Our house is feeling blue.

Laura and I have been wanting to get the house painted for a long, long time, and we've run into some troubles. (Okay, the troubles haven't really been for us, what I mean is that we've had some difficulties finishing the project). Case in point: one of our neighbors has been doing odd jobs around the neighborhood--in fact, he painted the brick wall in front of our house--and he'd offered to paint the house for an incredible price. We, as usual, took our sweet time getting things ready and deciding on a color of paint for the place. Let's say it took us a month. Or maybe two. Anyhoo, we decided to bite the bullet and finally call the guy. I left a message on his cell phone, telling him we were ready to have our house painted, and, when you get a chance, could you give us a call?

A couple of days later, his girlfriend calls us back to inform us that he has had a stroke, and probably wouldn't be doing any physical labor anytime soon. I told her that I was extremely sorry for what had happened, and I hoped he got better, and, as you can imagine, it was an awkward conversation.

Later, as frequently happens in our neighborhood, a roving band of laborers came through and left a business card--this time, along with a color sampler for us to choose the color. We've gone back and forth between brick red (Laura's choice) to a two-tone combo of greens (my choice), but we were both able to agree on a nice blue. Laura was away at camp, and the band of laborers came back and talked to me. I arranged to have the house painted on the Monday I left for scout camp. I called Laura at one point during camp, and she said, "The house is blue. Really blue."

By the way, does anyone really know how to pick the right color from a tiny color swatch? Our house was supposed to be a darker, slate-ish, more gray-ish blue, but we now look like 1980s BYU Cougar fans. Our office, that's supposed to be a teeny bit olive green? Apple green. We've had great luck so far.

Thankfully, we both like how it turned out. It's probably just the relief of finally getting it done.