Itchy Trigger Finger

I can't be alone on this. Wandering through the house, trying to find things that need a face lift. It's pretty much just an excuse to get some spray paint cans out to work some magic. Luckily, I found some pumpkins at Walmart on clearance for $2 a piece. They were originally $10 a piece when I first drooled over them in September. But I knew that if I waited, they would drop drastically in price once the pumpkin season was officially over. After what seemed like years of waiting, I wheeled my cart down the fake flowers aisle and dropped to my knees...for tucked away on the bottom shelf were several beautiful pumpkins newly-affixed with red clearance tags! Patience, young grasshopper, paid off at last.

Five of the little guys ended up in my cart. I peeled out in the parking lot to get home to alter the neon-orange color of three of them. The other two weren't quite as bright and could remain in their original color...but my spray paint was about to transform three into Heirloom White from Rustoleum. I don't buy any other brand now since I love this stuff so much.

A few other things around the house succumbed to my need for spray. A vase I painted yellow last year just never felt right to me. Who likes a dirty yellow pot, anyway? And I had a few lamps that were an eyesore but would be free to paint! Come out of the closets, little ones. This spray paint can if your friend! They all made it outside onto my trusty spray painting board. 

No, I'm not an addict. Yes, I do have an official spray painting board. What of it?

After some tricky taping, the painting could commence. Just a few passes of elbow-elbow, wrist-wrist and voila! New things! After some drying time on newspapers, each piece found a new home in my home. I must say, I'm quite a fan. I'm just always blown away that a complete change takes place with just a few bucks of paint!

If you haven't become addicted a fan like me, give spray painting a try. You'll love it! I realize those same sentiments are spoken by drug dealers to potential buyers, but that isn't the point! 

I'm just glad there are now a few more pieces in the sparse Fall decorations collection of our home. They are tucked safely away for now to be enjoyed next year, along with some other decorative scores I found on my knees in the fake flower aisle at Walmart. Luckily, no one saw me in that condition! A girl has to find a good deal if she wants to feel confident when painting!

Just try it. Once won't hurt. (Oh man! Again with the dealer talk?!)

A-California-ing We Go!

I went to work this week. The call came around 5:30 PM on Monday night that we were going to be wheels-up just a few hours later. This only happened because I finally felt safe to run some errands with Hubby. We were at Walmart replacing a broken set of Christmas lights. We checked out so I could quickly get home to shower and pack. 

Big Boss showed up alone. We headed to Sacramento, California, my first time here. As we landed. a fog cloud moved in over the runway and cut the visibility quite a bit. It was the weirdest thing to have to report our landing to Tower because they couldn't see us! "Yep, we're down. Now how do we get to the ramp?!"

The next morning, the fog was still hanging around. It's amazing how much 1/2 mile visibility seems when you wake up to less than an 1/8! It took a few hours to blow off, and the calm wind didn't help at all. Big Boss showed up and had to wait almost an entire hour before things cleared enough to take off. I've found that if you tell him the truth in as few words as possible, he doesn't get as mad. Once we were airborne, just a short flight to Santa Rosa took us to some beautiful wine country.

We were hungry but knew Big Boss wouldn't be gone long. So we walked next door to the airline terminal for a delicious lunch next to the airplane ramp. A dream come true! I had a California Club to celebrate my present location, and I shared half my sandwich with Terry when his ordered crab cakes came out in a much smaller portion than we both expected.

Soon we were on our way again. The plan was to Oakland next, but Big Boss changed his mind at the last minute to skip Oakland entirely. I didn't mind, since the same fog was still hanging out in the entire Bay area. We flew over San Francisco and could barely make out the Golden Gate Bridge through the thick layers of clouds on the ground. It was pretty, but I was just glad I wasn't in it! We were soon landing at sunny Los Angeles. This is only my second time here at the main airport, LAX. After one of the local guys picked up Big Boss to run him around town, I waited in the lobby and watched airplanes take off. Then I spent a solid hour trying to arrange a rental car at our next destination. Since Big Boss wanted a tiny airport that closed at 6:00 PM, nobody wanted to provide him something to drive! Luckily, he surprised us by showing up early enough for the rental car to be waiting. We were soon on our way to Las Vegas next. It looks so pretty from the air at night!

Since he was alone and had three places to visit in the Sin City, I was setting up locations on his iPad while trying to explain to him how to use it. After a few minutes of directions with no success, he just said, "Well, why don't you just come with me?" So I hopped in the rental car with Big Boss and drove all over town looking at properties! We even bought me dinner at a drive-through restaurant. Can't beat that, huh? I felt bad leaving Terry to do all the work, but what can you say when Big Boss makes a request to be his navigator?!

We got back to the airplane around 8:00 PM and headed back to Phoenix. Surprise!

After landing at home, we helped the line guy by wing-walking our airplane into the hangar. Then we hopped in my car and drove home. Big Boss had meetings in town for the rest of the week, so I started to feel safe that I could stay home for a few days and work on some projects. I finished yesterday, and I'm so excited for the potential results! Only time will tell if my hard work this week paid off.

Phoenix - Sacramento/Mather - Santa Rosa - Los Angeles - North Las Vegas - Phoenix

Decking the Halls

As a blessed kid growing up in a small town in tight-knit family, we always put up Christmas decorations, lit the tree, and illuminated the entire neighborhood with outdoor lighting the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas-colored M&Ms were placed in the ageless Santa tin while Andy Williams and Bing Crosby music played in the background. We sang songs as the tree got its special treatment from four rambunctious kids. Honestly, how did my Mom do it? After watching home videos of decorating the tree, I don't know how she survived with such obviously annoying kids! 

Character-flaws aside, we always looked forward to decking the halls for Christmas. And I'm willing to keep these sacred traditions alive in my new married life.

Because this year we were traveling on the usual day to decorate (I protested but lost), decorating for Christmas simply didn't happen on time. And then I left for work on Monday. I don't know how I slept at night knowing it was almost December without any signs of Christmas going on in my home. Luckily, we remedied that last night.

Hubby braved the stepladder and heaved himself up on the roof once again. We were so disappointed with last year's solar-powered LED Christmas lights that we bought newer, bigger, better, and LED-er lights for this year. I'm tickled with them. They are the classic retro Christmas lights in blue, green, red, orange, and yellow. I love that I can see them even when peeking out from the window. Which I do a lot now, just to enjoy them. Christmas lights really do bring deep happiness and peace.

And the M&Ms helped create those warm, fuzzy feelings, too. Keeping traditions alive here, folks. That's all.

We then came inside and "installed" the Christmas tree. I still love this beast, and the lights were all still working perfectly. After Hubby had everything put together, we strung new wooden red beaded garlands that I found on clearance last year at Michael's. So classy and subtle (like highlights!), yet beautiful on the tree. We then hung our Christmas ornaments that we got at Costco when we purchased our tree over three years ago. I love the varying sizes and colors. It makes the tree so happy and perfect.

Have I mentioned I am somewhat a fan of Christmas?

During last year's decking of the halls, we didn't have any furniture in this room. As a result, finding room for a large tree was a little more difficult this year. We moved couches to the side to make room for it in the corner. I wish it could be in front of the living room window, but where would we put that couch?! It looks gorgeous in  the room and makes the whole house feel warm and cozy. I want to leave it up year-round but got vetoed. 

When did I lose all my power as a wife?! 

I'm just glad everything is up. It doesn't feel like Christmas without a bunch of red and green ornaments and fir tree smells everywhere you turn!