Within hours of closing on the new house, I stood with Alexis in the paint aisle, holding a shower curtain in one hand and some paint chips in the other. We had just acquired a sugary sweet Hello Kitty set for her bathroom and the mission was to match it all together.

I knew the kid was going to choose pink, but I still showed her a plethora of options. There was pale blue, white, gray, dark blue, light pink, dark pink, all sorts of choices. She studied the paint chips, studied the shower curtain, and then looked up at me and declared that she wanted the walls to be pink like Hello Kitty's hat.

And so it was. A pink bathroom. A bright pink bathroom.

For some reason, all of which probably have to do with the fact that I hate pink, it took until this past week for me to pop open that can of paint and get to work. The second I pulled the lid off, I gagged a little. As I stirred and stirred, I reminded myself that it would dry darker on the walls than it was in the can. That was certainly a good thing. I scooped a little onto a paint brush and slapped it onto the wall.

It looked like Care Bear blood.

I kept going, working my way around the room, drop of Care Bear blood after drop of Care Bear blood. When it was done, it truly was so pink that even Strawberry Shortcake, the Queen of Gross Pink Things, would vomit immediately upon entering the room.

It dried darker all right. Now it looks like there was some sort of Care Bear massacre. Instead of the Bears successfully using their magical Care Bear Stare to ward off evil, they got their asses kicked and now their blood has dried all over the walls.

A Care Bear (or two) died so Alexis could have this bathroom.

(Pictures do not do the horror justice. Trust me.)

That bathroom is always going to be Alexis' bathroom. No one else will ever use it. I know for a fact that some day she is going to come to me, stick out her bottom lip, open her eyes wide, and whiiiiiine that it's ugly and I'm so horrible and OMIGAH can we please paint it any other color but that pleasepleasepleaseplease?

I'll be ready with a response.

Alexis, it's perfect just the way it is.

She had very important Alvin and the Chipmunks viewing to finish so she had to rush off. Truly, she loooooves it, and I'm never going to let her forget it.

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If you haven't been keeping up with the BRESMA orphanage story, please go over to That's Church and see if there is any way you can help. Every email, tweet, and blog post does help. We need to get supplies to the kids and get them to the families who are waiting for them. You never know if the person reading your words will be the one who can make things happen. I'll be looking at you again when the kids are safe and it's time to start rebuilding that orphanage. :-)