Suzanne McGrath Photography

Six on Sunday

I'm here and it's fairly early.  That's a major Sunday night win!  So let's dive right in...

1.  Last night was our grade school's Mother/Daughter night.  (One year it's Mother/Daughter, the next year it's Father/Daughter.)  If I'm being honest, I generally don't enjoy those nights very much.  I mean, at all.  I know, it's a terrible attitude, right?  But I would much rather take the girls to get our nails done or to a movie or shopping.  Or a lot of other things.  Like one on one.  The evening really consisted of the girls running around the open gym...

...or the swimming pool.  They had a blast.  So that is good.  And I did get to chat with a few moms which was the highlight of my night, to be honest.  (That and dinner with my friend, Lia, and her daughter, my girls, and their friend.)  But the girls really spent most of the evening playing with their friends rather than hanging with me.  And I totally get that.  But by the time I got home my back and feet were killing me from standing for nearly two hours.  So I counted...I only have two more Mother/Daughter evenings to go.

2.  I finished The Rosie Project.  It's a must read.  It's also a very easy read.  I LOVED IT.  Go get it.  And then tell me when you've read it and we can get together and discuss it.  I can't wait for the movie!

3.   So the hubby was gone last week.  Yes, again.  And this coming week will make three in a row.  Yippee.  (That was sarcasm.)  Anyway, last week he flew out Monday and didn't get back until Thursday - late afternoon.  But we survived!  And actually, I found a way to make it easier on me:

That's right.  Put them to work!  Honestly, I'm not sure why I haven't asked them to do the dishes earlier?  They are all old enough to help out.  And with four of them, they do it all - including drying and putting away.  It is so helpful!  Why they were doing that I would wipe down the counters and table.  That way I was making lunches before they went to bed.  That was a major win for me!  

I find that if I stay on top of everything I am much happier and more relaxed.  When I let the house get out of control I get grumpy.  And if the hubby is gone it just magnifies the grumpiness.  So, the house stayed very organized and clean last week and I kept my sanity.  (Except for my room which was a disaster!)

I am hoping for another pain-free week while he goes to Denver for a "customer visit" which really means a personal day to ski.  

4.  Why am I not mad about Denver?  Because I am going to Beaver Creek, CO with my college friends in February for a long weekend!  That's right.  Another girls trip.  I can't wait!  

My friend, Angie, has a week at her timeshare and she has room for extras.  Sweet, right?  And my other friend, Darcie, has a companion pass so I fly for free which means we only have to split the cost of one ticket.  And my OTHER friend, Vicki, lives in Denver and is picking Darcie and me up at the airport and driving us to Beaver Creek.  I mean, it was totally meant to be!  Plus, I'll get to debut my new ski jacket (purchased on our last girls weekend to Detroit Lakes, MN)!  Seriously, so so so excited.  OK.  I'll stop.

5.  The renovation update...I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat with our snail's pace.  But I'm giving you an update anyway!  

The glass door was ordered last Tuesday and should be here next week.  The light fixture should be here any day now.  Can't wait.

The hubby managed to replace the rotted subfloor and rotted baseplate in the bath tub area.  Now we need to get someone in to replace the window.  We are NOT doing that ourselves.  I think next week we can begin ripping out the vanities so we can get the plumber in to move the lines for us.  

Meanwhile, I painted and painted and painted.  Friday night was the last night before beginning Whole 30, so I took advantage and drank wine while painting.  Sadly, it didn't make it more fun.

But as of right now, as I sit here typing, everything IN the closet is painted.  (I still need to paint the shoe shelves.  I took them out to make it easier to paint them.)

So that's pretty much how I spent the weekend.  But I'm super happy to have it 95% done and no longer hanging over my head!

6.  I was originally going to start Whole 30 tomorrow, but the girls trip forced me to bump up my start day from Monday to Saturday.  (I'll really be doing a program more aptly titled Whole 27.)  So I started yesterday.  I will say, I haven't been hungry.  So there's that.  But it's hard to eat out which I found out last night.  Everything is ordered very specifically.  Hold the bun.  Hold the cheese.  Substitute broccoli for chips.  But it's only for 30 27 days.  I can do it.

