A Day in Our Life: 2010

Our Little Miracle

I was going to wait until after we'd sent out our Christmas cards to share this news with those of you who read our blog (if you don't already know), but after the sweetest Christmas gift from Jerod, I decided it's time.

Jerod and I are expecting the first addition to our family, a baby due June 30, 2011- right in the middle of baseball season! We just passed the 12 week mark, and I have felt pretty good so far. No morning sickness, but I have been extremely tired and have had some recurring back pain near the base of my spinal cord. My mom has suggested starting to see a chiropractor, so I might ask the doctor about that when we go back to hear the heartbeat in January. We have had two appointments so far and were able to get a sneak peek at our little nugget in the beginning of December. The kid was wiggling all over and waving their little arms, it was a great sight for this mommy-to-be's eyes and made me feel a lot better about the pregnancy.

Grandma Jacque joked, "He looks just like Jerod!" I'm not sure if everyone else can tell, but the baby is upside down in this ultrasound pic, the arm is in front of the face, it seems like a nose, but it's the baby's arm. I'm in love already :)

While I have been on Cloud 9 since discovering this right after a trip to Seattle in October, Jerod's been more of a "guy" about the whole thing. He says he's looking forward to when the baby arrives in June and he can see and hold his new baby. I can't completely understand his thinking, but try to, and was so very touched by his Christmas gift to me this year. I know I shouldn't have opened it yet, but when football is on ALL DAY, I get really bored and had already skimmed through a couple pregnancy books, baby name books, and written in my Mommy Journal. Plus, Jerod asked me every day if I wanted to open my gift, and I was pleasantly surprised.

It was so sweet, I definitely cried (just a little bit), and Jerod tried to pretend like it wasn't a big deal that he picked out such a perfect Christmas gift. Happy Christmas week everyone, hopefully yours is as blessed as ours has proved to be.

I just had these two pictures from Thanksgiving break. This is my sister's dog, Lola, and it never fails when we come to my parents' place for a visit, her favorite place to hang out is Jerod's lap. Which is pretty funny, because it's Jerod's least favorite place for Lola to hang out. :)

This is the welcome sign to Massena, Iowa, the town where Jerod's Aunts and Grandpa live. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. I've always wanted to get a picture of it, every time we drive by, and finally I made Jerod stop (okay, he refused to stop, but he drove super slowly so I could nab a photo).

Stay warm out there!

It's a Wonderful Life

I have to say, although Thanksgiving week is completely exhausting from driving all over the western half of Iowa, I love nothing more than spending time with family. Jerod is anxious to have kids because he's under the impression we won't have to be gone so long if we have a baby with us.....except I think that's all the more reason our families will want us to be there as often and as long as possible! We stopped in Fontanelle first, to visit with Jerod's Grandma Carole, we had a nice chat and found out that she's recovering from a broken pelvis which was news to us! So we're keeping her in our prayers. Then, we went to Jerod's parent's place where Deb had a soup and sandwich supper in the works, it was delicious, and we topped it off with some apple crisp and cherry cheesecake, yum! We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at his Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dan's, where I purposely ate small amounts of Thanksgiving dinner in anticipation for Chocolate Truffle (this amazing chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, peanut butter sauce, whipped cream delight that Jerod's mom makes and I get to eat once a year).

Our Thanksgiving evening was spent traveling to Sioux City to see the Wyants and perusing the Black Friday ads from the newspaper. Let me tell you- never have I been so pooped from shopping as I was after this particular Black Friday, we aren't crazies on this day like other people, it's just a fun way for my mom, sister, and me to spend time together (and get some good deals). I was especially emotional about leaving my family this year and even cried during church knowing we were leaving right after, but it was a really wonderful couple of days. Sometimes it's just so hard to be this far away, hopefully we'll see them more often after next summer. In the meantime, Happy Holidays to everyone, I really hope that yours are full of family, friends, warmth, and lots of great food :)

P.S. I got to hold my cousin's 3-week old little girl, Alexis, who was the cutest little thing ever, and I thought to myself, "I could get used to this...."

