The Current Project

My bathroom was this gross really bright pinkish-peach color. I didn't think it was that bad when I first saw it, but after using it for a couple of months, I hated it. It was so bright that my face looked pink in the mirror. The pink reflected out into the hall. It was everywhere, and it had to go away. I didn't have enough money to buy paint though. It was $30, and I couldn't spare that much at the time. 

So, I went home and I asked Daddy Bear to get me some paint from his hardware store. I didn't care what color, I just wanted it to be light. 

I got a very light blue color, and I went to work when I got back to my house. I've done two coats in two weeks.

All I have left is the trim. And I just have one reason for that. To store a paint brush that has been used with Latex paint, I remember Mother Dear telling me to wrap it in saran wrap and then freeze it. 

Apparently she didn't really tell me to freeze it, because I got it out of the freezer a week later and it's definitely frozen. I was thinking that latex paint was like alcohol or something and that it didn't freeze when in the freezer. 

Anyways, that's false. I was dumb. Do not freeze your paint brushes if you want them to stay usable. Your choices are to wrap them in saran and leave them out or to wash them out in the sink with water. 

Now, I need to go buy a new paint brush to finish the bathroom. But really, even without I like the way it is now so much better. I wish I'd taken a before picture. This is what it looks like now, until I invest in an unfrozen brush. 

It makes me feel so much better... It's now very calming and plain and CLEAN. No gross streaks on the walls anymore. I cleaned it so many times before this, and it never felt clean. Though the shower still feels dirty and the sink has dark spots in it that won't go away, I know the walls are clean, so that's a start. 

I'll take what I can get! Our house is a work in progress, but I don't mind. At least we have a house! 

I Did It!

I survived!

My first backpacking trip ever is over and I made it out alive. I questioned if I was going to make it out alive at about 3 miles up the mountain.

Geo was a good one to go with though. He told me we could turn around if I wanted to. (My hip was hurting really bad.) I said we should just go ahead because I'd feel bad if he didn't get to see the top, and I didn't want to like ruin the whole trip for him. So, on we went.

Really, on they went. I stayed a good 20 or more feet behind them at all times.

(This was took as I was walking, not stopped. Can you even see Geo up there?)

This happened because...

1. The eye doc took my glasses from me to get a stronger prescription, so I couldn't see the stumps unless I looked closely. And...

2. I was scared I was going to re-sprain my ankles if I tripped on a stump or rock. It does look better than it used to:

But it is still really sore and tender sometimes. And I wore this to keep from rolling it again. So, I rolled it a couple of times but not bad at all. The brace kept it stable. Mostly. 

3. I'm just a slow walker. I don't think I used to be, but now I'm really cautious after the accident.

4. I got really distracted by the trees and the leaves and the noises, but everyone else just trekked on through, just staring at the ground. That probably helped because at every moment, they couldn't see the constant, steep, uphill trail that we were on.

5. That knowledge of the constant, steep, uphill trail just made me go slower because I knew it would be a while (as in 4 hours) of constant, steep uphill. 

6. I kept an eye out for bears stalking us, so I had to constantly be turning around. You could say that I was paranoid of bears.

Okay, so anyways, it was really fine that I was in the back the entire time. It was nice to be able to go my own pace and not be rushed by someone walking on my tail. And I got to think about whatever I wanted to without being disturbed by others. I thought about why "shoe" makes the "ooo" sound when no other word with an "oe" ending makes that sound. Think about it: toe, moe, doe, foe, woe. But we discovered: canoe!

[Disclaimer: Geo really did try to wait on me. He would stop until I caught up, and then about 30 seconds later he'd be ahead and have to wait on me again. He's a very fast walker.]

We got to the trailhead, which was 3 miles and over 3 hours past the camp site. We started walking up it, only .5 miles left to the top. The entire time we hiked, I really wanted to turn around, and I didn't even care that we were almost there. Geo came to my rescue. His legs had been cramping for almost the entire trail up, and they got so bad at the almost-top of Gregory Bald that I could see them convulsing, and we turned around! 

Although I felt bad for him, I was so ready to get back to the camp site where it wasn't so cold, I could take off my brace and SIT DOWN. We got down the trail in less than an hour probably.

Here began my favorite part... A fire, some food, sweatpants, hot chocolate and a chair.

We ate some food out of a bag. It was chicken teriyaki with rice. All we did was add some boiling water and let it sit for a few minutes and it was done. We didn't let it cook long enough, and the chicken was crunchy from the freeze-dried-ness. I was hungry and ate it anyways.

I barely slept because I kept hearing bears all night long. I prayed a whole lot. I woke Geo up, and he told me that it was just Derek snoring. That was a relief.

I was relieved when it was daylight and time to get up. I got a good amount of sleep, but I woke up a lot and was very stressed out that I was awake in the middle of the night and could hear all the noises. 

We drank some spiced tea, and enjoyed the guy's fire and then packed up for home. The two miles back to the car took forever, and this site was a joyous moment:

The car!!! 

