Nesting

We got the news that our TA would be processed before the CNY (Chinese new year). The CCAA will be closed this week, but worked on Saturday so.... our TA was either mailed Friday or Saturday. Our agency called to inform us that it was on the way and asked if would we be prepared to travel... Feb 18th!!! Are you kidding me?!?!? YES. That has been our hopeful date through this process. We are so excited... So... if our agency receives the TA on Monday, they will immediately contact the Consulate to schedule our visa appointment. The CCAA usually responds in one or two days which means we won't hear back from them until after the CNY (the week of the 7th) So we won't be able to purchase tickets until we hear back from them. As soon as we have an appointment we'll know we can purchase the airline tickets and be on our way to CHINA! Hold on Sissy, your family is coming. We went out for dinner (Chinese) with friends last night and get ready for this... my fortune read, "Be prepared for your plans to change." Are you kidding me?? I don't want plans to change unless it means were departing sooner!

With news of the fast (19 days away!!) approaching travel plans, I have been in crazy nesting mode. Yesterday we woke up and I decided, I could no longer tolerate our disorganized, dirty looking pantry. I've cleaned it numerous times, but it still looked filthy. It needed to be painted and it had 30 YEAR OLD contact paper attached to every shelf. When we had the floors put in we removed the RUBBER base board... yes rubber. (long story) and we haven't replaced it with new trim. When the rubber was removed the black nasty glue was left on the walls... TERRIBLE. So I woke up yesterday morning ready to wage war with the pantry... Hoot played all day and kept asking if I was going to get the mess cleaned up before dad got home... it was that bad! I didn't have a budget for this project so I shopped the garage... I had some left over paint and 4 burlap potato sacks left over from Hoot's Halloween party. I had a plan!
The Befores... I've always been transparent so NO Judgement... It's bad!
Just a little paint and it looks 1000x better

The paper was so old it couldn't come clean. I even tried Comet...


This is the worst of it... at some point there must have been a water leak. These stains have grossed me out since we purchased the house! Our washer and dryer is on the other side of the wall so I'm thinking leak... Isn't the rubber glue lovely.. would you want to store food in this pantry??


I took EVERYTHING OUT... Hoot could not beleive the magnitude of the mess I made


The after... I'll pick up some cute glass containers for things, but at least it's clean for now. I lined the shelves with the burlap sacks.. They cover the paper and it will work for now!






When Lambert got home, Hoot said mom made a terrible mess today, but I didn't.... He totally ratted me out!