I am having a thoroughly enjoyable weekend of not painting. Brad and I ran a bunch of errands this morning and spent the afternoon plotting where we're going to hang things. We haven't wielded a hammer yet, but everything's in position to go for tomorrow.

I've also been working on my Korea blog. I hope to have it up and running by next weekend. I'll let you know when it's ready. Happy weekend!

Home decor crisis!!! I have painted a room each weekend for the last three weekends. It's been a struggle, but it's fun to have it done. This past weekend, though, was a bit too trying...

I painted the first coat Saturday afternoon in a warm beige-y color. Looked great, but it didn't cover very well. I went back to the store to get a second gallon and gave the guy the exact "recipe" sticker off the old can. Got it home, spent Sunday putting on the second coat and to my horror, it wasn't the same color! I didn't notice right away because I think paint always looks different when it's going on, but when the color didn't change much after it dried, I knew I had a problem. It was still beige, but it had a purple/pink undertone instead of a brown one, so the walls looked lavender in the light. Argh!

Went back to the store and fortunately, they were horrified at what the guy had done. They couldn't give me my Sunday back, but at least I got a complimentary can of the right colored paint. I put it on today and all is well. My goodness, though! I'm definitely taking a breather from the painting thing. Gotta find something else to do this weekend. Actually, I think we're going to take the time to finally hang pictures on our lovely painted walls.

I have furniture!!! I'm so excited! The furniture we ordered Labor Day weekend arrived this morning and it looks great in our new house. We got a living room set - a brand new couch, loveseat and tables to boot. I love how the room looks - the only thing left is to get curtains. Had to take down the ugly ones the previous owners left behind. I was very grateful they left them for us - I wasn't ready to buy curtains right away - but now I'm ready to replace them.

I also have to take in a couple of the pictures we want to hang in there for repair. The glass broke on one and the backing is coming off of another - what a mess! When the room is finally done, I'll post a picture.

Not much else going on. Spending ungodly amounts of time planning house projects and putting together this big trip we're trying to take in December. Nothing to report just yet, but I'll keep y'all posted.

Got another crazy Shadow story for ya..... When I was painting last weekend, I (naturally) took off the outlet covers and air conditioning vent grates on the walls. Well, this particular grate opening leads into a utility closet where you would find the air conditioning unit, hot water heater, etc. There is also a hole in the back of the closet, left by the builders, that opens into the basement below. Maybe you can see where this is going....

So my curious but not-very-bright kitty apparently snuck inside the wall just before I screwed the grate back in place. I didn't even notice him going inside! Mind you, this was about 9 am. I got so busy Friday that I didn't even notice him not being around the house. When I finally noticed he was gone, I figured he was off snoozing somewhere. By about 5pm, I started getting nervous because I couldn't find him anywhere. Yeah, it finally occurred to me what had happened and I found the poor guy in the basement. He looked really relieved to be rescued! Silly kitty.

I love Kansas. The full measure of this hit me today in my western civ class. We were talking about governments falling apart and a student made reference to our nation's Civil War. He finished his statement by saying that "thankfully, it all worked out okay and the union was preserved." It took a moment to sink in and then I just went nuts on this kid. The rebel-flag wearing, gun-toating redneck who believes the South will rise again is a minority in Virginia, but I've never had a student there (or in Tx) say "thankfully" the union was saved. Most of what I get is a genuine, "yup, it's too bad we lost". Not that any of them want slavery to come back, but I guess when the war was fought in your backyard, when parts of your town were burned down by Union troops, you feel a bit passionate about the cause. Hard to blame them. I just find it hard to swallow. I don't know if this makes sense to any of you, but my heart leaped for joy today. Yes, I am a nerd...

Classes are going well, but keeping up with three different classes is kicking my butt. Plus, I haven't taught US history in a while, so I'm trying to refresh my memory on some of this....

The house is FINALLY starting to come together. I was stagnated a bit - getting bogged down in indecision - but I made some progress this weekend. I painted in my family room and I think I like it. I'm planning to put a faux finish on top of what I've done, but I'm nervous about screwing it up. We also bought some furniture at an awesome labor day sale. I'm really excited about getting it in our big empty living room. It's going to look great!

Oh - here's a crazy bit: before we left for the furniture store, Brad used scissors to cut some string in the garage. He placed the scissors on his back bumper (it's an SUV so it has a bit of a ledge) and forgot about them. When we got out of the car at the store (25 miles down the road), we discovered the scissors still sitting on the bumper! The road we took was a back-road that was fairly curvy - can't believe they didn't fall off!