I'm Lovin' It

The title sounds like we went to McDonalds, but really I'm just loving everything. I'm loving this week of "vacation" known as unemployment (aka not being tortured by my administration) . I'm loving the progress on the house. I'm loving the time I've been able to spend with friends and family lately. I'm loving just about everything (except for maybe the frostbite we might get if we stay outside for more than 5 minutes - burr!)

Yesterday I got up when Bryan left for work around 6:15 and exercised at the YMCA. I went home, showered, and met up with my friend Laura & her .... almost aunt-in-law(?), Nancy, a couple of hours later. Nancy is making Laura & Collin a wedding quilt, where guests will write little notes on 6x6in. squares and then she quilts them together and makes these fabulous quilts. Too bad I didn't know about this idea a year and a half ago!! Anyway, Laura wanted some help picking out the 3 fabrics needed, so I tagged along. It's going to look so pretty! We then had lunch & then she dropped me back off at the apartment where I managed to get a little housework done before I had to head off to Nitsch Elementary (wait a second ... I thought I was done there?) to meet up with my D.I. Team! Our competition is on Saturday, Feb. 19. I decided to keep going with my team because we've all worked so hard, and I don't mind going back to Nitsch a few more times to help them finish :) I worked with my team of 4th graders to make our paper mache "planets". It was a MESS. But we got some of it done! We'll (hopefully) finish the planets Thursday afternoon. Then I drove to the middle of downtown Houston (yuck) for this informal dinner to talk about a potential job for next year - yay! It's through a public charter school system called Yes Prep. I've only been out of a job for a few days and I've already got a few things working my way for the next school year so that's a pretty huge relief and encouragement. The dinner wasn't over until almost 9:30 though - good grief. That's our bedtime! And then I had to navigate downtown to get home in the dark ... which didn't go nearly as well as finding the restaurant to begin with. Thankfully Bryan helped me over the phone to get onto a highway. (All the entrance ramps were blocked!!) I made it home and was in bed (finally) around 11pm. Phew! Busy (and long) day.

Today I slept in ... oops ... I was out so late last night that I just turned off my alarm clock. (Pretty cool that I can do that!) Then I met my Mom at the Barnes and Noble at the Woodland's Mall to do some Costa Rica research for the trip we're planning to take in June (whoop!). We got lunch together and did a little shopping. Pottery Barn is such a cool store! I wish I could afford things in it, haha. Even still it was fun to browse and get ideas :)
I did get a very cute pair of shoes from PayLess!

Anyway, the house is far more interesting than how I'm managing to fill my time, so I'll stop rambling about what I've been up to and show you some pictures!

First of all, one of the most FANTASTIC things so far:

On a scale of 1-10, our fireplace rates at a pretty huge 15. It's wonderful and so incredibly pretty. Ahhhh! I wish we were living there NOW and could get a fire going. It's going to be so nice next winter when these crazy cold fronts come in :) Anyway, I hope you're as impressed as we are!!

In other news, ALL of the cabinets are installed - bathroom and kitchen. They also look really nice. And then today they started laying down tile! Right now there isn't any grout; instead, they've laid out the tile with spacers between them until they pour the grout. I'm no professional, but I think everything is looking so good.

Bathroom between the 2 bedrooms (cabinets, but no tile yet):

Master bedroom (with cabinets & tile):

And the kitchen (with cabinets & tile), which looks AMAZING:

And the living room with most of the tile put down:

BEAUTIFUL!!
And to think that I was super worried about the color we had selected. Good thing I couldn't change my mind without paying some ridiculous "I'm indecisive fee." It would have been a shame to miss this. Bryan wants credit for reminding me that it was going to be fine, so here's his credit :)

Also, I saw this today when I went to get some yarn at Hobby Lobby:

I didn't get it, but how cute would that be above the back door?

Working the Color

More paint pictures, but a little different this time!

Pre-Superbowl, Bryan & I swung by the house to see the paint progress, and lo & behold, check it out! All of the trim on the outside is done, including the siding and garage door. Doesn't it look awesome? Much better looking than just plain white!

Here are the colors a little closer up:

I think it looks really nice next to the brick.

Having done a complete inspection of the outside paint job, I noticed something a little interesting. Look at the picture on the left, and then look at the picture on the right:



Notice something a little weird? In the picture on the left the stone wraps around the house for 2 feet on the side. In the right picture, the stone doesn't wrap around. Then, if you look at the house straight on, in the entry way the stone wraps around both sides toward the front door. I asked our builder about it, and sure enough it was a mistake. They're going to go back and fix the left side of the house (which is the picture on the right) to make it wrap around 2 feet like the plans say to. Glad we caught it now!

Then we ventured inside to find our entire house painted! It looks wonderful!! They will need to touch up a few spots where the paint didn't quite cover some areas, but it was easy to see how nice everything looked, especially with the white trim on baseboards and below windows, etc.



Too pretty!!

