The Saga Continues

I’m sure you are all sitting on the edge of your seats with bated breath wondering what progress has been made on the renovation of my spare bedroom; and I’m here to give you the answer. NONE! That’s right, folks, since last we spoke, there has been absolutely no progress made on the chaos and disorder that is currently my home. I told you there was no way it was only going to take one week – we are already in week three. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

I was told that the hardwood floors were ordered and that they would be in on Wednesday or Thursday of last week (LAST WEEK!). I talked to my dad on Thursday who told me that the repair man told him the floors wouldn’t be coming in until this week (September 7 or 8) and my dad also said he really even doubted that the floors had been ordered and I should probably just go down to Lowe’s and pick something out in order to get it faster.

So, last Thursday, I went to Home Depot after my spin class and bought all the paint I needed and supplies. Home Depot was able to make the same paint color for all the paint I needed – bedroom, hallway, and trim! On Friday afternoon, I went to Lowe’s to pick out some flooring. After much debate and conversation with the Lowe’s employees, I finally decided on something and put in my order. Unfortunately, Lowe’s does not carry the hardwood in stock and so the flooring had to be ordered – ORDERED! When I first wrote this post yesterday to be posted today, the floors still had not arrived; but, miracle of miracles, I got a call yesterday afternoon saying that the floors had arrived. Hallelujah! I was beginning to wonder if I would live the rest of my days in a house that looks like the home of a hoarder. Seriously, ya’ll the mess of it all is driving me bonkers.

My brother and I had plans to paint this past weekend. I was going to wait until the floors were installed so as to lessen the risk of freshly painted walls getting scuffed up. My dad, however, said to go ahead and paint before the floors were installed. Then my brother talked with the repair guy at church who said, yes, the walls would get scuffed again and don’t paint until after the floors are installed. Are you following this? Let me sum it up for you, nothing is going according to plan, my house remains in a state of disarray, and I am about to have a nervous breakdown.

In other news, I worked football this past Friday night and my brother accompanied me as my spotter. The game was atrocious, but we had a good time. He took a photo of us with his phone, but then apparently erased it so I have no proof that we were working instead of up to foolishness.

On Saturday, I cooked breakfast, of which my brother ate three plates. That boy is an eatin’ fool! We went to my parents’ house Saturday and watched the Alabama game and then grilled out steaks. On Sunday night, my brother stayed over again as this was the night we were originally going to paint. We instead watched a movie and my brother kept asking if it had a plot; apparently he didn’t think it did.

Monday morning I drove my brother to work and then spent the rest of the day doing this, which I posted about yesterday – I like to keep it interesting and post happenings in reverse order. Hopefully I’ll be back with an update regarding some actual completed work on the house soon. Keep your fingers crossed for some progress over the course of the next few days; otherwise I may be blogging from a hotel room.

Labor Day 2011

Yesterday, I meant to get around to blogging about Labor Day but then work got in the way and so I decided to put it off until today. Although I have internet at home, it is not currently up and running due to the fact that I had to move everything out of the spare bedroom which is currently under construction and the spare bedroom is home to my internet; more on the spare bedroom project later.

Labor Day here in Alabama was very wet thanks to Tropical Storm Lee, which I think was downgraded to just plain ole rain by the time it reached us but it still has been raining constantly since Sunday. I’m not complaining though, as we certainly needed the rain and I do enjoy a lazy rainy day.

Monday morning I drove my brother to work as he had stayed the night on Sunday. I woke him up early so he could get a shower and prepare himself a lunch. I toasted him up some waffles from the freezer for his breakfast. When I dropped him off at work, he had left his lunch on the sofa so I forked over some cash so he wouldn’t go hungry for the day. Surprisingly, when I got home, the lunch was still intact – I was afraid it might have been devoured by The Tide, but thankfully it wasn’t.

I spent the rest of the morning straightening up a few things as best I could considering the circumstances, baked a cake for our Labor Day festivities and took a nap. After the napping, I watched about two hours of the Alpe D’Huez stage from this year’s le Tour de France and it was so exciting. Even though I was there, I obviously didn’t see the whole stage and was so surprised as to some of the events that unfolded before the riders reached us at the 3K mark. I am looking forward to watching the remaining two hours.

After watching for two hours, I realized I had not made the coleslaw for the gathering that afternoon and I also still needed to ice the cake I made. So, I forced myself up off the couch and made the coleslaw and attempted to ice the cake. I say attempted because things certainly didn’t go as planned. I am not too good at making layer cakes and honestly don’t even know why I tried this time. Needless to say, the cake turned out to be a giant mess, but it was still good. Apparently baking a cake in the rain can have a weird affect on baked goods. Who knew? Not me, but I learned something new from my mother who gave me this bit of information which was later confirmed by friends at work.

After I attempted to ice the cake, I showered and left to go pick up a cookie cake I had ordered for Jackie’s birthday. She and the kids were supposed to come over to my parents’ house for our Labor Day cookout. On Sunday night she said she might not come and I was thinking she would let me know early in the day if they weren’t going to make it. So, when I left the house at 2:30 to go pick up the cookie I felt good about them showing up since I had not heard from her. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I headed towards the mall, I got a text saying she wasn’t coming. So, I picked up the cake, took a photo of it, sent it to her and told her I would blow out the candle and eat her piece. Well, she felt bad and so she showered and got herself and the kids ready and they showed up after all. Cookie cake is a good motivator people, remember that!

