Define: Failure

Our kitchen is kind of an eyesore.  It's not really that bad, but it has a lot of issues, and the colors definitely weren't helping.

When we first got the house, my dad had some red paint already, so I thought we could just use that.  It was an okay color, nothing I was in love with, but not terrible.  When we were deciding what color to paint the cabinets, I sent Jamin to the store with a swatch, and said that I wanted something at least that dark, but a warm, rich color.  The swatch was really cool toned.  I'm not sure who didn't communicate well with who, but the color that came back was exactly the swatch color.  I wasn't happy, but I'm not one to make a big deal out of those things, so we just used it.

One of the things I didn't like about the kitchen was the tile border about halfway up the wall.  I decided we could pull them off and just put a chair rail kind of thing up instead.  In October, we started pulling the tiles off, but in the process, the drywall got damaged (whoever lived here before us was seriously obsessed with caulk.  OBSESSED.).  We really meant to take the tiles down and put the chair rail right up, but another problem was an uneven wall underneath the window.  The tilers had put a piece of wood behind the tile to solve this problem, but we didn't have a piece of wood all ready to go.

So, between the damaged wall, the uneven wall, and lack of the proper tools to cut the chair rail to the right lengths, it is now April and there is still no chair rail.  And it looks bad.

Last week Jamin and I decided we would repaint.  Neither of us loved the red, and we both agreed that the kitchen was just plain ugly.

We decided on a dark blue for the bottom half of the wall, and a light brown for the top.

Now I knew, going into this, that sometimes light brown doesn't look like brown.  The light brown we used in our living room and upstairs bathroom has this purpley/pinky hue to it that I really don't like, but have gotten used to.  As we looked at light browns, I knew to be careful of this.

We picked one out, got home, and I put a little bit on the wall, only to discover that it's pretty much bandaid pink.

You know what I'm talking about.  That brown, peach, pink, fleshy colored hue.  Gross.

Jamin thought he could live with it, I wasn't sure.  Sometimes I would look at it and think, eh, it's okay.  Other times I looked at it and all I could see was pink.  After debating for a day or two, I decided to try something else.

I grabbed a sample of Benjamin Moore paint at ACO (conveniently located next to my work), and brought it home.  I loved it.  It was the creamy, ivory color I had been picturing all along (turns out I wanted more of a yellow than a brown.).  Jamin wasn't crazy about how light it was, but he pointed out that I am a bit more picky about these things than he is, so I should do what I want.

When I went back to ACO yesterday to get a can, I realized that this paint was around $60.

$60!

I couldn't handle that price tag, especially for a redo!  I tried to match the color as well as I could in another brand, and I got really close, and got a can.

Tonight I decided to get a little bit on the wall to check.  It's a bit lighter than the other color, so I wasn't truly happy with it, but I thought it would be okay.  Then I got to looking at the wall I hadn't painted yet with the bandaid pink.  I dabbed a bit of paint on that wall.  You can't even tell.

I just bought the original paint color of the wall.

UGH.

This time I ended up with a Valspar color, and I've seen all the "love your color guarantee" commercials, so I could potentially get some money back for this can, I just need to look into it and see if it's worth the hassle.  After my third color fail in the kitchen, I'm not sure if it really is, or really isn't.

Define: Phobia.

I had to get my blood drawn yesterday, and even though the nurse probably thought I was completely insane, it actually went really well.

I have this needle thing.  And by thing, I mean phobia.  I hate needles.  I hate them so, so much.  I know it doesn't hurt.  It's weird that every time it comes up, everyone's first comment is, "It doesn't even hurt."  I knoooooow.  It doesn't bother me because it hurts, it bothers me because...well, actually I'm not sure why.  But it does.  I suppose fear can't always be rationalized.

When it came time to go back yesterday and get it done, I started having a panic attack.  Jamin knew what was coming, the nurse, unfortunately, did not.

It's frustrating when the person giving you a shot/doing your IV/drawing your blood says things to calm you down like, "You're making it much worse than it is."  Honestly, has that ever worked?  As if mid-panic I'm going to stop and say, "You know, I never thought of it that way, you're right!" and be fine.  Lady, I know I'm freaking out.  Obviously, if I could get through this without that reaction, I would.

The other thing she said was, "You're going to have a baby!  This is nothing!"
Uh, was that supposed to make me feel better or worse?

But seriously, that was the best it's ever gone.  I was actually calm (I use that word loosely) enough for them to get started pretty quickly after I sat down, and I only cried for about 15 minutes after it was over.  Last time I think I just cried on and off all day.  Major improvement.

Even though I knew it wasn't bleeding and didn't need it, I did have to have Jamin switch out the cotton ball and tape for a band-aid last night.  I just wasn't ready to have to look at it yet.

Define: Determined

 I will keep up with this.

Somehow.


A few of my weekly recipes have slacked a bit...especially the monkey bread.  I cut up canned biscuits, covered them with cinnamon, sugar and butter, and stuck it in the oven.  However, it was delicious.

The next week I tried slow cooker berry cobbler.  Have I mentioned that I love crock pot recipes?  Because I do.  I really really do.  I used blueberries and blackberries instead of blueberries and raspberries (simply because I could not find raspberries at Meijer, which I thought was strange), but it was still really good.  I made it at my in-laws, and Jamin and I had a little bit before we went to my cousin's confirmation at church.  When we got back to pick up the crock pot and the dog on the way home, the rest was gone!  It was easy and definitely good, I didn't even get a second serving!

Last week was won ton cheese sticks.  I used string cheese, which was alright, but if I try it again I may try another kind of cheese.  It was kind of hard to roll it up, even after I cut the cheese in half.  I was worried that the cheese would still be cold after the outside had finished cooking (stovetop temperature control is so not my thing), but they were actually pretty warm.  Neither Jamin or I like cheese sticks after the middle has cooled off and it gets that weird rubbery texture, so we did have to make sure we ate them fairly quickly.

So even though I feel like the monkey bread was kind of a cop out, I've still made something every week.  I've already repeated the pot roast and the biscuits, so I think that this has definitely been worth it.  I like that we've added a few new meals into our rotation, and I feel like I've learned a lot about cooking.