Toy Room Makeover

When we moved into our house 9 1/2 years ago, my Aunt Joni, cousin Joell and sister Amy did an amazing thing for us. In the days before we moved in, they stripped the wall paper in what would be the toy room, and gave it a fresh coat of paint. Now, this wasn't any ordinary wall paper. It was a nature scene. No joke. In fact, this is Amy and Joell in front of it. I have this picture framed and on the wall that it was taken. I will forever be grateful for the act of kindness they showed me in a very challenging time!





I heard it was a pain to peel off, piece by piece. Here's more before and after photos.

 Today we start over again. The ugly carpet that was never tacked down is gone. The ugly paneling on the other walls will be gone. The popcorn ceiling will be gone.  New lighting, new flooring, new paint.....new, new, new!! Can't wait to show you the next after photos!

Oh Christmas Tree...

We found the perfect Christmas tree this year. We went to my favorite U Cut tree farm, Noon Rd Trees on Thanskgiving weekend. We had to get the tree early, because Dan was heading back to work, and wouldn't be around until after Christmas. It was a beautiful turkish fir, and we loved it.
The tree held up beautifully, hardly losing any needles. I was shocked at how good it looked, even after Christmas.
Dan finally got home, just days before we went to Cancun, so we finally celebrated Christmas with his family last Sunday. We finally took the tree down on Tuesday....that's a long time for a cut tree. The funny thing is that this tree lost less needles than my fake tree last year!
So during this time of enjoying our wonderful tree,  I had been experiencing a red rash under my eyes. I thought it was from a new eye cream, but it wasn't going away weeks later. When we went to Cancun, the rash disappeared, then came back as soon as we got home. I was convinced it was the dry air at home.....until we took the tree down. The rash went away with the tree.

So now we will have to decide if a beautiful, wonderful, perfect cut tree will be in our future again.

Hola, Y'all!

Dan and I had an amazing time in Cancun this week for Scentsy's Leadership retreat. The Moon Palace resort was amazingly beautiful. The food was fantastic, and we met some awesome friends. I was thrilled that Dan met other Scentsy husbands and we got a peak into our future of him being full time Scentsy hubby. Most of the couples we hung out with were southern, and combine that with trying to speak a little Spanish, I almost caught myself saying, "Hola, y'all".
A couple of my favorite things.....the food! We had dinner with two couples at the Brazilian steakhouse. What fun!! And the food was fabulous! The next night we had dinner with a fun couple at the Japanese restaurant. My dear sweet friend Jami had trouble with the chopsticks and asked for a fork. The waiter brought her "American chopsticks" as he called the fork. At little funny to be eating Japanese in Mexico! And we would never have had that dinner if the wheel on the golf cart hadn't fallen off, leading us to run into Jami and Shaun! Our first night at the resort, we tried one of the buffets, and Dan got a serving of chili's and onions. Not thinking they were very hot, he popped a whole chili in his mouth and swallowed it before realizing how hot it was. The faces he made had me in stitches for hours!!
We were very entertained by the local wildlife. Dan chased racoons down the hall one night, trying to get picture. You could hear screams as he chased it towards other people. Hilarious moments. Our last day we saw dozens of iguanas around the resort, big and small. We laughed at young Russian guy who was trying to touch one. You didn't need to speak his language to understand that his girlfriend was freaking out, telling him not to!
The training was very educational and helpful. Both Dan and I were trying to take notes as fast as we could. I'm looking forward to reading over those notes and using them in my business. Our guest speaker was Bob Burg, co author of a great book, The Go Giver. He was a wonderful speaker and I really enjoyed listening to him.
The weather was perfect, 82, humid with a strong breeze. I was never too hot, in fact, the AC was too cold for me and most of the time I turned it off in our room and just opened the door.

It was my birthday while on the trip, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my special day! Leadership will be at the same time, same place next year, and I can't wait!! I feel like I did after a perfect week at camp with my friends, and I will look forward all year to seeing them again!