Say it ain't so...

I cannot believe that in less than two weeks I will be back at work. I had all these grand plans for the summer and not much on my to do list got accomplished.

My first order of business was to redo my kitchen. We are working on it as we speak. We have sanded down our old cabinets and stained them. This was a job!!! I can promise you this, I will never do it again unless I make thousands of dollars. It is worth it but my goodness it is a long process. 

Now, when I post pictures of them you may not like them. They have an antique/cabin look to them. But I love them. When we stained them it brought out all the grain in the wood that was not there before. We are getting the final measurement on our countertops( thanks to A-Master) and they should be here next week.

So sometime before next week, I have to paint the kitchen which has been the cause of sleepless nights and long stares at the kitchen walls. Now, I do not want to toot my own horn, but I am prettty good and very confident about paint colors. All of the current colors in my house were very quick decisions and I have never regretted them.  However, this kitchen has broke the mold and I just cannot decide. I really wanted a red or a green. But red is just to much and our kitchen has a lot of wall space. The green is still a possibility but I do not want a dark green or a very light green. I tried to continue the browns from my living room to the kitchen but that would just not work. Now, I am thinking a grayish tan or something like that. Usually, it takes me 20 minutes and I am done with deciding on paint-this has taken weeks.

Oh, and did I mention that the Hubs HATES to paint?

Let me brag on the Hubs for a minute. He can fix anything. I do mean anything. He loves to fix stuff up and to just have something to work on. However, painting causes him to turn into another person and I have to beg him to just get the high spots. It will be so. much. fun....

After we get the kitchen settled down, I am going to paint the laundry room. The color is "Robin's Egg Blue".
It is so pretty and I cannot wait to get it on the walls. I have to wait until we can move some stuff out of there and that will be we get this kitchen back together.

So, now I am left with less than 2 weeks, a kitchen to paint, and a laundry room to paint,with a beach trip thrown in, before I am too tired to get anything done. It takes me a while to adjust to working especially because I am there from 6:45 until al least 4 everyday. My backs hurts just thinking about it.

Now, I leave you with my baby boy, Scruff MaGruff. I do not know what I would do without this little guy. I love being his Momma!! He is so much like a baby but J and I love it!!

Beach Trip

My hubby loves spontaneous trips. No plans, no reservations, not much notice- basically just go with it.
So on Thursday last week, he text me and says, " I'm off until Wednesday- we are going to the beach."
Friday morning we left.
We had no trouble getting a room and ended up on the bottom floor where we could just walk right out on the beach.
Of course, after getting settled in our room our first order of business was, naturally, Walmart where we picked up some beach essentials.
I have one word for you- umbrella. The beach umbrella was life changing for J. We already had beach chairs but no umbrella. This umbrella allowed my hubby to stay out on the beach with me for the entire time. He loved it and I ended up loving it too. I think it made me lazy because then laying out in the hot sun, with my suncreen, seemed unbearable. By the way, who knew that you could tan so well with suncreen. I did not.
For the first time ever at the beach, I did not get burned once but look like an indian( words of my Mother).

 Lovin the umbrella....

 Beach pics...don't judge...done by the timer....

 Scruff stayed with Mom and Dad. He did get a present for being left. A frog pillow pal.

 HE LOVES IT. Now I did not pay $20 for this one. This was a cheap one I found on sale in Florida.

Since I have had Scruff, every year so far, he gets sick on my anniversary. Last year and this year, on June the 8, he has made it to the vet.  I think it is punishment for leaving him but he is really sick. Poor Scruff had to get two shots yesterday and I have to give him medicine for a while.
I don't know if he 's better yet. All he is currently doing is sleeping and whining.

Happy Anniversary

Today, Jay and I celebrated our third anniversary. I cannot believe that it has been 3 years.
We celebrated by a trip to the beach- which was wonderful, relaxing and exactly what we needed.
Happy Anniversary Jay!! I love you. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and friend.

Yes I know..

it has been a while since I have posted. So here it is...
We have spent many weekends working on the lake and the boat.
Jay replaced the dock on our lot. The lot still needs lots of work but is on its
way to looking great.

 Let's play " Where is Scruff MaGruff?"
 Here is another fun fact about him; He loves the lake.
 He jumps in the water, swims, and loves to explore. He gets so excited when we are there.

 The boys working and Daddy...not so much.  I am loving the highwater socks and hat Dad.....
precious. Love you Dad!

 Scruff and GanDaddy

 Scruff checking out the fish!!

 Riding the four-wheeler

 Now, our other project is the boat. We took everything off the boat, put a new floor down and
put everything back on the boat.
Let me tell you....it was a lot of work. J worked us down. He does not play.