Seattle Pics

You'll be disappointed if you wanted to see pics of the great city of Seattle, we didn't do much sight-seeing just visiting with family on this trip, which was really nice. But, I realized I had posted so long ago and forgotten to follow-up with pics, so here you are!

(Mom, Grandpa Danny, Me, my brother Tom, and Grandma Naty)

Grandpa is looking pretty good I think, he seems to be doing well.

Back L-R: Mom, Me, Cheyenne, Jazmine

Front L-R: Michelle, Tom, Naty, Grandpa

And that's Nicholas right up there in his mom's lap.

This are my two beautiful cousins Chey and Jaz, I remember coming out to Seattle when I was in 5th grade and Jaz was only maybe almost 2 years old, now she's a junior in high school. Am I old much?!

Quick update...more to come!

I have pictures to share from the trip I took up to Seattle with my mom and brother, but we're hanging out at a friend's place in Des Moines watching football, so I guess they'll have to wait until I have my camera. It was a good trip, my grandpa looks like he's doing pretty well. I went up to visit because we found out he has Parkinson's Disease and it seemed like things were getting bad quickly, but after seeing him I think it's not as bad as I was thinking originally. I'm glad I got to visit though, I hadn't been up to Seattle since just before Jerod and I started dating, life has just gotten in the way. It was good to see my grandpa and his wife Naty and my uncle Daniel. We stayed with my mom's sister and her husband, Michelle and Carl, and it was good to spend time with them, too. Not to mention having a couple days away from work! :)

Pics will come, life is good, we're celebrating some little things :) Happy Halloween!

Busy, Busy!

Long time no post! We've been super crazy the past few weeks with all sorts of things. The weekend of the 25th we were tailgating for Iowa State/UNI, then we headed out to Clinton to spend the weekend at our friend Tony's for the Iowa/Penn State game, and we also found out that a very good friend of ours has FINALLY been offered a full-time position as a firefighter in Washington D.C. He found out a couple weeks ago and already had to pack up and move out there this past week, he reports for academy on Monday. We couldn't be happier for him, he's been working on this since Jerod and I started dating, basically. He was volunteering in Altoona, then got a job part-time with the Indianola fire department a few months ago and has been going back and forth from D.C. taking physical and written tests and doing interviews. Yay Matt!

So anyway, we did a little celebrating with him the past couple of weekends, and we will miss him while he's away, but hope to visit him over the summer. Here's a couple photos of our fun!

P.S. We finally broke down and got internet through Verizon- whomever we'd been tapping internet off of is not showing up in our networks anymore....we had to, but it's okay :)

The proud firefighter with our friend Caylee in Ames after the tailgate.

Alison, Shane's fiance, and Tori, Clint's wife. You can't say enough about your husband's friends having amazing love interests. It's so nice to not be the only female in the group like when we were dating!

We had our own little house party at Tony's on Saturday night- bad idea. I remember why house parties were so great in college, it was cheaper because you had drinks and mixers on hand. As you get older though, you can't quite do it like you used to, your body hates you a lot more for it now.

Date Night is Back.....and needs some ~PiZzaZz~

And I'm not talking about bedroom pizzazz (I know the thought crossed someone's mind when reading the title, hee hee). We started doing date night last fall. It's one night a month where we grab something to eat and do something else together that doesn't involve sitting on the couch in our living room. So in the past we carved pumpkins, caught a movie, went to a hockey game, caught another movie....and then it just became dinner only.

The purpose of date night, to me, is to get us out of the house together, spending time outside of what we usually do (which is usually watch TV- insert show here: __________). Time for us to shake up our routine and try new stuff together. I'm pretty easy to please, going on a walk would be activity enough for me, because it's NOT TV! My husband, however, is another story. Unless it is a sporting event or a movie, he's not into it, and if we try something new his "idea" about the activity turns the whole thing sour.

