life all around

The real reason we need to clean out the sweatshop.

2012-02-10T07:58:00.000-06:00

Though we still haven't started cleaning that puppy out...

That poor little sweatshop.

2012-02-07T12:02:00.000-06:00

So, when I was pregnant before, N and I started clearing out the sweatshop, moving the bed into the office, so the sweatshop could be transformed into a nursery. Fast forward a few months, post-miscarriage, and that poor little sweatshop doesn't look like this anymore.

It looks more like this:

Though not that bad, I swear. I just can't take a picture because I'm hanging out in the Ramsey County courthouse serving on jury duty. Which is mostly a way of saying "sit in a room full of strangers and wait a lot". So you get that old picture.

So, inspired by Sherri's "get that shizz done" (or something like that) challenge to herself at Young House Love, I'm going to try to clean out the sweatshop. One thing at a time. There are several big items in there (broken bookshelves, a broken desk, etc) that need to be dealt with, so my goal is going to be to deal with one thing a day. Maybe it's just getting the empty dog food bags out, or dealing with the broken bookshelf, but one thing a day until that room is cleaned out and ready for whatever we decide to do with it.

A bit of a touchy subject

2012-01-27T20:34:00.000-06:00

I took a long break from blogging this fall. I have an excellent reason for it. I fell into a depression. Why? Because I had a miscarriage.

I was never planning on saying anything about my miscarriage, for me, it was very personal and I wanted to keep it to myself.

But miscarriage is a funny thing. No one knows what to say to a woman who has had a miscarriage. "I'm sorry for your loss" is always acceptable. "At least you know you can get pregnant" is not. I could go on and on for hours about what was said, not said, what hurt and what didn't hurt.

People don't know what to say because as a rule, awareness about miscarriage (and related, infertility) is incredibly low, because people don't talk about it.

But we need to talk about it. We don't need to go into details, (I don't anyway) but people need to know that miscarriages hurt.

It is estimated that 10-25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.

That's a big percentage that is generally ignored.

And if we don't talk about it, we can't get upset that others don't talk about it.

Facts from American Pregnancy

Recipe: make-your own taco seasoning

2012-01-17T15:32:00.002-06:00

1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tespoon pepper

sprinkle over browned ground turkey, (or beef) pour 3/4 water over it and simmer, ensuring all the turkey is covered with seasoning.

Bringing it down

2012-01-14T13:57:00.000-06:00

I have not posted much lately. I randomly posted a recipe last week because I needed to share the recipe with some people and a blog link was the easiest way to do so.

In October, I went into a fairly substantial depression. I had a good reason for it, but when November came around, the last thing on my mind was writing blog posts. I'm not really sure how I made so many posts in October to tell you the truth.

When December showed up, I started to recover. It became a little easier to get up off the couch and re-join life. Work got easier. My puppy got a little better trained and behaved.

N was, and is, fantastic. He propped me up, dragged me out, supported me in every decision I made. He never once complained about my inability to help out around the house, or even the fact that I came home from school everyday and ensconced myself on the couch.

I'm doing better now. Life is looking up, and I'm considering turning the heat up in my house so my fingers don't fall off from the cold. And maybe starting a nice fire to counteract the snow falling outside.

I'm ensconced on the couch today as well, though it's because N gave me a nasty cold.

Bottom line? I'm going to try to re-commit to my blog here. Once a week.

Recipe: Pulled Pork

2012-01-08T10:30:00.000-06:00

Pulled Pork

3-4 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika

Combine and rub into pork. (If you're picky about your meat, trim as much fat off as you can before cooking. Much easier than trying to do it later.) Place meat in slow cooker along with the following:

1 sliced bell pepper
1 sliced medium onion
18oz jar BBQ sauce (I recommend Jim Daddy's BBQ Sauce)
1/4 - ½ cup brown sugar (depending on the spicy vs. sweet you prefer)

Cook 10 hours on low. Should fall apart.

Whoops!

2011-11-29T16:28:00.001-06:00

More than a month since a post! I suck!

Not really, my job has been crazy hectic, which is dumb, since this year I'm part-time. Some crap has happened in our personal lives lately that has really made blogging a low, low priority.

