The raddest kids in camp

This picture was part of a collage of pics on a slide in the 50th reunion slide show at CBH.

When a tag falls in the middle of the woods and no one is around to hear it, is it still a tag?

Well, I read Lisa's blog today and realized she tagged me about a week ago to do this random things about myself thing. She did tag nine people though, and you're only supposed to tag eight, so I think she might have seen how I thanked Erin for not tagging me and then added me to her list later. I'm not tagging anyone because all the people whose blogs I read have already been tagged, except for people whose blogs I read that don't know I read their blog, and that might just be kind of creepy.

1. When I am eating a sandwich, the bread ratio must be just right. Otherwise, I tear off all the bread to fit.

2. I eat one thing at a time on my plate and then spin my plate to the next thing. I eat the second best thing first, then the last best thing, then the best thing last. You're probably asking, "Are all these things going to be about eating?" Maybe.

3. Once, my sister vacuumed my hair with a Dirt Devil. Kids will be kids, only she was 18 when that happened. If my mom still has that Dirt Devil, you can probably still see my hair wrapped around the brush.

4. I played Shelby in "Steel Magnolias" in high school, and was very ill the second day of the performance. My friend Brandi (see post below) was rehearsing my lines when I walked in two hours before the show was supposed to start. I don't know if she's ever been more happy to see me, because she wasn't my understudy, she was just going to take over if she had to. I'll spare you the story about going to Chili's afterwards with Erin, Josh, and Brian Tate...let's just say I still hadn't gotten over whatever was ailing me.

5. I don't understand what "I'm not good with names" means exactly...I've always thought "I can't remember things" made more sense. That being said, I can't remember things.

6. I, like my sister, have only had one speeding ticket and that was my junior year in high school, going 40 in a 30. I was going so slow the cop got out of his car and waved me over. I've never been in a car wreck.

7. I am literally obsessed with people's names and how they are spelled. I have no idea why this is, but I think it's because I like words a lot, and names are words that come with so many underlying connotations and meanings.

8. I realized that I could sing alto in 3rd grade when my LTC chorus coach asked me to "harmonize" to "Jesus Loves Me," and I've sang the harmony pretty much ever since.

We found out Friday that my smart, talented husband got the job he had interviewed for on Tuesday. Woo hoo! He starts on September 10th.

Y'all probably hadn't heard, but Lubbock had a team that was playing in the LL World Series. They made it all the way to the US championship game yesterday and lost. Everybody here was really excited about them getting that far and doing so well, so we're all sad that they're not going to the international championship. Maybe some of those kids will be on my school's baseball team in a few years...

Time to get ready for church. Just thought I'd update everyone about the job stuff. I start school tomorrow, wish me luck!

New room

None of these pictures do justice to the final product, but this is the best I could get the cameral to do. Rest assured that it looks good.

SOLD

Here is our standard "standing in front of the sold sign" picture.




Our friends Brandi and Keith were literally overcome with excitement over our purchase, oh wait....they were only excited because Keith just learned how to spell SOLD.

Just kidding, they're the best.

Not much news

I just noticed that today marks Blogger's eighth birthday. What? Who's had a blog for eight years? I'd like to meet that person.

Well, I have one more day to get some work done and then it's ready or not, here they come. I keep reminding myself that I couldn't possibly be less prepared than I was my first year of teaching, but it always seems like there is more stuff to do than time to do it in when it comes to teaching. My student load is pretty light this first semester and I have almost all juniors and seniors (literally one freshman and about 5 sophomores) so I think that will be really fun, since I'm used to teaching mostly the younger ones.

This week I've written 2 weeks worth of lesson plans for each of my classes (three preps), because if I plan too far ahead I'll inevitably get off track or forget to factor in an assembly or a day off or something. I've totally redone my classroom. It looks so cute now. I am in the process of working through some competencies to write a mini-grant to buy lots of brand new camera equipment, which the journalism department is in dire need of. I bought a nice leather chair at Office Depot today for my desk, which I never got around to doing the last two years of teaching, but it will be totally worth it. I've gone to lots of meetings and written lots of emails.

Also this week Chad has been working his tail off at the house. He's been doing all those little things that I guess people neglect when they know they are selling their house, or they just don't care about to begin with. Yesterday he taped the front living area so we could paint it, and it was ready to go by the time I got home. We completed the paint job last night, and the walls are now a deep midnight blue that matches a really pretty area rug that I got from mom last weekend. It looks really pretty and is a good contrast from the khaki on all the other walls in the kitchen and living area. We actually did it right this time and got the small cans of paint to check the color on the wall first. We went through two samples before we got to the color we finally settled on. Next up: stripping the wallpaper in the big bathroom and painting it the same blue color.

