And He Turns 25

The first words out of my husband's mouth last Friday morning were "Guess what?"  Me. "Whaaaat" "My birthday weekend starts tonight!"  I couldn't help but be so attracted to his cuteness.  You know how we do birthdays around here.  This year would be no different!  Little did he know he got surprised, yet again, Friday night.  Friday we celebrated with Cody and Lindsey.

We went to John's favorite Mexican restaurant and enjoyed company on the porch.  Simple and just what he wanted.  I got him so good though, it was hilarious! 

Big thanks to Cody and Lindsey for helping pull that off!  I had my students at work that day also make him a big poster.  He loved it.

Saturday was spent enjoying yard sales and each others company.  I decided to give John his gift on this day so that he could enjoy it over the weekend.  All he's been talking about is a hummingbird feeder and how wonderful it would be to have birds around the house.  

Ok... So I bought the man a bird feeder. 

I haven't seen him so excited!  He loved it and spent a while putting it together and then we sat and watched, and waited for the birds.  It was a fun way to spend our afternoon!  We then enjoyed dinner at his grandparents house.  Just us four.   It really was a treat!  We had a delicious meal and great company.  

Sunday we enjoyed lunch at his families house.   

We enjoyed quite a few laughs from the smoke all the 25 candles was giving off.  It was funny enough watching Luke and Andrew try to light all 25 of them fast enough so no wax would drip!  

It took a while and Steve took some funny candids during the whole ordeal!  I couldn't help but post a few!  

This is us Maholland's whenever we get together there is never a dull moment.  

We had a great visit.  

We piddled around their house and had a little fun decorating, playing games, and then we lazied around the rest of the afternoon until that evening.  

Mom and Dad came over to celebrate with us at our house for dinner.  We had a great visit!   Watched Big Brother of course which made it an even better visit!  I am so glad that they got to come!

His actual birthday, Monday was spent doing exactly whatever he chose to do.  He decided against his favorite restaurant and wanted me to cook at home instead.  What a treat!  

We had his favorite dish that I cook and sat on the porch and talked while the sun went down on his special day.

My sweet husband, I am so thankful for you.  You are such a Godly example and leader for our family.  Thank you for everything that you do for us. Thank you for being the man that God wants you to be.  I am so happy for you.  I love you.  Happy Birthday! 

Introducing Year Number Two!

 My oh my did last school year fly by!  And now, here I am about to begin year two!  It definitely has its advantages!  I have super things planned for the choir this year and an amazing roster of students!  The teachers are great and we are all energized to start a new year!  When I came in last year I was just trying to do what I could to stay above water basically.  I didn't have time to paint my classroom or do any cosmetic things to it at all.  This summer I had it painted and hired my amazing brother in law.  If you need paint work done let him know-he rocks!

This was my classroom last year.  Not too shabby, but again the walls were HORRID! I had to accessorize a LOT.  Here is the horrid mammoth of a bookshelf in it's awful state last year.  Ugly purple with the back board hanging on by 2 or 3 nails.  (This year it is pink and fabulous!  I forgot a pic of it)

Again, not too shabby.  It was neat and organized.  Better.  Especially if you saw it before I was even hired.  YIKES!
But EVERYTHING needed to change.  I was determined to make this the best.  And I am VERY happy with how it all turned out!  Here are the specs...
Since we were the hosts of The Music Man this summer, my classroom served part as a dressing room.  Once TMM moved out, things looked like this.  Larry finished painting (he did a phenomenal job!) and this is what I had to work with.

80% of these things seen in the picture do not belong.  I bet you can tell which ones! Oh, and the bottom left of the picture all of those boxes are stacked on our concert grand piano.  Definitely doesn't belong.  So the first step was the layout.  That took us quite a while.  I wanted my layout to be a little different than last year.  Once we figured out exactly how the room needed to be, we went right to work.
Michaela came to assist one day and she was a huge help.

She painted my bathroom baby blue.  It is gorgeous.  Halfway through we decided we could paint the accents hot pink.

Isn't she a doll!  Thank for helping with this Michaela!
Another pop of sass was my pencil sharpener.  I wanted to make sure that it was zebra striped this year.

I decided that over a few days this wasn't enough.  So I added this.

And now I'm in love!  The students won't have any issues finding the pencil sharpener now!  But I may have an issue keeping them away.  Hmm...didn't think of that! ;-)
John's Granddaddy had a vintage serving cart.  It would be used to host the drinks and then the top comes of to serve as a serving tray.  I knew right away I wanted it to hold my coffee pot and all it's goodies.  John's mother got one, and I got the other.  Mine was originally rusty and red.  Of course, I forgot a before picture!  It was in rough condition.  Andrea and I worked and spiffed it up.  I painted it pink and black and voila!

I love it!  The bowls on top will have sugar packets and coffee stirs in them.  This is behind my desk now and will grace me with many days of serving me energy!
I found a random ugly, old wooden chair in the auditorium that just showed up without a home.  I felt bad for the pitiful thing.

So I painted her and sassed her up with zebra stripes!

She is gracing the presence at my technology center this year.

As I was on my pink painting kick I decided that my door stop needed a little love too!

She went from drab to fab with just a little lovin'!
I received these filing cabinets at the end of last year and they were all kinds of boring and drab.  (Again, I forgot a before pic)

Ahhh....much better!
Another addition this year is this little center.  It's at the front corner of the classroom.  It adds warmth to the room.  The tree has white lights on it as well to serve as another lamp in the classroom.  (Pardon my teacher stool. It doesn't belong there.  But I did paint it's legs pink this year.)

My most favorite thing that I couldn't wait to add to my room is the quote that I tell the choir before we go on stage and perform.  "Dream Big, Shine Bright"  My friend Lindsey helped me out with this one.

I hope that this will serve as a reminder when the students come in everyday.

We also painted other encouraging words all around the room in different places.  Here is the view from my desk.

I hope you enjoyed my little additions this year to my classroom.  I am so happy with how it turned out.  It is now a very calming and enjoyable place to be.  I know my students will feel the same way!!

Here's to a very happy, encouraging, sassy, and exciting school year!