So, in the interest of appeasing Bill, who sometimes asks for gratuitous dog pictures. Here.

And, because we have no kids, our dogs have their own blog: YoshiMoMcSnuggles.

Tumblr is easier to upload to from the phone :)

In less than 3 hours.

2011-10-24T07:46:00.000-05:00

What kind of awesome, pride-inducing DIY project can you undertake and finish in less than 3 hours?

A very pretty, very organized coat closet.

In the interest of full disclosure, it's not completely finished. I still need to decide what is going to be stored on the top shelf, and what is going to live in the drawers on the bottom, but the labor part is done. It took less than one episode of Brothers and Sisters to finish the painting, another episode to paint the shelves and the supports painted. It did take a couple of episodes for everything to dry, but I don't count that since I wasn't working, I was just laying around, chilling.

A refresher of what I started with:

I emptied the closet out and was left with a clean, empty space:

Then I slapped on a coat of bright, bright, bright green. This paint was free from Glidden's promotion earlier this year, originally intended for the master bedroom, but I went (or will go) another direction in there, so it was available for the painting. I posted a quick poll about color choices and went with the winning choice.

While that was drying, I laid out my 1X12 boards I'd had cut at Home Depot the day before, as well as the original shelf and hanging bar that was in the closet. A quick coat of paint later, I had a passel of white shelves and supports drying on my office floor.

Once they were dry, I put the original shelf back in place. I grabbed my BFF, the drill, and my trusty level and put the first shelf up.

Made sure it was level.

Yay! It's level! I put the rest of the shelves in. They're spaced 10 inches apart, except for the upper two shelves, which I spaced at 16 inches, to allow for some larger long-term storage.

See, they're farther apart. And pretty.

You may be wondering why we left the hanging bar in with all the shelving. Well, since this isn't our forever house, we wanted to leave this as a potential clothes closet so we can keep up the 4 bedroom label, even though we use this room as an office. It doesn't get in the way of anything, and was already there, so it's no skin off our nose.

I found a set of wire drawers at IKEA, on my way out the door, and I instantly knew they'd be perfect for the bottom of this closet. Because of the panel on the bottom right allowing access to the bathroom plumbing, I couldn't put shelves up on this part. Since they were a whopping $14, I picked them up. I put them together, and set them into place.

This is where I noticed that the first shelf, right above the drawers, looked a little off. Because I'd spaced the upper shelves out more, I had a spare shelf and set of supports. I put them up, and noticed it made all the difference.

It also made it big enough for some storage baskets I already had on hand, and they look lovely as well.

The end result? Awesomeness.

The top shelf is for sheets, I've long stored them by size, putting the folded sheets inside one of the pillowcases, a tip I read in BHG years ago. It's the only thing that makes sense. The brightly colored towels are the ones for our lower guestroom and bathroom, and the muted, earthy colored towels are the ones for our main bathroom. Easy sorting, and easy organization.

I still have some things to put in here, but in the interest of not filling the closet up immediately, I'm taking it slow and making sure I find the perfect home for everything.

What do you think? Too bright? Just right? Whatever your opinion, tell me!

I love long weekends.

2011-10-20T09:29:00.001-05:00

If you live in Minnesota, if you grew up here, there's a special weekend in October that every child looks forward too. It's called MEA*.

The only people who look forward to it more than the children, are the teachers.

MEA is our professional conference weekend. The union hosts a professional conference downtown St. Paul and we get two days off of school to attend.

However, it is completely voluntary, and I've never gone. I think about it every year, but I never go. This year is no exception. Maybe next year. (Hey, Heather, let's go to the conference to get free stuff next year).

My plans for this long weekend are better, I think. Tomorrow we head to Rochester for an annual Rock Band Road Trip. But today, I'm getting started on my newest project.

The new linen closet.

Wait, we don't have a linen closet. You're right, we don't. But we do have a bedroom that doubles as an office, and we don't have a need for the hanging in there, so I'm turning it into a linen closet. As seen here, I am planning to paint the inside, and load it up with bright white shelves.

I've decided to go with the green paint, because I have 3 quarts of it, that I got free from Glidden's promotion a while back (my mother and BFF also sent me quarts, originally, it was going to be the bedroom wall color, but we've got other plans now). Also, because I think it's a nice, bright color to put in a small space.

