Painting, along with some hair pulling (literally)

So, I am still experiencing technical difficulties with uploading vacation pictures (just because I have an online blog doesn't mean I claim to know anything about technology:), so maybe by the time we go on our next vacation, they will be up:)


Anyways, Friday the 10th was Shawn's Birthday! We celebrated in a way that Shawn has been sooo ready for-eating Chicken Nuggets from McDonalds, then going to work right away on the house:)

He got a tool set for his birthday-the perfect gift for a man ready to flip a house!

 The Big 28!!! Wait until he is 30-then he is reeeallly in trouble!

So, we started this painting adventure with our dining room. This room before was crimson red, which is an awesome color to have to paint over.

 Here we go....

To all you painters out there-two words for ya- Frog Tape. Its the best thing in the world. We went through three rolls of this throughout this whole painting process.

So we went over that night, with the goal of painting our dining room, kitchen and bedroom. By 10:00 Friday night this is what we had accomplished:

Yeah. We learned real quick not be to be too much of a perfectionist with the painting. Or at least Shawn did. My artistic ability comes into play when painting, I don't know a good wall from a bad wall.
I started truly considering how much of our house we wanting to paint ourselves at this point.

But, the next morning we started again:
Here is the beginning of our bedroom-

 Painting the bathroom...So excited about having a new bathtub installed!!! I plan on spending many a night there.

Our dining room finished! Yes the chandelier is weird-there are even monkeys and pineapples on it-Shawn likes it, but it may be a little too eclectic for me. However, we managed to bash our heads on it a thousand times as we painted-we really need to move our table in apparently.  

The kitchen. No more fruit bowl wallpaper-Another thing we really didn't mind, but felt compelled to tear down and change right away. 

We are super pleased with our colors-Sage Green and Cup of Cocoa-only five trips to the Home Depot! 

 And the tub is finished!

Our bedroom completed 

The biggest change for sure is the downstairs bath. Before, it had this marble design wallpaper:

Shawn liked it..me not so much. I won. It came down-adding about 4 hours to our worktime:)

But now it looks great!! With some wall decor, it will be much more modern.

 So, I would say our first house project was a success. We learned a lot about painting, enough to know we don't want to do it again for a while...but are very happy with the results.

I also learned how thrifty my husband is. The baseboards in our house are pretty beat up. Me, I would have gone out any bought new right away. However, Shawn took them off, stained them and now they look awesome! That saved us money...one of the many reasons why I love him:)

A baseboard before:

A baseboard after:

So, we have been busy busy busy with house stuff. But the first project is checked off!

Along with house stuff, I have been busy busy with summer school. At this point, it takes about as much planning as it does during the school year! But, the kids have been great. It is kind of neat to meet kids that I do not know through Pinckney. I have kids that have challenges that I have not worked with before, so its challenging and continues to be a good experience for me as a teacher.

So far, I have found that kids love to dance, will do about anything for food and while Lego's are a wonderful toy they can cause issues. I am now missing a chunk of my hair after asking a child to pick up his Legos....life is tough huh? Luckily he only got a few strands on top (you really can't notice it at all-THANK GOD), but this certainly is a first.

For those of you who don't know, getting beat up is naturally part of my job. I have been hit with a whiteboard, bit, slapped, head butted etc. It used to bother me, now it just takes me back a bit, but doesn't get to me. What mattered most to me was the fact that the next day the same little guy who have me a haircut was able to make it through the morning with only hitting once (small victories huh?) I also figured out that he likes Goldfish. Do I use it as bribery? Absolutely. And I will in the future:) 

 So, I imagine this week will be a lot more summer school and a lot more house projects...busy busy busy!

5 things I am also loving about summer:

1. Longer daylight hours-I love not feeling like I need to go to bed at 5

2. Orangeleaf frozen yogurt-cake batter with hot fudge and sprinkles! Its my Saturday night go to

3. Three day weekends

4. Having time to grocery shop, plan meals, play with the cat etc...instead of worrying so much about work!

5. Getting the house ready for move-in-our first home is almost here!!!