House pictures...at least from upstairs

Please forgive my massive delay in putting up some pictures of the house.  If you got the Christmas card you've at least seen the outside of the house, which is progress, right?!?

Anyway, due to the fact that I am swamped at work, running around like crazy getting Christmas gifts for our families and kiddos we've adopted, and running like a maniac with my loyal partner Will, taking pictures of the house has kinda been on the back burner.  Not to mention, I have NO idea where my camera is at the current moment, so this iphone pictures will have to do for now!

So...let's begin shall we?  Oooh and if you want to know why I have all this time at work today to post these pictures, allow me to explain.  Today is the second to last day of school, the last full day of school for the year and also PJ day.  We haven't done a darn thing all day, and my kids are staying with their classroom teachers because they are all having parties.  So, let's just say I have a lot of time on my hands.

Let's start with the master.  We love our bedroom.  When we first put the paint color on the wall I HATED it.  All I could think of was a Carolina Tarheel-sick-but it has started to grow on me, and it makes the room bright and cheery! (the fact that Brad picked out the color has nothing to do with me disliking the color-just sayin')

View from the door

View from the door toward the window and bathroom and yes I did make those curtains, with help from Grammy of course!

View from closet toward vanity/bathroom area

View from bed to vanity area...heeeeey Rachel in the mirror!

Vanity area

Master bathroom

So there you have it.  The master bedroom.  If we were on CRIBS I would've taken a picture of the bed and said a lie about how "this is where all the magic happens" but let's get real...how many of those people on cribs that said they were getting lots of action were actually married? Ha.  Just kidding!  Brad will KILL me if he reads this post!

Next up, the guest room, which is our UGA room.  We have our diplomas and artwork, AND since we live in orange country-gross, disgusting, tacky-we thought we needed a room so we could represent.  Holla.

Georgia room-view from door

Another view from the door

LOVE that painting-goes perfect in our room!

Diploma wall-notice that my side has 2 diplomas :)

This room is great and has already seen it's fair share of house guests.  Both sets of parents, all siblings, wonderful friends from Indy, and hopefully many many more people to come!  Secret-the reason there is a black strip at the top of the wall is because there was a border on the walls that had already been painted over a few times.  Since we had to strip wallpaper in the guest bathroom-we did not want to jump on this task-especially since the layers of paint had acted like an adhesive and super glued it to the wall.  So mom had the great idea of just painting a black strip at the top.  Problem solved.  No wallpaper removal required, and I think it helps anchor the room.  Thoughts?

Next up-the hall bath upstairs.  I wish I was better at taking pictures like other friends I know-Amelia-but alas I'm not, so I do not have 'before' pictures.  BUT if I did, it would show you a bathroom with wallpaper AND border.  Ugh.  Talk about a pain in the rear-end.  Once I finished stripping the wallpaper and border combo, mom painted the bathroom with some paint she had leftover from a sorority room or from lord knows where and it looks like shabby chic room.  

View from the hallway-bright and warm

View from the shower...the light fixture used to be an awful gold color, along with all the other hardware in the bathroom, so we just sprayed those suckers along with the frame of the mirror to make it match and not seem so dated.  The light fixture has actually grown on me!  Crazy?  Maybe. AND don't hate on my little Christmas tree!

Last but certainly not least in the upstairs photo tour...the mancave.  I already told y'all about the closet to desk area transformation-so here is just a quick look at the room.  The pictures really don't do it justice-oh well.  This is Brad's favorite spot in the house-mine too!  We watch movies up here, play DJ Hero on XBOX-yeah, that is what we do for fun.  Judge away.

View from the door-the lighting looks awful in this picture...should've turned on the lamps instead

Another 'larger' deer is on the way to keep our friend company-update to come upon arrival

View from couch-see Brad's little man tree?  We really need to bulk up his man ornament collection.

The closet that was turned into a desk area

So, that about does it for the upper level house tour for today.  One day when I find my camera/get a better one, I will put up better pictures with soft mood lighting.  Until then I hope these give you a little taste of what the house looks like.  I will get ones up of the bottom floor ASAP.  

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

How many trees is too many?

That is the question that my dear misinformed husband asked me on Sunday as I was excitedly putting up 3 more trees at our house...4 if you count the one on the front porch...errr 6 if you count the two tiny ones in each bathroom! :)

After going shopping a la store de Grammy to find some Christmas decorations for us as well as my classroom, we had quite a few more things to add to our collection.

Since I have YET to put up picture of the whole house-I swear I will by Monday-let me describe our rooms.  Clearly I am the best wife in the world.  I let Brad turn one of the guest rooms into his mave aka man cave.  So in the spirit, his room got a little tree...he still needs to beef up his manly ornament collection, but that will come over time, and when they're all on sale after Christmas!

Our other guest room is an actual guest room.  Since we have such beautifully framed diplomas and UGA artwork-thanks to Thom-we wanted to make sure that they were displayed properly.  So why not have a Red and Black guest room?  What kind of tree do you think we have in this room...you guessed it, a UGA tree.  Go Dawgs!

Finally, we have a little tree on the kitchen counter.  It is cute and the little train around the bottom is from la store de Grammy as well!

So there you have it, some more trees for Christmas.  I did buy two little tiny metallic tacky trees for the two guest bathrooms.  I like them, get off me.  More pictures to come soon, and next time I will take them of the entire house and rooms, not just the trees!

Perspective

As I said in my last blog post, I am an ESL teacher at an inner city school in Tennessee.  This means I spend my day teaching kids who speak a language other than English the thrilling rules and exceptions to the English language-oh boy are there many.  I work with mostly Hispanic-Spanish speaking students, but I also have a mixture of other elasticities and languages-which makes my groups diverse and totally awesome.  I have Spanish speaking kids using Russian words and African students speaking Spanish...it truly is a community of learners-meshing different languages, cultures, customs, and traditions together. 

I know there are many people in this country who have a problem with immigrants, how they got here, why they don't speak English, etc, and I understand the frustration and attitudes that these people have, but to you I say, please come to my school.  Please come and see how wonderful these little kids are and how much they appreciate everything that is done for them.  Come and see how wonderfully involved their parents are with their school work and progress.  Come and see how respectful they are-and their parents-to their teachers and peers.  These are children, and they are wonderful.  No child should ever be the subject of a political debate, fight, or made to be an example.  Ever.  

With the holidays fast approaching, I have been given a heavy dose of perspective by my little ones and their families.  Many/most of these families don't have two pennies to rub together, but they would do anything in the world that I asked of them.  If I called them and said I need 28 pieces of cinnamon gum (just for you Amelia) in the next 10 minutes, they would find a way to get here with all pieces and never think twice.  They would do anything for me, and because of this, I try and do a lot for them.  I'm their advocate, their friend, but more importantly, I'm their family.  I make doctors appointments, go to birthday parties, and worry about them when it is 25 degrees outside and I know they don't have a winter coat-like it was this morning.  I love my little kiddos and their families more than anything-almost more than my husband...just kiddingish! <3

So this holiday season make sure to take time to be thankful for what you have, not upset about what you don't because you already have it much better than most.  Sure it would be nice to have a shiny new XBOX, a brand new purse, or a diamond ring, but there are so many more people who need, not want for the things we take for granted.  I've always known that poverty is all around us, but I guess I never looked for it, or just refused to see it.  Don't ignore it...open your eyes and heart!  Don't pass up the man outside of Kroger singing Christmas carols ringing the bell for the Salvation Army or a family/friend in need.

I'm such a softy full of cheesy ideals, hearts, and warm fuzzies.  Sheesh.