I guess that's about it for now. Not much interesting stuff. We are looking forward to having our first houseguests next weekend...Barbara and Chad's grandma are coming to visit for a couple of days.

It's official...

We're homeowners. Right after we finished signing the papers we went to Home Depot and got all the necessities that you need when you become a first-time homeowner. I won't go into how much money we spent. As an homage to Shawn and Emma we made sure and posed like them during our closing. We tried our best...we just wanna be like Shawn and Emma!

Summer pictures overdue

I don't think I've posted any (or many) pictures of what we did this summer. Here are pictures from our two main events before moving...Blue Haven and mom, Erin, Kellen and Bonnie visiting Prescott right before we moved. We had a lot of fun.

Bonnie's feelings are hurt because Chad will not give her his popsicle.

Here we are at Goldwater Lake in Prescott.

Kellen loved feeding the ducks...But Bonnie would rather eat the stale bread.

Explanation of the next few pictures: I got shirts for Kellen and Bonnie at Blue Haven that say "Future Camper...Blue Haven." I wanted to take a picture of them in their matching shirts, and being the loving siblings that they are, this is what I got...



No, I didn't doctor this picture. Kellen has actually pinned Bonnie on the couch.

Thanks Bonnie. So cooperative. I had to get this one when they didn't know I was going to take a picture so they didn't have time to "pose."



Kellen thought Chad was the sticker book.

Here is Erin, mom, me, Bonnie and Kellen at the Grand Canyon. Kellen loved the "big rocks."
And here's Chad and me at the same spot.

Chad and Kellen are having a heart to heart on the way to the Grand Canyon from the visitors' center.
Chad and Ava...I love this picture.
Ava is giving herself a round of applause for the camera.
Here we are right before we left camp.
This is the only picture the four of us took together the entire two weeks.

Elle went with us to opening campfire. She was mesmerized by the fire.
This is Bonnie's "my feelings are hurt" sulk.
Kellen with another big rock. This was before we got to the actual Grand Canyon and Kellen was hard to pull away from this rock...little did he know that this one looked like a grain of sand compared to the rocks in the canyon.
I just thought these pictures of Bonnie were cute.
You guessed it...Kellen is jumping off a rock.

Erin and Emma, I have not forgotten that I promised you both a CD with the pictures I took on it. It'll get done eventually.

No more incriminating photos

Sorry guys, I deleted the ugly face post. I prefer not to be seen that way by anyone who googles my name. If you've never googled your name before, you should try it. Lots of interesting stuff pops up.

Anyway, we are back from a short trip to Weatherford to clean all the junk out of mom's house. Actually, it's not junk to us, it's stuff like my piano, a trundle bed, and lots and lots of my granddad's old tools. Pretty much all of them, actually. We are all set if we want to do anything with tools. I also officially inherited all my old mementos and my cedar chest. Now we can NEVER move again because we'll have too much stuff.

Pictures from summer coming soon.

We're all moved in

The title of this post says it all. Our new house is filled with boxes and furniture and we haven't unpacked a thing, but it's all here and we're here. I already have the internet set up so now I can blog to my heart's content. Just thought y'all might like to know that we got moved in without a hitch, thanks to Chad. Gotta go to Lowe's...

What?!?! Two posts in one day, and both with pictures? Somebody's bored...

And now for the pictures I know most of you really care about. They are a little off because I was taking them in a hurry, but you can get the idea. Here is our new home which we will move into on Monday! It's coming up so soon. We love this house. This first picture is the outside, obviously. The tree just to the right of the garage is a magnolia and we think the one to the left of the garage (really big tree hanging over the house) is a mulberry. Isn't the white fence so cute!

Here is the living room, and I'm pretty sure Chad is not aware that he is in this shot. You can see it is completely open to the kitchen behind it, which I think is my favorite room in the house. That door is to the backyard.

This is the front living area which looks out to the street. It's a really good sized room with a ceiling fan. It was probably once used as a formal dining room but we will put the piano and probably a couple pieces of furniture to sit on, and eventually the Christmas tree. Here is the kitchen. Chad really wanted a gas range, but we figured it was a lost cause until we found this house. It was literally the only one out of the 30 houses we looked at that had a gas range, and it turned out we loved the rest of the house so Chad will be getting his gas range...and it has 5 burners! The owners also are leaving us the chairs at the island and the pot rack. All the appliances in the kitchen are updated except the oven. Just to the right of the island we will put our larger dining room table that was my grandparents'.

Here's a close-up of the tile on the island, which looks a bit more understated in person without the flash of a camera. Mom bought me all new dishtowels for a housewarming gift, and those are blue, green and black. I'm glad the island is there, that way I don't have to figure out a color scheme for that room.

