Month: November 2006

I got a phone call this afternoon about 30 minutes after lunch. Wade was supposed to be at work, but he was calling to tell me he had locked his keys in his car. I laughed and asked him where I should bring the extra key. Then he got very quiet. Finally he said, “That’s the problem.” He was out buying a Christmas present for me and telling me his location gave it away. He did finally tell me and I did take him his key. Even if I already know what I am getting, I am very excited. I have wanted a new glass front door since we moved in!

I mentioned yesterday about the packages I inadvertently had shipped to our old address. Now I will tell you the whole story. I ordered three things for Wade for Christmas. Two were from Sam’s Club and one was from an individual through paypal. I waited over a week before I thought to track the packages. Then I discovered that all of them had been sent to our old address. Both places had saved my previous address and I hadn’t needed to use them since moving. I called Sam’s Club and they told me they would take care of the items and refund my money. The individual wasn’t any help and he had shipped through USPS. After I realized I wasn’t going to be able to reorder the gift from the individual, I thought to contact my old landlord. She told me her current renters had mentioned the boxes to her and asked for my number – which is now different from what she had on file. I emailed and called the current renter asking her if I could get the boxes on Wednesday when we drove through Atlanta. She didn’t return my call till we were out of Atlanta, but I did arrange to pick up the items on Sunday evening. She had only received the two from Sam’s Club, but I did get those. Now I have two items that I haven’t paid for. I called Sam’s Club and explained it all to them. They decided I was too much trouble and told me to keep the items and not worry about paying for them. At least Wade now gets two of the three gifts I had ordered.

Because I have nothing to do while the paint on the walls in the dining room is drying, I decided to start a second project. I bought an old tool chest at an auction a few months ago and it has been sitting in my basement every since. I’m not sure if the wood is stained or painted, but it is a horrible green color. My plan is to refinish and then stain the chest, but the project is always pushed to the back burner.

I decided to start small – with the inside of the lid. This way, if anything goes wrong, I can always paint the inside of the chest. I have used chemical strippers in the past and been very pleased. Chemical strippers are very messy and have horrible fumes so Wade suggested I work in the basement. I think he is just worried about his nice new shop.

After working and working, I have determined the chest is going to be trouble. I tried two chemical strippers, but neither removed the paint. I tried the heat gun and that didn’t work either. The last option is sanding – a lot of sanding. I think I’ll wait till after Thanksgiving to begin that.

I am once again trying to choose a paint color. I know I want a red dinning, but the shade of red is proving hard to pick. Everyone had told me that painting red was much more difficult than any other color. Knowing this, I took the advice of the paint person and bought a tinted primer. I was told this would save me from having to paint six coats of red. The funniest part is the horrible color of the tinted primer – yuck.

I now have three different shades of red on the wall and can’t decide. I was going to post pictures, but they all look the same in a picture. I think I am going to paint my favorite red and then repaint it in a few months if I don’t like it.

Horrible chandelier isn’t it? We are going to get a new one as soon as we have a table.

Because I haven’t had a lot of work recently, my days all tend to run together. A Saturday is no different than a Tuesday. I got up this morning and drove Wade to meet his Aunt Louise and Uncle John. They were driving down to Atlanta for a GaTech football game. I stayed home and worked on the dining room. I was making good progress when I realized I had a baby shower I needed to attend. I quickly showered, wrapped the gift, and headed out the door. I was halfway there when I realized this is the first baby shower I have attended, but there will be lots to come. I know four pregnant girls in my church – three of them are due the same week in April. The shower was fun, but took most of the afternoon. I never got motivated to return to the dining room project. A movie in front of the fire with Wade was much more fun after dinner.

Wade and I took a few weeks off, but we have started another project. I am tackling the dining room. I know I want to paint it red, but I’m not sure which color of red. I finally decided to buy some paint and put it on the wall. I can always paint over it if I don’t like it. We asked Danielle’s husband, Johnathon, to help move furniture away from the walls. Then I got out my trusty heat gun and started stripping paint from the molding. Wade took pity on me and took over the heat gun. I got out the contour sander (the greatest invention ever!) and started sanding behind Wade. We got about half of the molding done tonight.
Here is a before picture:

All of the stores are decorated for Christmas and it has gotten me in the Christmas mood. Some girls from my neighborhood and I decided to start our Christmas shopping. We drove to Dawsonville, GA and spent most of the day buying Christmas presents. Emma, my two year old neighbor, was a really good sport about being dragged around all day. We had a fun time and I even marked quite a few people off my list. Now I have a bunch of gifts to wrap!

