Textured Walls and Ladders

I hate textured walls. Hate is a strong word, I know. But I hate textured walls. I don't remember having textured walls growing up. When did textured walls become standard in new homes? And why? Is it to hide sloppy work?

And I'm not so fond of ladders either. I have terrible balance. And a little fear of heights. Although, I guess it's not so much a fear of heights as it is a fear of falling from heights. With my track record, falling from a ladder wouldn't really be so surprising, so I generally try to avoid climbing them if at all possible.

Alas, my weekend was filled with textured walls and a ladder. And some really high ceilings - like 11 or 12 foot ceilings. Well, walls, really...really high walls (in the master bedroom). We painted our master bedroom, kitchen, and family room this weekend. It wasn't really so much fun, but the end result is oh-so-beautiful!! Seriously, though...there is no reason to make a wall that requires like 6 coats of paint in some places. And there was one wall that was so textured that even after 3 coats using the roller made especially for "rough" surfaces, I still had to paint pretty much the entire wall with a brush to get all the little white holes to finally get covered in paint. All while balancing 5 steps up on a ladder. Scary.

I need to put fresh batteries in my camera so I can take pictures for you.

Other happenings over the long weekend...

• I finally got the apnea monitor belt for Makayla on Friday - did I already mention this? I had to go pick it up...grr...but at least we have it. So far, no apnea alarms, just one low heartrate alarm...but I'm thinking maybe the parameters need to be changed since she's older now and they were set when she was a newborn. I think the low HR is set to alarm at below 80 BPM, and I'm pretty sure it's okay for them to go below that while sleeping now that they're older...but I could be wrong. Will be asking the doc about that.
  
• Mackenzie decided she no longer needs to sleep during the day. At all. And she has decided to throw a big 'ole temper tantrum if we try to make her. Which then wakes up Makayla, who is sleeping peacefully across the room. And then Makayla gets whiny b/c she hasn't had a full nap. Really fun.
• I can finally see at least one, maybe two, teeth coming in on the bottom for Makayla!!
• Makayla is now crawling on hands and knees, and the same day she learned how to do that, she learned how to sit herself up and pull herself to standing. Uh oh.
• Makayla has surprised us by continuing to sleep through, or nearly through, the night on a regular basis for about a week now. She occasionally wakes up once, and last night twice (but the first time was thanks to her brother), but overall, I'm totally impressed and still kind of in disbelief!
• Mackenzie is sitting up on her own for a few seconds, before falling over. Progress! She's also gotten good at rocking back and forth on all fours.
• I made homemade baby food for the first time - peaches. So easy - why haven't I done this before now?? Steamed them in the microwave, peeled them, blended them in the Magic Bullet...froze them. Too bad I can't find our old ice cube trays, though...had to re-use some baby food containers.
• My sister-in-law Chrissy and nephew Jake came for a surprise visit this afternoon, which was nice. They got to see the newly painted walls, and it was Jake's first time seeing the new house. Anthony, as always, enjoyed the additional audience!!
• My wonderful, fabulous, fantastic, awesome husband went shopping this afternoon, and came home with......................................................................................................an early birthday present for me. Can you guess what it is????
  

Didn't I tell you he's awesome? Now I have to get some thread and learn how to use it! (And yes, I already took it out of the box, and it really IS a nice, pretty, new sewing machine!) And no, he did NOT buy it at Walmart this time!!