This is the view of the right side of the backyard from inside the house. Lots of trees and a shaded porch. They also have a hot tub which they are taking with them, so that will give us more patio room. To the left of the sidewalk is the other half of the backyard which has the workshop (really big, nice storage area), the "RV" parking that is storing the firewood right now (it's not very big), and some more grass. I don't think that gas lamp is connected to the gas line anymore but it looks pretty. This was one of the biggest backyards we saw.

I call these my "before" pictures. All the following rooms I would like to do something with once we move in. This is the master bedroom which doesn't look yellow in person, more of a neutral cream on the walls. We want to change the carpet in all the bedrooms, probably to wood that matches the floor in the 2nd living area. The hallway to the bedrooms is the saltillo tile which I think will look nice up against wood in the rooms eventually.

This is the second bedroom which I think is the biggest. All the bedrooms are about the same size, really. The paint is a faux finish which I think is okay but I think I'll want to change it eventually.

Yikes! floweredy border and lacy curtain overload. I'm sorry if you are offended that I do not like the decorating in this room. It will be one of the first things to go. It does not match the rest of the house at all. This is also a good sized room that has a corner built-in cabinet. I think we will use this as the office/Chad's drumset room, and have a bed in here as well for guests. This is the second bathroom. It is very big and very mauve. I will probably use this bathroom most of the time to get ready because the vanity area in the master bedroom is open to the bedroom and Chad won't like it if I've got the light on and am blowing my hair dry while he is trying to sleep. This is the first room I want to redo. We'll strip the wallpaper, texture and paint but leave the white paneling, and say goodbye to those curtains.

This is the decor of the master bathroom. I haven't decided what I want to do with it yet but the blue and yellow stripe is not my favorite. But it will probably stay this way for a while because I don't totally hate it. When I took this picture I was standing in the vanity area, and this room has the shower and toilet in it. Sorry for all the description but I'm trying to help you visualize it. Directly behind me is the closet.

Isn't this wallpaper awesome? This isn't actually in the house we bought, just another house we looked at. Yes, it is a metallic wallpaper located in the wetbar of a house that was straight out of the '70s. That house gave me the creeps because it was vacant but they had left some stuff, including three cats in the backyard. Just thought I'd share the awesomeness that is this wallpaper.
Well, I hope you like our new house. Stay tuned for the "after" pictures when we start updating the bedrooms and bathrooms.

Hey, what's up with none of you updating your blogs lately? I guess I have to be the one to do it. We will be in our new house one week from today and will close two weeks from today. How exciting! When we get moved in I'll have time to take pictures and post them to the blog.

I was able to go to my classroom today, which I'll post pictures of eventually as well. It is kind of like stepping back in time, with the chipboard cabinets and the chalkboards. It's a huge room though, with an office, a classroom with desks, a computer lab and a darkroom (aka storage closet). I think I'm going to like having my classroom there.

Today is going to be filled with going to DPS, taking care of utilities, and making more phone calls about loans, titles, insurance, and all that fun stuff. I still think I got the better end of the deal and would rather be here tying up loose ends than having to load the U-Haul. Chad likes it this way too, and don't worry, he'll have plenty of help. Although today is his birthday (happy birthday Chad!) and the poor guy is spending all day packing up the rest of the house. You're a good man, Chad Montandon.

All of you with the kids need to post some more pictures.

Inspection

Three hours long. No termites. Good house.

New update on the house

I know all these details are probably really boring for some of you to read but I know some of you like it so if you're not one of those people then you might want to check another blog, like someone who has kids and posts cute pictures. That ain't us. Anyway...to the point of this post. Things with the house are coming along rather nicely. After a counter-offer and a counter-counter-offer, the seller accepted and we are now officially under contract. Yipee! I have already made myself a list of the gazillion things I have to do in the next couple days, including dropping by my new school, moving my stuff into my new classroom and introducing myself to the fine gentleman and ladies who offered me this job. We've been so busy with house stuff that I haven't gotten a chance to do any of that yet. My official contract starts August 9th but the kids don't start back until August 27th, so I will still have a couple weeks to prepare which is why I haven't been worried about it. Okay, back to the house. In the contract we asked the seller if he could be out by August 13th so we could have a place to put our stuff and ourselves. We aren't closing until the 20th but he said okay and we will be leasing the house from him for a week. It worked out perfectly and now we don't have to find a place to store all our junk when Chad comes back from Arizona with all of it. So we will be official homeowners by the end of the month, Lord willing. He has definitely taken care of us so far! Tomorrow is the inspection and I am waiting on that to make sure there's nothing horribly wrong with the house and that it is not infested with termites. So for those of you who are interested in every little detail, stay tuned and I'm sure I'll blog soon about the inspection. This stuff is boring to people who have bought a bunch of homes but everything is interesting to me since we're first-time buyers. I can't wait for everyone to come visit! Bring your painting clothes!