In case you're at all interested, or want to join me, here's what's on the menu for the week:

Sunday:  crockpot chicken (so I can make chicken stock), home fries (DELISH!), roasted green beans and brussel sprouts, apple slices  

Monday:  Chili:  2 ways.  (my way for the kids = meat, tomato soup, tomato sauce, chili beans, chili powder) and chocolate chili, roasted asparagus, salad

Tuesday:  Italian pork roast, steamed broccoli, fruit

Wednesday:  Sweet potato soup (girls will get bread for dipping to hopefully get them to try the soup), roasted green beans, fruit

Thursday:  Pad Thai (girls will get homemade chicken nuggets), spaghetti squash, fruit

Friday:  Leftovers and pizza for the girls

I also made homemade mayo to use for tuna and chicken salad but it wasn't great.  I need to try it again.  Plus, I made ginger zucchini soup for lunch.  I can also have salads for lunch but need to use oil and vinegar for the dressing which is okay but can get boring.  Snacks are cut up carrots and cucumbers dipped in this Moroccan dipping sauce.  And olives.  I love olives and apparently they are OK?  Who knew.  And roasted almonds.  

So there you have it.  I weighed myself last Friday and was 135.8.  Hopefully after following this eating plan I'll be down a few LBs with a little more energy.  My fingers are crossed!  

And with that, I'm outta here.  (Shelves to paint - not gonna paint themselves!)  Have a great week!

  

 

Six on Sunday (but really on Monday)

I didn't sit down yesterday until 5:50pm.  No joke.  I also failed to eat lunch.  And this was all after a 7 mile (fast for me) run yesterday morning.  Hence, no blogging last night.  Plus, we had family movie night and #4 wanted me to cuddle with her.  I couldn't let her down!

1.  I'm just going to level with you here.  I'm even going to throw out numbers from the scale.  I know.  I'm being brave here.  Gutsy, even?  I am 5'7" tall and my ideal weight is anything below 130 pounds.  Like 129.9999 is A-OK with me.  I can't tell you the last time I was there.  Maybe for a day last May/June?

Then my dad died last July 3rd.  I thought, "F-it", and didn't step on the scale the rest of the year.  I pretty much ate what I wanted - within reason.  I drank a LOT of wine.  And beer.  (If I'm being honest, I couldn't get to sleep without a glass of wine for months.)

I stepped on the scale about two weeks ago for the first time in 6 months.  It wasn't pretty.  Everything had caught up with me.  I was at 139 pounds.  I haven't been there since I was pregnant.  (I hover around 132 - 133)  Not good.  I knew the scale was creeping up because I could/can see my spare tire when I put on my workout clothes.  I am not a fan of myself looking like that.  It's time to do something drastic.

I am going to try Whole 30 starting a week from today.  That's right.  30 days of eating whole foods and nothing processed.  The hardest part will be no dairy because I LOVE cheese!  I love salads - but with cheese.  This will mean a lot of preparing food for me because even salsa has sugar added to it!  Sheesh.  And no, I'm not asking my kids to do this, too.  (The hubby may try but I'm not asking him to do this - it'll be purely his choice.)  I will prepare the same meals as much as I can but adjust them for myself.  And if necessary, I'll prepare my meals separately.

Do you know what else this means?  No alcohol for 30 days.  I haven't done that since I was pregnant, either!  But, I need to do something.  I'm not good at eating really well for longer than a week.  I think doing this program will be the force I need.  I just want to re-set my metabolism and clean up my act a bit.  At the end of the 30 days we'll see how I feel?  I'm hoping to get a little more energy back in my life.  At least that's what the program promises.  And if not?  Well, then it's just that I lead a busy life and I get tired.  But I'm guessing gluten makes me tired.  We'll find out! 

Wish me luck and holler if you have any questions!  I found a great blog with good directions/recipes/advice.  Next weekend I fully expect to take a few hours to get everything ready for the week.  I'm excited and nervous!

2.  The bathroom reno saga continues...we have decided we need to replace the window over the bathtub.  Once upon a time it leaked and we just want to get it out of there.  Plus, now the hubby has to deal with the repercussions of the leak.  Meaning, he's going to have to replace some rotted 2x4s and subfloor.  Not fun.

Rather than deal with those issues this past weekend, the hubby installed the shower trim (the faucet and handle) and caulked the seams.  Man, that color!

I die.  Love it so hard!  Anyway, the shower door is another story.  I can't believe how different the pricing has been!  From $900 to $1900.  Seriously.  The moral of the story?  Brushed gold is not cheap.  But it is gorgeous.  I'm pulling the trigger tomorrow.
 

