A New Kind of Painting

My project for today was painting the house. The outside. Our old house had vinyl siding that never needed painting, so I wasn't exactly sure how this would go! Luckily, the whole house does not need painted. There are just spots here and there where the paint has been scraped off, so I wanted to see if I could do some touch ups. I'm so mad I didn't take a before picture, but I was able to find this picture from months ago that shows what I'm talking about.

I thought this would be a good place to test it out because it's not too big and it's kind of hidden underneath the deck by the hot tub. We were so lucky that they left us the paint that they had used on the house and deck, so we can get more as we need it too.

It ended up looking great! I only did one coat and didn't get close to the edges, and you can't even tell. It didn't take me long to do this area either. I could probably have the whole house painted in a week if I was crazy enough. 😁 I think I'll stick to touchups for now. 

I had to snap several pictures after school today. I just cannot get over the gorgeous view! I don't think any of the kids have windows in their classrooms that face this way. Thank goodness! It would be hard to concentrate looking at this!

Talan was excited that I let him sit in the front seat. 😊

Easton was even more excited that he got to sit next to mom...or maybe it was because I had the bag of snacks. 😂

Neither of the boys were happy with the way they played in their first game, so we took them to the park for some Daddy coaching. 

Easton hit nearly every ball that Brett pitched to him. Too bad he can't pitch to him in the game! 😁

He hit this one so far that it went in the creek. Mom to the rescue! Talan didn't want to get his feet wet.

Talan also hit almost every ball too! He can hit it hard when he tries. Brett told him he's at about an 8 in skills and 0 in effort. Man! Daddy coaching is rough! 😂

The bugs at this park were insane. I looked on my phone to see if there was another park nearby and I found one. I hit the Directions button and it said it was 300 ft behind me. Oops, same park. I'm such a dork sometimes! 

So we moved on to fielding and listened to the whining about the bugs until it was time to go pick up Janae from volleyball. 

I had to get this hilarious picture of Talan from the backseat. He and Brett were yelling in girl voices out the window to his friend and he got the giggles and could not stop. If you have heard Talan's giggle, you know what I'm talking about. It's addictive. 😊

After we picked up Janae, we headed straight to church. This is our last week out of the church for the construction, and it was held at the Civic Center. There was this awesome sculpture thingy on the wall inside. It's hard to tell, but it's 3D. It was so beautiful, I just had to get a picture. Janae gets so embarrassed at me snapping pictures everywhere we go. I love it! 😂

Eighteen years ago, Pathways had church in this building every Sunday for ten years. They spent an hour and forty minutes setting it up for church every single Sunday. At one point they had bought land for $500,000 that they eventually wanted to build on. It was going to be at a prime location, but then the roadways were changed and they decided it was too expensive to take the risk and put it up for sale. A big company bought it for $1.3 million and they were able to not only buy cheaper land, but to build a church on it as well. From there the church grew from one small service to five 400+ services. 

It's crazy how the church has grown, and how they have taken so many leaps of faith throughout it all. I really enjoyed listening to some of the stories of when they first started the church. The more we learn, the more it's starting to feel like our church. CCN will always be our home church, but it sure does feel good to have another church family. 😊

Another Late Night!

Last night we didn't get home from Talan's game until going on 10:00. We thought for sure the kiddos would wake up grouchy. Surprise, surprise, we had the best morning yet! Talan even got to clip up twice on our bedtime chart for making his bed neatly without being told and for improving his writing in his agenda! Now if we ever get home at a decent hour so we can actually use the chart... that's a different story! 😂

I decided to get a before-school picture today. Not a cloud in the sky!

Clouds rolled in throughout the day, but not storm clouds...the big, fluffy kind that are almost begging you to jump in them! 

We found out yesterday that middle school sports here do not take buses to away games. So after school we picked all three kids up and headed to Janae's volleyball game.

Doesn't she look excited? 😂😂😂

She had three games tonight. Her coach had an appointment during the JV game and wasn't there. He left a note for the assistant coach to save Janae for the varsity game. Yay!

Varsity ended up winning both matches and Janae did a great job serving.

Easton had his first baseball game tonight and I didn't get to go since one of us had to stay at Janae's game. 

I hate having to miss a game. He was really sad too, which made it worse! 😞 He was excited and all smiles when he left though!😊

In Tennessee, they are required to wear heart guards under their jersey. The boys think this is so cool and Easton was proud to show his off. 😂

I put Brett on picture duty for Easton's game. 😁

We ended up catching the last of Easton's game. 

It was back and forth for a while, but we ending up pulling out the win. Go cubbies!!!

Tomorrow night we have no games. I am looking forward to a relaxing evening of church and then just being home!

Iron Pigs

Yesterday I had told the kids I would make them French toast for breakfast. Then I remembered that it would take forever on our stovetop and decided it wasn't worth it. We are waiting to get our new appliances installed until after the cabinets are installed, and we still have a couple of weeks left. The burners on the stove that's there now are really small, so even if I use a big pan, only the center cooks. It's very frustrating! Brett had the idea to cook it in the pan on the grill instead. So there we were, at 6:30 this morning, out on the deck grilling French toast. 😊 I'm sure we were quite the sight, but you know what? It worked! It was good too! He's so smart. 😁

When we went to the library on Friday, I picked out a book that I knew nothing about. It was on an end cap and said Oprah's Book Club on the front, so I thought it must be pretty good if she would make it part of her book club. It's called Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts. Oh my goodness, it's so good I cannot put it down! I spent most of today reading before I decided I better do some cleaning. I'm so ready for them to get back here and get the construction done so I don't feel like there is a mess everywhere! They've been working on a roof for over a week... hopefully they will get it finished soon!

The views were beautiful once again when we went to pick up the boys. I wonder if the other parents in the pick-up line think I'm looney for taking a picture every day? 😂

Neither one of the boys was feeling well after school. Talan was up with a bellyache early this morning. I hope they aren't coming down with something. They are rarely sick, so I'm thinking maybe they swallowed too much water at Splash Country yesterday. They were not looking forward to going to the park tonight, but they were troopers!

Easton had practice and got his uniform. He wanted the number he had last year, #4, but it was taken. His second choice was #12, Brett's college and coaching number.

Talan had his first baseball game tonight. His team is the Iron Pigs. 😂 Unfortunately, his uniform is not in yet, so he got one last chance to play for McDonald's. I'm sure he wishes it was with his teammates from last year! 😞

It was a rough game and we ended up losing. The majority of our team is young for the league and the other team was an older team. Talan likes playing either way, and that's all that matters!