(43-168) A Fresh Coat of Paint...

As much as my family LOVES to spend time together; and as much as I plan for us to do; it is unfathomable to me that Luis could have unused vacation days at the end of his year; and yet, somehow he does.  I'm sure that I had him save some time up because we wanted to go camping; but didn't.  Or we planned to go to Disneyland; but postponed, and ultimately as we approach the end of his year, he now has vacation days at his disposal.

Luis took off as many days as he could during the kids winter break; and still, he had quite a few left over.  So last week he was supposed to be off on Thursday, in addition to his usual Friday and Saturday; and I asked him if he could give our white walls a fresh coat of paint. 

Now, if you've been in my home, or seen pictures of my home; then you know that the walls in our entry / playroom, and kitchen/ family room, are white and yellow.  They've been white and yellow for the eight years that we've lived in our home and well over two years ago, we discussed changing the colors; but to date we have not.  NO, this wasn't a case of indecision; it was just a matter of funds and time; because, if you've ever been in my home or seen pictures of it, then you know that in our front room, we have very HIGH celings; about 19 feet or so; and in order to paint them, Luis expected to have to rent scaffolding in additon to the other costs involved.  BUT since Luis was going to have a little extra time on his  hands; I asked if we could just seize the day; and PAINT!

I'm not sure how it happened, but in the 17 years that Luis and I have been together, he has become quite handy; and lucky for us, painting is at the top of the list of home improvements that he does well.  Luis went to Lowe's and brought home some color charts of white paint.  After narrowing down our selection; I suggested that instead of white; we use a paint in the "beige" family, so we could at least get the color change underway.  We settled on a color called Oat bran; and by Thursday afternoon, Luis had all of the walls taped and he was hard at work.  It's amazing what a difference some new paint can make. The walls were looking GOOD; and believe it or not; he even managed to paint the high wall without scaffolding.  I KNOW!  With just a standard ladder, a roller and an extender that he used to change the high light bulbs, he was able to reach the highest part of the wall.  I don't think that I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.

Well, Luis will be off on Thursday through Sunday this week, and other than coaching Kelsie's soccer game; would you like to guess what he'll be doing?  Yup, you got it, PAINTING!  WOOHOO!!!!  Now that Luis has managed to start changing our home from drab to FAB, he is gungho to continue with our lil renovation; and we are so excited.  I am so grateful to Luis for all of his hard work and ingenuity.   I've said it before and I'll say it again; I am blessed, I am blessed, I am oh so blessed!
Till next time...
Queen of EVERYTHING

The Observational Humorist

This weekend we have been enjoying a long overdue visit from Rachel. So Friday night after shopping for food, making dinner, playing Bingo with the kids, and generally catching up; Rach and I sat down to watch the first episode of the new series "The Starter Wife" with Debra Messing, (that I had DVR'd the week before.)

Rach and I were really enjoying the show (and if you have yet to see it, I totally recommend it; but the point is, Debra Messing's character is a writer.) Anyway, she had gone to a writing workshop and the teacher told her that he thought he knew of the perfect job for her, as there was a magazine that was looking for an "Observational Humorist." Well, I immediately looked at Rachel, and said "THAT'S Me." To which she replied "Yes it is." So there we have it. I now have a direction; so all of you potential publishers out there - look no further, here I am ... YOUR Observational HUMORIST.

Now what would a weekend be for Rachel and I if we didn't scrapbook at some point? So of course we went to a crop (scrapbooking get together for all of you non-scrappers) at Michelle (I heard her husband giving her a hard time the other day because she still hadn't become legally) K's house. We were having a fabulous time, enjoying the DELICIOUS chili that she had made, as well as the Cheese "crack;" (don't even ask) and the yummy pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting (Yes, I'm still friggin going to the gym - don't let the menu fool you;) and somebody brought up the show "17 Kids and Counting." OK, now for those of you who have NO IDEA what I'm talking about, let me explain. Michelle & Jim Bob (Yes, I said Jim Bob) Duggar reside in Arkansas with their 17 natural born children, and she is pregnant AGAIN.

This family has had several specials on PBS which is how I knew about them to begin with. I think I actually saw them first on "13 and Pregnant again," (which I thought was going to be something altogether different than what it was;) but out of sheer curiosity you just HAVE to watch it; and NOW they have their own show on TLC. OK, so if having 17 kids and one on the way, doesn't make you DIFFERENT enough. Let me tell you that ALL of their kids names start with the letter "J" not that there's anything wrong with that; it's just one of their little endearing quirks. They are all home schooled, they watch one hour of TV a month and they have minimal (supervised) use of the Internet. They travel in a tour bus with 15 beds; and they're basically your modern day freak show. I say this because Michelle and Jim Bob seem to have capitalized on the oddity of their family and you can now see them all over the place. The Today show, The Arkansas Peabody Hotel for the duck parade, Branson, TLC etc. etc. OK, so while we were discussing the Duggar's I felt compelled to share something that I had "OBSERVED" when I was watching their show the other night. So get this. As I told you, they point out in the opening of their show, that they watch VERY LITTLE TV; and in the episode the other night, they had another family (16 kids with one on the way) visiting them for 2 weeks. So Pa Duggar decides it would be fun for them to all go play paintball. They divide into two humongous teams, and run off, and all of a sudden I hear one of the little boys say (in a pretty authentic "Tony Montana" accent) "Say hello to my little friend." "Say hello to my little friend..." Did I just hear that right? I couldn't believe it. I waited, and watched with baited breath to find out if it was ACTUALLY one of the little Duggar boys who said it, or one of the visitor kids, but NO, low and behold, it was said by a Duggar. Hmm, 1 hour of TV a month my ass. How in the world would this kid (who could not have been more than 10) think to say that, and with that accent, if he had never seen "Scarface?" (one of the most violent movies of our time.) Hmm, something smells rotten in Arkansas. This is just about as suspicious as Sarah Palin. Well, after sharing my little Duggar tale, I KNEW that this was the PERFECT blog for an OBSERVATIONAL HUMORIST. I just don't think I can let this go. So Duggars; AND THE REST OF THE WORLD - I'm puitting you on notice. You've now been warned - Paige Ramos (Queen of EVERYTHING) Observational Humorist; is ON THE JOB!
Till next time...
Queen of EVERYTHING