3.  While the hubby was dealing with the shower, I was dealing with our closet.  Remember when I installed our beautiful, custom closet last year?  Well, in true Suzanne fashion, I had yet to paint it.  It just hung over my head for the past year and I ignored it.  

Since we're installing the same flooring from the bathroom into the closet, I needed to paint everything first to avoid having to lay down a drop cloth.  I bought the Critter spray gun but I've decided it is a tool that MUST be used OUTSIDE.  Evidence:

It was super easy to use but not made for a small, enclosed space.  I've reverted to brushing and rolling.  My hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes thank me.

And do you know where the contents of our closet are located right now?  Yeah, here is a visual:

Pretty much I'm dying.  The mess.  Oh god, the mess is awful.  I want so much to get it all painted and back together but I'm a single mom again this week so I doubt I will make much (if any) progress.  Sigh.

4.  I did it.  I spray painted this weekend and it was AWESOME!  We bought #1 Ikea shelves for Christmas with the intention of painting the brackets gold.  It looks just as good as I imagined.  I was so happy to get everything installed to surprise her when she got back from her swim meet that was in Texas.

I'm happy to announce she was really pleased!  Score.
 

5.  Friday night we headed out to the Comets game.  For those who are not from KC, they are a pro (or semi pro?) indoor soccer team.  It was my first time at a game and it was really fun!  The soccer was great - the footwork and speed incredible.  And the other little things to keep the crowd engaged were so fun. 

First, they served beer.  And just any beer.  Miller Lite.  Gigantic sized:

After the shitty week that was last week, this was needed.

We went with another family and of course the girls had a blast sitting by their friends:

I swear #4 was there but somehow I didn't get her in a picture?  Weird.  

6.  I mentioned #1 was in Texas this past weekend.  She left Thursday morning and got back at 5:30am this morning.  It was a long trip!  It wasn't her best swim meet but she had so much fun so all is well.  She even managed to sneak away for lunch with her aunt and uncle.  I love that they were able to hang out with her for a bit:

7.  Here's an extra for you.  I am reading The Rosie Project.  You guys, I love it.  It is so awesome!  It's going to be that kind of book that when it's over I will be sad because I won't have it to look forward to every night.  Have you read it?  You have to!

I tried to get into The Alchemist and managed to get through the first third of Unbroken.  But The Rosie Project is fabulous.  I think I just needed something light-hearted but with the perfect amount of character.  Don, the main character, is written flawlessly.  I won't go into details because I don't want to spoil it for you.  But if you haven't picked it up yet, what are you waiting for?

Alas, that is all I've got for tonight.  Have you read any good books lately?  

Have a great week!  Here's to hoping this week is better than last week.

Six on Sunday

I'm trying to watch the Golden Globes but it's hard to write, edit photos, and watch TV at the same time.  Oh well.  I did see Tina and Amy's opening and thought it was pretty good.  

1.  I tried a new dinner tonight - Pho.  It was an epic fail.  Not so much as in we didn't eat but as in it literally took all day and none of us really liked it.  There wasn't nearly enough flavor.  Such a major disappointment!  I'm not entirely sure what I did wrong and I don't think I'll try to fix it.  Just move on.  

2.  #3 had her very first basketball game today.  I thought she and her team did great!  It was evident it was their first year playing but that is OK.  I think now that they have one game under their belts it will start to make more sense.  It was pretty fun watching second grade girls play!

I also thought the ref was really good with the girls.  He would stop them when they needed to stop (so they wouldn't travel), he told them when they needed to pass the ball (they must pass one time before shooting), and just in general.  

I hope #3 can get at least one basket this year or it will be hard to keep her motivated.  But so far she seemed to bounce back pretty quickly.  

3.  I took #1 to exchange a few Christmas gifts yesterday.  We actually had some fun (I'm not a sincere clothes shopper) until we got to Victoria's Secret.  That store.  Ugh.  I walk in there and get assaulted by the smells.  And anyone who knows me knows I have the WORST sense of smell.  But man, I can smell all 500 different perfumes at Vicky's - all layered on top of each other!  And then the clothes.  Oh my.  They are so gaudy and have crap written all over them.  I about broke out in a case of hives.  I attempted to hurry #1 through the store which is so difficult because that kid does NOT move fast.  When we finally got ready to check-out, this is what we found:

There were so many people in front of us I couldn't even count them all!  Suffice it to say I couldn't get out of there fast enough and it probably took us 10 minutes of standing in line before I escaped the smell!  Next time I'm sending her dad.

