The Nester Tour

It's me again with another home tour! I love looking at everyone's decorations and so I'm going to share mine even though it might seem short because well my house is not very big. Keep in mind I took all of these pictures with my phone so the quality isn't great. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Welcome to Burleson! Excuse the muddy boots on the porch. Our street doesn't go all out with outdoor decorations so we just did the berry wreath, small trees and of course we couldn't not wrap those columns. I think it's plenty for our little house and the trees are so cute lit up at night.
When you come in you'll see my favorite shelf. We don't have a mantle so the knobs on this shelf worked perfect for our stockings. I got these at Kohls for too cheap to pass up at the very beginning of the season. I dug and dug to find a Lee Ann L, an Aaron A and a Chelsea C. We keep the berry garland on this shelf all the time and it just happens to go with our berry theme. I love the deer and you can't see it good but they even have berries on their antlers. Gotta love the Hobby Lobby tree too!

This is our dining room. These old closet doors were a cheap and easy way to add something to the big bare room in the middle of the house. The berry garland matches the wreath on the door and I picked up the box and tree to go in here as well. Since I took this picture, I've started hanging our Christmas cards here too and it is sooo cute!

Christmas trees are hard to photograph but here's ours. I hope to get a lot of new ornaments and things at the end of the season to add a lot for next year. Hopefully I can keep this tree for a long time. I love it!
Of course we kept with the berries and added some poinsettias.


The kitchen doesn't have a lot but this sign is so fitting for a house of three teachers. It says "Please snow I'm a teacher." I found this at Canton after Christmas last year and forgot I had it until I came across it a few weeks ago. I was so excited! It's the cutest thing!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm so excited to see everyone's decorations! Merry Christmas!

Show us Your Tree!

At Kelly's Korner today she is doing a show us your Christmas tree. I was so excited to post mine! Our house has very high ceilings and so I knew as soon as I started thinking about Christmas I knew that a tall tree would look so great. I picked out a tree at the beginning of the season and even though I looked around some I ended up coming back to it and I love it!

I looked for a long time to try to decided on a theme and after Chelsea (my roommate for you newbies) got a berry wreath for the front door I decided to go with the berries all around and threw in a few poinsettas.

I hope to hit some sales after Christmas and get some cute fun stuff for next year.
I love our simple first grown up tree!

Oh and something a little extra. Can you believe we had snow in Marshall today? Of course it didn't stick but my little first grade babies were going nuts! We went to the playground and they ran around singing Jingle Bells the whole time. So sweet! I even had a few kids ask me if since it was snowing if that meant it was Christmas today. So funny!

Happenings

Ah it's been so long! I'm not even going to get into how I never post and blah blah blah because I feel like I do that every time I post.

Today we started back to school after Thanksgiving break. I spent the whole week at my parents house. I know they only live 20 minutes away and I could have just gone over there when I wanted but there's something about being in your own house that makes it hard to relax. I knew that if I stayed at home in town I would be constantly on the go cooking, cleaning, running around town, spending money, etc. so I decided it would be like a little vacation to just get out of here for a few days. The two times I did stop by my house I was so glad that I was away! Chelsea was home with her family and Aaron was staying here alone. Apparently all he did all week was go to football practice, eat out and play his new Playstation 3. My cute little house was a man cave for 6 solid days. I'm glad he enjoyed his break though.

I did a lot of relaxing but had a ton of fun while I was out of school too. One of my favorite things to do is shop alone. I love to shop with my friends and my mom but when I'm alone I can totally do what I want to do and take how ever long I want doing whatever I want. Monday I went to Hobby Lobby and the boardwalk but traffic in Shreveport was horrible for some reason Monday afternoon and I decided that I was not in the mood to be stressed over it so I came home early. I helped Mom get ready for our Thanksgiving company on Tuesday and Wednesday and we cooked and entertained on Thursday.