So that is my plan for today. To get the closet cleaned out, and potentially get a coat of paint down. (Depending on availability of paint brushes, I don't know if we have any, we tossed a bunch awhile back).

Here's what I'm starting with:

Yoshi was thrilled when I opened the closet, as it's where we keep the puppy food, and he jumped right in. Please, please don't judge the state of the shelves on the right, we have big plans for this room, and those shelves, but they've become a bit of a dumping ground lately.

And yes, there are two wedding dresses hanging in that closet, I should really get around to donating or selling those babies. I won't even go into why I have two. I also have actually no idea what is in the boxes on the upper shelf, though I know we don't even have the computer that came in that Dell box anymore. . .

This project is full of challenges, a small space, and two dogs who will be very interested in what Mama is doing hanging out in a closet...

*It's no longer called MEA, it's "Education Minnesota", but no one calls it that. Just like we still call it "Dayton's".

Score.

2011-10-20T07:32:00.000-05:00

For the past, oh, several months? I have been on the hunt for nightstands for our master bedroom. I knew the basics of what I wanted. A drawer, or two small drawers on the top half, and an open bottom that I could stick a decorative basket or bin in.

A long time ago, I found the bins. I also found the night stands.

At Target, for $90.

I refuse to spend $90 on Target nightstands.

We have been stalking them, hoping they'd go on clearance, as they're housed in an area of Target that frequently turns over the decorative items and candles. (You know what I'm talking about.) No such luck. We most recently checked on Saturday night.

Sunday morning, we stopped by another target to see if they had something we needed. They didn't. But, as long as we were there we thought we'd check to see if our tables had hit in the Saturday night price change.

They had. Sort of. We found one table marked down to $50.99. But, the kicker is that the sticker was labeled as regular $59.99, which wasn't what we'd experienced before. We carted it over to the price checker and voila! It scanned at that price as well. So, we snagged it and feeling high on our victory, we headed to another Target where we found a second table.

Back at regular $89.99 price. We bought it. Since we saved so much on the first one, we felt a little better about buying the second at regular price. Target's mishap was our gain and now we have two of these puppies helping our master bedroom on it's march to beauty.

Please excuse the craptastic phone photo.The bins are now in place and they look fantastic.

Hypothetically speaking...

2011-10-17T15:30:00.000-05:00

What if you were, hypothetically, going to paint the inside of a small closet you were turning into a linen closet? What color would you choose? What if, you wanted to save money, and paint using paint you already have on hand? Say... these ones...

Glidden's Rich Navy

Glidden's Lemon Ice

Glidden's New Grass Green

Behr's Newport Blue (this is the least true-to-color sample ever)

Which color would you choose?

This is, of course, purely hypothetical. I mean, I'm not going to paint a closet or anything. And certainly not put up a bunch of white shelves to pop off the color or anything.

I wouldn't do that. Would I?

Tradition! Tradition.

2011-10-06T07:48:00.002-05:00

image source

I actually hate the musical "Fiddler on the Roof". I can't explain it, but ugh. It gives me twitches. But, the title of that particular song fits this post perfectly.

I was browsing on pinterest the other day and came upon a popular post for "comeback sauce". That isn't really relevant, but I clicked through to this blog, Syrup and Biscuits. I decided to browse her other recipes.

Her most recent post is this one, on tradition and Sunday dinners. Her description of her dream Sunday reached out and made me a little nostalgic. Although, coming from a teeny family (just me and mom) Sunday dinners weren't really something we looked forward to and celebrated. Though N, my mom and I have made an effort to create this tradition in our family, we're small, and our extended family is uninterested.

Coming from a small (but tight, I talk to my mom every single day pretty much) family, doesn't mean this doesn't appeal to me. I watch shows like Parenthood and Brothers and Sisters and movies like Dan in Real Life and I want that. I want a bigger family that is close, a family that spends time together and does old fashioned things like plays charades and card games on rainy days. I guess I'm old fashioned that way.

