white or white or umm... white!

our house was supposed to get painted this week.  that is what i was told at least.  i've come to realize that even the best contractors can have problems getting their subs to arrive on time.  our framer was supposed to complete his work two weeks ago.  i actually heard the words come out of his mouth.  haven't seen him since.  grrr...

regardless of when our house actually gets painted, jeff and i had to decide on the color.  we knew we wanted a white house so i first began by searching the internet of pics of white houses and the colors used.  our very small town has an ace hardware which carries benjamin moore paints so that narrowed it even more.

we narrowed it down to three whites:
benjamin moore china white
benjamin moore cloud nine
benjamin moore white dove

we tested the samples in two areas.  the first under our porch which will receive a lot of filtered light.  the second area was at the back of our house by the mudroom door.  this area will receive direct sun light.

its funny because when i selected the colors by simply looking at the small swatches, they all looked very similar.  like you could hardly tell a difference.  but when you test a small area you can tell that they have different undertones.  the cloud nine definitely has a grey undertone and the white dove has a tan undertone.  white china, in my opinion, is the perfect shade of a creamy but bright white.  that is the color we decided on.

i'm keeping my fingers crossed that i can show you a completely painted house next week!

if you would like to read the story behind my house you can click here.

tante holly

the following post describes what i walked up on saturday afternoon.

meet tante holly.

tante holly has "sickies in her tummy" and the only way to get them out is to cut off her hair.

so kevyn does.  over and over and over again.

but don't worry tante, it grows back nicely.

kelby also decided she would take a turn at tante's hair.  

looking good holly.  looking good.

if only it was that simple :)

laundry room

i've previously talked about my brain being mush at times due to ALL the things floating around in it.  currently occupying my brain is the laundry room.  more specifically the washer and dryer.  when we sold our previous home, we sold the washer and dryer with it.  i was actually kind of excited we did because i did not care for the current set too much.  we had only had the set for less than two years so they were still relatively new.  our washer was a front load and while i liked the look, i hated the maintenance it took to keep it clean.  and having to leave the door open was just a pain and seemed silly.  i do laundry pretty much everyday of the week and not just on a specific day.  therefore our washer door was always open.

and silly me didn't know all the maintenance details (including the open door rule) until after about 4 months of use and by then all our clothes began smelling musty.  let me tell ya people, that is a hard smell to get rid of.  my cleaning lady was the one who informed me what all i needed to do to keep it clean and our laundry smelling fresh.

i swore to myself i would NEVER get a front load washer again.

that was until i started to lay out our laundry room and "pinning" things on pinterest.

Source: decorpad.com via Becky on Pinterest

Source: tinywhitedaisies.tumblr.com via Becky on Pinterest

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Source: redclaysoul.com via Becky on Pinterest

Source: theenchantedhome.blogspot.com via Becky on Pinteres

front load washers would definitely allow for more countertop space which i love.

Source: houzz.com via Becky on Pinterest

i think i like the stacked front loads even better due to my room layout.  we will have our water heater on one side of the laundry room and a stacked washer and dryer on the other side of the room would give the room symmetry.

i've been scouring the internet looking for feedback or to see if i'm the only one with my dilemma.  recently, emily a. clark did a post on a similar issue and she now posted her update.  she went with a top load and gave good support to her decision.  i think i'm back at square one.     

help!!!

lil kindergartener

as previously mentioned, i now have a kindergartner!  

kelby will be going to a parochial school and their school year starts slightly earlier than public school.  it was a tough decision for jeff and i to make as to where we will be sending the girls.  we found ourselves questioning parents everywhere on their thoughts...  at the park, ball games, etc.  i think at one time i had kelby signed up at three different schools knowing i would have to go back and decline her enrollment later at two of them.  i know, i have issues.  don't judge me.

i took kelby and nat shopping for school supplies a few weeks ago and they picked out similar backpacks.  they were sold by the small stuffed animal on the zipper.  geez...    

i was positive the first day of kindergarten would bring lots of tears for kelby (and me!).  but it didn't!  i think this is largely due to the fact that kelby has been going to this schools preschool for a few years and she already new the kindergarten teacher.

that and the fact that her best bud is also in her class.  when i mentioned to mrs. z that kelby and sam were best buds, she suggested seating them at the same table to make the first few weeks a little easier on the both of them.  great idea mrs. z!  it worked!

another awesome thing about kelby's school is that it is adjacent to our office.  my plan is to walk over and get kelby at first, but hopefully soon she will be able to make the walk across the parking lot by herself.  there is even a gate between our parking lots.  which is strange because that fence has been there forever and we only built our clinic four years ago.  so what was that gate for???  hmmm....

i put a small table (that held all my junk) in the corner of my office and then loaded it up with all kinds of goodies for kelby.  the top shelf has two baskets.  one with snacks and waters.  the other with school supplies for her to do her homework.  the bottom shelf still holds my junk.  she was very excited to see her new workspace.

good luck in kindergarten kelbo!

summers last hurrah

it is so hard to believe that summer is over for us...  it seems like it was just yesterday that we were moving in with my parents and making promises to the girls about what all we were going to do this summer.  sadly only a few items got crossed off our summer bucket list.  this truly was the shortest summer i can remember. i'm guessing this is largely due to the fact that kelby started kindergarten today.  yes, today!  can you believe it?  that post will come soon. 

so as we neared the end of summer and began trying to pump kelby up about kindergarten, she reminded us that we had yet to take her to splashway like we had promised.  so this past sunday we loaded up and made the somewhat short drive to splashway.  we spent about 4 hours there which was plenty for our crew.

the girls get braver each year.  while they did enjoy the "baby" slides with neely, they would much rather go down the "big" slides with the daddies.  i on the other hand (for fear of a wardrobe malfunction), stayed back with neely to cheer them on.

see that kid behind kelby?  that is her classmate.  they were thrilled to see that he was there and they ended up hanging out together all day.

neely mastered the slides the correct way so kelby had to teach her how to do them feet first and on her tummy.

the girls also got a weird thrill from trying to sit on these things...

the girls probably stood in line 30 minutes for a balloon.  the balloons lasted 5 minutes.

nice hat uncle darren :)