Today I busied myself by buying paint and conquering the front entry hall. It was previously a yellow color (never liked it). I like yellow - but the room you walk into after entering our home is called "fig" - basically a brownish color that takes on a greenish hue in certain lights.....yellow next to that just looked off. So I headed out to Sherwin-Williams and purchased two shades lighter for that front hall (very small area). Again I forgot to take before pics - but here are the semi-after shots:

Our contractor/handyman dude filed for the permit with the city yesterday for our front deck/porch/entry thingy. It is supposed to rain all week here - so I'm thinking by next week they'll probably start on that project. We are also having them take down our yucky awning, install four pair of white shutters (currently we have only 2 pair on the upper level and they are an off-white), and power wash and seal the back deck. I'm very excited about the home improvements (and hopefully so will a potential buyer down the road....when we're ready to begin THAT chaos). I'm even more excited that I earned over $500 at our recent garage sale - so that paid for the shutters and then some!

Our neighbor is having a garage sale THIS weekend - and she advertised (I was too cheap to do that)...so I'm going to throw open the garage door again and see what else I can sell! (let the kids think they're next....Dave Ramsey). I'd like to earn enough to pay for a new screen door on the front of the house and who knows - depending on the earnings - maybe a new awning, too!

On another note - here's Lauren's plate from last night's dinner. I realize it was a lame dinner to begin with - a hot dog and watermelon....but just look at the fun she had with that watermelon! "I diggin' for seeds!" she said. What a mess. Only one bite of that darn hot dog....and I don't think she took more than two bites of the watermelon. Toddlers! I tell ya!