The only tradition we really have is Christmas day pizza. It all started several years when my parents first got married. We typically spent Christmas Eve with my mother's family and Christmas day was with my step-dad's family. Christmas morning we'd head to Alice's (Grandma), have brunch and open gifts. After the gifts were opened and everyone was sufficiently stuffed, my parents, myself and my step-sisters (and later N and sister #1's husband) would head back to my parents house, open presents and maybe watch a movie, if someone had received one as a gift. We'd always get hungry. Because we went elsewhere for breakfast, we never thought about dinner. So K (sister 1) and I would head to the nearest open gas station and pick up frozen pizzas. We had frozen pizzas for several years. It has evolved into us building our own pizzas on Christmas Day, which I love. (I never liked ham anyway)

What traditions do you have, or wish for? Am I alone in wanting the familial connections like Sunday dinner?

Recipe 9 of 12: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

2011-10-04T07:40:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I was sitting home alone, don't remember where N was, and I was hit with an insatiable craving for anything pumpkin. It was when the weather first started to cool down, and with that, always comes pumpkiny things in our house.

So I did some googling and came up with this recipe for pumpkin cream cheese muffins. I prety much followed the recipe and they were great. (I did leave out the pecans) I love the crumbly topping on top.

Incidentally, I was "chatting" with a friend and she had never heard of muffins with cream cheese in the middle of the muffins! I was shocked, as this friend is a pretty good cook/baker in her own right!

The verdict? Good recipe, we'll use it again.

Long, long awaited room reveal.

2011-10-01T14:24:00.002-05:00

Waaaaay back in the day, N and I started working on what we referred to as the sweatshop. I got a desk, a chair, a mirror and a dresser. I built a bed. (which I now realize I never posted about) my mother provided a free dresser. I printed art from Oohmoon.com for free and framed it in cheap Target frames. The cradle my Uncle Johnny made me as a little girl was in there, along with a hand-crocheted afghan from N's grandma. It was all coming together, we had everything we needed.

And then it sat there. Seriously, this room has been done for AGES, all I needed to do was photograph it. But things kept coming up, I kept putting it off. So today, in a fit of nesting, I cleaned it up and took me some photos.

My favorite thing about this room is how bright and airy it is. The curtains are from Target and Walmart, the nightstand is one my mother gave me that I painted with on-hand white paint. (Leftover from the bed building).

As I was taking shots, Yoshi popped in to do some modeling. My great-uncle made that cradle for me as a baby. I was the first granddaughter amongst a host of boys, who all got rocking horses. I love that cradle. (I also have a rocking horse that will go in here when I get it from my mom, it was my step-dad's.)

The desk is from Walmart, posted about in the above-linked posts. The lamp is a lay-around we had from when we first moved in.

I love this mirror, oh so very much. It was definitely a splurge, but it's something that can go in almost any room in the house, should we need to move it out of here for any reason. (If we were to someday have children, for instance). BFF gave me that fantastic bowl for my birthday (or Christmas?) and it rests perfectly on the dresser.

There is one thing missing in this room, did you spot it? Yes? No? A rug. I do actually have a rug for this room, a nice, big, plush, white shag rug from IKEA. I bought it, layed it down, loved it, and then we fostered a dog. A dog with anxiety issues. A dog who really, really liked to pee on the pristine, white, rug. So the white rug is in the garage, someday I will evaluate the ability to clean it, but for now, the lovely hardwood floors offer a nice contrast to the white furniture. I'll put a rug in there, should we have guests to keep their toeses warm, I promise.

Book Nook: Washington: A legacy of leadership

2011-09-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

Last spring, a friend told me about a website called Booksneeze. This website gives you free books or ebooks in exchange for a blog review and a post on a major retailer's website. I leapt at the chance, because hey, I love books and I love free.

My first book was Washington, A Legacy of Leadership by Paul Vickery and Stephen Mansfield. I selected this book, because after a visit to Mount Vernon a couple years ago, I had been wanting to learn more about George Washington, who was, by nearly all accounts a fascinating, kind man. I was looking forward to learning more about him, hoping for some anecdotes about who Washington was as a person. The book, however is mostly about how Washington was as a general. Which I should have realized from the subtitle of "A legacy of leadership."

