39 more years to go...

until Dan and I catch up with my parents. Saturday mom and dad had a party to celebrate 40 years of wedded bliss. Their actual anniversary was Sept. 4th. We (the kids) threw mom and dad an anniversary party and Kimberly was nice enough to host at her house. Mom and dad didn't want a huge party, so we just invited their brothers and sisters and their spouses. I think everyone had a good time.

We also took lots of pictures because my 93 year old grandma was able to come. She lives in an assisted living facility and doesn't really get out much anymore. So we all took pictures with grandma...

Here's one of my favorites. Kraig handed us Elmo as a substitute for the child we don't have yet. It was so funny, as you can tell from my face!

Grandma looks like she doesn't even want to be in the photo.

Here's another one of the whole Ryan family:

My house is cold.

I refuse to turn on the heat.

Got the sweatshirts and winter slippers out today.

Beef stew in the crockpot...mmm

Confession:

I am the most indecisive person when it comes to paint color.

Now that Dan has moved his business out of the spare bedroom, it's time to give it a make-over. I have been working in this room for 4 days, it's been quite the task. First, I had to prime everything, walls, ceiling and trim. Then I painted the ceiling, but I used cheap paint from Wal-Mart and it's not a bright white. So I bought new paint from Lowe's and repainted the ceiling for the 3rd time!
All the trim got 2 coats of white paint. That was actually the easy part. Then I picked out a wall color but... I'm not sure I like it. It's ok, I could live with it. It's just not what I envisioned. This happens to me every time I paint. I usually end up painting a room twice. Dan has accepted this about me and knows that I will probably change my mind. He just says, "Whatever you want, Honey." Isn't he a great husband? I'm glad he's a patient man.

Well, it didn't take me long to figure out how to spend my earnings from the yard sale last weekend. On a trip to Lowe's to buy paint for the spare bedroom, I decided that it'd be nice to put up some kind of crown molding. For some reason this room doesn't have any molding at the top and it looks plain in comparison to the rest of the house. So $65.00 was spent...

I'm also heading out to Menards today to get two square terra cotta planters for the backyard. I've been looking at these all summer thinking how cute they are and how great they would look next to our new flower bed. They've been marked down and I just don't think I can resist any longer. Here goes another $40.00....

I've spent the last 2 days in my sister's garage trying to sell junk to strangers. Ah, the joys of yard sales!

Unlike last year, we didn't have a ton of stuff to put in the yard sale, but enough that it was still a chore. The funny thing is, no one ever forces me to do this. I always volunteer of my own free will. You'd think I'd learn...

It's not that I don't like yard sales exactly, I just hate the part where you have to pack everything up that didn't sell and find something to do with it. As I came home today I was going to make a stop at the Salvation Army to drop off all the unwanted leftovers. I pull up to the door and it says "We are full. No more donations till after 12pm on Monday." Great! Now I am stuck with all this junk in my car for the next 2 days.

My reward? I'm $126.00 richer. Now, what will I spend it on.... any suggestions????