What? I don’t believe it! Shut the front door! We hear that frequently these days, right? Well, that’s exactly what I said when I saw this creepy, crawly, and extremely ugly critter on our front porch. It was late, I was barefoot, and I was tired. “Knock, knock”. “Who is it?” “It’s me, an ugly centipede. My legs and me want to come in and make ourselves at home”. “Oh, you want to come inside? Wait there for just one moment, I’ll be right back”.

I then ran to the laundry room to grab a broom. A broom? Seriously? With all the variety of insect sprays we have (some which spray up to 20 feet away!) I grabbed a broom??? I tiptoed out – after all, I was barefoot and with all the strength I could muster, I swept it away. I was thinking it was going to fly across the driveway, across the yard and end up out on the road where it would be promptly run over and smooshed to smithereens by a car – but NO! It went about 4 feet and landed right on the front walkway. Ugh, it’s dark out here, I can’t keep sweeping this thing 4 feet at a time, and I also don’t want it to make its way back to the front porch. I know what you’re thinking…run inside and get the spray stuff, right? No! Because the minute I take my eyes off this thing, its zillion legs will be in motion and I will never find it again until it makes its way back to the front porch! Rocks. There are rocks along each sided of the walkway, I’ll smash it! But it’s dark out, what if I pick up a rock that has an equally creepy crawly thing in, under, or around it? I took my chances, picked up a rock and threw/tossed/slung it. Dang! I missed it…Steeeerike One. Picked up another rock. Steeerike Two. Oh. My. Gosh. One more time – and it’s a hit! I don’t know if you can see the picture, but this thing is pretty robust. It actually looks like a rubber toy, almost like a fake snake! Like the creature in Tremors! (why do I always reference that movie?!!!) Even though I’ve smashed it with a rock and it’s dead, it’s perfectly intact and looks perfectly alive. I kneeled down to get a good look at it – why is it we like to look t gross things?!!! Mission accomplished. I went in, washed up, climbed into bed and laid there with my eyes wide open because I was sure there was an army of centipedes outside plotting revenge for their fallen soldier.

The next morning I peeked out the window to see if it was still there – and it was. Because they make me feel super brave, I put on my trusty boots and went outside to make sure it was dead. I nudged it with my foot. No movement. Hallelujah! I’ve always been squeamish about spiders, worms, pretty much anything that crawls, so I surprised even myself this time. Well I have to go now. My boots and I are going out to save the world (our little corner of the world, that is!)

It’s back. Well it’s not back completely, but it’s getting there. It’s almost back, I can see it in the distance…like a movie, it’s running towards me – in ultra slow motion. I actually thought it had fallen off the truck on the move out here and was out in the middle of the desert somewhere in Arizona. Okay, it’s not that bad, but we’ve been here almost three months now and I’m just now getting my craft room together. That means for at least three months, I haven’t made anything, barely baked anything (more on that later), and haven’t had my own “zen” place (so to speak) to go. Confession: It’s not because I didn’t have a place to make anything, it’s because (gasp!), I haven’t wanted to. I guess it’s just a part of the whole getting used to living here. Another adjustment.

However…a few weeks ago, after going upstairs, and standing in the room full of boxes I decided it was time. Time to get some cabinets in so I can unpack all the boxes. Time to self motivate. The cabinets went in pretty quickly, however (and this is a BIG however), I was thinking when the cabinets were installed I would just unpack the boxes and put stuff away and I’d be ready to go. It didn’t quite work out quite that way. I had gone out that day and when I came back I couldn’t wait to go up and see how they looked. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw that the cabinets – although very nice, were completely unfinished! WHAT? Are they supposed to be that color? Who? What? Ugh!

I couldn’t bear the thought of waiting another week to get a painter in to paint the cabinets. “JD, I can paint these cabinets myself”. I’m really not sure what he really thought about it, but as always he was supportive. Now I had some decisions to make. Wait a minute. This is my room! I get to pick what I want in here. I can paint the cabinets any color I want! I can hang anything I want on the walls! I wanted to run down the stairs, grab my purse, hop in the car and go buy paint! But I didn’t. Instead, I got online and started reading. I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to use chalk paint (not to be confused with chalkboard paint). No sanding, very little prep, paint, sand if wanted (for a distressed look), seal with crème wax. This is going to be so easy! I can do this! (then I grabbed my purse, hopped in the car and went and bought paint!)

I hauled all my stuff upstairs and carefully taped off the edges, etc. and I was ready to start. Oh. Hmm. I guess I’ll need to take the doors off of the cabinets first. Guess I better go get a screwdriver. Boy, this is kind of hard to do, some of these screws are in pretty tight. Why the heck do they even put the doors on unfinished cabinets, anyway? Gosh it’s hot up here. I wonder if JD has a cordless screwdriver? Down I go, to the man cave where every tool has it’s own special place with an audible alarm if its not returned to its proper location within a reasonable amount of time. I found it! But where’s the charger? Ugh! Cant find it. Maybe I can use this ratchet thingy. Well, the ratchet thingy worked just fine, but it took me all afternoon to take the doors off the cabinets and the hardware off the doors. Sheesh.

Now I’m ready to paint – easy peasy! Yeah, this is fun. Wow, it’ really hot up here. Three days later I’m still painting. Every day I’d talk to my daughter, and every day I’d tell her I was painting. “Still?” Heh, heh, yep. Then after the painting was done, it was time to sand, because yes, I wanted that distressed look. You know why they call it distressed? I can tell you why, Its because it’s so labor intensive. At one point JD came up to check on me. The look on my face must have said it all – DISTRESSED! And then after that, I still had to apply the crème wax. Not cream, but crème. Seriously? At last I finished! And I like them! I hung the doors back on (another thing that sounds easier than it is), and now I just need the counter tops. Yay! At least the room is functional.

I’m back in my groove – ready to create, and starting to feel like myself again. Hello mojo, welcome back 😉