Welcome Home!

Our new home. :-)

After two hours at closing (they had my name wrong on EVERY.SINGLE.DOCUMENT), we finally pulled up to our very first home. I bounced up and down saying, "Look at these stairs I own - don't I own wonderful stairs?" and "Hey - that's a nice faucet I own. Would you like some water out of the the fridge I own?" After about five minutes everyone's excitement (and patience with my mutterings) had faded and we started moving in.

This was two and a half weeks ago. So where have I been? Let's see...

1. Trying to get internet. Comcast had us scheduled but apparently the actual LINE to our building was not live. So we had to call everyone in the book to get that done.
2. Waiting on the painters to repaint the house "Nomadic Desert" (i.e. no longer pink).
3. Trying to get unpacked. We have so many things and after climbing to the third floor 100 times you tend to just give up on life.
4. Trying to get a broken dishwasher and broken refrigerator fixed. Dishwasher was getting no water then no electricity; fridge was not getting water, then getting water, then not getting water...
5. Trying to get our old house loaded up and cleaned. Let me tell you, once you move into a brand new house the last thing you want to do is go back to a dusty old house that is only holding the belongings that you really no longer want nor need.
6. Welcoming Stephanye, Regev and Rosie home from Israel, moving them into our house, moving Stephanye out of our house and into her apartment and then going to Ikea to furnish her house.
7. Trying to organize the very limited storage areas I now have. It was nice to have random closets to throw things in, now I need to be a little more crafty.
8. And then the hard drive failed on my laptop. NOOOOOOO!! So now I have very limited internet access until I can get the new one installed tomorrow. And now we're just trying to relax a little. So do not give up on me, fellow bloggers, I shall be back in due time. But at least for now, a few photos.

Homeowners!!

Sweet temporary window coverings in our bedroom. We now have blinds.

You don't move into a brand new house with a brand new fridge without first opening a bottle of Diet Coke.

The half pink half Nomadic Desert walls. You can really tell the difference when you look at them next to each other.

Love, love, love the color now. :-D

Our huge backyard. It has not been easy trying to get sod to set in hundred degree weather. I'm sure we'll have a LOVELY water bill this month.

My reading room. This couch is so sneaky.

My little home work station on the opposite side of the reading room.

Kitchen. LOVE this room. I clean it CONSTANTLY.

I have cooked a lot of mac and cheese on my new fancy stove.

Dining area.

Of course I have to include a few organizational photos.
Thank goodness for Amanda and her collapsible strainer. LOVE IT.

A little of the living room. We just got a new console table and are waiting on our coffee table.

Eventually I'll post a few pictures of the upstairs rooms. Right now they are a disaster. Hopefully I'll be able to order our bedroom furniture early next week and it will be here by the end of the month. HOORAY!! Life is good in a new home. I LOVE IT ALL.

Not sure when my next post will be - have to restore my hard drive beforehand. In the meantime, please keep my brother-in-law Matt and his family in your prayers. He is very ill and needs all the blessings he can get.

Closing Day!!

My reading room furniture.

I have been waiting for this day for months and months and months. Today we officially become homeowners. Last night I was so excited thinking about the new house that I couldn't fall asleep. Christopher is a little more grounded and subdued about the entire ordeal. Me? I feel like a puppy. "Ooo! Ooo! Look at my house. Mine! Mine! Mine! Let me in! Let me in!" We close at 3:00 today and start moving things in directly thereafter.

Facebook followers will know the story of the pink paint. UGH - the pink paint. One of the incentives for the builder not putting the cathedral ceiling in our bedroom was custom paint in a few rooms throughout the house. The bedroom we picked "North Star." It's a blue with a hint of gray and it is GORGEOUS. It will look amazing with our new dark Pottery Barn furniture (whenever THAT comes) and my new white PB quilt. I'm amazed. The rest of the house on the other hand....

We chose the color "Lightweight Beige." We wanted the 2-tone effect of the walls against the trim while trying to make one continuous space a little more cozy. The painter was supposed to do the kitchen, dining room, living room, and stairwell from the 2nd to 3rd floor. We were SO cognizant when we chose this color because we knew (a) it had to blend with a LOT of brown tones (carpet, hardwood floors, cabinets, railings, countertops, couch, etc.), and (b) my parents attempted this a few years ago and got a beige that turned pink. I WAS SO CAREFUL.

Christopher and I walked into the house Sunday to get a little bout of motivation to keep packing and BAM - PINK. EVERYWHERE. They painted not only the rooms we asked but also my reading room and the upstairs hallway. This would have been AWESOME if we liked the color. It was horrendous. I couldn't even look at it. It clashed with everything and I was half in tears. Here is my beautiful brand new house and it's pink - all of it - pink.

Needless to say we panicked and called all the project managers etc. and Ryan Homes agreed to REPAINT free of charge. We chose another paint chip - much darker and much more brown. PRAY PRAY PRAY that this color works out for us. They won't have the painting done until probably Friday but that's ok. It's getting fixed.

Now that we have that fiasco out of the way I'm feeling SUPER excited about closing. I cannot wait to get my keys and walk in the house and start ORGANIZING! I've been measuring kitchen drawers and cabinets and I think the first thing I'll put away are my new PB dishes from the wedding. They have been sitting in our guest room since... well - some since my bridal shower in OCTOBER. YAAAAAAAAY!!

