The patio is painted and after this I will never mention it again.

I know you guys are dying to know about our patio.  Okay, so probably not but that's what I'm going to talk about right now so you've been warned.

On Friday, or Fri-yay as the internet loves to call it, I stopped at Sherwin Williams and got three quart sized containers of paint.  They were $7 each so I felt like that was a bargain as opposed to picking one color, getting a $55 gallon and then hating it.

On Saturday we painted the three sample colors over the fire engine red patio and this was the result:

And oddly, in this picture, the patio looks more orange than red, but trust me, it was red.  In fact, Sarah's friend who was spending the night on Friday opened the back door and I could hear her say, "Wow!  That's red!"  And lots of giggling ensued.

Anyway, the color that we both liked the best was the one on the right.  Although I felt it was looking a little purple (which doesn't show up in this picture).  I was sort of leaning to the one on the top because it looked more clay pottish which was what I was going for but Dan really wanted a more brick color.

So we went back to Sherwin Williams for 2 gallons of the color on the right (which coincidentally was the one that I was going to get in the first place when I opted to take the sample route.  So now I feel like I sort of wasted the $20 on the sample paint. 

We got to work painting the patio and the color was looking good but as we got closer to the sample squares, it was apparent that the color was totally different than the sample. Well, not totally but it looked more brick like and less purple.  Which was actually a very good thing!  However, it made me wonder what the heck happened with the sample color. 

It looks better although I really wish I had stuck to my guns about getting a more clay looking color.  I think a more clay color would look better with the acutal brick on our house.  But then, I  figured I would run the risk of it looking really orange and I didn't want that either.  So I guess we are both  happy with the color of the patio although my brother still says it's too red.  It's definitely still red, but it's brick red now and not fire engine red.  And when we get the table put back and the grill back out there, hopefully it will be a non-issue.

In other weekend news, Peter had his Confirmation Retreat all day Saturday.  He was dreading it but it sounds like it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be.  They watched videos, had small group discussions, played games, at lunch, and went to confession.  And luckily, two of this friends from school were among the 70 kids there and that made it much more enjoyable for him.

I've got a busy week ahead...basketball practice, driving for a field trip to the zoo, going to a Christmas show with some friends, lunch with the Catholic high school admissions counselors, and a weekend full of basketball tournament action.