Blood, Sweat, and Tears

I am not a very patient person. I really wish I were, and I get lots of opportunities to practice, so hopefully one of these days I'll get better. Blake is a very patient person. That's why I usually have him hang the pictures on our walls because I know he will do it right the first time, since he takes the time to measure. That's why we only have one picture up in our bedroom. I've been waiting for him to do it right since we moved in 10 months ago, and got tired of blank walls, so I hung up a picture of the temple which only took one nail and no anchors. Anyway, recently I decided to make a FHE board since I didn't want to pay $30 for one. A lady in my ward does vinyl lettering, so I got the lettering a couple of weeks ago and set it aside since I didn't have a board yet. Last week I went to Lowe's and got some boards while Kaleb was at preschool. I had it painted by the time I picked him and his friend up and brought them home. After it was dry I started putting on the vinyl lettering. I didn't mesure, just eyed it and called it good. It slants slightly upward, but not much. I added the magnet strips and the rocks with our names on them, which didn't turn out exactly as I had planned:

Kind of a big gap, but they serve their purpose. So when everything was on I nailed the mounts on the back so I could hang it up. Now, I tried to be patient and copy Blake's methods for hanging things up. I measured, twice, then put one screw in. As I was holding the board as it rested on the one screw so I could measure where to put the other screw, it slipped off, scraped the wall, and the corner landed right on Kaleb's foot, who had come to see what I was doing. Screaming, a little blood, and tears from him and me.

Once I got him (and myself) calmed down, I put a band-aid on, and he stayed a safer distance away as I put in the second screw. After all my careful measuring, I went to hang up the board, and it was off, barely. Another hole in the wall, I hang up the board, and it was very crooked and I have lost my patience and am ready to give up but I don't, so I added one more hole in the wall (luckily they're all behind the board) stepped back, and was happy with the result:

So blood, sweat, and tears went into making the board, but the kids looked forward to FHE all week, and they all knew what their jobs were so nobody argued about whose turn it was to lead the song, so besides Kaleb getting hurt, it was worth it. I'm glad I did it, and even more glad that it's done!