Thank you to P&G’s Have You Tried This Yet? program and Kroger for sponsoring my writing about trying new things and breaking out of my everyday routine. Click here to find great savings on high-performing P&G products at a Kroger store near you. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

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I LOVE trying new things!  But, admittedly, since kids, it has been a little harder to get something new out of life.  You know, with the routine, the mess, and the exhaustion!

But I have missed it.  That adrenaline rush and anticipation of stepping into the unknown.  The feeling of accomplishment when I know I am conquering something I have not done before!  When I can brag – I mean, share, my story and journey with those that I love!

It is a GREAT feeling!

Luckily, I have gotten to experience it again recently!

We bought a fixer upper, as you all know.   The house needs a lot of work.  And despite my husband’s incredible ability to do just about anything, I can not expect him to remodel an entire house all by himself!

Thus enters my opportunity to do something new… almost every week!

Like using a pipe snake to track a septic line and then, in 30 degree weather, digging it up at midnight in an attempt to see if we could find the lid to relieve some of the drain off.  I won’t say it was fun…  but it kinda was!

I would have never, in my lifetime, even dreamed of picking up a shovel and digging with determination to find something so incredibly gross!  But we found it, and we pumped it, and we solved the problem… at least temporarily, and that made me feel really good!

But less gross things are coming up that I get to try now, and I am all ready with eagerness!

The Hubs & The Hopper!

Every wall in this house has this plain, odor absorbing, white, flat paint that the previous owner used to cover up a pretty putrid cigarette smell!  Granted, we can not smell the smoke anymore, and everyone says white is a good pallet, but not over the old, thick 28 year old texture!

Every wall in this house has to be retextured!

As a result, my husband comes home with a big box and introduces me to the hopper.  A big, grey, square, awkward to hold, plastic thing that -apparently- shoots plaster all over the walls.

Now, normally, my hubs gets to do the big jobs like this.  But I wanted in!  I wanted to see if I could hold this thing up and make our walls look like something that came out of the 2000’s instead of the 1980’s!

I’d never done anything like this before and thought it would be pretty cool!

My husband seemed skeptical, but I was determined.  So, he hooked up the compressor, stepped away from the Lori, and watched me try to wrangle the heavy beast!

I only made it about 30 seconds.  But it was a GREAT 30 seconds!  Little ‘ole me, handling a massive hopper, putting my imprint on our house in my attempt to be able to say that I did it!

Just as if I had run a marathon or learned to bake a wedding cake, I felt that same pride!  That same adrenaline rush that comes with checking off a mark on your “what I have done that not many others have” list!

I know it is small.  Insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  But I got up and I did something NEW!  And I think too many people, especially after marriage and kids, forget to do that.  We get stuck in a rut and forget how nice it is to accomplish something that we never even knew we wanted to.

So I issue a challenge!  To anyone who feels like there is nothing out there that is exciting and new and can give you that adrenaline rush!

Do it anyway!  Get up and try something new!

You can borrow my hopper!