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.

Read more...

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?

Read more...

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??

Read more...

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!

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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

Read more...

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........

Read more...