Show Us Your Life- Master Bedroom

I'm a little late to the game this week, but still wanted to participate in Kelly's Show Us Your Life.  We just repainted our master bedroom this past summer and got new bedding.  I really like our bedding; it feels grown-up!  I'm still searching for the perfect decorations and haven't put up the sheers I bought for the curtain rods, but you get the picture.  Enjoy!

View from the entrance.  Our room is really small, but cozy!  We make it work with our furniture!  If we stay at our house for a while, I'd love to add on a master suite with a bathroom.

Kurt's dresser with a frame I made him for Valentine's Day the first year we had Macey, our wedding invitation framed, and a metal sign that says, "Dream."

My dresser...which I totally need to reorganize!

My night stand with a picture of my brother, sister, and me from our wedding day.

Our t.v. (which was a gift from our realtor when we bought our house) and a faux-leather trunk/bench that I got at Target.

Well, that's it!  Hope you enjoyed seeing our bedroom!

One of those days!

It's been one of those days.  I cannot believe that it's only Tuesday.  Probably because the last two days felt like they've gone on forever.  Here are some thoughts from the past two days at school:


- "No Special" days stink!  Fellow teachers know what I'm talking about! They are the longest.days.ever. 


- Children should be able to write their names when they come to kindergarten.  Whenever anyone asks me what they can do to prepare their child for school, that will be my top suggestion from now on.  I also think they should know how to use scissors, but that's another story.


- When something happens at recess, I only know about it based on what the adults on duty tell me.  I am not out there.  (This stems from a parent e-mail that really got to me today...can you tell?!)


- I never realized how many shoes I would have to tie in a day.  One of the first things I am going to have a parent volunteer do, is work with small groups on how to tie a shoe.


- Twinkle Toes by Sketchers?  Cute for little ones, but not for adults.   Also, I think they wear out quickly.  I have one student who has only one shoe that lights up all day.  Perhaps that's a good thing...only half as annoying!


- I do more work at home teaching kindergarten than I ever did teaching third grade.  Yes, I'm not grading papers (and I am so grateful!), but I am preparing things for centers and lessons.


I think that's all for tonight!  Here's hoping Wednesday through Friday go quicker than the first two days this week!

Show Us Your Life: Living Rooms!

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting her Show Us Your Life house tour again.  I didn't have my own blog the last time she did this, so I'm excited to participate this time.


Our house is a split level, so each level is really only half the length of our house.  The living room and dining room are connected, and the living room has a sliding glass door that goes out to our screened-in porch and backyard. What I love about this level of our house is the light.  There are huge windows that let in so much light.  We rarely use lights in here during the day.  Without further ado, here is our living room:

A little friend decided to sneak into the picture!

From the top of the stairs

I love the red color of this accent wall.  The previous owners painted it, and we've kept it just how it is.  These pictures and sconces were the first new things I bought when we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago.

Loveseat and side table

This bookshelf actually belongs to my sister, but we're housing it for her since her current apartment doesn't have enough space for it.  It's from the furniture store where my mom works, so I think when Amy wants it back, we'll have to get our own!  We just moved a t.v. out of this corner, so we moved the bookshelf down from our spare bedroom.  I really love it in this room!

Wicker chest and coat tree

Going down the stairs to the kitchen and family room level

I love this painting!  My friend Jody and her mom made it for us for our wedding.  It's the view of the river where we went to college.  They used paint, sand, sandpaper, and other materials to make it.  I love that it represents where we met and that it's a unique piece of art!

So, there it is...our living room!  

Thanks for visiting!

Fall is in the air!

It's beginning to look a lot like fall around here!


Next to Christmas, fall is my favorite times of year to decorate the house.  I have a lot of fall decorations, most of which are still in the attic in an orange tote (orange=fall decorations, red= Christmas decorations...yes, I color coordinate my storage containers).  I'm hoping Kurt will get them down for me this weekend so I can continue fall-ifying our house.


Here is a sneak peek at my decorations.  I got some new pumpkin candles (which I won't light) and leaf garland at the Pottery Barn outlet, so they are decorating our family room entertainment center.  I had real pumpkins here last year, but they started to rot and became gross, so I'm hoping the candles work well.  I cut up a coffee filter to put under them, so they don't leave any waxy residue on the furniture.