The boat is complete and back in the water. I will have pics soon of that.
We are going to enjoy the lake this summer.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to tell my Mother " Happy Mother's Day".
I love you so very much.
Thank you for all you do for J, Scruff and I.
Scruff says, " Love you Ganmama!"

You may not like this....

but I am going to tell you.
I feel like educators are under attack. Educators are up against so much right now and I know there are much more important things going on in this crazy world but this is important too.
Here are 3 things I hear people say who are not a part of education or who once were and have mysteriously forgotten:
1. " Well, you only work 180 days a year."
    Not hardly. There is not a day or even hour that school is not on mind. Planning lessons, writing lesson plans, studying for the next day are an everyday part of my life now. Please go ahead and try to pay me by the hour and it will break the education budget for sure. When we stay after school for games, club meetings, dances, tutoring, etc., we still get the same pay. But we do it for the kids.
2. "How much do you pay for your insurance,?  I bet nothing. I pay $1100."
   I heard the best statement ever at an education rally. This statement ( paraphrased) was made by one of my fellow educators.
" You may pay that much. But we went into education knowing we were not going to be millionaires. We went into education because we want to teach children. We take that cut in pay so we can have the benefits. Don't throw that up in our face. What you all are proposing will cause many good teachers to change their profession because you leave them no choice."
3. " Tenure is stupid."
Well, no it is not. It was made to protect good teachers from losing their jobs. Imagine if teachers lost their jobs because their students did not perform well on a test.
Why do this? Do we fire a dentist because the tooth breaks, a doctor because he/she could not save their patient? No, because we are given "patients" who have not taken care of their teeth or patients who did not take care of their body and we have to fix them. Same for educators.
We take whatever we are given and work with it. Some of it good and some not so good. It doesn't matter we still do our job and do it the best we can.

There are others reasons for tenure that I am not going into because... well frankly, it could tick some people off so I am not.
I am thankful for my job. I love it 4.5 days of the school week. So if you can, let your voice be heard.
Fight for your teachers who are working everyday, giving their all, educating your children and playing part time parents because so many students do not have role models at home.
I know there will have to be cuts somewhere but lets start taking cuts at the top- not the bottom.

That was my rant for today...Sorry!!

Oh and I know some people have been missing me on here( Ok, maybe 1 person) so I will try to give an
update later on of my life the past few weeks!!!

Camping Update

We did not have to pretend we went camping because we did. ( If you are confused, see my previous post.)
Jayster and I stayed on our lake lot in this jewel. Actually. it was very nice and I must say- paradise compared to a tent.

This was our camping essentials- notice Cheeze-Its, Chips, Fudge Rounds. This is all

food that we usually do not eat. I went a little crazy at Walmart.

Scruff and his spread of toys. Fun fact about Scruff MaGruff: he counts his toys. He will watch you get all of these high priced toys out of his bag. If you forget one, he whines or digs in the bag until it is out.

Him is so smart!!

                                                                   
                                                                     This is our view!

Oh, how peaceful!

    
                                               

Our camping pic! Do you see the "Green Machine" blinging in the sun?

Yes, we are the owners of this fine piece of equipment.

It is a "work"truck. This is how J described it to me when he bought it.

I'm going to start using that excuse when I want something- its a work outfit, work shoes, work makeup.

So, when you see the green machine meeting you with a USA tag(for the love, I cannot wait until that is removed) on the front- you will know who it is.

Next, we went to Mom and Dads and cut down some trees. I decided I wanted to make something out of the wood. First, we were cutting the limbs into, like ,little discs. I am going to use them for my classroom for area and circumference.

Please excuse my face- I was terrified of 1). losing a digit, 2). getting wood in my eyes because lets face it- they can't be replaced.

I know you are asking yourself, " Why does she have on those clothes?" So did I. My husband says I should wear work clothes all the time. I did not know I would be lumberjacking on a Sunday afternoon- forgive me.

My "city" chiren will be amazed by these!!

Checking out the wood chips

This picture deserves no caption...Enjoy!

Joshua- watching us and keeping up with Scruff who was trying to attack every animal bigger than him.

Scruff chased away 2 dogs and 1 cat which looked like it had a part in the Lion King. I think Scruff has Napoleon syndrome- you know little man syndrome. Bless his heart, him is so cute I can hardly stand it!

Here is my new project- I am going to make a couple of things with these but that is for a later blog.

It was a great weekend! Family, sunshine and country living- it does not get much better than that!!

Oh and here is a verse for the week. I memorized this but forgot the book it was in. I love it and really, really needed to see this!

" Commit thy ways unto the Lord: trust also in him and He shall bring it to pass"