The Ladder-Hug

We spent the last 2-3 months repainting the house. You see, when someone decided to build our house they thought, "I know, lets put hardboard siding on all the houses because this is Richmond and it will look more authentically southern. That way people will have to paint their houses every few years instead of just installing vinyl siding and letting that last 30 years..."

It was a HUGE chore but I am really glad that we did it. Nobody had painted the house in the past ten years so it really needed a new coat. We were a little nervous when we applied the first color splotch to a small section in the back because it looked a little purple. But after we got a bunch put on the purple went away and we were left with gray. The final product turned out great. We had our little giant type ladder that would only go 21 feet so I had to borrow our neighbors ladder to get it all done. Luckily our neighbor is actually the owner of a business call Ladder Builders so he had quite a selection for me to choose from. I had a 28', 32', or 38 foot ladder at my disposal. I cannot imagine being 3 and 1/2 stories in the air. I was terrified on the 28 footer.
While painting I invented the ladder-hug - as pictured below. All the fellas and husbands should try it with their lady friends. Word on the street is that they dig it. Ladies.......

I did have an embarrassing fall one of the days I was painting. Sadly, it happened in the front yard but luckily, nobody saw me fall. I came all the way down our ladder and on the last step I put my foot sideways and rolled my ankle. I came flying down and the paint can (1 full gallon of white) came tumbling down with me. I sat on the ground laughing/almost crying because the paint had flown everywhere and now my ankle hurt. Kenzie didn't see the incident but she was able to help me with the cleanup. All in all, not such a bad injury for how much I was actually on the ladder. There is now a bid dead spot on the front lawn where the gallon of paint spilled. I don't even care a little bit :-)

In fact, while Kenzie was taking this picture, the neighbor whose ladder it was made fun of me and told me to stop hugging the house. The other neighbor told me he would come out periodically during the morning and see if he needed to call 911. I was able to survive the ordeal without dying. And of course at the end of the project we told ourselves, "No more house projects!" That might last a month or two.

So here is a before and after shot so you can see the difference.

Before

After

Life is pretty normal other than that. Kenzie is back to the swing of things at work. In fact, on the first day back she told me how excited she was to be working again. Then, on her fourth work day she woke up with the alarm at 6:55 and told me she was ready to stay home and be done work again. Sounds about right.

We are getting some visitors this week as one of my aunts and cousins come to visit, then we get to see Rob as he comes out for his dental school interview, then we fly to Texas to see Cyle and Tyler and watch TCU destroy BYU in football, then we go to Delaware for Kristi's visit with her latest boy candy, then we come back to Richmond in time for me to go through our big go-live for work and Kenzie makes her debut with a craft show during the first weekend of November. The next 30-40 days will be action packed, but the kiddo makes us take time outs for trips to the park and walks to enjoy the day.

And she hearts slides. Jenna does too.