Ahh, I love fall! 

Friday Fives!

Beth's Friday Fives topic for this week is:

5 things you remember about September 11th

1.  I was student teaching on September 11, 2001.  At the time the planes went into the towers, my students were at music and another teacher called me into her room to show me what was on the t.v.  I couldn't believe my eyes.


2.  I remember going to the Teacher's Lounge to eat lunch and hearing the other teachers talk about "Bin Laden."  I quite honestly thought they were talking about someone named "Ben Laden."  That was the first of many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times I would hear that name in the next nine years.


3.  The school where I student taught was close to a Naval base and many of the students' parents worked on base.  Within 15 minutes of hearing about what was going on in New York and at the Pentagon (which was only about an hour away from our school), so many parents started showing up to pick up their children early.  We weren't allowed (and understandably) to have our t.v.s on, so we got a lot of our information about what was going on from the parents as they stopped at school.  


4.  After school let out, I drove back to my college campus and remember how silent and empty the campus was.  Our campus was always filled with people doing things outside, so it was really odd.  Classes were canceled for the rest of the day, and students were glued to their televisions. 


5.  I mostly remember watching the television broadcasts over and over with my roommates and friends. We had so many emotions as we watched, but mostly sadness for all those who lost their lives.  

9/11...Always remember.

Menu Monday

It's no secret that I am not the cook in our family.  Kurt had done a nice job of taking on that role.  I am, however, a fan of meal planning and grocery shopping. There is something about walking down the aisles of a grocery store that really catches me.  Plus, I know that if Kurt goes to the store, he gets what he likes, instead of what we need for the week.


Each school year, we get into this bad routine of talking about what he are having for dinner while I am on my way home from school.  At that point in the afternoon, I'm usually exhausted and not interested in having that discussion.  This year, we decided that that was not going to happen.  For the past two weeks, we've gotten into menu planning for the week.  On Sundays, we talk about what we are going to have for dinner each week night.  I write down the menu and make a list of what we need to get at the store.  


Here's our menu for the week:


Monday- Crab Feast and Cookout at my parents' house for my sister's b-day


Tuesday- Quesadilla Casserole using the McCormick Recipe Inspirations


Wednesday- Chicken and Veggie kabobs


Thursday- Baked Ziti


Friday- Go out/order in


Have a wonderful Labor Day!  The weather is beautiful here today!

iPhone Love!

When I first went off to college in the fall of 1998, a cell phone was not on the list of things I was bringing with me.  In fact, very few people I knew at school had cell phones.  It was the time of using a calling card to call home.  Parents and their children didn't have the ease of sending a quick "How was your first class?" text like they do now.  Parents could either e-mail, or wait until their children dialed in that 15-numeral calling card number.   Some parents probably waited a really long time for one of those phone calls to happen!

I didn't go anywhere special for the Spring Break of my senior year.  Instead, I headed home and spent time with my family, and with Kurt, who had graduated the year before.  My big accomplishment during that spring break was getting my first cell phone!  I remember feeling so "with it!"  By that time, a lot of my friends had gotten cell phones, so they were beginning to play an important role in communication.  

I remember going to the Verizon Wireless store and picking out a slate blue phone.  It was a flip phone and it treated me very well for a long time.  Every couple of years, when my "New Every Two" was ready, I upgraded to a newer phone, leading me to my most recent phone, the EnV Touch.  I've never had so many problems with a phone.  It drops calls, shuts down randomly, and had iffy internet.  It drove me crazy!

Kurt and I have been talking for a little while about making the switch from Verizon to AT&T.  It just didn't seem doable, since our families both have Verizon.  But, Kurt did a little research and found that in the long run, it will save us a lot of money if we switch.  So, that is what we did!  Kurt has gone down to one cell phone (HALLELUJAH!!  Can you tell I wasn't a fan of his 2-phone lifestyle?!), which his work is paying for, and I made the big move and got one of these puppies:

I'm really enjoying playing some of the game apps I've purchased (Bejeweled, Oregon Trail, Whirly Word), tracking my sleep with with Sleep Cycle app, and having my e-mail and Facebook easily accessible.  I've only dropped one call so far (and of course, it was my mom who thinks we are crazy for switching!), so that's not as bad as I expected. 

All in all, I'm loving my new iPhone!  Any app recommendations out there?