Gardener's Crack house, Painting, Sweet 16 and Glasses

Tony's love of gardening could not be supressed any longer. He has set up a greenhouse in our formal dining room. It looks more like a gardeners crack house doesn't it?
The man has a serious problem....

Seedlings

Seeds

And more seeds!

I have been on a painting kick lately. I painted an accent wall in the formal living room, an accent wall in the family living room and repainted the basement hall and bathroom because I hated the dirty, flat white paint that was down there.

This is the "Before" and "After" in the basement hall. It doesn't look that much different in the picture because the lighting sucks but it looks MUCH better in person.
In the formal and family room, I painted with a Ralph Lauren "Suede" texture paint. It isn't a hard technique but it's not just rolling paint on the wall either, so though these walls are small they took a long time to do.

The first step is to roll on overlapping "V's" Do two coats of that then get a 3 inch brush and go over it with overlapping "X's"

The tile sitting in front of the fireplace is what we are going to redo the fireplace with, then we are going to paint the mantle white.

Can you make out the texture?? It looks really cool in person but I was sooo sick of "X's" and "V's" by the time I was done!

Cort failed the eye test at school so I took him to see my eye doctor. He is near sighted and his prescription ended up being almost exactly the same as mine. We picked out a pair of glasses for him(not the ones in the picture) and they should be done in about one week. Cort is actually excited to get glasses though he only needs to wear them when he is driving or can't see the board etc. He won't need to wear them all the time.

We went to Golden Corral (Cort's choice) for his 16th birthday. Cort asked his best friend Tanner to come along as well.

Callie and Katie

After dinner we went and saw Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton. We had high expectations of the movie, but left thinking it was just ok...
Thank you everyone who sent Cortland cards and money. He loved them and we loved that you remembered!

Tyrel's headstone was finally put into place. It looks amazing doesn't it? And isn't Karlee the cutest baby in the world? Speaking of babies, Tyrel's baby is going to be a girl. We are very excited! I think Ty's girlfriend Destiny plans to name her "Adison" which I think is adorable as well as being meaningful to the people who love Ty.

Today is Dayne's birthday so happy birthday boy! I called to invite him to go out to dinner to celebrate with me and Mason tonight but I guess when you are a handsome man of 23 you probably have a lot better offers on your birthday than to hang out with your old aunt and cousin. I even tried to bribe him with Sushi but NO GO :(
LOVE YOU DAYNE!!!!

On a completely unrelated topic, I am reading a really good book right now. It is called "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. You can borrow my copy when I am done or look for it at the library but you have to read it. It's hard to put down and you can't wait until you can start reading it again. A boy in Callie's class was reading it one day and the next day he was reading book 2. Callie asked him why he was suddenly reading book 2 and he said the first book was so good he stayed up all night reading it and his mom was furious. It's like nothing I have ever read before and young, old, male, or female, I think everyone would enjoy it.

Here is a review from Amazon:
In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem.

Life in District 12 isn't easy for Katniss and her family. Ever since her father died the girl has spent her time saving her mother and little sister Prim from starvation by hunting on forbidden land. But worst of all is reaping day. Once a year the government chooses two children from each of the twelve districts to compete against one another in a live and televised reality show. Twenty-four kids and teens enter, and only one survives.

Collins narrative here has an immediacy to it that, when combined with the very dramatic life-or-death plot, is incredibly compelling. It's entertaining, and incredibly disturbing all at once.