Nesting gone awry....

It started out innocently enough; we were just going to repaint the guest room.
Then we decided that we should see what is under the carpet in there, because the carpet has all sorts of stains on it...

It doesn't look that good, but the black goo scrapes off really easily and you can see lovely wood gleaming through in some spots.
Then....we decided to look and see what was under the carpet in the hall, because we didn't see any black goo.

The floor in the hall actually looks really good. We just have to sand and refinish. Then...

We decided it look weird to have carpeted stairs but no carpet in the hall. Giving ourselves a 'God hates a coward' pep talk, we pulled up the carpet on the stairs and found this:
We seem to have a lot of work in store for us, but we are excited to see how it turns out. I think, if we don't screw it up, it will look great. Anybody who would like to help pull staples out of stairs is more than welcome to come help. Apparently, whoever installed the carpet wanted to make sure it would be there for about a million years, as they are EXTREMELY well secured!

One more thing on the list of things you aren't supposed to do

So, for those of you thinking about branding children who aren't yours with the religious symbol of your choice...
I guess you aren't supposed to. Sorry. Story from the AP

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - A school board in central Ohio voted Friday to move ahead on firing a science teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs in class and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.
The Mount Vernon school board voted 5-0 to pass a resolution of intent to terminate the contract of middle school teacher John Freshwater.
Board attorney David Millstone said Freshwater is entitled to a hearing to challenge the dismissal. A lawyer for Freshwater said he will request such a hearing.

A report by independent investigators found that Freshwater also taught creationism in his science class and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom.
School board members gathered a day after consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc. released its report. The community is about 40 miles northeast of Columbus.
The report comes one week after a family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on their child's arm that remained for three or four weeks.

Interesting link...

Link to a profile of several different groups of people in Ethiopia. Some amazing pictures...http://www.pbase.com/sergio_pes/ethiopia_special

How good are you at geography?

Try the game over on the right hand side of the page. The better you are at geography, the more cups of water are donated. Nathan and I did 216. Let me know if you beat us!

No more summer house....

We are officially a one house family again. Yay!!! We closed on our house in Aberdeen yesterday, finally ending an almost year long process. We are really, really excited. Good bye little house... we loved you but are so glad to see you go!