I guess what I'm wondering is: What are some new date ideas we could try??

I feel like if we don't make time for our relationship now, we'll really be in for a wake up when kids are in the picture.

P.S. If you read this and you don't blog, but you have ideas, just email me: marybrown1124@gmail.com

4 days down, how many to go?

Just kidding, I'm not counting down days of school quite yet. That usually doesn't start until right after spring break when we have no more days off until summer vacation. I just wanted to give an update on my class this year at Carver. I've never had the same kind of class twice, which makes sense I suppose, different kids, different personalities, different "quirks" (I use that word lightly, meaning they could be good or bad). This year's preschool class is no exception, we have such a wide range of abilities from barely speaking English and just potty-trained to sounding out the spelling of familiar words and having the vocabulary of a 60-year old woman!

I see this melting pot of students as a challenge to my teaching, one which I will fully embrace- hopefully someday soon :) When I think about it more though, I makes me appreciate the insanity of myself and my co-workers even more. Who in the world wants to be a preschool teacher?! We're nuts, insane, loco, whatever you want to call it, that's us. If you've ever had to get lunch ready, while helping your kids wash their hands, while cleaning up milk spilled on the floor by someone who wasn't supposed to be touching the table because they just went to the bathroom and still need to wash their hands, while putting out the fire between the boy who looked at the other boy who burst into tears, while politely (yet firmly) telling another child that you will not wipe their bottom like mom does at home, while singing songs to occupy the children who are starving and ready to revolt unless their friends "hurry up so we can eat!"......then think about doing them with 18 children between the ages of 3 and 5, how could you NOT believe that preschool teachers aren't one fry short of a happy meal?! (And that's just lunch time)

I say all this, but of course I love my job and working with small children makes me appreciate the little things in life, like hugs, "I love you", holding hands, bubbles, being silly, and best of all- just enjoying what's in front of me. If you have a preschool teacher that you know and love, make sure to tell her exactly why you do- the kids and the families are why we do it.

Drum roll please....

This weekend marked a very important moment in our home renovations.....kitchen counters and backsplash!! Our kitchen was a conundrum, a hot mess, just plain gross looking with the carpeted floors, white and gold marbled countertops and the lovely drapes with those nasty sharp hooks on the back. It has been an adventure remodeling this room of the house. We started by punching the up the color and tiling the floor. The funny thing about the tile is that we grouted half of the kitchen one weekend and then I ended up getting the wrong color of grout for the other half of the kitchen. It wasn't too much darker, but it was noticeable. I guess I kind of thought maybe there was something wrong when I put the grout in, but I figured it was just because it was wet. Now, we've been digging grout out of the tiles for a couple weeks- that should be the last big job in the kitchen- regrouting. But, I'm not so worried about it anymore, I'm just ecstatic that our new countertops are in and I LOVE the faux tin backsplash, yay!

Before: The beautiful bay window that looks out on our front yard from the dining portion of the kitchen. Check out that gorgeous valance :)

Notice the mirror above the sink- who doesn't love looking at their reflection as they slave away over dishes?!

Countertops removed; My dad raised up the other countertop so that we would have one continuous flow of space

After: We ended up getting laminate countertops, but they're glossy and speckled so they look like granite for a fraction of the price. We also extended the counter top into the living room a bit for a breakfast bar.

The faux tin backsplash- just plastic panels glued onto the wall, but it looks so good, especially with all the stainless steel appliances!

A little better view of what the countertop pattern looks like and how great everything looks in the kitchen. Now, if only we could get rid of that ceiling fan and the atrocious fluorescent lights that blind you.