The first thing I do when I get up each morning is look out the window. If it is raining, the poor dogs only get a short run instead of going outside for the entire day. Well today when I looked out the window there was a man at our back door. I watched a minute and realized it was the trashman. He came up our driveway, emptied Wade’s shop trash can into our big one and took the big one to the street. How cool is that? I had decided late last night that it wasn’t worth the trouble to take our trash out in the rain. I wonder if I can call and thank him or give positive feedback to his supervisor.

Today was full of fun. The morning started off with an auction down the street. The house was not for sale, but we did get to see inside. Until we noticed the house didn’t have central heat and air, we were seriously considering investing in it. Danielle, Emma, Wade, and I stayed for a couple hours and I bought two items for $5 each. I got a mirror with a “weathered” frame and a kindling basket. We’ve had a fire every evening so far.

Wade and I then spent the afternoon raking leaves. This yard is much more manageable than our last house. We have one big tree and then lots of dogwoods. Our neighborhood is great. You put anything you don’t want at the curb – furniture, limbs, trees, leaves, trash, etc. It disappears – sometimes the city gets it and sometimes a neighbor takes something.

We spent the evening in Greenville doing a little shopping and eating dinner with a couple from church. We had dinner at the Melting Pot and the three hours seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. The Wybengas are a lot of fun. Daniel and Wade are definitely on the same wavelength and Laurie and I both have to deal with them. My favorite incident at dinner – Wade told the waiter he wanted ice cream with maraschino cherries for dessert. The waiter faltered a minute and then explained they didn’t have ice cream, only items to dip in chocolate fondue. The waiter had been joking with Wade all night so I shouldn’t have been surprised when he served Wade a plate of maraschino cherries and a bowl of “melted ice cream.” Wade tried dipping the cherries in the bowl of milk but said it just didn’t taste quite the same.

I realized the other day that there is big news I haven’t posted. I don’t normally post about politics. Actually, I don’t normally care about politics. However, my dad has decided to run for governor in KY for 2007. This is a race I definitely find interesting.

For the first time in three months, I went in to Atlanta for work. I left the house around 8, and arrived at the outlet malls in Commerce just as they opened. Gap even had 30% off everything in the store. I got to SA just in time to pick up Carol and Del for lunch – Mexican of course. Then I went in and met with my boss. I even got some new work – yahoo! Then it was on to the mall for a little more shopping until Jamie joined me for dinner. I love American Cafe – that is a restaurant Anderson definitely needs.

I have a lot of work that needs doing in the yard, but I’ve been avoiding it. I kept telling myself that it would be much easier to dig up plants right after a good rain. Well the circumstances were finally right. I spent the afternoon digging up and dividing day lilies and cannas. I planted them anywhere there was bare ground, but I still had to throw a lot away. I didn’t get to planting bulbs, raking leaves, or dividing the dutch irises. There is always next week. I am sad to say I am very very sore. I’m obviously not used to digging, pulling, planting, and bending over for such a long time. I also got bit by fire ants somewhere and the bites are itching like crazy!

My mom started this contest years ago. My sister, mom, and I would all search for the fall tree with the best colors. Wade even threw in his contest entry this year. Here is my tree (or rather trees). Sadly, the picture doesn’t do justice to the actual colors.

I was playing around on my computer today and found the link to our wedding website is still active. I guess Wade never takes anything down. There are some funny pictures in the slideshow.

Sally came to visit a few days ago – at least she doesn’t come very often. Sally has a problem with gossip. She doesn’t know what to repeat and what to keep to herself. This makes a lot of uncomfortable situations and throws many situations way out of proportion. I always thought the games of high school would be left behind when people matured. Instead, I think things are worse because some people grew up and others didn’t.