Last days of summer

I finished this book in less than two days. I really love the author Emily Griffin. Her books are mostly classified as Chick Lit, but I feel like her books are not typical of that genre. Her characters are all 3 dimensional and her endings are never predictable. I do not want to give any of the book away, but it is written through two different ladies' point of view, Tessa and Valerie. I can relate to different aspects of both of these characters. Although they have never met, their lives become intertwined through a tragedy in Valerie's family. If you choose to read it, be prepared to do nothing else until it is finished!

Also, I woke up extra early this morning to start painting our porch. It is not finished- I still need to do the trim around the pillars and steps, along with a second coat of paint. I will do this either tomorrow or this afternoon. It feels nice checking this project off of our list of home improvements- makes me feel like I wasn't a total lazy bum this summer! I still want to add a nicer looking mail box and address numbers, but I think that I will save that for when Daniel and I sand/ stain our new front door. I feel like I am on that show Curb Appeal (I love HGTV!).

Funny story- before I started painting our porch, I made a mental note that I must unlock our back door, seeing as we will not be using our front door until the paint dries. So, I unlock the back door, and go outside to make sure that I can easily open the backdoor from there (the door is very old and always gets stuck). It opens, and I literally say out loud, "do NOT lock this door again." OF COURSE, my dogs need to go outside, so I let them out, do some chores, let them back in, and get started outside. About two hours later, I am finished and bring all of my tools to the back door. I go to open the door, and it won't budge! I try everything I can to open the darn door, but it is either stuck or locked. By this time, I am covered in sweat, paint, and dirt and just want to go inside. I have to use all of my flexibility (thanks, yoga!) to lunge over 3 paint-soaked steps, with the front foot balancing on the 1 inch thick trim of the pillar and the back foot sunk in a flower bed. By the grace of God, I am able to get through the front door without messing up my work! And, despite all of my intentions to not lock the back door, it was, indeed, locked!

I think that's about all of my news. I hope everyone has a great Thursday!