Soap Box

I feel like I really need to get some thoughts out in the open. As most everyone that I know knows, I teach preschool in Des Moines. My classroom is funded through a few different sources: the Harkin Grant, Empowerment, Prairie Meadows, and most recently and also for the final year, Early Reading First Grant. There are two sides to being so well-funded. On one hand you have plenty of resources ($$$) to funnel toward materials, field experiences, and GREAT professional development. On the other hand you have A LOT of accountability. This has never been more true for Early Childhood than right now in the state of Iowa. The upcoming election has many preschool teachers and administrators nervous about the future of our state funded preschool programs. This has led to efforts by my administrators to stream line the preschools in the Des Moines area. This has included everyone using the same literacy curriculum, the same play-based learning called Mature Play, the same assessments/screenings, and setting all preschools on a schedule as to how many weeks must be spent on each theme learned in the classroom.

The literacy curriculum that we use has pre-set themes which they provide books for. The literature is amazing, the theme layout and activities included leave much to be desired by a teacher. You don't have to be a teacher to know that children learn through their senses. You also do not need to be a teacher to know that learning about seasons in the middle of January in Iowa doesn't make much sense. The argument for the theme layout is that the publishing company set objectives for students to learn through each theme and that some teachers in the district were frustrated when other teachers weren't able to collaborate on planning because they weren't on the same themes. Theoretically, if you skipped around the themes the students would be missing skills. However, we don't use the activities included in the curriculum, so why would it matter what order the themes are learned in? Besides that, we don't teach to objectives, we teach children. Elementary, middle, and high school teachers are not required to stay on a subject for a certain amount of time, they stay on a subject until their students understand it. Why is it any different for preschool?

Preschool is a time of discovery, and preschool teachers should be teaching about things that students can hear, see, touch, taste, and smell. It has nothing to do with a curriculum and everything to do with making children aware of the world around them. By doing so, they begin to pick up on the skills they need to be successful learners. We read books to teach them about listening, concepts of print, and life situations. We play to teach them social skills, how to imagine, and behave in different types of roles. We teach them how to be flexible in their thinking by creating their own toys and props. We invite them to preschool to get a jump start on their education and to become committed lifelong learners. What happens when we take spontaneity and child interest out of the preschool classroom, in the name of bulleted objectives in a curriculum and teacher planning?

Remodeling #3: Guest Bedroom

The guest bedroom was originally a little girl's bedroom. The walls were SO lavender and there was even a butterfly and flower border, but only around half of the room, haha! The room was also carpeted when we moved in. This was one of our easier upgrades, a little paint, some new wood laminate flooring, and window and closet hardware made for a nice little transformation. Hopefully the color is neutral enough to someday accent with some blues or pinks-- but don't get too excited about that statement, no news about babies yet!

Guest Bedroom: Before

We felt a little bad about getting rid of the carpet, it looked really new. The purple walls on the other hand....we had no problem priming right over those! You can the see the valance on the window, it was the same pattern as the border that was on the wall.

Guest Bedroom: After

I like the warm golden brown color, and I'm not sure what my recent obsession with green is. If it weren't for Jerod I may have painted each room in the house a different shade of green. I'm super proud of the throw pillow on the bed, I got it 75% off at Target, only 6 bucks!

You can't really see the flooring because of the area rug. My mom and I were at Lowe's grabbing supplies one morning and we found two of these area rugs on the clearance cart. Originally almost $200 each, the girl working flooring said that if we took them right then she would sell them both to us for $60 total. Although I wasn't really sure about the rug, it was a steal, and it actually looks great in the room! P.S. the bed is low because it's just an air mattress, anybody getting rid of a bed??

Summer Wedding Finale

This weekend marked the final wedding for us to attend in 2010. Our friends Zach and Jen McVey are high school sweethearts and they FINALLY tied the knot in their hometown of Council Bluffs. I met Zach my sophomore year of college, we lived on the same dorm floor, and so this wedding was a big reunion of college friends. It is one of the few times we've gotten together since college, and we have vowed that it won't be the last. We're thinking a yearly reunion is in store for this Iowa State/Simpson/Iowa clan, with maybe a big vacation together every few years as well. Anyway, the wedding was a blast with much reminiscing of the carefree days of college. We wish Zach and Jen the best and hope that all made a safe return trip to their respective homes. Congrats Mr. & Mrs. McVey!!

