready for business.  The top coat paint is Valspar Semi-Gloss One Coat in Cream Delight.  We are planning on using the same color for all the trim in the Living Room and the rest of the Kitchen. 

The Kitchen cabinets are finished, now on to the Kitchen walls.  Like I said, we'll paint the trim in Cream Delight, but as of right now the main paint will be the color "Churchill Hotel Maple".  Our house is small and doesn't have much interior light, so I can't go too dark.  The maple color seems to be some neutral color without loosing all the light.  Plus, I plan to lime wash the top half of the wall.  The bottom will stay solid maple, which will be divided by a cream chair rail.

I've also picked out the tile.  Doug seems to like it as well.  My first choice was different colored slate on mesh sheets.  The more I looked at the slate, the more I feared it would be too dark and wouldn't match the maple color paint as well.  My new choice, I believe goes better with the maple.  It looks kind of marbley and I love the divider and floral decoration.  We plan to put the tile on our Kitchen wall for a backsplash.  If we do choose to use this particular tile, we won't be able to put it up until sometime next year.

Stay tuned to more home renovations!

Katie Update
Katie took her first "spelling" test right after the Thanksgiving holiday.  She did great!  Mrs. M said a word and Katie had to write it down on the paper.  She got every word written correctly on her test.  Lastly, Mrs. M told her a sentence and Katie had to write it down.  Mrs. M put a smiley face on her paper.  We are so proud of her.  She's worked very hard on her letter recognition and sounds.  Here's a picture of her test:

"The man ran"

I like for Katie to get involved in at least one project a year like "Operation Shoebox", "Adopt an Angel",  "Cozy Coats" and "Toys for Tots".  Last year, she did the "Operation Shoebox", where she filled up a big plastic shoebox full of things that would put a smile on a little girl's face overseas.  This year, she adopted a 2 year old angel by the name of Jasmine from our church's Christmas tree.  Of course, she had several questions.  The most important was "mom, why are we buying her presents?  Why doesn't Santa just give them to her on Christmas day?"  You talk about doing some fast thinking.  I can definitely tell she is in school now because she is coming home with questions galore.  "Mom, is the toothfairy real?  Mom, Savannah says that Santa's not real.  He's real, Right?"  (I just used the name Savannah, I really don't remember who told her what).  I've been talking to her for the past month the Christmas way.  How we celebrate Christmas because of Christ being born and he was given gifts, so we should give presents - to show our love.  How Santa Claus is a servant for Christ just like we are servants.  How Santa has helpers all over the world.  Her knowing all of this information, I added that Santa has asked us to help this little girl, so she might have a wonderful Christmas.  "But, Santa's real, Right?" she asked, wanting assurance.  I concurred and she was satisfied.  Giving her a budget, all she wanted to do was get Jasmine toys.  I had to sit her down and explain that we get the things she needs first and then we look at toys, if we still have enough money leftover.  You know, she did very good.  She was able to get her a jacket, shoes, jammies, 2 outfits, diapers, 2 toys (doll & stuffed kitten) and stayed under budget.  What a bargain shopper!

Katie has been so upset with me because we don't have our Christmas decorations out yet.  I told her that I'd like to wait until we get most of the painting done.  I've got a deadline of December 19th.  If I don't have the painting finished by then, I'll stop and decorate the house.  I have to decorate because my family (extended) is having Christmas this year at our house.  Yikes!  I can come up with the craziest ideas at the worst times.  For the past several days, Katie has come home from school with the same statement - "you've been painting - AGAIN!"  Or I get "when will you ever quit painting?"  You gotta love it. 

The Nutcracker Ballet
Mom, Peggy, Maryann, Natalie, Whitney, Katie and myself went to "The Nutcracker Ballet" on the 4th of December.  I've never seen the ballet live, but I have read the books and enjoyed the composed music from Tchaikovsky.  The Montgomery Ballet Company put on the ballet at WSCC with a few local actors and ballerinas taking part.  Us ladies met up at Dairy Queen for a quick bite before the ballet.  Katie was so antsy the whole time we were visiting at the restaurant. 

When we finally got the the theater, we ran into a few people that we knew.  Katie was so excited that Nia was there with her mom.  The girls hated the fact that they couldn't sit together. 

I really enjoyed the ballet, but I couldn't stop watching Katie's face.  Her eyes didn't leave the stage until it was close to being over.  Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw the BIG nutcracker fighting off the Mouse King.  When the snow fairies made their appearance, they had real snow blowing onto the front stage.  Katie couldn't believe that it was snowing.  During intermission, her and a few other children got up close to the stage and put their hands in the snow.  It was funny, watching Mother Ginger coming out.  Katie giggled and laughed, watching that crazy Mother watching after her children. 

We knew the girl playing "Clara," so I was hoping Katie would imagine herself up on stage one day.  She was pretty quiet, watching the ballet, the whole time.  We went to the 7:00 performance, so by 9:00 I could tell she was getting pretty tired.  I spoke to the parents of the girl playing Clara, he said that every performance (Friday-Sunday) were sold out, which is what we wanted to hear.  Katie said she really like the ballet.  I am hopeful The Montgomery Ballet Company will come back again soon for another performance. 


School Christmas Party
I agreed to head up Katie's class Christmas party.  What was I thinking?  I have to admit that it hasn't been all that bad.  I've had a few fantastic moms step up to the plate and we have the food all planned out.  Katie wanted to give some little something for all the kids in her class.  Here she is packing the gift bags with all kinds of goodies (pencils, game cards, and activity books):


Santa's Checking Up
Katie received a very important message from Santa.  I told her that I keep Santa informed on all she does.  I guess now she believes me.  Here's the message she received:
Santa's message

Colton Story
As you know I've been painting our Kitchen.  All of my used (good) rollers and brushes, I had soaking in a plastic bucket with some Brush Cleaner solution in it.  I stopped my painting for a while because it was getting close for me to pick up Katie from school.  I got Colton all ready to go out the door and I thought I had better go freshen up in the bathroom.  When I came back into the Kitchen, there was Colton with my roller that he got from my solution bucket, rolling the Kitchen floor.  I guess he thought he would help me out.  He had white paint all over him and the floor.  Here's the kicker, we had to leave as soon as possible to get Katie.  We were running late by this point.  All I could do was laugh because there was absolutely nothing I could do to make this situation any better.  Good news, we did get to school in time to pick her up at the pick up area and I didn't have to park, run in and get her. 





Mirya

2 comments:

Allison said...

The kitchen looks fantastic Mirya! I love it and the new hardware makes it look brand new! Great job! What a project to take on right before Christmas, you are very brave my friend! :)

Laura said...

Ha ha! At first I thought you had decided to paint the kitchen BLUE and then I realized that was tape!!

You are so brave to tackle a job like that right before Christmas, but it looks wonderful! I can't get over how "bright" everything looks!! You'll love it after all the hard work is finished! Hang in there!

I thought about ya'll last weekend while we were in South Louisiana at Alise's cheer competition. I knew ya'll were at the Nutcracker. So glad you guys had fun and that Katie enjoyed it!