Christmas Project!

Since I have two weeks off of work and grad school, that means I have time to continue organizing my house!I have been wanting pull out drawers for our lower kitchen cabinets for awhile but they are pretty expensive. So with Christmas coming up, what better to ask for! 

Before they could be installed, we had to rip out the shelf already in there. The other Sunday, I was sitting on the floor looking at the shelf and trying to figure out how to take it out. I grabbed the cabinet door to help me stand up....and I ripped the cabinet frame off. :( (By the way, that was the 3rd thing I broke that day. I ripped off the toilet paper holder at my friends house, snapped her plastic spatula, and later that night, I through at pillow at (to?) Blake, missed and wiped out everything on his nightstand. Apparently I don't know my own strength.) Luckily for me, my awesome husband was able to fix it for me since the only night we had free to fix it, I was down with a migrane.

Needless to say, our cabinets aren't super sturdy (and I have been VERY careful when standing up) but they did get those shelves in there. After 4 hours of sawing and hammering, I was finally able to get the shelf out! BTW, Blake would have done it but he has been working crazy hours and I was home all day.

After I took the shelf out.

 My parents got us one of the shelves for Christmas and I took it out that night because I wanted to install it before we left for our other Christmases. Of course, it came with no instructions and the wrong top shelf. I found instructions online and was able to put it together. I started to screw it into the cabinet when I discovered that I wasn't as strong as I thought I was and needed a power drill. The next morning, I went and bought one (along with 4 super cool head lamps, Blake is very hard to shop for..).

Once I had the drill charged, I was able to get it installed, no problem! Well, there was one thing. My arms aren't super long so I had trouble reaching the back of the cabinet. Luckily, I was able to stick my leg in the cabinet and then was able to reach the back.:) I decided to use this first set of shelves to organize our Tupperware.

Tupperware before

All in the drawers

Ta da!!! No more searching in the back!

It has been a couple days now and I LOVE it! As soon as we are able, I want to install them in some of our other cabinets. They are expensive but TOTALLY worth it. 
 

Long Time No Blog

So I was sitting at my computer trying to motivate myself to work and be productive on this cloudy Wednesday morning and I just can't do it. So I decided to blog to help me procrastinate. (shhhh don't tell Blake)

It has been a month since I last blogged and as you can tell, there has been a lot going on. Luckily, I feel like I have been doing better about taking time for myself and my work for school has slowed WAY down since I went back to teaching only Math and Science. My course for grad school for the fall is almost done ( 1 and 1/2) assignments to go and my prof is awesome and basically just said to get in all work by 12/6 and it will be fine. I *might* be able to get it all down this break if I can motivate myself. I registered for my next course with is called Professional Development: Strategies for Teachers.The official course description is "principles of organizational management, instructional design, and change in theory in framing professional development programs." I feel that professional development is very important in the teaching profession but unfortunately, many teachers find them boring, useless, and a waste of time. I have been to both good ones and bad ones and hopefully will learn how to conduct interesting training where the teachers can leave without feeling frustrated. A lot of people have asked when I will graduate and I would say in 2 or 3 years but I finally sat down and worked out a time line. My goal will be to graduate in August 2012! This will allow me to only take 1 course during the fall and spring semesters and I will take another 3 next summer (2011) and 2 the summer after (2012). 

Enough about all that. So our weekends have been pretty much jam packed since the middle of October. We went to Fredricksburg over Columbus weekend and we had a great time. We stayed in this awesome bed and breakfast called Hoffman Haus which was wonderful, except for the feral cats that hung out around our room. (Blake is allergic)

 The weather was beautiful and I mainly enjoyed the cheese at the wineries :)

This snake was outside one of the wineries. Yuck!

Sarina and I :)

I turned around and saw this bug and screamed. The people at the other table did not appreciate my screaming :(

Oh Blake. I'm so glad you put up with me and my picture taking :)

The next weekend, we drove to Dallas to meet up with Blake's mom, his sister, and her family. Since we don't get to see them very often because of we live so far from each other, we try to make our time together memorable. We had an awesome weekend together and definitely made some memories.

Well, I'm late to meet Blake for lunch so I will have to come back and add captions to the pictures later....

So much to blog, so little time!!!

I blame my lack of posting on being out of town the past two weekends and work craziness. But first I will again start with the part you will probably skip over but I love. :) My yard work. Since I have been out of town, today was the first chance I had in awhile to work on it and I was able to get the other front flowerbed cleaned up.

This is the before view from the back

Seriously, what is the point of all the rocks except to look ugly and have weeds grow in between them?

Sooo much better!

From the back

Add caption

These are all the rocks that came from that ONE flowerbed!!!