Look at that toothy grin on JB!

A group dance of all our friends from college and the bride and groom's parents.

I just thought this was a funny pic of Jerod with our friends Doug and Jadon, they kind of look like the Three Musketeers or something. In lieu of swords they raise beers!

This is my favorite picture from the night. The guys all singing a Tenacious D song to the bride, if you don't know who Tenacious D is, please don't look them up unless you are over the age of 18, they have some slightly inappropriate lyrics!

Remodeling #2: Office

The office was originally a bedroom for a little boy with a plush carpet and trains on the wall, just one wall. However, the door you see opens to the backyard and it sounded really creepy to me that someone would have their child's bedroom where there is an entrance to the house. I think this for many reasons, for little kids my fear would be someone taking them, for older kids my fear would be having "friends" over or sneaking out. Anyway, this room also leads from the kitchen and the guestroom so it made sense for us to make it an office. A little extra seating, some storage with the desk and bookshelf, some paint and new flooring made this a completely different room. The only thing I need now is decor, I'm going for different shades of blue and am having a hard time finding these things, I may have to create my own.

Before: Little Boy's bedroom

After: Kitchen view

Free couch from Bre w/ new slipcover, curtains made from a shower curtain
(See how I need to fill up the wall space?)

After: Couch View

The desk my dad made for me in college and an inexpensive bookshelf help us stay organized. But it turns out we have lots of junk we still need to find places for.

Remodeling #1: The Bathroom

Now that I've found the charger to the camera I can take pictures of the house and start to post the end results. The first reveal is the main bathroom, it is TOTALLY different than when we moved in. When we bought the house the bathroom color scheme was white and olive green....bleh. We're talking olive green sinks, toilet, tub, and tile, it was awful. The floor was also carpeted, who carpets a bathroom floor?! We ended gutting the bathroom, except the walls remained intact. New vanity, new toilet, new shower, new tile floor, a coat of paint, and a new light fixture made such an immense difference, and now we love it.

Shower Before

Notice the towel bars inside the shower...hmm...

Shower After

Vanity Before

Vanity After

Lost and Found

So our guest bedroom hasn't been much of a bedroom at all since we bought our dresser a few weeks ago. The guest room became a catch all for papers to be filed, our old plastic storage drawers, sleeping bags, extra pillows, the extra TV and its cords, all my coursework from college, carpet remnants, you name it- we had it stored there. Since Jerod went back to work today and I still have a week off I thought I'd keep myself busy by organizing the guest room and getting everything put away (which means I worked until I was bored of organizing- that took about an hour). Anyway, I ran a few errands, went for a little walk, came back to start organizing again and pick up the bundle of cords that go to the extra TV. There was a universal remote, a coax cable, an input converter, a converter box for the TV, and A KODAK CAMERA CHARGING CORD!!! After I buy a battery charger on Friday morning and am waiting for it to be delivered via snail mail. I knew this would happen........

St. Anthony hath forsaken me.... :)

So I am the worst blogger ever- I forget to post, there haven't been many pictures, and I apologize. I have looked in every last dastardly place for our stinking camera charging cord and still cannot find it. So I guess I'll be buying a new one. And we all know what will happen when I buy a new cord, right? I'll find the other damn one.....

Greenish Thumbs

We have spent this week and little of last week digging river rock out of the landscape of our yard. It was awful! I might exaggerate the work involved on some other projects, but the removal of rock from a garden really stinks. It's heavy, never-ending, and did I mention HEAVY?! Well, we have removed the rock from about a third of our property and finally got to plant this week! It was so exciting, and as luck would have it, everything is on sale since it's nearing the end of the summer season. We got bags of mulch for $1.50 each (which has been fantastic since we've already gone through 10 bags just for the front yard landscape) and were able to get a great deal on hydrangea and peony plants. The house already had hostas growing in a side garden, so we have just been separating and replanting those.