And the final house update as of now:



The fake "window" above the garage is getting all fixed up too. What's interesting is that the area around the window is actually stucco. We didn't realize we had any stucco on our house until our last building meeting. I'm still not sure what's going to go around the rest of the window on the top & sides. But, anyway, there it is!

I hope y'all aren't getting too tired of updates on the house, because today is my first official day of unemployment, and to keep myself occupied, I have a feeling I'll be at the house (and posting) very regularly :) Posts will probably become a little more frequent, but hopefully not too uninteresting! (We'll have to see about that, haha).

Mostly Paint

We've been really curious about the attic above our bonus room that we've never seen, so when the house was empty of workers on Friday (because of the "snow day"), we took the opportunity to explore & check it out! It's a pretty nice space, but the disappearing ladder is pretty sticky. It'll take a little bit of breaking in.

They've primed all of the shelves throughout the house - closet clothes shelves, linen closet shelves and (as shown below) pantry shelves! I'm pretty sure Bryan and I are going to enlist Paw's help with revamping the pantry :) (After we officially own it of course.)



The WALLS are also painted now! (Well I'm assuming that as quickly as they were going that it's all done by today. We'll have to go back & see for sure.) In some of these pictures you can get an idea of what it looks like because there's still a white patch right next to a newly painted area.





They've also installed the mantle! I guess the stone for the fireplace will come after the tile. I'm not always sure about what order they're going to do things in.



And .... that's pretty much it for now as far as the house goes.

In other news, we've had a fantastic 3 day weekend! Friday you've pretty much already heard about, but yesterday we went to Borders, hung out with Collin, and then went MainStreet to see Jonathan Clay perform. Bryan used to play bass for him back in college, so it was cool for him to see the band and visit. A few other friends were there too which was nice.

Have a stupendous Superbowl Sunday everyone :)

Best Last Day Ever

Yesterday was Friday, Feb. 4 - officially my last day of work at Nitsch Elementary. Well, it was KIND OF my last day of work because Klein ISD actually had a "snow" day - with no snow. Mostly just ice on roads. Can a last day like that even be topped? I doubt it!

The day before (Thursday) was our 100th Day of School Celebration, which was a lot of fun. It was a great way to end my time with some pretty special 5 and 6 year olds. I had them make these cool 100 day bead necklaces, and we made hats and colored, sang songs & did an experiment in the science lab :) Like I said, it was a fun day! At the end of the day I told them what to expect next week. Many of them cried, some looked at me blankly, and a few others looked happy (if you know my kids - wanna guess who?? haha). I was able to give all of them hugs, and say goodbye. I'm really glad I did that, because it was surprisingly bittersweet to drive away that day. (Thankfully our principal took the last few minutes of the day while I was on Kindergarten bus duty to yell at me down the hallway in front of lots of kids ... it helped remind me WHY I was getting out of there!) I did however have my first *pleasant* conversation with my assistant principal that day. I think, despite our trouble this year, she really does wish me the best, and doesn't want me to stop teaching.

I don't want to stop teaching either - especially if I can find a job with older kiddos! We'll see what happens. It is not exactly a good time to be applying for teaching jobs. Klein (and just about every other ISD) is going to be cutting jobs and programs. I'm not really sure what to expect from private schools, so I'll just do my best and we'll see!

But, my main point, was that I had an awesome *last* day of work!
We ran some errands, looked at the house, spent some time with MeMaw & Paw, and then massively (overly?) enjoyed Happy Hour with some friends at Baker's Street Pub last night :)

Enjoy the weekend! I hope everyone that is actually snowed in gets cleared out soon!

Time & Health

Sometimes it's a little challenging to think of this past year in a positive light. However, I've now got some great experience working with small children, and I may even get to use that experience in a different way through some job opportunities I've recently heard about. (We'll just have to see what happens.) However, until I find another position, I'm taking all the extra time I'll have as a huge gift from Heaven, and going to invest it into a few different things. First and foremost, I'm going to devote my mornings to attending all of those classes at the YMCA that I love, but have rarely had enough time after work to attend. And, even better, I can now attend some of their pool-based aerobic classes!! These are only offered in the morning, so I've never been able to attend before, but they're supposed to be even better for you than the other classes because they put absolutely zero pressure on your joints.

I went through their class listings, and picked out all of the classes I'd (a) be able to attend and (b) be willing to attend. I've decided I'll attend at least ONE water class each day, and ideally one non-water class each day. This shouldn't be too hard because I'll have the TIME and ENERGY! I really can't wait. Here are the list of classes that meet both of my criteria:

Monday
Water Works 8:00 – 9:00 (Sue)
Low Impact 1-2 9:10 – 10:10 Rm B (Mikki)
H20 Combo 9:30 – 10:30 (Caroline/Karen
Zumba 11:30-12:20 Rm A (Lynn)

Tuesday
H2O Combo & Stretch 8:00 – 9:00 (Rosie)
Low Impct 1-2 9-15 - 10:10 Rm B (Laury)
Deep H20 Interval 10:15 - 11:15
Spinning 10:15 - 11:10 Rm B (Rosie)
Yoga 11:45 - 1:00 M/B (Janie)