 I haven't decided yet if I want to keep the foxtail ferns. I don't really like them but they might look ok once I plant the other flowers. I can't remember the name of them but the front desk ladies at my school are collecting seeds for me and they are beautiful! 

I can now revel the changes that have been happening at my work. We got a new third grade teacher!!! I have been self contained this year which means I teach all subjects to a class. On top of that, all the third grade classes were at 21 or 22 students which any teacher will tell you is difficult. Luckily, we were able to get another teacher so now we are teaching partners and I will only be teaching math and science to 17 students in each class!! These last few weeks have been super hectic trying to get everything ready for her and the transitition. I have also had to reorganize everything for math and science and not all subjects. Hopefully though, most of the craziness is over and things will start to lighten up.

Now I have to go get ready for an evening of grilling on our friend's new deck. You will have to wait until next time to read about our fun from the last two weekends. :)

Exciting Times!

I'm going to start with what you guys probably find most boring, my gardening, so you will have to read through it to get to the fun stuff. :)

So this Saturday morning, I was able to work for 4 hours thanks to an early Friday night bedtime and cool weather. You really can't see the fruits of my labor however because I planted 55 daffodil bulbs in our front flowerbed!

Hopefully there will be a BUNCH of pretty yellow daffodils in the spring!

And with that, our front flowerbed is pretty much done. Just a reminder of the before...

It was actually worse than this before...

So I started working on my next project.

Before

45 minutes later

I can already tell this one is going to take awhile...

So then I took myself to the backyard which is actually WORSE than the front yard.

My zinnias that are dying.

I actually like these purple flowers that the previous owners planted and there is some pretty ivy with plum purple flowers that are coming through the fence from my neighbor. :)

Lots of weeds and more stringy bushes. Not sure if I'm going to keep them. The bush, not the weeds. Weeds have to go!

I really like this palm but not the weeds all around it. Never let your yard get this bad!!!

More dumb rocks!!!!!

An hour and a half later.... this is the only progress I made...

 

This is the other side

You can't even see where the yard ends and the flowerbed begins :(

There is a reason why I am able to work on my garden so much and that is my beloved audiobooks. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I LOVE to read. Always have, always will. Around my junior year in college I discovered audiobooks at my public library. It was amazing! I hardly ever have time to sit down and read a book but I can always listen to them! I can listen on my way to work, grading papers, and working in the yard! This weekend I was listening to Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger. 

I'm almost done and I have really liked this book. It is about a woman named Brooke whose husband of 5 years is a musician. Suddenly, he hits it big and the book deals with their struggles with his fame. In the book, Brooke has her masters, is a nutrition and loves her job. Julian (her husband) wants her to quit her job and travel with him but her career is important to her. I really identified with this when I think about possibly leaving my job when we have a baby (no I am not pregnant). I love being a teacher and it is a huge part of who I am. It is hard to imagine leaving education but it is also hard to imagine teaching full time in the classroom, putting in the hours I do, and taking care of a small one. Luckily, we have a couple years before I have to decide. :) It also made the stop and think about the gossip magazines that I read every week (and am sadly addicted to) and how hurtful some of those articles can be to the celebrities they are written about. I will definitely think twice when I am reading them and remember that not everything that is printed is true. This book also made me think about some of my friends from high school who are becoming famous. I really hope they are doing well and things go smoother for them than they did for the characters in this book :) Speaking of, shameless plug...

Ben!

Ben and I went to high school together and did shows together. I really haven't talked to him much since then but he is such a hard worker and a sweet guy and I am so excited for him! It has been fun watching him on the show and making the late night rounds.

Kristolyn!

Now I have known Kristolyn since elementary school. We used to sing the Star Spangled Banner together at swim meets. Now she has booked a recurring role on the Bold and the Beautiful and I am singing to my third graders :) We did many shows together in high school and even played sisters in one of them. Yes, sisters :) I am so proud of her and truly am not surprised at her success. I also can't believe I will be DVRing a soap opera tomorrow. :)

Ok, now onto the exciting stuff. So yesterday I found out some good news at work. Sadly, I can't really say anything yet, but I will be able to soon. I will just be able to tease you until then. :) Needless to say, the next few weeks will be crazy, but hopefully things will be MUCH better after that.

Blake, the Kellers, and I were able to visit the Dahmann family last Saturday night!!! So much fun to see them and play with precious Isabelle.

Blake with Isabelle. He held her for about 3 minutes until he got nervous and handed her back to Katherine. :)

Playing with Tia Sarina. LOVE this picture :) She already knows how to find the camera ;)

Getting swaddled.

Tia love!!!

Beautiful Momma and baby!!

The boys hung out outside talking about who knows what. I don't think I want to know.

Seriously, so precious.

More Tia love! This girl is going to be so spoiled!!

:)

 Enough procrastinating. I really have to get to work now :)