Here's a few snapshots of our work, we're pretty pumped about it all :)

Now where did I put that?.......

I feel so bad because I can't post pictures of the newest renovations to the house! Somewhere in the move I lost the charger to my camera and have been unable to take pictures since the beginning of July, it really stinks because we've been getting a lot done and I just want to show it off. Oh well, I guess this means I'll either have to scour through the house for the charger or go shopping for one....it may not be such a "horrible" situation after all. :)

Since baseball ended this has pretty much been it for us, working on the house inside and out. Hauling out river rock from the garden, adding to our entertainment center (we have SO much storage now), decorating, etc. So far we have almost all of the rock removed from the front of the house, so I get to plant some flowers and move my hostas finally!! This weekend we have a wedding to attend where we will meet up with all of our friends from college and some other friends that we live near, but life just gets in the way of us seeing each other as much as we'd like to.

On another note, I have a buddy for the rest of the summer. My sister, Amanda, moved out of my parents' place in Sioux City and in with my brother, Tom, in Ames. It's nice because now I have someone to do all the things that Jerod won't do with me: swimming, shopping, movies, I'm loving it. She'll be here until leaving for basic training October 20th, I'm looking forward to spending more time with her until then. Jerod is looking forward to being able to chastise her for any and everything he can until her departure.

Wish me luck and pray to Saint Anthony for me that I find my charger so I can post pics of the house and hopefully the wedding weekend!

Rally Caps!

I'm not gonna lie, it's been a rough season for the West Marshall Trojans baseball team. Every night they played there was something missing: their hitting and pitching would be on, but they struggled on defense; or their defense was great, hitting was okay, but they couldn't get the ball over the plate. I also noticed that the boys lacked the "spark" and charisma they usually display during games. In the past they had always come up with little antics or inside jokes to help them relax and stay loose during games, but this season the boys just seemed to overthink themselves.

Well I don't know what changed this past week, but someone ate their Wheaties! They lost a close game to Nevada on Thursday night, their last regular season game, but they did not go down without a fight, the game ended 10-9 in the 10th inning. Then, at their first round district game on Saturday, they displayed the same energy and confidence that I witnessed in them at the Nevada game, and it paid off. They played hard, they played well, and they earned a win. Their faces were so bright with smiles and whooping and hollering, it was about time we got our baseball players back. So wish the Trojans luck as they take on AGWSR in their second round game on Tuesday night!

Transfer, Pennsylvania and South Bend

No we did NOT fall off the face of the earth- it turns out our lives are just taken over by baseball the first half of the summer :) We were able to take a mini-vacation this weekend with my in-laws to Pennsylvania for my brother-in-law, Heath's, wedding. There were 9 of us with our baggage and gifts packed into a 15 passenger van, Jerod's other 4 brothers, ourselves, his parents, and his Grandma Carole. Although it was a long drive and I've never heard 5 grown boys complain like little school girls, including my husband, we had plenty of time to visit and made some memories on that trip that I'm sure we'll never forget. The wedding was beautiful and though I don't have pictures of the actual ceremony I have a couple from the venue where it took place. It was at a Community of Christ summer camp where Alice, Heath's wife, spent much time while growing up. It was a very small, intimate wedding where they dared serve hotwings! Gutsy to serve such a messy food on a day when everyone was so dressed up, haha!

On the way back to Iowa Jerod coerced his dad that it would be a great idea to stop in South Bend, Indiana, home to Notre Dame. It was right off of I-80/94 so we took a small detour Sunday morning and walked around by the football stadium before heading back on the road. There are a few pictures of that short jaunt below. While, in the future, we hope Jerod's brothers get married somewhere closer to Iowa, it was a great family trip, and I had a lot of fun hanging out my in-laws. Overall, good times were had by everyone!

