Nailed it.

A Wednesday Morning List.  Of happenstances.

1)  My mom had a birthday.  She took the day off from work so we could hit the beach.  And darn our luck, it rained.  In fact, it rained so much, it set a new record for our area.

So we went shopping instead.  And, as all 53 year olds do on their birthdays, she saw a Claire’s shop and decided she was ready to get her ears pierced!

You are never too old to give up on your dreams.

2)  After our rainy shopping day, we went back to mom and dad’s house for a lovely dinner.  Little Dude and my mom’s birthdays are one day apart, so they shared the spotlight.

3)  On Saturday, David and I started to prepare the land to build a fence for our future horse.

First, we had to figure out where our property line was.  We had two stakes about 150-200 yards apart and my job was to run a string between the two.

This job was not as easy as it sounds.

Our land is not, oh, what’s the word? . . . tame.  I would think the string was going straight, then David would kindly point out to me that it was snagged a few yards back and was no longer straight and I would tell him I have never had to figure out property lines before and I wasn’t meant to live in the country anyways.

I was very concerned that we would spend all this time and money building a fence, only to accidentally build some of the fence on the neighboring property.  And that would be the end of the world.  Obviously.

So, I put on my Big-Girl-Thinking-Pants and downloaded a compass app on my smart phone and figured that was a solid plan.  David asked me what on earth I was doing and I reminded him that I was never meant to live in the country anyways.

So he helped me.  Teller for the win!

We pulled the string down and he would annihilate any branch or bush that was in our way.

Horse fence: 1

Nature: 0.

It took us three hours to create that perfect line, I kid you not.  This had better be one special horse.  Next we had to set the corner posts in concrete.

Why?  I don’t know.  I wasn’t meant for this life, remember?  And how was David born knowing how to do all of these things?  I ask you?  He is amazing.

Look!  We have something called a “Post Hole Digger!”  Who knew?!

Check out David’s boots.  I was wearing the same, exact ones.  Matchy-Matchy!

At some point in all of this nonsense, David starts talking about right triangles.  I looked at him almost as if he was an insane, crazy person.  And rightfully so.  Then he starts mumbling numbers and scratching his head.  I ask him what’s going on.  Because, and this might come as a shock to you, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON.

David:  A squared plus B squared equals C squared, Taylor.

Me:  Huh?

And then I vaguely remembered sitting in a classroom back in the late 90’s and hearing something eerily similar to this A squared/B squared nonsense.

It’s a formula!  A math formula!

Attention all math students who have ever wondered if they would ever be using any of these formulas in real life:  I would like to announce that on Saturday, the 22nd of June, in the year Two Thousand and Thirteen, my husband, David Maliblahblah, used a math formula.  In real life.

I never knew my lumberjack was so learned.

Anyways.  We worked all day and are nowhere near finished.  Story of our lives.

4)  My birthday was on Sunday.  I turned the big 3-2.  I asked David to help me build window boxes for my birthday, and he obliged.

I even got to “help.”  He had me in charge of the nail gun.  I was feeling particularly proud of myself for being so handy.

I would like everyone to see how good I am at using a nail gun.

Window box.  Nailed it.

We made four of them that look like these for the four windows on our shop:

I had an old window I found for $5 at a yard sale and David made a planter out of old pallet boards.  We made this little beauty for the chicken coop:

Seriously.  Happy Birthday to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Yes.  There is a crack in the window.  I care not.

5)  Remember how my house was all peach when we moved in?  Last fall/winter, we painted a good portion of the main floor, but there is still a lot of peach going on in the house.  A lot of peach, my friends.

I found a gallon of “oops” paint at the Home Depot for $7 and figured it would look better than peach.  And I was right!  And I painted two bathrooms gray.  For SEVEN dollars.  As if life could not be any more exciting!

Goodbye, peach.

Hello, gray!

And I did it all by myself!  Ceilings and everything!  I even got tons of paint in my hair!

6)  I ran into a slight snag when it came time to paint behind the toilet.  I was reading an article online and it said the best thing to do was to find a “skilled handyman” to move the toilet.

I pointed to David and congratulated him on being the “skilled handyman” of my dreams.  Apparently, he wasn’t up to the task so I made this little contraption instead:

It is a stir stick hot glued to a paint pad replacement thing.  Worked like a charm!

7)  Our strawberries are on like Donkey Kong.  I sent the boys out with one, small container yesterday.  They were resourceful and went and got some mason jars as well when the container was too full.

That was our third time out in about a week or so!

8)  I have been busy trying to make some sort of yard here.  I don’t know why.  I just feel the need.  It is not going well.  But I will persevere!

I would like to announce that I, yes, I, Taylor Maliblahblah, am a total man now.  Here is a list of my accomplishments:

*I can start AND use a weed whacker

*I can start AND use a rototiller

*I can start AND use a lawn mower AND fill it up with gas.  GAS, people!

*I CAN LIGHT A BBQ (seriously, did this for the first time this month)

*I can (kind of) use a nail gun

Aren’t we so proud of me?  We are.

Happy Wednesday!