AND THE COLOR IS...

YELLOW!

Ten paint samples and 13 gallons of the final paint color later, we have a yellow house. Again. I'm quite happy with the color, though. The house is cute in its yellow splendor and definitely still notable amongst all of the other different colors of houses that we live among (not one of them truly yellow, might I add). I thought the 13 gallons we had to use to cover the old color was a bit overboard, but we have a hunch that the previous yellow was the original color. It was sucking the new paint in as if it were thirsty from years of neglect.

                                                                                Before:

(That's my brother doing what ended up being many hours of prep work, caulking, washing and puttying.)

                                                                             
                                                                                    After:

Looks sunnier and brighter, don't ya think!? :) We like it. :) And our neighbors are probably glad we didn't choose purple. ;)

Paint.

What is so hard about picking out paint? There are thousands of tints to choose from. There are even these little color guides to help pick juuust the right shade. There are all sorts of tools and ideas out there... surely a person could have a hay-day picking out a brand new color for their abode.

Except for me. 

I was born with many talents. Interior decorating, cleaning and choosing colors to go on my walls semi-permanently are all things that I am completely challenged with. And when there are more options, it becomes harder and harder. Oh sure, what's the big deal? You buy a color you like and throw it up there. Voila. Done. Except the problem is, I find that when that one color I like is spread all across the wall (or in this case, the exterior of our house), it turns into a beast, staring me down as if challenging me. "Do you want a piece of me?? Do you?" I also do not want to redo it if I completely hate it. Thus, I choose with extra caution, consulting my better half time and time again. 

Don jokingly pointed out this crazy purple color. I looked at the swatch and then chuckled with the sight in my mind of my "front door" neighbors frantically running out of their house with their arms flailing, "STOP! Crystal! Did you know he's painting your house purple?!?!" Lord, spare us all. We would surely be THAT house in the neighborhood... When giving directions, the neighbors would now say, "Go until you see the purple house... yes, I said purple... and then take a right..."  I'm sure the traffic would line up in front of our house as if we had 10,000 twinkling Christmas lights set to music in the middle of July. Anyway, I digress. 

But I might as well have chosen purple with the amount of time and energy it is taking me to pick even the simplest of colors. Do we want to stick with yellow but punch it up a bit? Then I think it'll look good two-tone... dark on the bottom and light on the top. or vice versa. or maybe we should stick to one color.  *sigh*  But ANYTHING but neutral (which is sounding better all the time b/c you  just can't go wrong with it.) It's exhausting... for me.

Please let it be done soon! (and let me be happy with it!) 

Crystal Mc

School is Here!

 Well, another summer has come and gone! We now have a 2nd grader, a pre-K-er and a toddler. Some of the fun-filled activities we've done this summer include going to water parks, swimming, the Children's Museum, LOTS of sprinkler action, the zoo, testing out Mentos and Diet Coke geysers, a dance recital and lots of play dates. With the 100-degree + heat every day for a month solid, it was hard to get outside and "play" without water being involved!

We even managed to squeeze in a trip to Colorado! This is our first vacation since our honeymoon.... NINE years ago. It was such a fun time, and seeing the Zahller clan is ALWAYS a fun time! When I find some pictures from that vacation, I'll post them.

Moira gets to ride a real school bus this year! She is SO exctied! She's waited 2 years to actually get to ride in one... because you know school just isn't school unless you are riding a bus! ;) (vans don't count, apparently.)  She had a great 1st day of school... and I think her teacher will be a great one for her this year!

Eating ice cream after school!

 

 

 

Moira and the bus

 So excited for her to be a 2nd grader! :) Declan walked around the house yesterday going "Momo??? MOooooooMooo! Where she go?" Me: "She went to school." D: "What? Moooo Mo?" Me: "She went byebye." D: "Whhhyy??" lol  Big adjustment for the little guy. Caden won't start school until the last week of August. Until then, fun times with my little guys before that one starts! :)

Well, apparently, the "powers that be" are the hoarder-types and keep blogs that haven't been touched in 4 1/2 years. :) Thank you, Maureen, for reminding me that I started a blog when Caden was born and never touched it again! :) hahah

I'll pick up at today:  Memorial Day 2012.
Today was the 1st time I went to the grave site of my father-in-law. It was sad. All of the memories of the day we buried him were still fresh in my mind. The brief service/acknowledgement of servicemen and servicewomen went well and the 21-gun salute is always a reminder to me of the reality that many of our veterans and current service people have to deal with (not the salute, itself, but the firing of a weapon) daily. Our prayers and remembrance goes out to all of those who served. Thank you!

We stopped by the store and picked up some fried chicken and sides and decided to have a picnic with Jo, Grandma Rieck and all of us Mcs at Walnut Grove. That park has lots of memories for me, as well, because we used to have a family picnic there every year with the Aulners. :) It's been so long that I couldn't remember which pavilion we used... but it was pretty neat to be back there again. They also have updated the park since I've been there. That made things harder to envision, as well. 

We are just about to roll the carpet for summertime out! Mo has 1 more partial week of school left, and Caden is done with PreK until fall again. Where does the time go?! Declan will see no change in his schedule except there will be one more child in the house trying to boss him around. ;)  

Don took a trip to Washington DC for ALS (amyotropic lateral sclerosis) Advocacy day to raise awareness to get some funding for research. he said it was a good trip... and apparently in this picture, he didn't have anyone to help him take his picture. I call this the Don-shington monument. ;)

He's here!

Caden Pierce

Here's our son, Caden Pierce! He was born Sept 18, 2007 at 3:30 pm! He was 8 lb 2oz and 21" long. He is a very good baby and is starting to get the hang of a normal routine... not really a schedule, but definitely has his nights and days on track!

GO HUSKERS!!

This little hat makes this 9 lb boy look so TINY! Even though the season is not a good one, we're trying to involve the whole family in the game!

Moira seems to like having Caden around! She is a wonderful big sister! Here, she's trying to bounce him and 'soothe' him to sleep...

We intervene to prevent brain damage when we see her approaching the bouncy chair!

We're posting a few pics for those who are checking our blog! I'm still no good at this... I'll learn eventually!

September

Here we are!

Starting this blog is a little intimidating! :) I know, I know... for someone who talks so much, this should be second-hand; but it's a little tricky for me to post stuff online!

Mo is 2 years old now! She's getting pretty sassy and trying to assert herself! Amazing how a little peanut baby grows into something so... independent. We moved her to her new room with a big-girl bed and a new bedding theme. One of these days, we'll paint it. hehhe We are fully potty trained! (with a few accidents...) On top of all of this, we are expecting a baby brother within the next couple of weeks! It's a little strange to see the nursery done up for a little boy (beings we never painted it for Moira!) hehehh but we love it.

Don and I are good! I'm finishing up my last 2 weeks of work (or so) being full time. I'm really looking forward to starting work from home in late November/early December. I'm sure there'll be a blog posted for that soon enough! Time just flies by for us.

Here are some pictures of our family recently... Mom is completely exhausted and stretched to the max (in MORE ways than 1!!) b/w work, school, toddler-management and wifedom. hehehe Unreal how it works some days! Daddy is still working but has a little earlier schedule, so Mo and Dad get to yuk it up without mom for an hour or so! Lucky Daddy! ;)

Enjoy! We'll keep you posted!