Black and White. . .Thursday?

"Isn't it fun when the blogging world and the real world collide and come together.".  . At least I think that is what my new friend Ellie said. 

You probably know her from the blog Shine!. 

She and her family not only moved from Australia to the state I live in, they moved to a town about 15 miles from us.  

How cool is that?

On Monday Elizabeth and I set out to meet Ellie and her daughter Tia at the park.

Tia's mom and I hit if off right away. As Ellie said, we have been leaving comments on each other's blogs for awhile.  We kind of already know each other. 

However, it took a little while for the girls to be comfortable enough to loosen up and play. 

Tia and Mary Elizabeth

Okay, the truth is, it took my girl a little awhile to loosen up and play. 

My, Mary Elizabeth is cautious when it comes to meeting new people. She likes to take her time to  get to know the person. She wants to form her own opinions. It seems she wants to weigh the emotional commitment that a relationship may involve. You can see her thinking. . .Is it worth it . . . or??? 

There are some people that know this all to well. . .((right Karen?. . . BUT! She loves you now! You know she does.))

Tia is a vibrant child. 


She seems to have a take life by the horns attitude and just figures "You love me!" 

They say opposites attract. 

I am sure these too little girls are going to be great friends in time. They seem to have a few things in common. . . They share the same July birthday month. They are both four years old and they have older siblings that just adore them. 

After the park Elizabeth and I went to the giant pumpkin patch in town and shared some thoughts about the day. We walked around, looked at the pumpkins and talked about things. 

AND

  

My little thinker thought about things.  Later on that day, she told me she decided three things. 

One: It will be nice to have another little girl to play with sometimes.

Two: Tia will be a good new friend to have. 

And most importantly THREE ~ When she saw my pictures she decided, "Our shirts look much better with color on them." 

Go and see The Long Road to China's addition. . . The road just got shorter. 

The Apples that Is

You know, I really try NOT to show my emotions on this blog. I try very hard to keep IT happy and light. 

BUT! 

Don't you just hate it when you make the most delicious caramel covered, chocolate apple treats with your girls AND they look so cute and perfect with sweet little bows on them. . ((the apples that is)) 

AND 

Everyone loves them, even the baby . . .Who you finally get a GREAT! updated  picture of.  

I would love to tell you my little chocolate candy apples made that droll because she just loved them.  But, this picture was taken months ago.  

I would love to tell you that and more.  I would love to show you how perfect and cute they came out. . .((the apples that is))  


 I even wanted to give you the recipe. These treats are just perfect for little hands to make.  


BUT! I can't do any of that today. 

I erased ALL the picture I took yesterday.  

ALL OF THEM ARE GONE! ALL OF THEM!!!!! I don't have one picture from yesterday to show you. 

WAAAAAAAAAAA! 


Don't worry! I think I'll be okay. . . Maybe we can make them again after school today. . . ((the apples that is))  


A  delicious caramel covered, chocolate treat might be just the thing to make things better. 

So SHE can feed the ducks

Stephen and I went to Furman University the other day.   There was a talk on Human Rights in Russia or something like that. He needed to go to the lecture for his debate class.  

You see, when your a home-school debate mom, like me,  you get to do these things with your kids. You get to go to lectures about Russia and learn things you just didn't know like: what the United States Sanctions are regarding Russia and whether or not the U.S. should change our policies towards Russia.  And all kinds of interesting things.

 Or

If you have younger children you get to go feed the ducks your stale French Fries instead.

This is really good for me. 

Sometimes with these lectures, I have to ask my kids: "What did he say?", "Huuuuh", "That word means WHAT again?" and  "Does Russia have one "S" or two?"

So feeding the ducks with Liz is a really good cover for me. 

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When the lecture was over Stephen wanted to walk around the lake and the school. We sat and talked about Non-Russian things and I tried to get a few good pictures of the two of them looking at the camera at the same time.   

When Liz looked, Stephen looked away. . . at the ducks.

And

When Stephen looked, Liz looked away. . . at the ducks. 

I  just couldn't get it right.  

Until Stephen decided to change things up and be the amazing big brother we should all have.

Next week, we have to go back to Furman for another lecture on Russia. Kathryn as well as Stephen will be going to this one. We will not only learn more interesting facts about the policies the United States Government holds towards Russia, we are going to learn how to use a college library and take a tour of the school.  It should be really great and quite a learning experience for us all. I just love Furman.

Gee, I sure hope the ducks are still hungry and Liz wants to come with me. . .   You know, so SHE can feed the ducks.  

Just Close Your Eyes and Paint!

TAA DAA!!!

Well? What do you think??? I have been working so very hard on this. 

My new decor! 

YOU LIKE???

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NOT! 

Okay, Simply Sweeter and One of my many Cuzzins' BREATH! 


It's okay. 