Now a lot of people have their own opinion about Black Friday but all I have to say is you can't dis it until you try it. We didn't go until just a few years ago and Mom and I have gone every year since. We've never gone after any big ticket electronic but have always gotten some smaller things (GPS, clothes, kitchen stuff, movies, etc.) for great prices. Not to mention there's just something invigorating about getting up before dawn and mingling with hundreds of fellow crazed shoppers. This year we did Wal-Mart and Pottery Tent and then seperated and Mom went to Bealls before she had to work and I went to Shreveport to GAP, Hobby Lobby, Target, Kirklands and back to Wal-Mart for some small topiary Christmas trees I had forgotten to grab that morning. It was a great day!

We had a late Thanksgiving celebration with my mom's side of the family Saturday night and after that I headed home. Aaron had done pretty good at cleaning up but between a little straightning up Saturday night and Sunday afternoon everything is back in order and we were ready for our routine to be back to normal today. Supper is in the oven, the Christmas tree is on, Modern Warfare is being played on the PS3. Everythig is right with the world here in Marshall.

13 1/2 school days until Christmas vacation!

Lasts

So I know I rarely post twice a month, much less twice a day, but today is an exception. A few minutes ago I got in bed and it's part of my nightly routine to check my facebook and blogs before I go to bed. Kelly's blog is kind of a starting off point for me and when I got on I saw she had posted a new post tonight and yall, it is good!

If you don't go over and read it (which you totally should) the gist is that though weaning Harper and the scare of her best friend being really sick today she started thinking about life and taking advantage of moments because you never know when that moment can be the last.

It's funny that came up today because just this weekend Chelsea and I had a very brief conversation with just those same feelings. It was homecoming weekend for ETBU so we went to the parade Saturday morning and she and Matt to the football game that night. At around 10:00 we all met up downtown to see friends that were in town. The boys played pool and the girls sat around and visited. It was a little strange because it all felt so familiar but isn't the part of our life that it used to be. We don't see those people every weekend anymore. We don't go to that restaurant every weekend anymore. We used to worry about papers and tests and now we worry about teaching and coaching.

As we came in the door at home in the wee hours of Sunday morning, we grumbled at how late it was and how tired we were and even laughed a little at how a few hours ago we felt like we were teenagers and now we just felt old. Chelsea said, "How long do you think we can keep this up?" I laughed and didn't really have an answer but the thought was a little scary.

Life takes us places. For me it hasn't taken me very far as far as physical miles are concerned but as far as maturity and experience I've been though a lot. Friends have changed, living arrangements have changed, and I've seen close friends hurt. I've lost the grandparents who partly raised me and seen my family hurt over that. All that said, I've also seen God give my family a peace and understanding. He's also given us the baby my grandma dreamed of.


I know I've rambled but what I really mean to say is that we all need to be reminded sometimes that we don't know God's plans. We don't know because we're not in charge. He gives us sweet moments that we should treasure because we don't know when hurt will come one day and the memories of those moments get us through.



Have a great week!

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY Monday, October 26

Outside my window... Very wet and cold. When will the rain stop? Besides being an overall pain it makes it so hard to get up in the morning.

I am thinking...I'm tired of being congested and might not be far from some PM cold meds, a shower and watching tv in bed

I am thankful for... a warm dry home, my friends and my job

From the learning rooms...the /ng/ sound, simple fractions, plants, and family

From the kitchen...every man for himself tonight. I got home late and just had a few snacks, Chelsea did the same and Aaron had Sonic. Will attempt to cook tomorrow night.

I am wearing... jeans (paid $1 to United Way to wear them to work today) and long sleeved thermal striped shirt with a Monarch Crest, Colorado hoodie

I am creating... a well run organized classroom. We've had 40 some odd school days and I'm still working on it

I am going...to one day have all of my clothes and towels washed and put away all at once even if just for an hour. I have more clean clothes at the moment than I have in a while which has left me with a hanger shortage so most of them are in baskets stashed behind my closet door.

I am reading... Junie B. Jones Has a Monster Under the Bed to my kids.

I am hoping...this congestion goes away and doesn't turn into anything worse. Considering I missed two days of work a few weeks ago with fever, respiratory, sinus and ear infections I really can't afford anymore illness.

I am hearing...Legally Blonde on TV. Chelsea and Aaron are both for whatever reason silently enthralled in it as if they've never seen it before.

