Weekend Recap

Well, you've already seen that we started our weekend off by cleaning and decorating. We also went to the library and grocery shopping yesterday. And....that's about all we accomplished. We spent most of the day avoiding the outside world because it's move in weekend at the university and the town is very busy.

Today we went to my brother-in-law's house to hang out/eat with the family. We had lots of yummy food, including homemade carrot cake to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. Unfortunately my camera batteries died so I didn't get any pictures.

Remember the show Freaks and Geeks?

Annie (my sister-in-law) brought her box set of the Freaks and Geeks season so we all watched a few episodes of it. I used to love that show! I still think it's pretty darn funny.

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I know I said I'd post my fall decor today, but I'll do it tomorrow. Promise :o)

Slave Driver

Yup, that's me.  This morning I made my husband clean our kitchen.  Even made him get down on his hands and knees and scrub the floor.  I took a picture to prove it.

Ok, so I didn't make him do it.  Actually I went into the kitchen this morning to start cleaning and he took over for me.  He did the dishes, scrubbed the counters, stove, and the floor.  Since I didn't have to clean, I decided to get my fall decor out.  I'll show some pictures tomorrow.

My Husband Rocks

I walked into our apartment building after school today and smelled fresh baked cookies.  I thought it'd be great if that smell was coming from our apartment.  Well, to my surprise, it was!  My husband was afraid I was going to have a bad day today because of an email I sent out last night, so he had cookies waiting for me when I got home.  And, he made them from scratch - not the slice and bake kind.  What a guy!!

First Day of School

Well, I've made it though the first day of school. I'm still not overly excited about my placement, but I can't really do anything about it. So, I'm going to make the best of this year and in the spring I'll ask if I can be moved back into my old room for the next school year.

Weekend Recap

Yesterday was a beautiful day!  Clear, blue skies and a cool breeze.  Made me even more ready for fall to get here.  

David and I didn't do much yesterday.  We went to the public library and picked up some magazines, books, and a movie.  So, we spent our afternoon reading and watching the movie.  I also baked some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  

We decided to go for a little drive last night and take a few pictures.  We missed the sunset though.  We were in the country by 8:25, but the sun was already down.

We saw a few deer out and I was trying to take pictures but the road we were on was surprisingly busy so I did my best to snap a picture as we drove by.  This one had a baby with her, which you can see standing behind and to the right of her head.

The sky was so pretty last night, so I kept trying to get pictures as we drove down Main Street.  I even sat at a green light trying to get a good picture (no one was behind me, I swear :o) ).

We haven't done much today either. I'm trying to enjoy every last second of my last day of vacation.  We start meetings tomorrow, and the kids start school on Wednesday.  I did blow out some eggs a bit ago.  I have a little project in mind and the old eggs in my fridge were perfect for it.  I'll show it to you in a few weeks.  Yup, I'm going to leave you hangin' on that one.

So, tomorrow I start back at school.  I'll probably be posting late evenings from now on.  I'd like to think that I'd get up early everyday and sit at the computer with a cup of hot chocolate and post, then get ready for school.  But, the reality is that I will lie in bed until the very last second possible, rush to get ready for school, and run out the door.  That's how I roll.

Hope ya all had a good weekend, and have a great start to your week!

My Husband Rocks!

It's Friday!  I'm here to give you reason #2 why My Husband Rocks!
See this pile of notes:
These are the little notes, poems, etc. my husband has written me over the past two days.  Yes, two days.
My husband is a great writer.  I have a box full of all the cards, letters, and notes that he has written me since we started dating.  Sometimes he writes silly things, sometimes it's an intense love letter.  I never know what's in store when I start to open what's been handed to/left for me.
When we were planning our wedding, we decided to each choose a reading to be read to the other during the ceremony.  We kept the readings a secret from each other so they'd have more impact as they were read.  I searched for mine, found it, and sent it off to Annie (my sister-in-law, and my reader).  I assumed that David had done the same and sent his off to Shawna (my  sister-in-law, and his reader).  To my surprise, when Shawna started reading, she read the title, The Marriage, and then said - by David L.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since he loves to write, but I was.
I asked David if I could share it with you, so here it is, the reading he wrote for me for our wedding.
The MarriageIt will be there.
It will be there when everyone stumbles back to their rooms after the dance.
It will be there after all the gifts are opened.
It will be there after the vows are said.
It will be there after the first dance.
It will be there when all the lights go out in the banquet hall.
It will be there after everyone is done laughing and crying.
It will be there for the eternity after.
It will be there with every embrace, every kiss, every "you look so beautiful".
It will be there because it was always there and always meant to be there.
It will be there every day with love and passion sparked anew.
It will be there - the union of souls, the bond of hearts, and the pure love of two.
No matter the time or place - the love, the beauty, the marriage will be there.
Yes, he's cute and a great writer.  :o)
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yay!