4.  The bathroom renovation continues.  I sealed the grout yesterday but while doing so realized I had missed grouting behind the curb.  Oops!  So I had to mix up a batch of grout today to hit the spots I had missed.  That means another two days before I can seal those areas which means two more days before we can use it.  

As for the shower door, we got a quote on it and I about fell off my chair.  I had no idea they were so pricey!  The shower door will cost more than the shower itself and the shower was around $900, I think! (I'll do a full post where I break out prices when it's done.)  So yeah, we are now getting a couple other quotes.  Even if we can knock off a hundred or two hundred I'll be happy.  We are this close and I can barely contain my excitement.  Seriously!  I can't wait to shower in my own shower again.  

5.  While I'm loving the way the shower is turning out, I am not loving living through a bathroom reno.  It's really gross and dirty.  All the time.  Here's what our vanity areas look like:

 

I posted this photo on Instagram, but it's a pretty accurate look into bathroom reno:

 

It's so bad the only thing I do in there is brush my teeth.  I do everything else at my "Get Ready Station".  

It reminds me of college.  When I lived in "Front Four" of the Pi Phi house we had a get ready station.  Only it was taller and skinnier.  This is saving my sanity, though.  

We didn't get any other work done this weekend on the bathroom reno because the hubby fixed some wonky crown moulding in my princess closet.  That meant he wasn't able to work on the drywall situation.  Oh well.  Such is life.  But I did manage to prime the two corners of our closet!

Priming those two corners was AWFUL.  I'm thinking about getting a paint sprayer.  But not a big one, just a little one called the Critter.  I think it may just save my sanity since I not only have to prime my entire closet, but have to paint two coats as well.  And just yesterday it was $50.  I may have to pull the trigger tonight!

6.  I went on a 6 mile run this morning.  It's the start of our training plan for the Rock the Parkway half marathon.  The 6 was hilly but very do-able since the last half was nearly all downhill.  I can totally handle running downhill!  I've planned our a really slow, steady training plan with the hopes my friend, Christi, doesn't get injured this year!  My fingers are crossed that it all works out.  

And there you have it.  Another Six on Sunday in the books!  Have a fantastic week! 
 

 

 

 

A Year in Review - What Design Goals Did I Actually Accomplish in 2014?

So all the cool kids are doing it - a highlight of 2014.  Honestly, I don't love all of them.  (Some posts seem really "braggy".)  So, I am going to do it how I want to do it.  It is my blog, after all!

Remember back in early January 2014 when I made a bullet-point list for what I hoped to accomplish in our house?  I wanted to go back and review that and see what I did manage to get done.  Because I know I didn't do it all!

1.  Finish painting the baseboards.  Gross but necessary.

    Check.  Obviously, pictures of painted baseboards are boring.  But trust me.  It got done.  And it was NOT fun.

2.  Music room:

• Paint the piano white?  Jury is still out on this one.  I decided to leave it.  I just can't bear the idea of painting it.
• Paint the ceiling.  Check.  I did this!  I'm so glad it's done. 
• Add crown moulding (This one is the hubby's to-do.  BUT, I bought him the Kreg Jig for Crown moulding set for Christmas.  I don't think I could have given him a bigger hint!)  This did not get done.  I try not to be the wife who nags - so I figure I'll just do this myself this year. 

3.  Family Room:

• NEW COUCH!!!  We did it.  We bought Karl and we love him!  Isn't he lovely?

• I'm thinking about recovering our ottomon - I originally wanted a lucite coffee table but when using my parent's glass table it hurt my feet.  I need comfort.  I'm a delicate flower, you know?  Eh, that was just too hard.  Plus, the old ottoman was too big for the new couch.  So I went the easy way and bought a new one.  I love it, though, because the top lifts up for storage.  And you can never have too much storage, you know?  It's in the picture above. 
• I need to sew a new Roman shade because we installed a new window that ended up being about an inch or two wider than the original window.  Curses.  Fine.  I did it.  But I did not enjoy it. You can see all three windows are covered in Roman Shades below. (Barely, I know.  But bear with me here.)  Proof!

