A-Camping we will go

Last weekend we went camping at Umstead State Park in Raleigh. It was perfect weather, high 85, overnight low of 68. We went with Adam and Mary and Ryan and Lindy and Lexi.

It was so nice and relaxing! We decided to go the lazy route and picked up some pizzas on the way. (Finally some more people that like pineapple!)

We set up our tents, Ryan built a nice fire, and Jeran hung up our hammock. We're definitely taking a stronger rope next time.

We roasted marshmallows and ate smores. I always forget how delicious they are!

We also played some games. We played card games like speed and played Personal Preference. We also played Liar's Dice, which seems to be becoming our essential camping game. Jeran read a lot of his book thanks to his handy headlamp. You really can't beat one of those for reading in the dark.

I slept pretty well - when camping, I'm bound to wake up no less than 7-8 times during the night, even with an air mattress. This time, each time I awoke, I forced myself to not open my eyes, check the time, or listen to the potentially scary noises of the night. So I slept very well by camping standards.

In the morning, we packed up and headed home for a busy Saturday. It's great having so many camping options so near!

Kitchen Progress

We have made quite a lot of progress on the kitchen. The wallpaper is basically all gone and we have removed the baseboards and the soffits above the cupboards.

We started the next phase of the project - wall prep. We have done a lot of mudding so far but still have a little more to do. After that we need to sand and then touch up the rough spots again and sand again.

We still haven't decided a paint color. We are torn between tans, creams, yellows, and light greens. Any opinions?

Look what the cat dragged in

So I was sitting outside on the back porch enjoying the nice sunny weather. The back door was open (the bugs aren't too bad yet, the A/C and heat are both off, and our kitchen can't look any worse). Toby had been poking around the back yard area for a while. He is a wimp when it comes to the great outdoors so he would look around and then when he heard a car motor over on the next street or a neighbor outside talking, he would run back inside for safety. Well, one when he ran in, I saw him going crazy over something on the floor in the kitchen.

I dropped my book and ran inside in time to see Toby pick something up in his mouth and dash down the hall and into the living room. When I got there I saw that he had a lizard! Not just a tiny little reptile, but a decent-sized, bona fide lizard. In my living room! He kept setting it down and letting it run a ways before running over and (usually) gently picking it up in his mouth and carrying it to the middle of the room.

As he was doing this, I was trying to make sure it didn't get under any furniture where it would be harder to catch and finding something to catch it with. I finally found a metal bucket and a wrapping paper roll. It took a while and a few tries, but I finally managed to herd the lizard into the bucket without Toby scaring it off in a different direction. I took the lizard out back and let him free in the woods.

Poor little guy. He didn't look too worse for the wear so hopefully he makes it.

Confessions

Following my sister's post listing 10 confessions (which I loved!), I decided to do one of my own.

1. I hate graters. Grating stuff is one of my least favorite cooking activities because it is scary and graters gives me the heebie-jeebies.

2. I still sometimes do the nun thing that I used to do when I was little where, when you're taking off your shirt, you leave it covering all your hair so you look like a nun. Jeran hates it.

3. I like to sing when I am bored and alone, like singing every nursery rhyme I can think of (I know a lot for some reason) or practice singing Row Row Row Your Boat with the notes offset by different amounts.

4. I hate the Waffle House but I have never been there and am determined never to go there. What do I hate most about it? The font they use on their sign.

5. There is something that I really like about cleaning out the sink drain after it gets clogged with hair and gunk, even though at the same time it is one of the grossest jobs I know of.

6. I love that initial feeling of getting into and sitting in a hot car with the windows rolled up.

7. I do not drink nearly enough water/liquids and some days I go without drinking anything. But I am determined to change that! I bought a new water bottle to inspire me and I'm going to try to drink at least 32 ounces a day.

8. I occasionally put headphones on and forget to turn on my iPod and son't realize it until hours later.

9. I sometimes get my p and b confused when writing words and have to sound it out aloud to figure out which letter I should write. "A.. buh.. surd."

10. For some reason, it took me A LOT longer than everyone else to figure out that drying off your entire body with a towel after a shower will really help you warm up a lot. My methods were always to curl up in a ball and wait to get warm or sit in front of a heater.

Wallpaper update

After working on the wallpaper twice (a total of about 5-6 hours probably), here is where I am at:

One sizable section done. The PaperTiger works pretty well, but the wallpaper remover stuff is indispensable. It still doesn't just jump right off the wall (I wish), but at least it comes off in slightly larger pieces.

Another thing that I did the other day was make this wreath. It was pretty fun and will brighten up our front door for spring.

I think it would be fun to take a flower arranging class.

Kitchen Wallpaper

Well, I am about to embark on a big task: Taking down all the wallpaper in the kitchen. There is A LOT of it. There aren't too many cupboards in our kitchen but it is a big room, which leaves lots of area for wallpaper. Also, annoyingly, it goes behind the splash guard on the countertops for quite a ways.

Isn't it just too cute?

No. it is coming off - all of it - and I'm starting today. I did some test peeling on one edge a while ago and it is going to be more stubborn than the wallpaper we took off from the bathroom. I have done a little reading online to decide what is the best way to go about this.

I purchased a Paper Tiger, which will poke a lot of shallow little holes in the wallpaper (and if used right, not in the drywall) to allow liquid to get behind more than just the edges. You gently roll it around in an area, then spray/wipe/roll it with wallpaper adhesive remover and wait for a while with fingers crossed. Then, I think you are supposed to be able to just peel and scrape the loosened wallpaper off. I am just really really really hoping it is that simple.

Well, I've got my supplies, my iPod, and Toby for company, and I've delayed starting by writing this, so here goes nothing! I'll keep y'all posted!

My Radius

So I was reading someone's blog - quick side note: I don't know her but her blog is quite entertaining - currently she has a series on Why You Should Have a Mormon Friend about food storage and designated drivers and such.

Anyways, I was reading her blog and she had a post about The Radius, that is, the circle around her house that she doesn't like to drive beyond. I really understood it and connected with that a lot because that is absolutely true with me! I have about a 10 minute driving radius that I usually travel in and any time I have to go somewhere outside this circle, I feel like it is a big ordeal and I need at least a few hours allocated for that trip.

Fortunately for me, there are a lot of things, basically everything I need within my small 10 minute radius. A big mall, Target, Michaels, lots of restaurants, at least 4 grocery stores, a hardware store and a Lowes, the post office, the bank, most friends' houses, the vet, and the library. Some things outside this circle that we go to are church (30 min), UNC (20 min), and a few random stores like JoAnns, Sam's Club, and Harbor Freight (tools).

My thing is that I get distressed planning an outing when I need to go to multiple places that are not in the same direction. Like today I need to go to the post office (east) and the bank (west) and I hate thinking about it! Why? I can't figure out exactly why. Maybe it is because it seems so inefficient and it is such a shame they aren't right next to each other or maybe I'm just crazy.

On a related note, I sometimes get so impatient walking to and from the mailbox that I just have to run because it takes too long. According to Google Maps it is 0.1 miles each way.

On an unrelated note, why do we say miles for a quantity between 0 and 1? If it is less than 1 MILE it certainly isn't MILES. I'm confused.