Good Things On My B-Day

A certificate from my student, Tevin. Normally he's a handful, but today he wrote a really sweet note with another student Travis. They also gave me twenty coupons for hugs...they were sure to explain that they didn't expire.

I share a birthday with a cool kid in my homeroom. All day long people were wishing us both Happy Birthday.

Flower sent to school by Nathan. Second time in our entire relationship so it was a HUGE surprise.

My door was decorated by fellow teachers and some students. High school yearbook pictures were blown up for the door. Loved it! One of the best birthdays in a while.

Thanks everyone!

Video of New House

Andy!

So, Ryan Cummins sends out The Office quotes of the day from a desk calendar that he has. I had the calendar in 2009 and sent them out to faithful viewers last year. Why don't more people love this show?!? Here's a quote from this week...this explains why I love Andy who went to a little school called Cornell. Ever heard of it? Rut-tu-tu-tu-doo!

Andy - "Andy Bernard does not lose contests. He wins them. Or he quits them because they're unfair."

Bedroom Befores and Afters

View of the living room from the dining room. The front door is over by Nathan. Not a very big space but I think it will work. The couch isn't too big. We're prepping this room for paint.

New rug for the living room. It's really big and will cover most of the space. Should look good under my new couch.

The office before the paint job - purple!

The office after - "dark storm cloud" - not happy with the paint job around the baseboards...we need to fix it.

Spare bedroom before - lime green.

Spare bedroom after - "harmonic tan" - love it.

Paint Colors

Okay, this post is for Meg who insisted that I tell her about EVERYTHING with the house. These are the paint colors that Nathan and I have decided on. The only thing up in the air is the master bathroom upstairs; we need to look at the floor tile again. I'm leaning toward a gray/ice blue. What do you think about the palette? Enlarge the photo and tell me if the living room color looks too pink...

New House

Nathan and I are closing on our first house tonight if the bank comes through with our paperwork. A picture of the exterior is below. We plan on taking down the arbor in front of the huge dining room window. I'll be updating the blog with before and after pictures of each room as we work on them. We're going to paint one room this weekend and see if we are as awesome as we think we are. If it's a disaster, I'll be calling in some professionals.

New purchases so far...

1. comforter for master

2. couch

Auburn Weekend #?...I can't remember.

This weekend I made a quick trip to Auburn for Katie's baby shower and birthday weekend. Katie's a leap year baby so she didn't officially have a birthday this year. The shower was really nice, and Baby Auden got lots of nice outfits and toys. Jill, Tiffany, and I counted a dozen bottles of champagne, three types of china on the buffet, two sets of antique doors around which the house was built, and about four dozen women with thick and mesmerizing Southern accents. It was a true Southern shower.

After the shower, we changed clothes and ate Big Blue Bagel for lunch and shopped a little at GAP. Then we saw Katie's new house which is great. Auden's room was freshly painted and looked like a perfect nursery. Next was a quick visit with Meg and Hollan. We celebrated Katie's birthday by going to Perch (a jewelry making store) and Amsterdam Cafe for dinner. Yum. An action packed and fun day in Auburn.

Me, Tiffany, Katie, and Jill at Katie's fancy baby shower.

The loot!

Holding Hollan...she's gotten really big.

She loves me.

Tiff and Hollan.

The girls at Perch for Katie's birthday. Perch is a store where you make your own jewelry.

Katie making her necklace. Looks like she's bending wire in order to connect a bead.

Tiff was the first one done. She make some awesome earrings.

Jill working on stringing her pink pearls onto a silk thread.

Modeling our new, handmade bling. Best pic of the weekend.