The Heat Is On

Sorry about the long absence, everyone. As you can see from the exotic photos above, we were on vacation in Hawaii. It was soooo beautiful- just look at those crystal clear waters. The kids just loved Honolulu...

BWAHAHAHAH! I WISH!! I am totally kidding. No, my friends, these photos were taken at the only-slightly-less-exotic-than-Hawaii Lake Monticello Main Beach (just a few minutes from our home) on Memorial Day. The water is much browner than it appears in that last photo- definitely not a REAL beach and certainly no Hawaii. But the kids sure didn't care! How I wish I was as easy to please! We originally had plans to go down to Virginia Beach for the weekend, but I ended up shooting a wedding reception on Saturday night (which is a story in and of itself that I will not go into right now!). I think Tim was pretty frustrated with me because I booked all of my weekends up in May/June and he is dieing to go to the beach.

This spring has been amazingly moderate out here, even for Virginia. We have had months of perfect weather with very little humidity- just how I like it! But these last few days have reminded me just how miserable the summers can be out here. Last night I went outside to go for a run and I about suffocated from the humidity- it literally felt like a sauna! I have never sweat so much in my whole life. And this week I have been refinishing some furniture and Minwax and humidity are a bad combination! After spending a day and a half outside, my dressers still were not dry. So I had to put them back in our bedroom even though they are still sticky on the surface. I hope no flies get in our house and land on them because I am sure it would be the death of the poor insects.

The reason we were refinishing the dressers is because I am kind of on a decorating kick right now. These last few weeks we have redone our bedroom and my office. I will post some before and after pictures when I get completely done, but that may not be for a while because I am still having issues with the curtains in my office and we still haven't decided what artwork we want to put above our bed. One of the architects in Tim's building is retiring, and he had a few solid wood bookshelves he was trying to get rid of. They were nothing fancy, but not particle board so I thought I could paint one black to go in my office. So I brought it home and painted it yesterday. But after putting it in my office, the whole room now smells like my grandma's basement- old and musty... Lovely- Minwax fumes in the bedroom and musty fumes in the office. Anyone want to come over to my house for dinner? So I don't know what to do- I washed it off with a damp, soapy cloth before painting it (which is when I first noticed the smell), but I thought that painting over it would take care of it. I didn't paint the back or the bottom, maybe that would help? What about spraying tons of Lysol on it? Or maybe the only solution is to buy new and avoid things that have been sitting in a tight office space for 40 years.

We officially have LESS that a week until we leave for Utah! WAHOO!! We are so ready for a vacation- and I looked at the weather for Utah next week and it is going to be 77degrees and dry- hard to imagine! We especially can't wait to see our families- Jace has not seen his grandparents for a full year! He is so excited- he asks me every morning "Are we going to Utah today?" Sorry bud, hang in there a few more days!

I will try to post at least once more before we leave- last months post count was pathetic!
Until then!