I really didn't do this to my house. 

REALLY!!! 

But, It was done to one of the rental houses.
REALLY!!!

This house is a beautiful 100 year old house just a mile from down town Greenville.  This charming little house has all the  authentic touches: wood floors, original doors and beautiful open windows for natural lighting. This house did not need an "artistic" touch.

Soooo, your not sure what your looking at huuu? 


Maybe you should take an aspirin before we start the tour. 


I'll wait. 


Really you might need it. 

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Okay, ready? 


Come on in. . . It's okay . . . Well, it will be.

  

Let's start this little tour  in this room. It is one of the front rooms in the house. 

See, this room is not too bad. I was kind of impressed the lines were so straight and no drips. The only thing was. . .((okay, one of the many things was)). . . the paint used here and in all the rooms was for outdoor use. The paint is very heavy and thick and was VERY hard to cover.  

I think it would be best to move on directly up stairs to one of the bedrooms. 

 This process will ease us into the house. There is no need to send anyone into shock right away. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, 

I have absolutely NO! idea what the thought process was here, all we have are pink and purple messy lines.  

That's it. 

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Moving right along, we should go back down the stairs into the kitchen. 

Here is where things really get confusing. Try to focus your eyes really good in here.

Hard to see I know.

Your seeing it right. . .little tiny brush strokes. . . all over the walls, in the drawers  and even behind the refrigerator. The molding IS painted black and where the molding stopped a stripe continued. 

WHY??? 

WE just don't know?

Hold your breath. . . We are just getting warmed up. Now we will carefully go into one of the main rooms. You will see one of the three fireplaces. 

Notice the mantel. 

Now, aren't you glad you took that aspirin?  

Your dizzy right?

I am sure by now your eyes just don't know where to look. Notice, in the third picture. . . the painter went around the pictures that once hung on these walls.  

Do you remember in the kitchen I told you "the decorator" here moved the refrigerator and painted behind it?  

I just don't get it. 

Maybe she was tired. 

Do you do this when you paint? 

I'm just wondering.  Maybe there is a technique here I just don't get.  You know, I am just  a home school mom. . .not an artist or even a decorator for that matter. 

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AND THEN! 

I saved the best for last.


. . . The Pantry. . . 


WHAT THE HECK?

Thought I would run through this again just in case you missed it. . .

. . . the ceilings. . .

Did you realize the ceilings were painted too.  Did you realize this person painted a "molding stripe" where there was NO molding with thick, shiny outside paint?  

I had to keep going back in to see if my eyes deceived me or not.  


It was a not. 


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What did we do? 

First we took pictures. 

Then we got our crew together by hand picking only the most qualified personal. 

 and had lunch.  

We had a system that really seemed to work.  First we primed to cover . .  EVERYTHING!  and we really tried to listen to our leader. 

But, then we decided we should throw her out and find a new one. . .Like maybe the person who decorated this cake. 


Ohhh! Cake! 

Sorry. . . back to the house. . . But, Oh! That cake. It was very yummy and so pretty! AND Since we were on the subject of decorating, I thought I would show you what Stephenie can do.

Hey!!!!  What a minute! Maybe we should have asked her to help paint?  

We put Stephen to work on the ceilings for obvious reasons and NO! he is not standing on anything. It's all him. 

Matthew worked on all the trim and all the high corners. He's no shorty. 


However, it all didn't go smoothly. . . 

I don't want to mention any names or anything. BUT! There was one person who kept telling us she was very tall and could easily reach all the high places. 

We were like "WHATEVER!!! "  "Just close your eyes and paint!" 


She did clean all the floors! and that made us all very happy. 


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There were times that other things needed to be done.

Some of us worked on our City of Troy research papers that were due the very next day. There are NO! excuses in this home school. . . If you don't want to study there will be plenty of on the job training for your life time career.  

Study, work and then Study "More Harder"!!!! That's our school motto. 


We learn all kinds of things here! 
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We learned Reiner is a happy painter. 


AND 


We learned 

Mark would yell and growl at us. When he came in to help he looked around and told us we had too many drips. He also said we were very messy. He said a lot of other things too but we have NO idea of what it was. 

We were like "Laaa, Laaaa, Laaaa" "WHATEVER!"  " Just close your eyes and paint." 

Like Margaret

I will tell you this, Mark did not yell at Reiner. Reiner came by to help us the next day.  What a minute? Is that why Reiner was so happy?  

Was he laughing at us? 

Stupid Mark! Stupid Reiner! 

Close your eyes and Paint! 

Just a little Sunday Snap Shot

  Sometimes I wonder how people who post everyday post. . . EVERYDAY? And then I remember posting is not what is important and I am just not one of those people. 

It's moments like these. . . When I realize my girl is growing up.  

Posting can wait.

 

Moments like these won't.