My pumpkins were featured on Lemon Annie's blog today, YAY!  I found her blog this past week and am in love with it!  She has so many fun projects and ideas on there.  Head over and check her out!
PS - I'll be back later today for My Husband Rocks!

A couple before and afters

So I'm still sulking (just a little) over the fact that I will be switching schools this year.  I'll be over it soon (hopefully).  I didn't do much yesterday, so I thought I'd show ya a few more things I did over the weekend.

Here is a before picture of the wall behind the door in our bathroom. 

Directly to the left is our shower.  For 2 years this wall was blank, and it never bothered me.  Then a couple weeks ago it started thinking that I really should put something there.  I found some square black mirrors at Goodwill and thought that this blank wall would be the perfect place for them.  Here's what the wall looks like now:

Not overly special, but much better than the blank wall.

I also painted my pumpkins that I found at Goodwill.  Here they are before:

and after:

The paint looks more "coppery" in person.  I should really learn how to use my camera sometime.

Well, that's about it.  Hope everyone has a great day!

I Don't Wanna

This is how I felt today after I got off the phone with my boss.  She called to tell me she had reassigned me to a different elementary school here in town.  I was in the social skills room last year, but she said there won't be enough kids in there this year to require two TAs.  So, five days before inservice starts I find out that not only will I be switching classrooms, I have to go to a whole different school.  I was upset, and I had a small emotional breakdown.  I don't wanna go to a different school.  I like my school, I like my kids.  I just started my job with the school district last year, and now it's like I have to start a new job all over again.  So, I decided to write this in hopes of making things seem better (though I know they aren't all that bad).  I'm working to see the positives and this is what I have come up with:
1. The new school is closer to my apartment, so I can sleep in 5 minutes longer (every minute counts in the morning ya know).
2. At least I will be going to another elementary school and not to the high school.  High school kids scare me.
3. I will be working in a resource room, so maybe it will be a little calmer than the other room.
4. I will get to meet new people.  That's always a positive right?
5. I should just be happy that I have a job because there are a lot of people out there right now looking for work who aren't finding any.
Ok, that's all I can think of right now.  I'm sure tomorrow or Thursday this won't seem so bad, but right now it sucks.  I'm going to miss my kids :o(

Lamp Makeover

This weekend I worked on my Goodwill lamp.  Here's a before picture:

I went to Lowe's to see what kind of deal I could find on a lampshade.  And boy did I find a deal!  I got this shade:

and this finial thing:

all for the grand total of:

one dollar and fifty-eight cents!  I was excited!  I picked up a harp later that day and learned how to unwire (is unwire even a word?) the socket and put the harp on.  Anyway, I spray painted the lamp and finial black.  Once they were dry, I put all the pieces together.  I thought it looked a little blah, so I found a piece of ribbon and tied it around the shade.  Here's the result:

Not the best picture, but you get the idea.

Well, I'm off to enjoy one of my last few days of summer break (sniff, sniff).

My Mistreatment

Last week The Nester announced she would be holding a Mistreatment Party today.  Perfect timing!  I've been wanting to put up a new curtain in our bathroom but kept putting it off.  This got me motivated, so I went to WalMart (the only store in my town that sells fabric) and bought some of these guys and some fabric. 
When I got home, I pulled a chair into the bathroom and got to work.  I put about 50 holes in the wall because I kept playing with the placement.  But, this is what I ended up with:
Not bad for my first try at mistreating.  Here's a close-up of the fabric:
It's coming through on my computer as a pink color but it's really a reddish color with cream accents.  Now I'm off to check out everyone else's mistreatments!

