A Room that Gives You a Hug

After owning the Ozark Inn for nearly six months, two significant events finally happened. We painted and had our first guests! The nice thing was those went hand in hand. It certainly goes a lot faster when your guests pay their bill via painting.
We were thrilled to welcome Nate's parents and sister and bestow the honor of being the inaugural guests upon them. They were welcomed with Andes Mints on their pillows and towel animals on their beds. Ok, I made up the towel part, but they did get mints. We were pleased to offer Stan and Lisa our newest sleeping accommodations with a brand new air mattress bought on Black Friday. They slept in the Doctor Seuss Suite so they could dream of future grandchildren. Kaley was lucky enough to take her rest in the Dwight Shrute Chamber where she learned that "chamber" implies drafty, cold, but still lovely! (Don't let this deter you from visiting, we're working out the kinks as we hope to be booked frequently this year.)
We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas! We felt pretty spoiled and loved and were so grateful to be together for the holidays. Highlights of the holidays included making and eating delicious food, watching cheesy Christmas movies (ie. A Boyfriend for Christmas!), hitting all the Christmas sales, playing Just Dance on the wii (Yes, there are pictures and video; No, I will NOT be sharing these on my blog), playing Uno Roboto several nights in a row, and feasting on fondue for New Year's Eve, to name a few.
As I mentioned before, the Inn got a face lift too. We painted our family room and guest bathroom. Both look great which is surprising considering Mr. Grumpy at Lowe's didn't listen to me, treated me like I was stupid and was causing him such an inconvenience to mix my paint, and then proceeded to mix the wrong color! We didn't realize it was wrong until we got it on the wall and saw that it didn't match the sample we had already painted. While it wasn't the color we wanted, it actually turned out pretty nice. Good thing too, or I would have gone back and given Mr. Grumpy a piece of my mind! The new color in the family room is so warm it almost feels like you're getting a hug from a teddy bear! Much more inviting then boring white walls.

Here's the finished result. Sorry the clutter is detracting from the teddy bear hug feeling!

The bathroom was hard to photograph without a wide angle lens, but this gives you an idea of the color at least.

In other news, my organ playing is improving.....I think. At least if I base that on the bishopric's responses. The first month I played, I received a thumbs up sign as well as these encouraging words: "We're all rooting for you!" "Don't worry, you can't make any mistake that hasn't been made before." Then I was given a key to the church so I could come and practice. The second month: "That practicing sure is helping!" The third month: absolutely no comment. I take this as a sign that I didn't suck so bad that they felt the need to cheer me up but not good enough that they could justify a genuine compliment. That's the goal for next month.