We had about 18 people show up to eat and we all ate our fair share of hamburgers and hot dogs, Peanut Butter “Cake” and Cookie Cake. It was a good day. Hope your labor day was also good!

And The Winner Is….

Wow, I had all of three people enter the giveaway for the book We Be Big: The Mostly True Story of How Two Kids From Calhoun County, Alabama became Rick and Bubba. I guess it was slow around these parts over the holiday weekend. The winner of the book is commenter #3, Candy. Congrats, Candy! I’ll bring the book to you at church on Wednesday night, provided I don’t forget and leave it at home!

Happy Labor Day 2011!

Happy Labor Day Lads and Lassies! I hope all of you working folks are enjoying the benefits of a day off and if you’re stuck working, then you have my sympathies. There’s no exciting post today, but I’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, you can still enter the Book Giveaway by leaving a comment here. Contest is open until 11:59 p.m. tonight and the winner will be announced tomorrow. Have a fantastic day!

Happy Birthday To My Bestie!

Today is Jackie’s birthday and even though it’s Saturday, I wanted to put up a rare weekend post to wish my bestie the Happiest of Birthdays! Having a good friend you can trust through thick and thin is important in life and I’m thankful I have Jackie. She’s the closest I’ll ever have to a sister and God truly blessed me when he put her in my life as a friend! All the best!

Book Review and Giveaway: We Be Big

~~ This Giveaway Is Now Closed ~~

I’m closing out the week with yet another review, and I do apologize to those of you who were looking for some more interesting tales about my life. Today’s review should have been completed about six months ago; but, because I am lazy and well, lazy, I’m just now getting around to posting a review of the latest book by Rick and Bubba, We Be Big: The Mostly True Story of How Two Kids from Calhoun County, Alabama, Became Rick and Bubba.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers through my affiliation with BookSneeze and was asked to write a review for my blog. I had many books to choose from, but I chose this one because I know many of you readers out there are loyal Rick and Bubba listeners. I only listen to Rick and Bubba occasionally and occasionally is like once a year. I used to be a more loyal listener but now I either listen to sports radio or whatever CD happens to be in the player.

Despite the fact that I don’t live to listen to Rick and Bubba in the mornings, I did enjoy reading this book. It was interesting to see how the lives of these two men intertwined and how they ended up becoming so popular among radio listeners around the country. The books is told from both the perspective of Rick and Bubba. The chapters will switch up as to who is narrating and each man tells the story of how they met and ended up working together. There are a lot of mentions of their faith as well; which if you are a listener, then you probably know that both of these men are firm believers in the providence of God.

If you are a lover of the Rick and Bubba radio show then I think you will really enjoy this book and if you haven’t yet read it then today is your lucky day because I am giving away a copy of this book to one lucky reader. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment in the comments section of this post. I will keep the contest open until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 5, 2011, also known as Labor Day 2011. I will announce the winner on Tuesday morning. Good luck to all who enter!

Product Review: Minute to Win It Printables

Well, we’ve reached September. I can hardly believe it as it seems just like yesterday that it was January. It’s now less than four months until Christmas. I’ve already bought a couple of gifts and will soon be buying many more.

Since there’s not much going on in terms of home renovation or otherwise, I’m going to close out the week by having a couple of reviews here on the blog. I signed up for today’s review and also tomorrow’s and need to get them written and published before football season is in high gear and I do nothing but stare at the television for hours on end… oh, wait, I do that anyway. Let’s move on.

Today’s review is for some Minute To Win It Party Printables. It’s been a long while since I’ve reviewed any party printables and I really needed some fresh ideas for some Ladies’ Night Out games and so when I saw the opportunity to review these I decided to go for it. I don’t know if I didn’t pay attention to the description or what, but when I got these I was more than a wee bit confused. These printables didn’t come with any games, they were only labels and play money and other sorts of accessories to go with the games. Huh?

So, I emailed the distributor and asked her, “Um, so, where are the games?” and she sent me a link to her web site. These printables were not for the games as I had originally thought but are, as mentioned just accessories for the games. Included in the printable pack is play money, water bottle wraps, cards to draw what game you will be playing, invitations, candy bar wrappers and some other things for which I’m not sure of the use.

The games on her web site are pretty interesting. I may try to incorporate some of them with one of the next Ladies’ Night Out gatherings, but it is doubtful I will use any of the printables. The price of these printables is $12.99, which I found to be a little high for what all you get. I’m not really a fan or a watcher of the show; so, maybe if you are a hard-core Minute to Win It person then you would find the $12.99 price reasonable for this printable package. I just don’t foresee myself having a Minute to Win It party in which I would need these types of accessories and if I did want something along these lines I could just make something up on my own, which is what I usually do with most things anyway.

If you want to check out the games, then click here and if you want to check out the printables, click here. What do you think? Would you pay $12.99 for this package?

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.