I dug into the book, read a few pages, and then promptly abandoned it. A few weeks ago I picked it up again, determined to finish it so I could get another book. I had originally abandoned it, because I found it very dry and difficult to get into. However, once I did get into it, I found it a great read, with some great information. While I didn't get my hoped for personal anecdotes, which I know exist, having heard several at Mount Vernon in person, there is a wealth of information that is both interesting and revealing about the kind of man Washington was and the impact he had on our early nation. I wished also for a little more voice in the writing. I like biographies and non-fiction, though it isn't my usual choice to pick them up, if I find the topic of discussion interesting, I'll pick it up, but they must have a great voice for me to stay interested. This area is the second area I found the book lacking.

What is my recommendation? Read the book if you find Washington interesting, and want to learn more about his military career and what made him a great leader. If you are interested in what made him a great man, you won't find those details here, though that doesn't diminish the value of the information found.

*disclaimer, I received a free e-copy of this book to review for www.booksneeze.com

Lists. Glorious lists.

2011-09-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

I love me some lists.

I have dozens of lists. Some on my phone (Love the app "Out of Milk" great list app), some in my head, some on paper, some discussed with N and some just pulled out catalogs (am I the only one who takes long, hot baths with their IKEA catalog?).

What I'm not great at is finishing lists. I'm FANTASTIC at making lists. My new goal? Gather all my lists into one place and streamline them. Make a great list, that I will actually do. Think I can do it? I have no idea. I'm going to start by deciding how to organize my lists.

I have a bizarre fascination and love of composition notebooks. There's just something about them that makes me feel so much better than a regular old notebook. So I think I'm going to use one of those.

But first? I'll have to make it pretty, of course!

Are you ready

2011-09-11T15:30:00.000-05:00

for some football?

I'm not, I never am. But as N and I sit on our comfy couch this fall Sunday afternoon, I find myself watching a football game, and kind of enjoying it. (Vikings/Chargers, FYI). I will never be a Vikings fan, never ever ever, but I do actually kind of like the idea of football as a pastime.

I've said this before, I know. But now, being cable free, I don't have a lot of other options for television on Sundays, so maybe this will be the year? We'll see.

Now, back to my debate with Bill on Cobie Caillait's National Anthem.

Change of plans

2011-07-20T08:11:00.001-05:00

A long time ago, ~~in a land far, far away~~ in the basement, I created a craft room for myself out of a storage area. I then promptly abandoned it, as it was cold, dank, unwelcoming and dark. No windows meant no natural light.

So, I recently decided to move my craft room. From the basement to the attic. Our master bedroom is in the attic, and there is a small space outside our bedroom that was crying for some attention. So BFF and I painted it. (notice that it's always BFF and I painting, never N) before I get into too many details, here's what it looked like before:

I do not recommend painting stairwell walls, ever. This was traumatic, to say the least.

We pulled everything out and got ready to paint before we remembered before pictures. Yoshi is telling BFF whatfor here.

I hate that stupid greige color so very much.

We went with a bright yellow-green in the upper area, since it's such a small space I wanted color, but not too dark. So we went with yellow-green. I originally painted a coat of white on the stairwell walls, but that was way too "off" and so I went the other direction and painted a bright navy. Since this room connects to the master bedroom, I wanted the colors to flow and coordinate and there will be a lot of blue and green in the master when it gets done.

All of the furniture we already owned, from when we created the original craft room downstairs, which makes this space a "cheap date" as it only cost the cost of paint.

It's very difficult to take pictures of this space as it's small and there is only one window letting in natural light.

You put a desk or table somewhere, and Kirbster's gonna lay under it. If she had opposable thumbs, she'd spend all her time building forts.

Yoshi we adopted straight off the transport from the south, so he loves it up here, where it's hot because of the vaulted ceiling. Oh! That was another expense, the curtains, $18.99 at Target for two panels, it breaks up the color just enough, in my opinion.

The stairwell got a couple coats of the navy, and I spray painted all of our black gallery frames white so they'd pop off the wall nicely. We have some more to add here, but I plan on adding photos as we add events to our life, I didn't just want to put pictures up for the sake of putting pictures up. Yoshi is wondering what on earth I'm doing.

Just another shot of the pictures. You can see that I did leave a COUPLE empty frames, but for the most part, we'll add frames as we go.

