Labor Day weekend re-cap

Our Labor Day weekend started off a day early since J decided to take an extra vacation day off of work.  We had had a meeting at church on Thursday evening and Lollie was watching the girls, so since our meeting finished early, we snuck out for a quick date to a local Irish pub.  A great way to kick off the weekend!

Friday bright and early we were up, dodging raindrops, to tackle the formidable task of widening the driveway.  All summer long the brick pavers had sat on the side of the house, waiting for a cool weekend, when they could be nestled next to the driveway.  We decided to wait, however, until there was a string of 90 degree days with 80% humidity to tackle the project.  #perfect timing.  Tots cray-cray.

J had originally planned on doing it himself and I was completely fine with that, but then I started to feel reeeealllly guilty about the fact that Mei Mei and I would be sitting inside the nice, cool, 73 degree house watching, while he would be outside, sweating away at least 10 pounds if not more. My conscious finally got the better part of me and so, long story short, "the couple that DIYs together, stays together".  Or something like that!

Saturday we took a break from our pro-jay and went out to be with Grandma and Grandpa and splash in the Lake.  A much more enjoyable way to spend a hot, humid day I might add!

Sunday, after church, we were back at it, but this time we recruited two little helpers.  Child labor laws?!  Nah--ha ha ha!!

I always feel these types of activities are a great "teachable moment" (insert the Noodle rolling her eyes, again, about all my "teachable moments").  These aren't fun or easy jobs, but it is a great opportunity to impress upon kiddos about the importance of sticking with a job until it is completed (what ever that is, as determined by the "supervisor") and how to go about doing something with grace (not complaining, whining, etc.).  Let me be the first to say that I had to remind myself of this, because I was pretty close (multiple times) to commenting about the heaviness of the bricks, the icky-sticky sweatiness factor or the sore muscles from digging/pounding/lifting/carrying.  Oy.

But.  They were troopers (obvs. the big one more than the little one, but still).  They were focused. They were agreeable.  They stuck to it for two hours.  In the end, J ended up paying them for their hard work and that made it all the more sweeter for them;)

When we had finally finished, we celebrated by going to swim at Lollie and Papa's.  It also happened to be LaLa's birthday so we gorged on Greek Food (straight from the take-out boxes, on the table I will have you note--Nana, just avert your eyes) and Boston cream-pie poke cake.  Mei Mei was only too happy to help LaLa open her presents, even informing her before everything was unwrapped, what was hidden in the tissue paper.

Monday, three out of the four of us made the conscious decision NOT to sweat or get dirty.  The fourth one was like a pig in the mud--he's just drawn to it and can't help himself.  Ha!  Actually there was still a pile of gravel to be dealt with and it was preventing him from pulling his car into the garage, so there was that.

While Daddy was busy tackling the left over gravel, the girls decided to do some science experiments.  Grandma had gotten a bunch of books and one of them was all about science, so the girls decided to break out the equipment and head outside to make goop.

By mid-afternoon the Lake was calling, so we met our neighbors down at the dock and paddled around.

Monday night, there were 4 pretty tired people, who hadn't had quite a labor-free Labor Day, but were all very happy to tumble into bed!

Lighter, brighter dining room

For those of you that know J, you know that he is happiest when he's working on some kind of project.  Most people think home repair and go "ugggh!", but (luckily for me) he's always thinking of the next project that can be tackled.

These were taken a year ago...about this same time if the dueling centerpieces are any indication.

When we bought my childhood home from my parents and moved back in 2012, there were some things that we wanted to be done right away.  Other things were more easily pushed onto the back burner until more time (and funds) allowed.

Case in point, the dining room.

When we added onto the garage, the windows that had looked out onto a sad, dead area in the back garden got covered with, well garage wall.  We had always kept the blinds pulled so it was easy to keep it that way, but you can see what was lurking just beyond...

J's idea was to make built-ins since it was just a little deeper.  That would also get us a little extra space and a perfect spot to put those not-so-frequently-used items that you still want on hand and available.  He also added some accent lighting in the built-ins since the only other light source is the chandy in the middle of the room.

Somehow he managed to get the windows out with breaking the glass (miracle!) and we repurposed one of the old windows here.  He's always drawing an audience ;)

After ripping out the carpet, putting down new bamboo flooring, and finally deciding on a paint color, the room was finished!

There was a slight electrical issue that we had with the antique light--think a pop and then a fizz and lots of sparks flying.  Thankfully we were home and heard/smelled it. Yikes!

But other than that, it's finished.

 It is so light and bright--I love it!

Busy but fun weekend

Some weekends are nice and relaxing, where you can just hang and chill.  Others are filled a whirlwind of activities.  This past weekend was a busy one!

Saturday morning Mei Mei and I went to a little Bible class for her where she got her very own Bible and a Bible bag.  She was so excited!!  When her name was called to come up and receive it, she marched up there with her arms outstretched and then ran back to my lap to show me.  It brought tears to my eyes to see her get so pumped about her Bible.  I hope that her love for the Lord stays strong!

While we were at church, J was working on the dining room floor.  Once he had ripped up the carpet, we had planned on refinishing the wood floor--it had looked like it was in great shape and so we were all set to go.  Come to find out that under one spot, at some point in the 90+ years of the house's life, plywood had been put down and so we couldn't refinish it.  On to plan B--painting the floor with white so that it would have a nice "porch-y" feel to it, since the dining room had, at one time, been a porch.  That didn't work either because even with primer and outside, porch grade paint, these strange streaks kept coming through.

Grrrr...on to plan C--to put down an entire new floor and since we had planned on doing the kitchen floor at some point as well, to just do it all together so that the floors would be cohesive.  We had also hoped to replace the windows in the dining room this fall, but that certainly isn't going to happen now after this floor debacle.

Anywhoo, J was busy installing and the Noodle decided to get creative with the massive amounts of cardboard that was being generated and make a fort.  Clearly J is the "cool" parent because I would have adamantly  gently discouraged quite such an elaborate design...Ha!  I guess we're a good balance :)

After lunch, the Noodle and I went to go hear author/illustrator Marc Brown (of the Arthur books) speak at a local library.  Her name had been picked because of her involvement in the summer reading program through our county library.  He was very funny and even read to us a sneak peek story from his yet to be published book that is coming out next year--shhhhh!

By Saturday night, J was still busy working away but getting close to completing the kitchen.

He had ripped out the existing floor and unearthed a floor that I hadn't seen for years!

I sat on the chair and talked to him, sipped my wine and worked on these--

I've never really been a decorator for fall, but this year thought I'd try a few things out.  Do you decorate for fall?