The small lake where Heath and Alice were married next to.

Jerod and I on the bridge leading to the "reception hall", it's right behind us. It was right on the little lake, my favorite part was feeding the fish off the back railing overlooking the lake. I know, I'm such a child :)

Touchdown Jesus. This building is just to the north of the stadium, but if you're inside the stadium in the top tier, you can still see Touchdown Jesus poking over the top row.

Jerod HAD to get a picture with Lou Holtz. He can't stand Notre Dame, he only wanted to stop to see Touchdown Jesus, but was pleasantly surprised because he forgot there is a statue honoring Lou.

Just to show how big the stadium is, in the pciture I took previous to this one Jerod is giving Notre Dame "the bird", I told you he doesn't like them :)

Not a baby anymore....

My little brother Gabriel just celebrate his first communion this past weekend in Sioux City. My mom and I went shopping to find new pants and a tie for his special occasion. While we were at Kohl's we found the cutest little outfit- long sleeve shirt, tie, vest, and dress pants, and we were looking everywhere for a size 8- but the largest they had was a 7x. So sad, he's all grown up now- I can still remember him crawling down the hallway of my dorm my freshman year of college. Now, he's playing little league ball, in the Siouxland Youth Chorus, and his "big teeth" are growing in (just as crooked as mine were, by the way). I'm sure this is only a smidge of how moms feel about their babies growing up....

Here's the little man:

Gabe receiving first communion

Gabe outside of the Sacred Heart

Gabe with his Godparents, Uncle Mike and Aunt Hope

17 years and 360 days age difference

Home sweet home

It's been forever since we've had a chance to jot anything down on the blog! Here is a little update on the renovations:

-All rooms have now been painted with the exception of the hallway and bathroom.
-We now have a shower that is NOT olive green!!
-We can only take ice cold showers because the 15 year old water heater finally decided to give out.
-We are keeping the cupboards that were built in the kitchen. I started putting away dishes and stuff inside them and then I got attached. It will also save us $2000 dollars, not having to replace them.
-We (and by we I mean my dad) were able to shorten the cupboards over the counter that looks into the living room and they already look SO much better, need hardware and to flip the way some doors open.
-The entry to the house is now tiled courtesy of moi. I love it, and now dirty shoes won't get on our soon-to-be new carpet
-The bedrooms and office now have curtains so that our next door neighbor who is also our backyard neighbor can't see into the rooms at night, and no one else can for that matter.
-We bought new washing machine, still a top loader but with no agitator- I love it.......
-We will have carpet and a new water heater by next weekend!!

We're going to send out postcards anyway, but if anyone needs our mailing address it is:
P.O. Box 154
State Center, IA 50247

WOOHOO!!

We are closing on Friday after school!! This is perfect because we wanted to get the bathroom redone before moving in, and we planned on doing that this weekend. We are so ecstatic that this whole buying process is almost at an end, and we really have to thank our realtor and mortgage specialist. They basically nagged the hell out of the listing realtor and when that didn't work our mortgage specialist went around him and contacted the person in charge of Iowa foreclosures for Freddie Mac, she had the papers by this morning and they are in for approval with the bank! There is a light at the end of the tunnel.....

So close, and yet so far away

Well we were supposed to close on the house today but a whole slew of things pushed back the closing. First, after an entire Spring Break of nothing to do but relax- we find out last Saturday that actually, the appraiser found several things that need repairs before they'll okay us for our loan. All repairs that are completely do-able, and pretty easy, just time consuming and a couple are a little specialized (i.e. plumbing issues that had to wait for my dad). So he was going to come up on Wednesday to fix stuff, we could have the house re-appraised on Thursday and close on Friday right? Wrong! Dad got called in to work on Wednesday which forced us to push closing back, but that wasn't the only thing we would have been waiting on.