Wednesday
Water Works 8:00 – 9:00 (Marcia/Annamarie)
Muscle Pump 8:00 – 8:55 Rm A (Carla)
Spin & Strength 9:15 – 10:15 Rm B (Debbie)
H20 Combo 9:30 – 10:30 {Marcia)
Yoga Ball 10:20 – 11:20 M/B (Lori)
Zumba 11:30 – 12:20 Rm A (Ashley)

Thursday
Morning Mix 2 8:00 – 8:55 Rm A (Deb)
H20 Combo & Stretch 8:00 – 9:00 (Rosie)
Deep H20 Interval 10:15 – 11:15
Mat Pilates 10:30 – 11:30 M/B (Danna)

Friday
Water Works 8:00 – 9:00 (Sue)
Zumba 9:00 – 9:50 Gym 3 (Ashley)
H20 Combo 9:30 – 10:30 {Sherilyn)
Spinning 10:00 – 11:00 Rm B (Karen)

Saturday
Saturday Special 8:15 – 9:15
Mat Pilates 9:00 – 9:25 Rm A (Shirley/Laury)
Yoga 1 10:45 – 11:40 M/B (Tess/Donna)

Sunday
Spinning 2:00 – 3:00 Rm B
Zumba 2:00 – 2:50 Rm A (Hilda/Ashley)

The reason that I listed more than just 2 classes a day is because I like to change things up. When my schedule gets too predictable I get ansy and bored. This way I can do the classes I really enjoy without falling into too much of a predictable routine. (Unless a class or instructor here or there really works for me - then I may attend that one instead of the others most of the time. We'll see! I'm completely ready though! And I am far more faithful to work out routines when they're put together in a list like this. This won't eliminate just regular cycling and working on the elliptical and with basic weights though.

If anyone wants to join me for some of these classes, please let me know!!!! I love work out buddies!!

Trim it up

It's amazing how just a little bit of trim goes a very long way! (Doors too.) I have to admit, this is the first time I've felt that the men working there REALLY didn't want me there, so I didn't linger. I felt that I was very much in the way. But I couldn't leave without a few photos!! Also, as you look through them, note that the walls are textured!!

Front bedroom:



Hallway from the study to the front & second bedrooms & bathroom + art nitch:



Master bedroom:



The closet in the study (even has its shelf up!):



PLUS(!!!) the stair rail is up!!! It's so pretty! And the trim on the stairs looks very nice. The banister still needs to be stained though.



Voila! It's coming along so nicely. The rest of the week they will finish trim & paint. Next week we get cabinets! And then .... tile! whoo hooo!

Puppy Pal?

Having tried the dog experiment once before, and having horrible allergy problems, Bryan & I have been doing research and thinking about our family pet since we got married about 16 months ago. He knew I REALLY want a family dog, and since he hasn't really had one before, he did too. But what kind could we get that wouldn't make me sick? And would be great with kids a few years down the road? And that we could successfully train?

The answer we finally came up with was a Doodle. Doodles are a mixture of one breed mixed with a poodle. Poodles are VERY low to non-shedding, which is really important for allergy sufferers. We did not particularly want a Poodle, or any of tiny purse-sized dogs that are also better for allergies (like a Yorkie or Maltese), so the Doodle provided us with a great solution. We decided to go with a Goldendoodle - a mixture of a Golden Retriever and a Poodle. They look kind of like this when they're about a year old (depending on their color - either golden or reddish):



But then the question was where do we get a Goldendoodle? I've heard and read such terrible things about puppy mills, where untrained people have their dogs breeding all the time just to sell them, with no regard to the health of the parent dogs or the puppies themselves. I've done a lot of asking around and a lot of research. I found the breeders that come highly recommended by national associations, and paid close attention to what each breeder had to say about health, how they find homes, what happens to the puppy in their first few months of life, etc.
We finally found Safari Doodles. Here's the website if you're interested in how they do things:
http://www.safaridoodles.com/index.html. They've been great about answering questions and helping us make a decision.

We are SO excited!! Unfortunately it's more expensive to go this route, but we won't end up with a huge host of health problems, and we know where they came from (and what they've been through) and we know that they WILL be low shedding, it won't just be a "good guess." Safari also does temperament testing on the dogs to see how natural they are with children, other animals, different situations, dominance issues, etc, so we feel as comfortable as we possibly could as far as bringing home a new member of the family.

Some people may think we're ridiculous for trying to have an animal with allergies. They may think it's silly to pay for a puppy. I don't know what else people may judge us for .... several things, I'm sure. But I'm truly unconcerned about it. We're eagerly awaiting late April/early May when we can bring home our dog! (We did decide to wait until we were completely moved in to our house before bringing them home.)

One thing we found hilarious (maybe we have a weird sense of humor?) was that when we put the deposit down, it was through pay pal!! We did a screen shot of the situation because we thought it was so funny :)



Coming up in April/May, we'll be sure to post pics of the new little one!