Birthday Party at Mom and Dad's

Tonight we had my family birthday party at my parent's house! Since it is still so warm, we ate outside by the pool. My grandparents, Uncle Jon, and cousin Nate all came. We ate a delicious menu of my choosing--tater tot hotdish, sweet potato casserole, and ice cream pie! Yum!!

Even though I had the flu on my actual birthday, my overall birthday week was wonderful. When I got back to school on Thursday from being sick, there was a huge sign on my door signed by a class of 3rd graders that said, "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Rinn! Without you, we can't hit the right note!"

Thank you to all my sweet family and friends who called and sent presents & cards to make me feel so loved!!

Weekend Conference with Mom

This Friday and Saturday, my mom and I had the wonderful blessing of attending the Revive Our Hearts Conference with Nancy Leigh DeMoss at her church. It was a powerful time of Bible teaching and beautiful worship. I am so thankful that my mom and I could attend this conference together!

Real Texans...

Birthday Date at Cheesecake Factory

Happy (Early) Birthday!!

Fall is Here!

Does anything say fall better than a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks??
I still like to think it's fall, even here in Ft. Worth...where the high is (only) 89 tomorrow.

Piano Room Makeover!

The piano room at our house was the last room (besides the nursery, which will wait to be redone until it's needed) that we hadn't repainted since moving in. My mom and I painted it right before I went back to school in August. It took us 2 long days (each complete with a mid-afternoon visit to Starbucks for caffeine) and 4 coats of primer and paint! We absolutely love how the color and new drapes have completely transformed the room! Today, David finally had a chance to hang the new drapes that I ordered a few weeks ago.

Here's the room before the big change (the only picture I could find of it!):
And....here it is now!!

I love this piano picture that we found for one of the walls:

The "point" jutting out from the ceiling was SO time-consuming to paint. My right side ached for days after I was done painting it from stretching so high with my right hand for so long!!
We never could have done it without all my mom's help!! She is the painting QUEEN and has more energy when it comes to painting (or anything!) than I can barely imagine! She helped me decide between ALL the red paint colors and kept us fueled with Starbucks. Then, she helped me pick out curtains for the room. (No small task--after 20 minutes of looking through the huge curtain/drape books at JCPenney, I was so frustrated I was crying!!) Thanks for all your help, Mom!!