• Fix the cabinet doors (they need new hinges)  Done.  Such a small improvement but it really makes my heart sing when the doors close properly.  This picture is Christmas - again (sorry) - but it's all I could find.  Notice the doors are closed evenly!

4.   Kitchen:

• New window treatments  Yeah, this one is still hanging out on my list.  Oops.

5.  Dining room and Powder Room:

• Install new artwork  So I have the artwork to hang in the dining room but wanted to make the frames myself.  In the interest of time, I think I'll just hang them as-is for now.  I started to make the abstract painting for the powder room but I don't love it.  Not even a little.  So I'm going to start it over.  But at least I have the supplies! 

6.  #2's Room:  Poor kid.  None of this got done. 

• Sew a roman shade
• DIY cool, flush-mount light fixture

7.  Upstairs Hallway:

• I removed our gallery wall and I plan on making my own modern frame for a large piece of artwork  So I know what I'm going to do here - and it's not all that expensive - I just need to get on it, already! 

8.  Basement:

• Cover the circuit breaker box (Ahem..hubby?)  In all fairness, he did cover part of the hole with drywall.  Now I need to find art to hang over it.
• Paint the doors - black?  Sadly, not done. 
• Install door handles - five years is long enough!  Ha!  I did manage to install one set of handles!

9.  #1's Room:

• This is a biggie - she wants custom shelves with a built-in window seat.  Last year I told her I'd do it when Ikea got here.  Well, she won't let me forget and Ikea is supposed to open this fall.  So really, this one is entirely dependent upon Ikea!  I actually sat down and tried to design this for her.  But alas, her room is just not big enough to make this happen.  So instead, she got new bookshelves to hang over her dresser.  We haven't installed them yet because we want to spray paint the brackets but it's too cold to spray paint right now.  This will happen SOON.

10.  Master Bedroom:

• Finish the gallery wall around the TV.  I have a start but I need to focus on it.  I made major progress.  But I still need to fill some of the frames with art work.

• This is the biggie - you know there had to be one good one in here - custom master bedroom closet.  I would like to start this project in Feb/March.  I am literally going to rip everything out of there and start from scratch.  I'll document along the way!  Finished.  Minus the painting.  Good news, though.  I bought primer and hope to start painting this weekend. 

Wow!  It was actually kind of fun to see what I did and did not accomplish.  It also kind of lights a fire to get a few things ticked off the list really soon!  So what's in store for 2015?  Let's see, shall we?

1.  Finish up last year's projects that did not get done:

•  Crown moulding in the music room
• Artwork.  Everywhere!  Dining room.  Powder room.  Hallway.  Master bedroom.  Little girls room. 

2.  New window treatments

• Kitchen
• #2's room

3.  Paint doors in the basement and in the master bath.  (One new and one old to-do.)

4.  Install and style bookshelves in #1's room.

So what new items popped up?

5.  Master bathroom.  The shower is about done.  Just need to finish everything else!  (Radiant floor heating, tiled floors, refinished clawfoot tub, tile surround, vanity, medicine cabinets, lights, toilet, etc, etc)  This one WILL get done this year.  I can't take living in a reno for more than a year.  I just can't.

6.  Laundry room.  It got torn up a little when we had to replace our washing machine.  I'd like to put it back together again.  Mainly, just a new butcher block countertop in there.

7.  Kitchen.  Paint the backs of the glass-front cabinets.  (Or, if I'm sneaky, I could buy some type of foam board and paint it and then I could remove it if I ever got tired of the color!) 

8.  Basement.  The hubby installed a handrail down the stairs but it really needs to be painted.  It's ugly.  Plus, I should probably address the door situation down there (no handles and not painted).  But I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'm feelin' that one.  Also, we've installed 3 sets of shades but we have two more windows left to go!

9.  Office.  I made a few changes in here this past year.  But I think that area may receive a little TLC later on this year.  And it does really need a new window treatment.  My current Roman shade is held up by binder clips.  Yeah, I'm classy like that.

Phew!  There you have it.  I've written these out so now I have to work on them, right?! 

Do you have any design goals for 2015?  I'd love to hear them!

Six on Sunday...in 2015!

Sorry for the radio silence.  We were battling sickness and basic laziness.  You know how it goes - two weeks off school means I get a two week break from cooking regular meals and making lunches.  I stretched it the list by including a break from blogging as well.  I won't lie.  It was nice.  Regardless, I'm back!  So let's just dive in, shall we?

