December 24, 2007--remodeling and family gift exchange

I've been busy over the last few days working on remodeling the bathroom again. It's been awhile since we did it last, and it was just looking like it needed to be done again. The trim had gotten knocked off of the sink cabinet, and the paint was crackling and chipping off the walls. I had primed it before I had painted it last time, but I guess the many layers of old crackling paint just came through the new stuff anyway. This time I textured the walls first, so that hopefully won't be an issue anymore. One coat of primer, a coat of texturing, another coat of primer, and two coats of smokey blue paint. We put a new countertop in, a black and white marbleized laminate, and we're going to cover the sink cabinet with a white tile sheet of paneling. The trim will be done in white. It's looking really nice. We really want to leave this house looking nice when we move, whenever that might be. We still haven't heard back from the church he applied to, or from the District, but it is the Christmas season after all so I guess that's to be expected. Hopefully soon after that we'll hear something. We'll probably send in his resume to some more churches in the next couple of weeks as well. Yesterday we had our family gift exchange for my side of the family. Rachel had my name and she gave me some really huge star earrings. They are really something! I had actually taken her shopping when she picked them out. I pointed out some display racks in the price range I was willing to spend (I knew she wanted to get me jewelry) and told her she could pick anything off of any of those racks, and I looked the other direction. She picked one and hid it behind her back while we went to check out, and I told the cashier to wrap it up so I couldn't see it, since it was her present for me. The cashier said, "Oh wow, you are going to LOVE these!" Lol! I'm considering wearing them to the Christmas Eve service tonight. I haven't decided, though. They are a bit showy.