Painting and a Reunion with Blue

Another 2012 weekend has passed us by - there are only 24 left in this year so use them wisely! I don't know what is up with me taking on out of the ordinary projects recently, but it happened again this weekend. You may recall a few of weekends ago I decided to clean the baseboards in my bedroom and even attempted to dosome window cleaning, which didn't turn out to well. I would like to have all the windows clean before the end of the year - such a lofty goal. 

Friday morning I got up before the sun so I could shower and ready myself for work before the Tour de France came on at 5:30. I wanted to get that one hour and 45 minutes of viewing time in before I had to leave for the day. (No, I'm not a normal person, why do you ask?) Anyway, I don't know if I was more awake than normal or if I ended up staring at the wall behind my stove for too long or just exactly how it came about, but before I walked out the door at 6:45 a.m. on Friday morning, I had decided that I would put a fresh coat of paint on that wall if it was the only thing I accomplished on the weekend. 

I had all the supplies (paint, roller, brush) with the exception of a pan; so, I stopped by Lowe's on my way home Friday and picked up a pan. I got out of work about an hour and a half later than I had expected and so instead of tackling the project on Friday night as had been my original plan, I put it off until Saturday. So, Friday night I watched...wait for it... the Tour and did the same on Saturday morning. I also did some laundry and some dusting, mopping, etc during commercial breaks so I wasn't a complete bum. Around noon I finally managed to get started on the painting. At first I had large goals of doing the three walls that are cream color but that plan was quickly thrown out the window since I didn't have a trim man (my brother) to help out. You may recall that at Christmas time I painted one wall of my kitchen turquoise and if I had not had a stomach virus at the same time, I probably would have done the whole kitchen.
I managed to get a couple of coats on directly behind the stove and a fresh coat on the majority of the rest of that wall - the fridge is there and I doubt anyone is going to pull it out and ask, "Why didn't you paint back here?" I did pull out both the stove and the fridge and gave the floor a good cleaning which it desperately needed. The new coat of paint looks so much better and to the person who does not live in my house, in other words all of you, I don't think you can tell which parts were not painted and which ones were. The way behind the stove was rather gross and there were at least two drops of exploding tea that came through the new paint. Bizarre! The exploding tea, by the way, was from Father's Day 2007 (I think) and no matter how many times you wipe down the wall, it seeps through again. That, my friend, was some potent tea. I also gave the wrought iron piece that hangs there a good scrubbing and wow, does it look so much better. I'm really glad to have that out of the way. 

The rest of the evening was spent cleaning up the mess I made painting, finishing up laundry and vacuuming, mopping and dusting - I lead such an exciting life. I did manage to leave the house long enough to pick up a few things at Publix. Can someone tell me how it is when you have just a few things on your list you end up spending more money than you thought you would? This happens to me all the time. Of course, it didn't help that I was out of Allegra and had to spend $28 on a 45-count bottle. I did have a $4 coupon, although that didn't ease the pain of buying allergy medication. Then, to top things off, while the guy was checking me out, I ran my card through the slot, which I normally don’t do until after they tally my coupons. Well, he told me the total, I said ok, and handed him my coupons as he was handing me my receipt. I have no doubt that I had a look of shock and awe on my face when that happened. I was at a loss for words and that doesn't happen often. I'm pretty sure a tear formed in the corner of my eye as well. I was shuffled over to customer service where they gave me cash ($19.09) for the value of the coupons I was going to use, but still, I didn't want cash, I wanted to pay $19.09 less for my groceries. Can I get an Amen?! 

Sunday I went to church at Mayfair where I am trying to find a class that I like. I will write more on this later because it is worthy of its own blog post and will tie in to a Thomas Nelson book review I will have for you soon. After church I went to lunch with my aunt and cousins and some of their friends and we had a great time laughing about the plight of my finding a class and being entertained by Grumpy Greer who later became a happier Greer. Greer is my cousin's 18 month old and he is quite entertaining. 

Sunday night I went to church with my parents and afterwards we picked Blue up from the mechanic! I was so thrilled to have her back. It was such a wonderful reunion. The mechanic repaired the following:

The back window is now operable once again
The windshield wiper works again
The gear shifter works without the aid of duct tape
The fan belt was replaced
And finally... the biggest surprise of all.. I can retrieve the key from the ignition without sticking a Bic ink pen in the steering column. I didn't even ask for this repair, it was a bonus repair. For three years or longer I've been sticking an ink pen in the steering column to get my key out. It is weird not to have to do this any longer. 

Wow, that seems like a lot crammed into one weekend, but really it wasn't. Hope you all had a great weekend as well!