House pictures... finally!

I've been a little lazy with getting house pictures posted. But here they are!

I'm glad to be home and it's fun having so much new stuff. Seriously, that whole flood episode seemed like my world had ended. Seeing so much damage all at one time made it feel impossible to fix. It's hard to explain but going through the process taught me a lot. I came out of it having gained a lot... and not just in home upgrades either.
Although I joked around way too much about being my age and living with my parents, I was grateful for the chance to get a glimpse into their lives. Including my mission, it's been 14 years since I've lived at home, so you can assume it was a slight shock to my system. All in all though, it was a little entertaining.

Well, enough rambling. Here are some pictures...
(keep in mind that all of the flooring is new too!)

The upstairs t.v. room

My bedroom

The laundry room - keep an eye on those $#&@ washing machines hoses!

The front living room

The kitchen
New floor, new cupboards, and all new appliances

Downstairs
This is the room I had finished off into and office.

Larger downstairs bedroom with walk-in closet.

Another downstairs bedroom... formerly mint green.

Downstairs bathroom. Thanks Tank for jumping into the picture.

Downstairs hallway

My ceiling fan "project". To save a little money, I refurbished the one that was already there with new class and better blades. Am I thrifty, or what?

Downstairs family room

Let's hope it's a L O N G time before I post anymore house pictures again!!

It's good to be loved...

This totally made my day!

I was in front of my class teaching this morning, and one of the boys in my class kept raising his hand. I purposely ignored him right then (responding to one child at the wrong time leads to MANY strange comments that get us off track) and went on with my lesson. He would put his hand down for a minute and raise it again. He did this several times. When I finally got to a good spot in my lesson, I said "Zack, what do you need?"

His response was in front of everyone was...

"Miss Chidester, I just wanted you to know that I really really love you!"

With that, he turned an incredibly bright shade of red and put his head down on his desk.

Baby birds...

This is the wonderful time of the school year when we inherit a classroom full of students and have virtually no clue about them academically. As teachers, we're busy assessing kids with reading. We do a test several times a year known as the DRA (damn reading assessment by my definition). It allows us to figure out a students reading level, fluency, words per minutes, etc.

One of the parts of the DRA is to have the kids do a "picture walk". This is where they are able to look at the book before reading it. Part of the test is for them to tell me what they see going on in the pictures. Here is a little snippet of a picture walk I did yesterday...

Me: "This book is called Baby Birds. It's all about robins. I want you to look at the pictures and tell me what is happening in the story."

Student: "Well... this is a picture of birds hatching out of their eggs."

Me: "Good. What happens next?"

Student: "This is where the baby birds get bigger and their eyes are really big."

Me: "Okay. Keep going."

Student: "This is where the mommy bird is feeding the baby birds some worms."

Me: "Good."

Student: "This is where the mommy bird is yelling at the daddy bird. My mom yells at my dad all of the time."

Then she casually turned the page and kept on going with her picture walk.

Hilarious!

Weird children...

For your entertainment, here is another bunch of a few of the lovely comments that my students bombarded me with this past week. Now remember... I don't ask them anything. They just come up to me and randomly tell me these and then walk away. Yep. Walk away!

"We were looking at a Calvin and Hobbes book at home and I found a little dirty humor."

"I don’t know much about baby birds but I do know about platypuses."

"It takes a couple of days for me to refresh my memory."

"When I was rollerskating yesterday, I jumped down and hurt my penis real real bad."

"Scarecrows are mean. One time a scarecrow attacked me!"

"I have some snot stuck in my throat."

"I love Star Wars! I am a finicky fan."

Coming soon...

House photos will be posted soon!

I took Friday off work to move in. The moving company moved all of the furniture back in and plopped boxes throughout the house. 

Saturday I woke up with the 24 hour stomach flu. Therefore, NOTHING got accomplished.

Sunday I felt better and finished unpacking boxes and putting all of my nick-nak crap back where it belonged. I was finished in time for "Pancake Sunday" (a weekly outing with "The Boy") and then slept in my very own bed. It was heaven, I tell you! Having been "confined" to a twin size bed (grateful, not complaining) for 6 weeks after being used to a queen size bed made me miss just how much I sprawl at night. Tank and I have plenty of room to co-habitate again.

The moral of this post is this...

I have always felt incredibly blessed in life but now feel even more blessed to have my own home back... and in BRAND NEW condition too.

4 words...

I'm moving home tomorrow!

Okay... maybe more than 4 words.

The carpet it in. The tile is in. The wood is in. The painting is finished. The light fixtures are in place. The blinds are back on the windows. The kitchen cabinets are finished. The plumbing is reconnected. 

Tomorrow is the day!

I'm taking the entire day off of work tomorrow to meet the contracting company and the movers. They'll get everything put back in its place and finish any last minute jobs. If all goes as it should (and I don't know why it wouldn't) I'll be sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night. 

As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz says... 

There's No Place Like Home!