Happy Birthday Tasha!

Weekend Recap

We haven't done much this weekend.  My husband hurt his back last week so he's been resting per doctor's orders.  I went to a few rummage sales on Saturday but didn't find anything.  I came home and painted a few things that I had gotten the week before at rummage sales/Goodwill.  I'll show them this sometime this week.  I also hung a couple shelves this weekend.  Thanks to some comments I received on my Why? post, I found The Nester's thermostat cover ups so I'm working on mine now.  I'm horrible at decorating shelves though, so we'll see what I come up with.

David and I went out to watch the meteor shower last night.  Not sure what happened, but we didn't see anything.  Well we saw this and the stars but nothing else.I'm horrible at taking night pictures, I can't keep my hands still long enough I guess.

Today I worked on my "mistreatments" for the bathroom so I could join in on the Mistreatment Party The Nester is hosting.

Well, I'm off to watch some TV with David. 

My Husband Rocks

This past week I ran across Katy Lin's blog, the great adventure.  As I read through her blog, I saw that she had started "my husband rocks" Fridays.  Every Friday participants are to "write a post proclaiming to the world why your husband (or wife, or husband-to-be, or wife-to-be) ROCKS!" I thought it was a great idea so I decided to join in.

So reason #1 why my husband rocks is because he doesn't mind when the floor of our living room looks like this:

Or like this:

Nope, he never complains.  He actually encourages me to be creative.  And to top it all off, he compliments me on the things I've created/made over.  Yes, my husband rocks!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Why?

Why are men allowed to make decisions such as where to place a thermostat (well, I'm assuming this was a man's doing because I can't see a woman thinking this would be good placement)?  We have 4 of these little beauties in our apartment and two of them really bother me.   Here's the one in the "dining room" which is really more of a nook off our living room.
Was that really the only place that thing could go?  I'm having a hard time deciding how to decorate around it.  I recently took the Live, Laugh, love signs thingies down and would like to put a shelf up, and possibly some plates(?).
The other one that bothers me is here in our bathroom:
Yup, they slapped this one up smack dab in the middle of the wall.  I'm in the process of changing decorations in the bathroom, that's why the wall decor is pretty sparse right now.  I'm having a hard time deciding how to decorate the wall here too because it's really hard to avoid having the thermostat as part of the decoration too.
Anyone have any good ideas?

Look What I Did

Joy at Joys of Home showed this project on Friday.  I thought it was pretty darn cute, so I decided to give it a try too!  Here's what I ended up with:
The picture was taken at a big of an angle so its not quite as off center as it appears.  I think I'll put it in the bottom of our "new" TV stand.
I'll be attending a baby shower next week, so I think I'll make one to give as a gift.  I'm going try an oval next time like Mrs. H did with her project.  I don't know what colors the nursery is done in though and I don't really have a way of finding out either (it's one of my co-workers at the school, she had a girl).  Any ideas on what colors I should use?

A New Home

No, not for David and me, we'll be apartment bound for awhile yet.  At least until we decide where we want to live.  But, our TV got a new home this weekend.  We moved into our apartment exactly two years ago and this was suppose to be our temporary arrangement for the TV:
This did the job, but it wasn't very nice looking.  You can see all the cords hanging down in the back, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't hide them.
I went rummage saling this weekend and ran across this:
I came home and asked Dave if he thought we could find a way to get a TV stand home if I bought it.  He said we could so I went back to the sale and bought it.  We borrowed my brother-in-law's pickup so we could bring it home.  I really wanted to paint it black, but since we don't have lawn space of our own we decided it would be easiest to just spruce it up.  So I painted the inside black, stained the shelves, and fixed up the nicks on the bottom.  I gave it a good scrubbing with some wood soap and Dave made a hole in the back for the cords to go through. Now our TV sits on this:

Not bad for $5, eh?  Now, I just need to find some "pretties" to put in the bottom. I got a few other goodies while I was out too.  
The cutting board was .10 and as I was walking away from the sale I found a dime on the ground.  So, technically it was free!  I'm planning on doing some sort of project with it.  I paid .75 for the tall bucket thing, it still has the original price tag on it for 15.95. The apothecary jar was 25 cents.  I got nine of those square, black mirrors for $4 and the lamp for $1 at Goodwill.  I'll post the items again later when I have them finished.