We had a beautiful ride home and stopped at Pizza Hut which was amazing! We were so hungry. We got home and I was so glad.

Overall, it was a good experience. It was kind of like Haiti--when I was there, I didn't want to be there; but now that I look back on it, I wouldn't mind going back.

Yum!

Mary and I made this white bean chicken chili for dinner tonight and it was delicious. You should try it sometime. It's quick and easy, not many ingredients. Click below for the recipe and a cute cooking blog that always makes me hungry!

The Dashing Dish

Backpacking?

I'd never thought I'd see this day.

This day where I'm packing my clothes in a backpack.

This day where I'm thinking about what to eat for dinner while in the woods.

This day where I'm looking at backpacker.com.

I am going backpacking with Geo.

Yes, I said it. Backpacking!

When I told Mary, she said, "Are you sure?"

When I told my Mom, she said, "Backpacking?"

When I told my Dad, he laughed.

They were all shocked.

Nonetheless, I'm still excited about it, despite their reservations. Well, excited/nervous!  This will be just a little bit different than any past experiences that I've had camping.

I have always camped at a place where my car is close and we could get inside of it for heat or air conditioning. When we got hungry, we could drive to Taco Bell for dinner and McDonald's for breakfast. Instead, we will carry all of our food in backpacks, including the water and food and everything to go with it. We'll sleep in tents in the middle of the woods with BEARS. (I'm hoping they'll be hibernating.) No cars nearby with cushioned seats. There will be no community bathrooms, just trees.

It should be interesting.

I'm really nervous about not being able to go to sleep because I never can when I hear coyotes barking at night. I've stayed awake all night before because of those dang coyotes.

My last camping experience went like this: Two years ago, the middle of October. It was a beautiful day, and Aunt Anne G was staying in Gatlinburg, so I went to visit her and Uncle Paul. Cale and El and some friends were camping at Cade's Cove and asked Mary and me to come stay. Aunt Anne G said we could stay in their hotel room if we wanted to. Dumb decision--we chose to stay at Cade's Cove because we were too tired to drive back to the hotel. We though we were going to sleep more at the camp site; I'm not sure why. To this day, I'm just not sure why we did that. The temperature dropped from the 70s during the day to below freezing at night. AND, there weren't enough sleeping bags for everyone. Plus, it had been warm that day and I didn't have any warm clothes on.

Ends up, Mary and I slept pretty much on top of each other with a couple of blankets in freezing (literally) weather, on the tent floor with about 9 girls in the tent and I was on the side and had dew all over me when I woke up.

I'm pretty sure that as soon as it got light, I walked straight to my car and drove home.

There was nothing fun about that night, and I vowed never to do that again.

This is different though, this backpacking trip I'm going on. We have sleeping bags and the guys sound like they are preparing in advance. I'm packing warm clothes and fuzzy socks and Xanax (just kidding.)

But really, I am excited to be in the outdoors in this beautiful weather, and we will see how I like backpacking. Let's hope I like it! I'll report back after.

New GEICO Commercial - Piggy

This is my new favorite commercial. Geoffrey always makes fun of me for laughing at commercials, but my friend Alli told me about this one being funny and I thought it was blog-worthy.

Maybe it's dumb...

But it made me laugh.

Please Come Back Soon!

Monday, September 20th, 89 degrees

Monday, September 27th, 65 degrees

Monday, October 4th, 51 degrees

I'm not very fond of this trend. I'm not big on winter, and today was way too close to winter for me.

2 weeks ago, it was 38 degrees warmer.

2 days ago, it was (75-51=24) 24 degrees warmer.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I do know that it's chilly, and even chillier inside my house. For some reason, at home and in my Knoxville house, it's always colder in the house than outside. And, I'm always too cheap to turn the heat on. I'm slowly learning that body heat will not heat up my living room.

As of yesterday, I now come home and change into furry socks, long sweatpants, a sweatshirt layered over a full set of long johns, a hat, gloves, and a scarf. Okay, well maybe not the last four things yet.... But  at the rate it's going, that's what I'll be wearing next week when it's 30 degrees outside. 

As my roomie Nat just said, "This winter will not be the winter that we start wearing normal clothes." We have discussed trying to wear normal (not nike shorts and tshirts) clothes more often so that it won't be such a shock next year.... That's not happening. Our house is going to be way too cold.

If I took a picture of myself sitting in my house right now, my nose would be bright red... It's really attractive. I won't share.

Sidenote: I learned how to turn our house alarm on today. (We never even knew we had a working alarm until today. After being scared out of my mind all summer, the house actually had an alarm that would have helped calm my fears and nightmares.) I'm hoping that I won't have any blog worthy stories about it though. Tonight will be our first time to ever use it, and we're hoping for no police at our house tonight (unlike 3 nights ago). 

The Boy

 Geo feels left out from my blog, so I thought I'd dedicate this post to him. I made this lovely picture for him so that I could make a post for him.

You're pretty awesome, so this is just for you Geo!