Neopolitan ice cream

It all started with this fabric:

After a year of trying to decide what colors to redo the kitchen, I found this fabric at my FAVORITE furniture and fabric store.

I carried a swatch around in my wallet for a few months and then finally decided to take the plunge. You would think I was buying a new house, not just painting the kitchen!

I decided to paint one accent wall chocolate brown, with the other walls green and the cabinets cream. Oh, and the fabric for the window treatments.

So...I painted the brown wall first. When I first opened the can, I felt like I was in an episode of Trading Spaces. Staring at this open paint can and wondering why in the world I thought that was going to look good. Why is it that the color in the can is nothing like the color once it is on the wall??

But I took the plunge and once it was painted, I breathed a sigh of relief. I actually liked it.

Then on to the green. That is where it started going downhill. As I started to paint one of the walls, I began to wonder why this didn't look like the color chip. Again, why is that?? I let it dry hoping that the color would improve - but no such luck.

All I could think was that I needed a pink wall and we would have neopolitan ice cream. Not exactly the look I was going for!

So off to Home Depot for round #2 in the green paint selection. And I think I got it this time! It looks much better with the brown.

And now if I can just decide on what style I want for the curtains...oh the decisions!

Crazy roadrunner

I guess you could say that we live in the country. It's not like we have acreage or a farm - but we are about 15 miles out of town. Which means that we get all sorts of critters. Like the raccoons that found our kitchen trash can when we set it outside one night. Or the deer who find great pleasure in eating my freshly planted flowers.

Our latest visitor has been a roadrunner. Now, its not like we have never seen them around. But just not quite like this!

Earlier this week, Chris and I were sitting on the couch and kept hearing a strange noise on our dining room sliding door. When we finally got up to check - this is what we found.




The crazy thing was trying desperately to get inside - or he saw something he wanted. I don't know what the problem was, but he continued to peck on our door for a good 10 minutes! Chris immediately began to wonder if roadrunners can have rabies :)

Yesterday evening, Chris spotted the same roadrunner on our neighbor's roof pecking on the chimney pipe.

And then this morning, I found him on top of Chris's truck. He wasn't too excited about that!

So, now we are under strict instructions to not leave the doors open for ANY REASON! Chris is convinced that this bird would make a mad dash for inside our house if given the opportunity. Strange stuff...

Online shopping tip

Ok, I admit it...I love online shopping! The fact that I can jump online and buy something with a few clicks of the mouse, and then have it delivered to my door...it brings me great joy and satisfaction. However, being the frugal, coupon loving person that I am - I only like to shop online when I can find a great deal.

So I thought I would share my latest find. It is called ebates. This website rocks!

You simply link to the store of choice from their website and you get cash back for shopping. I used them last week for the first time. I ordered some ink cartridges for my printer and I got 17% cash back. Gotta love that!!

I just received my email today telling me that I had $9.48 cash back in my account. So if you have some online shopping to do, check them out!

And even better, if you sign up and list me as your referral - we will each get $5 credited to our account! So sign up here...and tell your friends :)

Getting paid to shop...what could be better??!!

Happy Birthday America!

We had a great 4th of July with my family! We left early Friday morning and met them in Fredericksburg for the parade. It was a fantastic parade with the all American, patriotic feel that you would expect from a small town. It seems like most of the parades we have been to the past few years resemble a rolling yellow pages ad - with every local business in the town driving their car down the road with their signs all over it. Not really my idea of a parade. But the Fredericksburg parade was different. There were a few local businesses that advertised with a float but most of the entries were a salute to our great country. It had everything from vintage cars and tractors to WWII era army vehicles. There were also a number of military themed floats and everyone seemed to have a real respect and appreciation for those serving our country. Tanner had a great time and waved his little flag at everyone that went by!






After dinner, we went back into Fredericksburg for the fireworks show. It was a GREAT show and we had a great spot very close to the action. It reminded me of fireworks shows when I was a kid where it felt like they were falling on you. It was a little too loud and too close for Tanner who spent most of the time watching from inside the car! And then he decided he needed to go to the bathroom right at the end, so he and Chris missed the fantastic finale! Poor Chris!!