Today I helped out at my friend Joy's daycare.  Her and her family left today for vacation, so I helped for a few hours today and will go back tomorrow to give a lunch break.  It was fun to work with young children again.  It's been a full year now since I worked at Children's First Step, so it was fun to get to hang out with the little ones.
Here are my Goodwill finds that I mentioned yesterday.
I carried this around with me for awhile before I actually decided to buy it.  I couldn't figure out what I'd do with it, but I couldn't leave it there for $1.

It didn't take me long to decide what to do with it once I got it home.  I made bottoms for each "shelf" by covering cardboard with some fabric that I had on hand.
Now we have a place to put our bread and the fruit that doesn't go in the fridge.
I also bought these:
They still have the store tags on them.  Couldn't pass them up either.  I'll show them again once I get them painted.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Finally...

I finally sat down today to write my share of our wedding thank yous.  It's only been what, 3 months since our wedding?  And "proper" etiquette is to get them out within a month of the wedding you say?  Yeah, so we're a little slow.
So anyway, this is my stack of thank yous that are waiting for postage and then to be sent on their way.  David will be working on his this weekend.
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I went shopping for fruit the other night and peaches were on my list.  These were the peaches they had at HyVee:
The one on the left is the leftover from the last batch I bought about a week ago or so.  It's just a regular ol' peach.  It looks so small next to the new ones.  I didn't realize that peaches grew to softball size.  Yeah, so small things keep me entertained.
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Update on the ugly shelf thing I bought a few weeks ago.  Here is what it looked like when I bought it:

And here is what it looks like after I took out the little pots, spray painted it black, distressed some edges, and added some pictures:
It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but the middle picture sticks out a little further than our individual pictures.

Celebrating

David and I went to Sioux Falls on Saturday to celebrate our 3 years together. We had lunch at Panera Bread then went to the mall where he surprised me with a manicure. A manicure and a pedicure in a one week period? I'm getting a little spoiled here.

We also went to Hobby Lobby because I can't go to Sioux Falls and not go to Hobby Lobby. We picked out a fall themed centerpiece for our table while we were there. It was 50% off, oh how I love that store! We also did a little shopping at World Market.

We visited Annie and Brian while we were in town. We hung out at their place for awhile and then decided to go supper together at TailGators in Brandon. Our food was really good. After supper we went back to Annie and Brian's for a bit then headed back to Brookings.

Anniversary

Yesterday marked year three for David and I as a couple. I made a little sign Wednesday night and hung it where Dave would see it when he walked in from work early Thursday morning.A little cheesy, I know, but I am a little cheesy. That's my new favorite font by the way. I am slightly obsessed with fonts.

We are planning to go to Sioux Falls this Saturday to celebrate so we didn't do much today. I did make a nice supper though. It was SO good! I found a recipe online and I altered a bit to make it more "my style". Definately a little (ok, a lot) heavy on the calories, but it was worth it.

Notice the butter on the little plate? I learned today that cookie scoops make nice little butter balls. Presentation is everything ya know ;o) Anyway, we had Pasta with Chicken Mushroom Cream Sauce and some good, crusty bread to go with it. Here's the recipe if you're interested. I wouldn't make it if you're counting calories though.

Pasta with Chicken Mushroom Cream Sauce
1 package farfalle pasta
1 tablespoon butter
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 1 1/2 breasts)
12 shiitake mushrooms (I couldn't find these in our grocery store so I used about 2 oz. sliced baby portibellos)
1 cup heavy cream (I added 1 cup skim milk to this to make more cream sauce)
salt to taste
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 oz shredded Romano cheese (the recipe didn't orginally call for this, but I think it was a good addition)

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken until no longer pink. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and slice thinly; set aside. Throw mushrooms into the skillet that was used for the chicken and heat slightly. Gradually stir in cream and milk. Cook, stirring constantly for 7 to 10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened (I had to add a small amount of flour to get it to thicken). Stir in Romano cheese. Add chicken back into skillet and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Toss with pasta until evenly coated.

Do you still celebrate your dating anniversary?

Do you make cheesy signs?