So there you have it. Yet another space we've gotten done. I feel like we're cranking through our house and soon we won't have anything to show! Except a fantastic finished project, I hope. And we still have to tackle the outside I guess.

If you're visiting...

2011-07-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

...from 26 to life, the full living room post can be found here!

Here, have a cup of tea while you look around.

A to-do list for the week.

2011-07-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

This is the first summer I have spent at home, not teaching summer school, not working a retail job, nothin. Nada.

Over the past two weeks I've noticed that it's very, very easy for me to just sit on the couch with my laptop and nook and just veg. All.day.long.

This, while the dogs are big fans, does not bode well for the cleanliness of my house. So I've taken to using my whiteboard center to give myself a to-do list for the week, otherwise, I slack, hardcore.

It still makes me very happy to look at this picture.

I find that having a list at the beginning of the week makes it slightly more likely that I will actually accomplish something during the week. You know, aside from applying for jobs daily.

Anyone else have the summer off? How do you keep yourself motivated to do something other than watch Buffy marathons all day? (that may just be me) Even if you don't have summers off, how do you keep yourself working?

This isn't foolproof. Here I am blogging, instead of cleaning up the guest rooms...

Out and About at the Bad Waitress

2011-07-07T08:20:00.000-05:00

Back in the day, when I first started this blog, I wanted to do some touristy things and really pump up my city. I love living in Minnesota (lack of government and Michelle Bachman not withstanding) and I've never really explored all that this area has to offer.

Last week, on Friday, I met a friend at The Bad Waitress for breakfast. The Bad Waitress is a quirky diner that serves up some pretty tasty food.

image from Blue Funnies on Flickr

The decor is a fairly vintage look, and each table is labeled with a superhero or monster. You take a look at the menu, decide on what you want to order, write it down on their handy ordering pads, write down what superhero you're sitting at and bring it up to the counter to order. They bring the food out to you when it's ready.

And it's good food. I ordered sausage links and a pumpkin pancake. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to taste the pumpkin in the pancake, but no worries, it was delicious. I barely ate half of it though, those babies are monsters.

Apart from the food being great, I had a lovely time with my friend, someone I always enjoy chatting with, and part of that was the nice atmosphere, and no-rush feeling we had at the Bad Waitress.

Have you been to the Bad Waitress? Did you like it as much as I did?

The shiny, pretty living room

2011-07-05T08:00:00.008-05:00

Because of the great computer disaster of 2011, I can't find any of my before pictures from the living room, but here's a few pictures I'd uploaded to the blog ages ago.

Ember the foster dog on the green chair, this gives you a shot of the curtains that were in the living room.

Ember and Kirbs on the red couch, man I loved that couch.

Ooo, look what I found! Decent before pictures!

A glimpse of that oh-so-hated wall color. Other people love it, but I HATE it. There are only two spaces left in the house with that color still on them. I may be able to live with those spaces, it's a small hallway and the stairs to the basement. We'll just have to see.

A glimpse of the "dining room". My one requirement in a house when we were shopping was a dining space. I lost that battle, but I guarantee my next house will have one.

And now, for the big reveal. Some of these pictures are lightened a lot, because I really wanted to photograph without the flash for truer color.

I absolutely, absolutely adore the color in here. The room always seemed kind of small and dark with the old color and furniture. Now it's bright, and it's actually nice to spend time in here. (It's where I'm sitting as I type this.)

This is probably my favorite picture, I just LOVE how the yellow table adds a bit of cottagey-ness to the room, and with the raised sides, stuff on the table is protected from the Kirbster-tail-of-doom. The new lamps are a heavy plastic, because that doom-tail has killed several breakable lamps in it's day, so we went with the less glamorous plastic route.

This is the majorly lightened photo I was talking about, but it's a pretty good shot of the bench and curtains. I love the curtains in here as well, (are you sensing a theme?) the sheers offer a lot of light along with privacy, and I don't think they look as grannyish as I thought they would.

A fantastic view of the fireplace. Before buying this house I always hated painted brick, but this was painted when we moved in, and I admit, I kind of dig it. The brick in the basement was also painted when we moved in, and we even painted that a bolder color. Who'd have thunk it?

