Advice Needed

I want to paint.

But I don't want to paint just anything, I want to give one of the rooms in the house a spruce. I know that if I wait a few months I will be able to find out the sex of the baby and then we will be painting the nursery... but I don't want to wait for that.

That being said, I think I want to paint our hallway! Our hallway is extremely bland and... well, so many other boring words. I am actually ashamed we haven't painted it yet. I mean, we have been living here for four years now and I think a paint job is LONG overdue.

So here is where your help comes in. I need help figuring out a color to paint the hallway. For your convenience, I have included a picture of the bland and yucky looking space.

My gut reaction is to go with a neutral color. An earthy tone. Something safe. But here is the problem. The hallway leads into the living room, which is a brown earthy color. The hallway also leads into mine and Daniels bedroom, which is painted in two different brown colors. And guess what? The hallway leads into the kitchen, which is ALSO painted with two shades of brown and a lovely shade of white.

Yeah. We went a little crazy with the browns. We realize this now.

So here is my question...

Would painting the hallway an earth color just be too much? Should I go with a red or something different to set it apart from the rest of the house, or will I be safer to stay with the same color scheme we have going on?

Oh, and then there is the problem of this nasty wallpaper covering the bottom half of the hallway. What do to with that? Paint over it or re wallpaper with something a little more trendy?

Obviously I need your help people. So PLEASE leave your feedback! I am desperate!!!

Help Needed

Ok, I am in a slight freak out mode and I would love it if one of my blog readers could help me out.

Friday I noticed five or six bug bites on Zachariah's chest/tummy. No big deal. They are just about gone. But Tuesday afternoon I discovered six new bites on the back of his shoulder. Here is the kicker. Due to the rain, we did NOT step foot outside at all on Tuesday. That made me freak out a bit. He is being bit inside, and I am pretty sure it is when he is sleeping. And wait for it... he woke up with two more bites on his back this morning.

Here is some info:
- The bites are red and just a little bit raised off the skin. They look like a typical bug bite.
- The bites are in clusters or rows. The first set on his chest was kindof spread out, but the ones on his shoulder are almost in a straight line. (This is why I do NOT think its a regular bug bite)
- The bites do not seem to bother Zachariah at all. He doesn't even know they are there.
- I only notice them after he has been sleeping

We don't have any pets, and Zachariah has had flea bites one time before (while on vacation to NC), so I have pretty much ruled those out.

My biggest fear is that bed bugs are biting him. I did a lot of research on them and they just flat out CREEP ME OUT. Out of everything I have read, our home would not be the "typical" place that would acquire bed bugs... but now I am just paranoid about it.


Does anyone know what might be the cause of Zachariah's bites? Has anyone had this happen before? I am going to be making some calls today, but I just wanted to know if anyone else has some info for me that would calm my nerves.