Dirty Girl

So this is what I looked like after working about two hours with the pressure washer. Sadly Dean had to spray me down twice in the backyard during the process. It was probably one of the dirtiest jobs I've ever done.

In Mike Rowe fashion, say it ... I'm a dirty girl.

Washing the fence

We borrowed a pressure washer from one of the ladies at work and spent Saturday washing the back yard fence. The right side of the picture is the cleaned fence, the left is the faded, grimy fence before washing. It is truly amazing how new the wood looks after washing.

We have started the process of staining the fence. It looks really good with the stain, even better than the fresh bare wood, but Jeni and I were sore as all get out after washing the fence and managed only about four sections of fence before calling it a day Sunday. We'll have to tackle it a little bit at a time, but it's going to look great when it's all done.

Mark it with a "G" for Gracie and me!

This is the individual birthday cake Jeni baked for Gracie. Lisa, Brian, Gracie and Clara Ann were going to visit on Saturday, but we were pressure washing the fence all day Saturday and Lisa and Brian ended up heading to the beach instead. Watch for an upcoming link because Jeni's been working on plans for a kitchen/recipe blog and plans to make this her first recipe with many other great recipes and tips to follow.

Gracie's goodie bags

After a few days of hard work, Jeni has finished the goodie bags for Gracie's birthday party. Gracie's third birthday is tomorrow, but the party is the 31st. Now Jeni just needs to fill the bags. There are two different pinks (with slight differences in the detailing) and a blue for the boys.

All three, the darker pink on the left, the lighter pink on the right...

Here is the lighter pink closer up so you can see the picture of Gracie and the detailing in the center box.

This is the back side of the goodie bag, showing the Hello Kitty ribbon.

The blue bag is a little more boy-ish for the boys, but still has Hello Kitty and cutie Gracie!

Master bedroom and bath

I don't think we've posted pictures of the finished bedroom and bathroom paint jobs. We pulled our colors for the bedroom and bath from the bedspread. Looking at the bedspread, we thought they'd be more blue, but they have more green in them than we imagined. We painted the walls of the bedroom from one of the stripes, then the tray ceiling in the bedroom from another. The bathroom color is also from the bedspread.

You can kind of see the colors in this picture, getting the bedspread, the tray and the walls. The walls actually match the throw pillows exactly.

This is the Charlesto-style border that was in the bathroom that we had to take down. Ugh ... wallpaper!

This is the first coat of the bathroom paint, but you can see the color better in this picture than the other one I took. You can also see some of the old blue in contrast. We're really happy with how all the paint turned out. Pretty soon Jeni's going to make me get to the baseboards. I keep holding out ... maybe spring will come and we can garden for a while and I can put it off longer.

Dean's Dream Mailman

If Dean could pick his dream mailman, this is who it would be...

Also, check out uspsjedimaster.com.

Dylan Hears A Who

OK ... imagine Bob Dylan reading Dr. Seuss and you have Dylan Hears A Who. Listen to seven Dr. Seuss classics, including Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat In The Hat, sung in the style of Bob Dylan. You can even download them and listen to them whenever you want.

Clara Ann is here!

Congratulations Lisa and Brian (and Gracie, too). Clara Ann was born Saturday, March 3 at 12:38 p.m., weighing in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 20 3/4 inches. She scored a 9/10 on her APGAR tests. Although initially low on her blood sugar, she brought it up to where they want it to be and is a healthy, beautiful bunch of cheeks and fat rolls.