Apparently, the seller's had to recreate the abstracts on the house because they had no clue where they were at, these are supposed to be done by next Tuesday (fingers crossed), and then they can check the title on the house to make sure everything's good. Thank goodness for great friends with great connections, too! Without the help of our friend Jamie, we would be up a creek, since our realtor forgot to have the water turned off and one of the repairs is to the water main lever. In that same respect, we are so very thankful to the guys at State Center utilities who are making sure the water is off for that repair- and at vary late and inconvenient notice. I can already tell we are moving into a community that really takes care of each other, we kind of already knew that, but these events are just reaffirming that. Hopefully we'll have closed before Easter- that's the new goal!

Be kind....

....for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. This has never seemed more true to me than after my first round of conferences last night. I had a student whose mom had been out of town and we got out of school at 1:00, but despite mom calling grandpas and grandmas, no one showed up to get him until his baby-sitter popped in at about 2:05. Well, there's a law that says if you leave your child 'X' amount of time after school without picking them up, the police can be called and the family can be charged with child abandonment. I knew I had to tell her about this when she came in for her conference later, because elementary school wouldn't be as patient with a child left over an hour after school.

When she came in Wednesday evening she just looked like life was taking it's toll on her. We talked for a couple of minutes about her son and his change in behavior at school (they just moved back from living in Kansas City for a month) and then I asked her how everything was going since they had come back to Des Moines- and she broke down. She went on about several things, having to work out of town 3-4 days at a time, earning money in a way that most women would have a very difficult time doing. Her child's father refusing to have anything to do with them or help her out by picking him up from school, living with her mother who has bi-polar disorder, she and her two kids all sleeping in one small bed until she can make enough money to get a place of their own. "I never thought my life would turn out this way, it's hard because you don't think about how little choices you make will affect your future." It broke my heart.

It made me realize that I am so blessed. I have a place to live, a college education, a great job where I work with equally wonderful people that I'm not afraid would ever try to "fight me" for ANY reason. I have a husband who loves me, a family that would do anything for me, friends who are just like family to me, and when we have children- Jerod will be right there to help raise them and he will be a fantastic father.

Sometimes I forget why I teach where I do. Teaching children from low-income families is not for everyone. It's stressful and frustrating because many times you encounter families who just don't seem to understand how a lack of routine and a lack of consistent parenting affects their child's performance in school and in life. It is so difficult to accept that, in almost all cases, these families are doing the best they can do with the resources that they have. All of my students have health care, at least through Title 19, they have roofs over their heads, and they have someone bringing them to school- a place where they can get love if they aren't getting it at home.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

23 Days and Counting!

Everyone has been wanting to see photos of the house that we're buying. I keep telling people, they're not coming over to see the house until it's fixed up a little, so here's your "Before" photos. I'm planning on following our home renovations with our blog, and I also want to do a little before/after photo book of the house as a couple will be pretty hefty undertakings!

Living room at the front of the house, the door is to the left of the ladder

From living room, looking to the hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom.

Hallway from office.

Second bedroom (nice color, right?)

Bathroom from shower view and doorway view. Again, a gorgeous color scheme....

"Master" bedroom :) Complete with a lovely view of our rear neighbors! Opaque shades will be a MUST!

The big window is actually to the left if you were standing in the kitchen from the picture's view. It is huge, which I love with lots of cupboard space. We're planning on opening up the counters though, so that we have an island. The eat-in area is really big, too. Loads of potential, I'm pretty ecstatic about this renovation!

The previous owners used this as their little boy's bedroom, but that door leads to the backyard, so we're making it an office/piano/sitting room type of place and plan on building a bedroom in the basement when the basement gets finished

This is the unfinished basement, it has the same square footage as the main level of the house, 1400. It is a walk out on the south end of the house, that's the end we plan on building the guest room. We also want to add another bathroom, utility room to close off laundry and the furnace/water heater, and of course most of the space is for Jerod to have a "man room" and place for me to put his.....stuff.

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