Snow day!

The past two days has been very snowy and very icy! I swear we got about four inches, and it's by far the most snow I've ever seen. It was so pretty coming down in huge fluffy flakes. I managed to take a break from the floor to take this picture, quickly mind you since it was in the 20s! By the time we had finished with the poly it was very white and the roads were terrible. Unfortunately this snow caught everyone by surprise and the salt trucks hadn't been out yet, so a lot of us were slipping and sliding all over the place. Luckily Diane and I got home in one piece. And I proceeded to make Snowcreme! Haven't had it in years. And didn't get to have the kind I (and Paula Deen) are used to. Normally I make it with sweetened condensed milk. But since we had no warning I didn't have any on hand, and I didn't even get to buy my emergency eggs, milk, and bread. It's a joke in the South that whenever it *might* snow all the grocery stores are immediately out of milk, eggs and bread. Who knows why?

In case your curious how to make it, I used:
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
3/4 t. vanilla

Add the snow and eat. And don't forget to stick you out a bowl to catch the snow in to begin with, otherwise who knows what you're eating. Of course even with the bowl outside, no one else in the house would eat it except me. Lord!

I hate it I didn't take more picture, but man has it been cold. It's supposed to be 6 tonight. 6?! I need another number in front of that, please. How about a 7? Sure makes me miss Southern California.

Mama, it's cold out here!

Nifty!

I need this puzzle rug in my life! It comes in a box of ten pieces, with thirteen colors to choose from. And, as you can see, you can mix and match for just what you need.

In pain!

The past two days the MIL and I have been polyurethane-ing the floors. (Oh my gosh, we are thisclose to moving in!) And it has been tense, tiring, smelly, and painful work. I absolutely see why everyone recommends hiring professionals to do these jobs. If we are ever faced with bad hardwoods floors again I'm either buying a different house or hiring someone just to sand the floors. We noticed yesterday that I am apparently a terrible sander. The hallway had four distinct circles from the big orbital sander, and the study has lines from my OCD sanding. I thought it would be more efficient! Oh well. I'll have to remember to take pictures to show what NOT to do!

Yesterday we put the first coat on, and boy is it pretty! And thankfully, very forgiving, seeing as the circles from the professionals are hardly noticeable now. Today was sanding the bubbles out, tackcloth the dust, and second layer. And I have to brag for a moment, because one of the rooms I polyed (polied? poly-ed?) had *maybe* five bubbles. Hey, if there's one thing I know, it's how to create a dust free environment!

So tomorrow should be the last sanding and last coating, then wait three days and move in! Well, not exactly. I figured Wednesday should be our move-in date, but we'll be on our way to Mississippi to visit my family for Christmas then. Although I could move some items in while I wait for Ben to get out of work. We've only got about ten boxes of stuff to our names currently, so moving in should take about an hour total. But the fella we bought the poly from said it takes 30 days for the floor to completely cure, so no sliding furniture around. Which lead to some interesting questions between Ben and I about what constitutes as sliding:

• What if someone misses sitting on the couch and moves it, will there be a sliding mark and a butt mark?


• What if zombies visit? (They drag their feet you know.)


• What about Foster's super long toenails?


• What if we feel the sudden urge to create an indoor Slip'n'Slide?

No, come back next month!

I was dusting the walls of our bedroom when...

the power went out. And not just in our house, or our block, but the entire city went out. Which could be pretty bad considering it should be in the 20s tonight, and Tennesseans have no idea what to do when traffic lights are out. Thankfully I've heard everything's back on, but man was it scary! First of all, I really am afraid of the dark. And it was soooo dark and quiet. I went from one second of dusting away and blasting the radio, to the next second...nothing. For a moment there I thought I had died...lol!


Well, we've finally finished sanding the floor, and now we're on to cleaning EVERYTHING so the poly will look nice and not have any issues. Here's hoping...

PS- I have to brag that Ben got to meet Dan Uggla tonight in his store. And wasn't too starstruck to welcome him to the Braves. So jealous!

Oh and by the way!

This is what I witnessed on the way to pick up Ben's pie...

...a lady had run her SUV into the front of a bank. Wow.

Last week...

our floors were finally sanded! And then we found out no, they weren't exactly. The generous soul that sanded the whole place for $200, missed the hall closet, did the edges of the room in a rougher grit than the rest of the rooms (so there's a very visible outline) and missed a few other spots. I used my new orbital sander to rough up the closet and missed spots - check. The floor quite a few dark spots that went unnoticed when we were looking to buy the house ("That's why there were so many rugs!"), so those boards had to be replaced. Which required power tools...yay!

Then Thursday was Ben's only off day, so he and I went to IKEA to buy some furniture. I did some price comparison the day before in town to see if our trouble was about to be worth it. Can you believe it was cheaper to rent a pickup, drive four hours to Atlanta, and spend $80 on gas than to buy a couch from someone in town? I can, since we live in one of the richest counties in America! (Williamson County is the 17th highest income county) We got a couch, dining table, some dressers, TV console, bookcases and some little things that I knew were worth getting there. It's tough, we both don't want an entirely IKEA home, but agreed this is what we would do for now and replace when the time and budget was right.

Friday and Saturday were spent replacing boards, getting pieces for finishing the closets, getting ready for Ben's birthday, and being sick. Diane and I have both become slaves to our allergies and sinus problems. And yes I have been wearing the mask while working, but I still feel like someone has punched me in the face.

And yesterday was Ben's birthday! He turned 33 this year and we had a pretty great time. I got him a Heavenly Chocolate Pie(?) from the Puffy Muffin for his cake...he's obsessed with this pie. I wish I had taken a picture before we devoured it. Honestly, though, it's not much to look at; it looks like a giant cream pie with six different kinds of chocolate. It had something I've never experienced before: cinnamon foam? It was this hard, brittle, white layer and when you put it in your mouth it just disintegrated...wonderful! Anyhoo, Ben got to watch his football team, ate his mom's awesome steaks, had pie, I gave him a new Lego Star Wars ship to add to the collection, checked out the house (and replaced a few more boards that weren't working out), went restaurant hopping, and came home to watch some more True Blood.

Last week was an eventful and successful week!