Around the house...Things are fairly clean. We usually clean up pretty well on the weekends and let things go a little bit during the week.

One of my favorite things...funny things my kids say. Today in a conversation about things we do at night, somehow things got out of hand quicker than I could gain control and one of my little girls said "My granny had a party and they must have been drunk or something because she was dancing and doing all kinds of stuff that she's way too old to be doing." I had to change the subject while I had this mental picture of drunk dancing granny. They're too much. Just too much.

A few plans for the rest of the week...a normal school week with the exception of a little fun for Halloween on Friday. CANTON IS SATURDAY! I'm so excited to go with my mom and aunts. Chelsea has opted to stay behind. Don't tell her but I think I hit The Arbors a little too hard and fast for her. She's scared she can't keep up.

A picture I want to share... This is probably my favorite fall picture ever! Two years ago Chelsea and Matt dressed up as pilgrims and came to my Trinity class. You'll notice that Henry is standing to the right. I asked him a while back if he remembered when the pilgrims came to our class. He looked at me really annoyed and said, "I know that was the girl in the blue car." Well then.

Whats on my Mind

Just a few quick thoughts for tonight.

1. Why did I look at pictures from the beach on a weeknight at the end of September? I just stirred up all kinds of emotions that make me not want to go to work tomorrow and stay home and play with all of my little ones.

2. How was it that our TPRI and team planning day were both last week leaving my kids with a sub for 3 days? And how in those 3 days did my children conceive the idea that they were in charge?

3. Why is Canton only once a month?

4. Why do I have such a hard time making the effort to spend time and visit with friends I love? On that same note, why when I have a beautiful house with plenty of room do I miss living at Marcy's?

5. Why am I thinking so deep when I should be sleeping?

Enough venting for tonight. This sounds really depressing! My mom has always laughed at how Collin, my uncle who is only 6 years older than me, and I always think the worst things when we are tired at night. Every situation looks awful and hopeless to us right before bed but yet 99% of the time turn out perfectly fine come morning.

What I'm looking forward to the rest of the week-
1. My kids getting back into the swing of things and our classroom being a happier place than it was today.
2. Good behavior reward afternoon Thursday
3. Early release and a Mav football win on Friday
4. Canton with Chelsea on Saturday
5. A Tornado Potato while at Canton on Saturday
6. Loving on my Sunday School babies Sunday

Have a great week!

Thoughts From the Nail Salon

This afternoon I thought I would be very tech savvy and attempt a blog post from my blackberry while at the nail salon. If you stopped by before now you noticed that all that ever became of that post was the title, which I have conveniently left the same. I should have known it wouldn't go well considering earlier this morning I was unable to successfully troubleshoot an incompatible cartridge message on my new printer.

I was at the nail salon this afternoon for two reasons. 1- I got my first pay check yesterday and my toes had been waiting on this day for months, and 2- my sweet sweet friend Jamie's wedding was tonight. She was so beautiful and the whole night was so nice.

Ok on a totally different note from what I usually blog about, I got to thinking today as I was cleaning up around the house and getting ready for the wedding that I wanted to share some of my favorite life saving items that I am constantly buying at WalMart and Target that get me through the day. I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while and never have gotten around to it.

1. Noxzema Bikini Razors
I love love love these! I even use them under my arms sometimes because they are so much easier to control than the wide razors.

2. Tervis Tumbler
These cups are insulated and great to carry around in the car with you while you're running aroudn town. I kept a Diet Coke in mine at all times through the summer. I love that they don't sweat and make a mess. They also make lids for them too.

3. Flip Side Crackers
These things are the best! I keep a box in my classroom and love to snack on them during my conference period or when I'm working after school. They're a mix of pretzel, cheese crackers and club cracker all in one. They're delish!


4. Rehab Party at the Hard Rock
I've always loved tru TV and basically all reality tv. Rehab is a huge party at the Hard Rock in Vegas and this is the behind the scenes reality show. It's dramatic and funny. We're loving it. Other shows we're wathing this season- The Office of course, Black Gold and Glee.

What are your favorite things right now? I want to do more post like this soon!
Have a great rest of the weekend!