1.  Before the sickness set in, the girls really enjoyed their break.  The little girls even managed to go swimming at our local rec center!

They had quite a few playdates which they love.  Who am I kidding?  I love them just as much because then they don't ask me what they can do every other minute.  It was awesome.

2.  We had a really nice Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  I cooked a nice dinner on Christmas Eve which we enjoyed after the 6pm mass.  The girls had spaghetti and the hubby and I had a diavlo sauce with shrimp and scallops.  Delish.  

Christmas morning looked like this:

I already told you the gifts we gave the little girls but I didn't post the big girls' gifts.  They received:

#1:

Want:  Shelves for her room (we need to spready paint the brackets but it's been too cold!)

Need:  Desk chair and a closet organizer system

Wear:  cowboy boots and a new outfit

Read:  I can't remember the title?

Santa:  Gold lamp from Land of Nod for her desk, a couple necklaces, and a swimsuit

#2:

Want:  Throw pillows and throw blankets (seriously, she asked for them!)

Need:  Desk chair and a laptop

Wear:  Bronze Converse and an outfit

Read:  Dorothy Must Die (looks cute.  don't judge based upon the title.)

Santa:  Fluffy chair for her room

All in all, we all enjoyed the morning.  Then the hubby's parents and brother came Christmas afternoon and my side of the family came over for the evening.  It was a pretty great day together.

3.  The Friday after Christmas the sickness started to settle in for a week.  I was the first one down.  I haven't been that sick in years.  It was awful.  I didn't really leave my bed for the entire day on Friday.  I had really, really wanted to start tiling the shower but just couldn't do it.  I rallied on Saturday by taking down the Christmas decorations but it took me all day and I had to take repeated breaks.  

Then Saturday night the hubby started feeling crappy.  And Sunday late afternoon it hit #2 and #4.  Thankfully, #3 only caught a cough but nothing else.  And #1 remained symptom-free the entire break!  #4 seemed to bounce back after two days but it really hit #2 hard.  She was down three or four days.  Poor kid.  And the hubby didn't seem to bounce back very well, either.  

There was a lot of this:

and this:

Each of the girls received two movies in their stockings.  I think we watched nearly every single one of them.  Here's the list:

• Better Off Dead
• 16 Candles
• Can't Buy Me Love
• The Incredibles
• The Karate Kid
• Back to the Future
• The Goonies

Thankfully, we are all better now.  We have the remains of a cough but that's about it.  

4.  The little girls were the first to receive a New Year's Eve invitation.  Then #1 followed suit.  The hubby and I didn't go out because we just didn't feel like a night out drinking after being sick.  Plus, #2 was just feeling better and we didn't want to leave her home alone.  So the three of us stayed in, rented a movie, and just vegged.  Honestly, the highlight of my NYE was eating Chipotle for dinner!    

5.  We managed to have some fun on our break.  I took three of the four girls (#2 was feeling too crappy) to see Night at the Museum 3.  It was entertaining.  We also went ice skating down at Crown Center.  The big girls each brought a friend.  Here's proof:

To cap off our break we had dinner at Tanner's last night and then rented Malificient.  (I hadn't seen it yet and it did not disappoint.  I loved it.)

6.  We managed to almost finish our shower!  WooHoo!  Here it is all grouted:

We need to wait 3 days and then we have to seal it.  We still need to caulk the seams and put it in the new hardware.  We'll order the glass door this week.  I'm so excited to get to use my own shower again!  And it's so pretty.  

On a whim I posted my bathtub on Craigslist:

I had 5 or 6 offers in just 10 minutes! No joke.  Who knew 20 year old jacuzzi tubs were such a hot commodity?  

Anyway, we did get rid of it but not before tearing some holes in the wall.  This is what that space looks like now:

We knew we'd have to patch in where the tub sat, but we ended up having to demo a corner (see it on the right side of the picture?) to get it out.  That will not be a fun patch job.  But, it does feel good to have it out.  The hubby is thinking he can patch in the drywall this weekend.  I just want it to look better.  

I know we still have a TON of work left to do in the bathroom (new floors, scrape and paint the ceiling, new vanity, new toilet, new medicine cabinets, etc, etc) but it will be so nice to shower in there again!  

And there you have it!  Our winter break in a nut shell.  I hope you enjoyed your break, too!  Have a great week.