Cheney weekend

Mom and Dad Cheney came over last Saturday to spend the day with us. We hung out at home for a little while, had lunch, and then headed over to St. John's Church. That's where Patrick Henry gave his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech way back in the day. Did you know that he had 17 kids (two wives - not at the same time)? And that he was Virginia's first governor? Neither did I. There's also a really old cemetery on the property. We got a tour from a nice woman dressed in period clothes.

They have an impersonator come and do reenactments sometimes. We may have to go to one of those. I'm reading a book about James Madison right now. He has some not-very-kind things to say about Mr. Henry, but he sounds like a decent guy to me.

After our visit to the church, we went to a park. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. Mom and Dad had coupons for free cheesecake so we tried to hit up the Cheesecake Factory for dinner but the wait was TWO HOURS. What the heck? That was at like 5:30. Ridiculous. So they got their cheesecake (they shared - thanks!) and then we went to Chipotle. After which we went our separate ways. It was really fun to spend the day with them.

And on another note, I'm doing this thing I saw a friend post on facebook called "40 bags in 40 days." If you google it, you'll find the official site which is too long-winded. Basically you just find 40 places in your house and declutter them. One place a day for 40 days. It coincides with Lent, but even though I don't participate in Lent, I thought it was a good excuse to get my house organized. I've got in-laws coming in two weeks so it's more like 40 bags in 14 days. A good spring cleaning opportunity if anyone else is interested!

Before and After

Here's a before of the hallway. What you can't see is that all around the edges, the carpet was permanently discolored. I think I have a better picture of that in one of the bedrooms.

And here's the hallway with the new hardwood.

We think it looks a lot better. It's kind of a dark hallway. Someday in the very distant future, I think sky tubes would be cool up there. We are planning on painting the hallway some kind of light tan, too.

We also replaced the carpet in three of the bedrooms. Here's what I was talking about with the dark edges.

It never really looked clean, plus there were a lot of stains. So here's a shot of the guest room after all was said and done.

Man, it looks so much better than it did! I actually painted this room a few months ago and surprised Dan with it. I also made over this little dresser that's been in the family for a long time. It has previously been olive green and bright yellow. Now it's a pale green.

I also made the two decorative pillows a while back. I'm thinking, after looking at these pictures, that I should make a bedskirt. I'd also like to put up some curtains in there. And maybe a headboard one day... Anyhow, we love the new carpet! Everything just looks newer and warmer.

Afton has never had a haircut in her 3.5 years of life. Eventually her scraggly ends were too much to handle. She kept refusing to get it cut, but I finally realized that she didn't want it cut because she thought it would be cut like Sam's.  Once I assured her that I would just trim it, she agreed.

Here's her before photo shoot. She had to make this face from every angle.

So classy, right? I was pretty nervous to cut her hair but I watched a YouTube video that made it look pretty easy. I went for it. Here's the after. Her hair is slightly wavy, so it's hard to really get a good feel, but I cut off two or three inches. I didn't want to try something too short and mess it up so I kept it simple.