Overall, I was very impressed with the Fredericksburg festivities - we just might have to make it a tradition!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We are so incredibly fortunate to live in such a wonderful country with the freedom that we have. May we never take for granted all the sacrifice that is represented in that freedom!

Favorite things...

Vacation has come to an end...but it has been a great week! Although we didn't take off for some exotic location and Tanner was sick on Thurs and Fri, it was still a good week. I feel relaxed and I actually got several projects done around the house. I know that may sound like work for some, but it gives me great satisfaction to cross things off my list. A little sick perhaps, but true nonetheless. So...a couple of things I discovered this week that are near the top of my "favorite things" list.

1. First, a nifty feature that Google has called Google Reader. If you are a blog reader, this thing is totally awesome!! I have several (ok...quite a few) blogs that I enjoy reading and the Google reader makes it so much easier. You enter all your favorite blogs, and it gives you a recap of all the new posts whenever you log in. So no more surfing all over the interet, checking all your favorite blogs to see if there are any new posts. Now, you just go to one place...and all the new posts are there for your reading enjoyment. I don't know how long this fabulous invention has been around, but I have been thoroughly enjoying it this week!! I guess that makes me a little geeky that I find this so neat...but oh well :)

2. Next is the most incredible cleaner called Jomax. Again, I am demonstrating how easy it is to impress me...but this stuff is absolutely unbelievable. The siding and wood trim on our house has been slowly growing a black/green mildew coating for the last year. And it was simply starting to look hideous. I knew we had to do something about it, but I had this horrible feeling that it was going to take a lot of elbow grease and sweat so quite honestly I was just procrastinating. Not that it was getting any better, mind you, while I procrastinated. My dad told me on several occasions that I needed to use Jomax on it. He told me that you just sprayed it on and it would fizz and just roll off. Yeah right! Nothing in life is that easy! Or so I thought...which is why I kept putting it off. I hate to even admit that we actually had a bottle of Jomax but I just couldn't fathom it was going to be that easy. Well, I have to say that Dad was right...again! This stuff is absolute magic! In fact, I told Chris that every new home owner should be given a bottle of this stuff. I mixed some water, bleach and Jomax in a tank sprayer and sprayed the house. Right before my eyes, the mold, mildew and dirt simply disappeared. Amazing! If I could only spray Jomax inside the house and have it magically clean in a few minutes. Now that would be something! Here is a before and after picture - in case you thought I was exaggerating:




3. And finally...a girl's best friend, chocolate! If you have not tried the Ghirardelli Brownie Mix - run to the store right now and get some. This stuff is sinfully delicious. And yes it comes out of a box and is not homemade, but it is truly divine. In fact, if you are on a serious diet then don't even tempt yourself. And I say serious diet, because I feel like I am always on a diet...but it never seems to be very serious! In fact, I think I hear some brownies in the kitchen right now calling my name. Heaven help me!

Water fun

Chris and I are taking vacation this week - long overdue! We originally planned to go down to Rockport for the week, but the forecast was calling for wind and rain. Not exactly the weather you want for the beach. So we decided to stay home and do some fun day trips around here. We went to Schlitterbahn yesterday, which Tanner loved! The boy has no fear and wanted to go on EVERY SINGLE ride!! I think his favorite ride was the Der Bahn Speed Slide - a three story body slide that you would think would terrify a 3 year old. But oh no! He rode down with Chris and absolutely loved it. Here is a picture from the website since I didn't have my camera for this ride:



We were there for 8 hours and soaked up a lot of sun. I was slathering sun screen on every few hours and kept Tanner well covered - as you can see from the pictures. Poor little guy has my fair skin rather than his daddy's nice olive skin. Overall it was a great day! Here are some pictures:

Powerful message

This is an extremely powerful message from Lou Giglio. It's long but worth it. We serve such an awesome God!!