I love this crazy, tragic, ...

...sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful, life.

One of my many favorite lyrics from a song. I mean, there are many songs with many lyrics that are my favorite and this is one of them.

My husband is only a man, my children are just people, my father is merely human, my family is....well, you get the point. But, warts and all, I love them each for exactly who and what they are. Sometimes I don't always like them, but my heart is filled with love and I would, without hesitation, lay down my life for each and every one of them. I failed to mention in my previous blog just how wonderful and thoughtful my husband can be. During the Christmas holiday I was reminded of just why I fell in love with him and why I married him.

For Christmas, Darren's step-mom gave us each a little bit of cash. I guess it's just easier that way, rather than trying to guess what each adult child and their spouse may or may not want for a gift. Anyway, the house in which we now reside has been well lived in, to say the least. The carpet in the family room has an iron burn in the middle of it, the walls need painting, the flooring in the kitchen is cracked and stained, the window casing needs some serious TLC and so on. So, with my Christmas money, I decided to make an improvement to the kitchen.

A while before Christmas Darren and I were in Lowes getting some materials for his business. In the paint aisle I noticed several kinds of specialty paints. A few I had seen before; Rustoleum for outdoor furniture, appliance touch-up paints. But there were a couple that I'd never seen before; Stainless steel, magnetic and COUNTER TOP PAINT! They actually make a paint specifically for laminate counter tops! I said to myself, "Self, if I had some extra money I would SO buy some of that"!

Well, you'll never guess what I used my Christmas money for :) The counter top paint can be tinted in "16 different colors". When you look at the box top for the color options you'll notice that it's really only about 2 colors; various shades of tan and 2 options for blue; one that the picture showed as a blue/green color and the other that was a darker dusty blue color. I chose the darker blue. I was dismayed, however, when the gal mixed the paint and showed me the color. It was more of a grey color and in my opinion, not a very appealing color for my kitchen. I asked her if she could make it bluer. She got a puzzled look on her face and went to find someone else to help her. I didn't think adding more blue would require extra help, but then again, what do I know? (to be honest, I do have training in mixing paint, so I truly was confused at her need for extra help) A few minutes later a young man showed up and started adding more blue to the paint.

Here are some before and after pictures. I am quite pleased with how it all turned out.



Darren and I both masked everything off. Then I painted the first coat and he did the final one.

The work on the kitchen was done while the kids were in Idaho with their dad. I was in a mood that was far from pleasant. I had bought the paint and decided it would be a good distraction to go ahead and get to work. It ended up being more than simply masking off the area and painting. The sink had to be removed. When we did that, we found that there was some serious wood-rot happening. We also ended up having to change the supply lines. All of these things Darren graciously took care of for me. I could have done it myself, however, it would have taken much longer to accomplish and it certainly wouldn't have helped to improve my disposition at the time. I just wanted something nice and Darren helped me to have it.














So... back to the beginning. I have married a wonderful man, who is, after all, just a man... another favorite lyric...(modified for the purposes of this blog) "He's close enough to perfect, for me".

Oh, and by the way -- yes, this is my entire kitchen. I was standing against the refrigerator to get the picture of the left hand side of the sink and against the stove to get the right hand side.