I went up to the valley this weekend for Conference and to paint my mothers kitchen for her bday. She had been re-modeling her kitchen closer to a decade now I believe and its take a year to get to a project so I was determined that something was going to happen to her kitchen sometime this year. She already had the paint picked out and waiting so I took the opportunity to actually use it.

She wanted gray walls with a red ascent wall and it kinda made the kitchen darker and thus looked...smaller. And then she insisted that red was not her ascent color, but she wanted splashed of black everywhere, which would make it even darker. After how much time and effort she put into her cupboards which are like light brown, these colors are not exactly matching them. But whatever. Smile and nod. I just did what she wanted. She wasn't sure she liked it when I was done. But hey, I did what she asked, I did my bday present. She likes those kinds of bday presents more than actually gifts I suppose. I thought I'd start early in the month in case I couldn't finish it all.

Anyways, I came up there with some goals in mind and I think I accomplished most of them, at least the more important ones:

paint kitchen

see twins again

watch/listen to Conference

give out souveniors that I got for the family at Mesa Verde

finish watching the final season of Burn Notice

give the dog a break from Natalies family

take a pic of Resa and her belly mwhahaha

The irony is that I've been attempting to paint this kitchen since Mothers Day but theres always a family with kids living at the house there to potentionally mess things up. So I came after Mindy moved to Maryland and oddly enough I painted the same day that Dad, and his new crisis/obsession, allowed another family to move into his basement.

Dad always has his 'projects' and since becoming bishop most of those projects are in human form. We appreciated it more when he was in the shed all the time and working with wood projects and dangerous saws/tools. But now, whatever girl comes along and cries on his shoulder he feels he HAS to help them, whether personally or using church resources. So he opened his basement to this 'homeless' family despite my mothers opinion. And on top of pissing her off by Dad saying yes to them after Mom said no, Dad also kicked her out of her bedroom in the basement to house them and then started dictacting how this was going his way and by his rules. Ah, the dictatorship begins again. I'm not sure its ever stopped. Its nice to know they are still ....getting along. The same way they've always done it...

Anyways. Got to hold the twins. I can still tell them apart it being the second time I've seen them since they were born on July 24. Listened to Conference. Got my Firehouse pizza, cuz I'm obsessed with it whenever I come up. Eventually got around to painting the kitchen at like 7pm and painted until 2:30am the next morning. That was nice. I didn't realize Mom intended to help me paint because whenever I decided to paint she had to go to bed or work. I knew that. I preferred that. But apparently she didn't know that. I preferred that she didn't help so I wouldn't get the perfectionist lectures every 30 minutes on what I was painting. :) Love her, but I guess I'm not so OCD or something... So I painted while she left before her overnight shift at work.

I couldn't help but think how much easier this whole thing was without the boy with me. I decided not to take him. I was somewhat okay with the thought of bringing him, but he didn't have a fit when I said no so I didn't take him and it turned out well. He'd prolly make me so sleepy I wouldn't want to paint that evening and he definitely wouldn't help me paint if I painted past like 10pm. Heaven forbid. So it was pritti theraputic actually. The time alone and doing something creative, productive, with nothing much to think about and no boy to bug me about bed or perfectionism from either Mom or the boy. It was nice and fun to get all dirty and sticky and messy and not have a care in the world about it. Afterwards I took a bath to help get some of it off.

I didn't realize how much strength and muscles it would take just to paint walls. It's silly really. But I was so sore. My feet hurt so bad. My knees and thighs and calfes from going up and down ladders. My arms from balancing and holding paintbrushes and pressing a roller up against the ceiling. I don't do ceilings I can't push hard enough to paint them. My neck and shoulders ached from the tight corners up at the top above the cupboards. Oh, the pain, the horror. That coupled with the lack of sleep I suppose I think drove my immune system down.

I'm pritti sure my fall allergies are a lot worse than my spring ones, esp up in this valley. My sinuses felt like they would explode the two days I was in the valley. Started Sat night and by Sun morning my throat hurt cuz of the mucus build up and with my body aching from all the work I was doing I felt like I got hit by a truck and my sinuses kept giving me headaches so it felt like a hangover all the time. It was horrible. So about 9pm Sun I was ready to go home. Get my sinuses back. It was amazing it was almost immediately after I got home that my sinuses calmed down and I started to get my throat back. Its ridiculous what that valley does to my health. Did I mention I am so much healthier in this valley emotionally, mentally and physically? I don't listen to my parents fight or dictate. I don't get sick or have sinuses blow up on me. I don't get depressed so easier down here. Its amazing.

Well, despite the sinuses calming down when I got home at like 11pm I still woke up sore feeling like I got hit by a truck and still taking meds to get the mucus out of my system. It was definitely a Monday feeling. Ugh. Going home and laying in bed for the rest of the night. I dont care who is living in my house at the time. Turns out Natalies family left that Mon to go back to Aubreys. And they cleaned my house. Boy did they clean the house. It was kinda awesome to feel sick and come home to a clean house. A good feeling. I think the dog liked it too. I replenished some food they ate too and laid in the bed the rest of the night. This sinus headache thing seriously wouldn't go away. Always there, always dull, the sunlight hurts.

Well, since Monday morning at like 9am the boy is determined to go see the Gravity movie this week and since Mon and Tues are the only days I am free to do it he has claimed me for tonight for movie night. I suppose that's fine with me. I'm the one that wanted to see it and in a good expensive theatre cuz I mean its in space, you have to see space on a big screen. And today is the only free day I have and I dont have to hang out with him again til Fri so I think I can handle that. It's really kinda amazing the longer I dont hang out with boy and then I do and he is just so much more annoying, like I dont want to put up with his old ways anymore, ya know? Its weird.

So last night I watched a movie and took a shower and ate noodles and enjoyed my clean house alone and watched some more of my Army Wives addiction and went to bed. It twas nice. Used my herb wraps or whatever around my head to stop the sinus swelling and opened the window cuz apparently Natalies fam turned off my heater/A/C so I get nothing now cept for the current cool air from outside which is okay. I'm slightly afraid to know what my bill is going to be next month for water and A/C...

More 'me' time tho. Been craving that lately. I love it. I'm so selfish. And so is my dog. Its amazing what one day of relaxing and recooping can do to a body that is trying to get sick. But with some sleep, relaxing, meds and lots of Vitamin C, I think I can beat this before it turns into a sickness. And Tues are so much better than Mondays! But I felt accomplished this weekend. I had a goal of getting ALL the walls painted and I sure did. Whether she likes the colors she picked or not. mwhahaa I didn't have time to see my Resa and her belly tho.