This is the closest I'm ever going to get to a dining room in this house. Luckily, there are only two of us, but I love having friends over for dinner, so my next house WILL HAVE A DINING AREA. (Hear that, honey? I'm not giving in this time) It doesn't have to be formal, just specific.

So what do you think? I confess, I can't quite communicate how much I love this room now. I just LOVE it. Love.

Sorry. Did I mention that I love it?

Book Nook: Room by Emma Donoghue

2011-07-02T07:49:00.008-05:00

N and I were fortunate enough to spend a week in Los Cabos, Mexico recently. While there, I was able to get a LOT of reading done.

Now, I'm not going to lie to you, since I was on vacation, I spent a lot of that reading time reading cheesy chick-lit and romance novels. I pretty much read nothing but young adult literature during the school year, since I like to be up to date on what my students are reading, and be able to make recommendations to them. So during the summer, I read grown up books. I had bought the ebook version of "Room" awhile ago, but hadn't yet been able to read it. On vacation, I still didn't get to it until we got slammed with an unexpected layover in Houston on the way back. (Don't get me started on the customs agents at the Houston airport. Stupid Texas.)

So I opened up Room and started reading. If you don't know the premise of the book, it's the story of a mother and child who are being held captive by a man and their brave attempts to survive.

At first, I was completely sucked in. It's an incredibly interesting concept, especially telling it from the child's point of view. The entire book is told by Jack, a five-year-old boy who has never seen the "outside" he has lived his entire life inside of Room. He has never felt the wind, or seen grass, or anything we take for granted every day.

It's an interesting story, but about halfway through, I started to lose interest. And at the end? I was completely disappointed. The thing with telling the story through the eyes of this particular five-year-old is that he is emotionally stunted. He loves Ma, but that's all he knows. This ends up with there being absolutely no depth to the story after certain events happen.

Would I recommend it? I don't know. I think the concept itself allows for it being worth the time to read. I just wish there had been... more.

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Classroom photos

2011-07-01T08:00:00.006-05:00

I had two classrooms this year, one wasn't actually mine, as I was subbing long-term and the teacher was returning. The second was another long-term subbing position, but the teacher wasn't returning, so I got to do with it what I wanted.

I love teaching, and teaching reading is the loveliest thing I've ever been able to do. I'm good at it, and my students like me and reading when I'm done with them.

One of the things I love about having my own classroom is the freedom to make it mine. I think hard about what I'm putting up on the walls and how I'm arranging things.

Here's what my room looked like this past year from all four corners.

I particularly loved this bulletin board, it's all local authors, and I know that several students read at least two of these books because of the space they got here on the board.

I was really fortunate to have this job this past year, and I had a fantastic, huge classroom. I also had some pretty stellar students.

Perhaps not the most interesting post ever, but important for me to document nonetheless. :)

Oops.

2011-06-30T11:10:00.000-05:00

I have some serious catching up to do. I wanted to have an average of one post per week, and then... my computer crashed. It got a terrible virus and I had to reformat it in order to use the computer at all. In the process, I lost everything on my computer that hadn't been previously backed up to our external hard drive. Including some recent pictures I'd taken of things we'd finished around the house.

After the reformat, the computer worked. Mostly. The mousepad (it was a laptop) worked when it wanted to only and the scrolly part wouldn't work at all. The battery was dead and remains dead as it stopped recognizing the AC adapter. One of the two USB ports quit working and it wouldn't run an external mouse.

So last night, after a fun dinner date with some girlfriends, I headed to the Apple store. Yep, after using a Macbook all school year this year, I decided I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on another PC laptop that was going to die in less than three years. So I headed to the Apple store where a friend's husband was working and got myself a new Macbook Pro.

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I love it. and now, hopefully I can get back on the blogging train, without any excuses. I have no job, and a brand-new computer, so I should be able to to what I need to do.

And now, I'm off to play with my new machine.

*If anyone is interested, Apple is running their back to school promotion already. I got a free wireless printer/copier/scanner, as well as a $100 gift card to the appstore so I could buy Keynote and things. (In addition to my educators discount which saved me $100 on the machine, as well as a discount on the apple care)