Ten on Tuesday

1. God bless the young man in the Taco Bell drive-thru who addressed me as "Miss" instead of "Ma'am" the other day.

2. I have already told you how much we love hats around our house.

3. I haven't exercised in over two weeks now, and I still don't miss it.

4. Disney Movie Trivia: "Can you stand on your head?"

{Last week's answer: The Incredibles}

5. I am trying to incorporate my love for fall with each TOT post from now until Thanksgiving. This week its the pumpkin welcome when you pull into our driveway. I don't know how we ended up with so many green pumpkins in our garden this year but I love it!

6. One BIG plus to having a fall wedding: you have enough fall decorations to last you for life.

7. Our five year anniversary is only three weeks away. Wow!

8. I'm pretty sure I'm getting the greatest anniversary present EVER, but its still technically a bit hush hush. Shhh!

9. The professional photos taken during our family reunion in July arrived in the mail yesterday. Justin and I often balk at the price of professional photos, but believe me when I tell you these were worth every single penny.

10. This Week's Blessing: A raise at work. Praise the Lord!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Hooray for a four day work week!

2. Perhaps its a good week to wean myself off my caffeine intake a bit?

Nahhhh!

3. We awoke to a 36 degree morning today, which means Kendry finally got to wear his adorable Levi's winter jacket. As with most of his outfits, I was way more excited about this than he was. I bought this jacket at a yard sale when Kendry was just two months old. Now, fifteen months later, it is finally cold enough to warrant him wearing the jacket, and it barely fits. But its just as precious as I imagined it would be on him.

4. I'm going to be an auntie again any day now. We can't wait to meet you, Baby Londyn!

5. I have recently been inspired by creative mom sites like I Can Teach My Child and FunMoms.org. While I was home with Kendry on Monday I set up his first sensory tub with oatmeal, funnels, and measuring cups and spoons. My clean freak side came close to having a nervous breakdown as I watched oatmeal spill all over my kitchen floor. Naturally, I had to snap a photo of this as evidence to my hubby that I do let my kiddo make a mess from time to time.

And the oatmeal held Kendry's attention for 10 minutes straight. That has got to be a new record!

6. Disney Movie Trivia: "Oh, no. Elastigirl? You married Elastigirl? Oh - and got biz-zay! It's a whole family of supers!"

{Last week's answer: The Rescuers Down Under}

7. Did you know that dryer sheets help ward off deer? All five young trees in our back yard look like they have been TP'd, but its keeping those young bucks from scraping their antlers on them.

8. I am sooo very excited about a new young women's Bible study starting up next month!

9. We have taken to hiding some of Kendry's favorite books from him. In our defense, we only hide them after they have been read for the 20th time in one day.

10. This Week's Blessing: getting to be a stay-at-home mommy for a day.

Fall Creativity

HAPPY FALL FROM THE GIMLIN FAMILY!!

Fall is my favorite season by far; and as such, it inspires my creativity. This pumpkin project was in this month's BH&G, if you would like to try it for yourself. It is fairly simple if you have the right type of blade. I even used one of the pumpkins from our own garden.

I hope you are having a wonderful fall season!

Housepainting for Dummies

Thats right, folks! This is the much-anticipated housepainting adventure post that you have been waiting ever so patiently for. As I discussed here last spring, our major home improvement project for 2010 was painting the exterior of our house ourselves. This big undertaking began on Memorial Day Weekend and was finally finished...

...wait for it...

...four months later.

Do we know how to drag out a project or what? Now, I could use a few excuses, like the fairly constant rain we had during the month of June, the flooding incident that occurred two days after we started painting, our ten day trip to Alaska in July, and the three summer weekends already booked for attending friends' weddings, but I'm not an excuse kind of gal. The bottom line is that we had a wonderful summer, and the painting was eventually completed.

Would I choose to paint the house again by ourselves? (We will likely have to in a few short years.) Probably not. But then, I was never an advocate for painting it ourselves anyway. Yes, it is the cheaper option by far. But let's be honest here: Justin and I both work full time and we have a very busy toddler to keep up with. I would just as soon pay someone else the extra money to knock out the painting in a few days, while I relax in my back yard with a lemonade, admiring their hard work.

On the other hand, Justin is convinced that, all delays considered, he would still paint it himself before hiring an outside party to do it for us.

Suddenly vinyl siding is sounding pretty good, don't you think?

As owners of a fixer-upper, we are constantly learning the ins and outs of home improvement projects. Here are just a few of the lessons learned with this project:

DO get the prep work done prior to painting day. It will take you longer than planned.

DO whatever it takes to complete the project while your mother-in-law is available to watch the kiddo.

DO buy the bulk of your paint the same day you plan to start painting (if you can), because trying to shake/mix a 5 gallon bucket of paint by yourself, after the paint has settled for a few weeks, is an abs and arms workout of hideous proportions.

DO expect your paint job to get smudged or dirty as soon as you have it completed (Murphy's Law), and be ready to let it go. A praying mantis pooped on the white trim of our front door not two days after I finished painting it. (Up until then it never occurred to me that bugs actually poop.)

DO follow the directions for removing the masking tape as soon as feasibly possible.

DO NOT be surprised if you leave the masking tape on for a few weeks and it pulls off a layer of your new house paint when you finally get around to removing it. Or better yet, when you pull it off and it leaves all it's stickiness on your fresh paint, which can only be remedied by sanding down the surface and painting it all over again.

And you wonder why it took us four months to complete this project?

And now I will shutup and give you what you are really after - the before and after pics:

We love how it turned out!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Wow! I find myself at a bit of a loss for my Ten post this week, so I apologize if this one is a little drab.

2. Isn’t this an adorable photo of my little man?

Its another one taken by Auntie Andrea – she snapped it just before Kendry accompanied me on a training run a few weeks ago. He is, after all, my favorite running partner.

3. No, my husband does not get hurt feelings when I declare someone else as “my favorite running partner”. Justin and I love to go on hikes together, but we have agreed that running will not be a joint hobby in our marriage. Its for the best.

4. The half-marathon on October 2nd went great! (more details to come)

5. I am headed for a three day weekend. Hip hip hooray for Mr. Columbus!

6. Disney Movie Trivia: "Welcome to "Albatross Air: A Fair Fare From Here to There." You get it? "A fair fare." It's-It's a play on... never mind."

{Last week's trivia answer: Lady and the Tramp}

7. I am pretty sure I have eaten more candy corn in the last two weeks than any one person should eat in their lifetime.

8. Only three more weeks until I absolutely have to have Kendry's costume completed. Time to dig out the sewing machine and get to work!

9. My sewing machine may be out from now until Christmas because I just found some fun ideas for Christmas gifts. I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!

10. This Week’s Blessing: spending the day with one of my oldest and dearest friends, Amanda. Granted, for part of the day we were both running in the half-marathon – we have a knack for finding crazy adventures to do together. I love you, chica!