Mama and Daddy will be down this afternoon to help move. This is the EIGHTH time they have moved me in the past ten years. I think I'm going to have to stay in this house for awhile and then hire professional movers next time. I love my dad though. He's going to help me install the garage door opener, maybe do a little painting, hang some blinds so we don't live in a fishbowl, etc. Dads are the best! Mama is super great at organizing kitchen cabinets and cleaning up after the messes that the "movers" create. It will be awesome to have her here to help ease the process and keep me from freaking out.

We close at 3:00 today. The house is a disaster but we got a lot packed. The goal of this evening is to get the big things moved that have to go upstairs: beds, dresser, and my desk. We figure that way if we knick the walls (which we most definitely will) at least they'll be repainted by the end of the week. We have some tricky furniture - my desk is huge - and curvy staircases, so we'll see. And then tonight WE GET TO SLEEP IN OUR NEW HOUSE!! HOORAY!! (CGH is not nearly as excited by the lack of TV and internet).

Oh and yesterday I ordered the furniture for my reading room (pictured above). It's not much - a desk and chair that will go on one side with a matching file cabinet to store household items, bills, etc. and a bookcase. Not fantastic quality like our bedroom suite will be but I love it nonetheless. I CAN'T WAIT. It should be delivered next week!!

Binder Bender

It is a well-known fact that I LOVE organization. I have spent so many hours over the past few months dreaming up new ways to organize the townhouse. My project this past week has been to conjure up some ideas for a house binder. I wanted to be able to store all our warranties, paperwork, service slips, and instruction manuals in one place. I debated over the type of binder - or if I should even use a binder (accordion files and hanging accordion files were options as well). I sat and made lists of what tabs and labels should go in the binder. You could say that I was on a bender over binders...

Lo and behold, I show up at our pre-settlement meeting and Dan (our project manager) HAS A BINDER FOR ME. You have no idea my excitement. I told him how I had been wanting to make a house binder. "You were class president, weren't you?"

No, I wasn't class president but I do have too much time on my hands and shifty priorities! Look at this - the binder is already divided FOR ME. What fun is that?!?! (Dan is completely convinced I'm the biggest dork ever).

The walk-through went smoothly and I could not be happier with the house. The cardboard and plastic were removed so we could actually see the floors and all the dust and drywall had been cleared. It looks like a real house! We even have grass outside, although I forget to take a photo. There is blue tape on random parts of the house - it's just painter's tape indicating small imperfections that need to be repaired before we close next Tuesday. Our custom paint will be going up tomorrow and Friday as well. I cannot WAIT to move!! :-D

CGH and his beautiful new appliances.

Pre-Settlement!

Today is our pre-settlement walk-through on the house. I'm so excited I think I might pass out. I drove by yesterday, early afternoon, to check on the progress. They painted our front door to match the shutters (it's a very deep green), touched up the bay window and it looked as though there was a cleaning crew inside. My favorite? Someone took their shoes off and left them by the door. Now that is VERY considerate. :) They had also mulched and planted a few random bushes out front - probably in an attempt to "hide" the large electrical meter on the front of our house. I'm assuming they put down instant grass rollup as well (sod).

They have already started building the new row beside us. CRAZY. So we'll have some construction for a few months, but at least we know it only takes approximately 6 months for these things to go up. Our row has 9 units - not sure about the new building, maybe it'll go up faster. But once it's done we're finished with construction. Houses are already in place behind us, in front of us, and on the other side. I think we can wait out a few more months of banging for a brand new joint.

So today we do the walk-through. I'm a little nervous I'm going to miss things but I'm taking a notebook (bought a new one just for the house - CGH made fun of me) and my flip cam (just in case). Not sure how our project manager will feel if I flip cam him explaining how to work certain things... Poor Dan.

THIS TIME NEXT WEEK WE WILL BE HOMEOWNERS. WOOHOO!!!

Two Cents or Ten?

Naturally I have been checking the post on Unclutterer that features my classroom in order to see what people are saying. I was very controlled and only defended myself once, but I do like how random strangers are sticking up for me! Pretty soon the post will disappear into a long list of old news and I will no longer get feedback on my (I must say) beautiful organizational system. So here are the current comments in case anyone was interested. :)

Straight from Unclutterer...

24 comments posted

1. Posted by EJ - 06/11/2010

   Very cute and oh so tidy! Can I ask where the white bins are from? I’m looking for something like them for my 2-year-old’s toys.

2. Posted by Dorothy - 06/11/2010

   Super, and I so agree with MinsyMins: If a child is old enough to get a toy out to play with, he or she is old enough to put it away when done.

3. Posted by JustGail - 06/11/2010

   Very nice classroom! Love the photos for labels, although, I’d probably consider putting the words with the pictures. The North Scott school district here in Iowa uses cartoon characters for the buses, not numbers. Apparently it’s cut way down on the number of kindergarteners who can’t remember the bus they need to be on by the end of the day.

   EJ – I’ve seen those bins (or very close to the same) at Target, K-Mart, Walmart, etc. I have a couple and they are much sturdier than the little mini clothes basket types of bins.

4. Posted by Erin Doland - 06/11/2010

   @EJ — I don’t know exactly the basket used, but maybe the Slugis from Ikea could work? http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....s/66696910

   Or the Clear Handled Storage basket from Container Store: http://www.containerstore.com/.....d=10022155

5. Posted by Erin Doland - 06/11/2010

   @EJ — Oh wait, maybe these are them: Dot Baskets from the Container Store: http://www.containerstore.com/.....1553407148

6. Posted by EJ - 06/11/2010

   Thanks, everyone! How nice to find out that lots of places have similar bins.

7. Posted by Dawn F - 06/11/2010

   This teacher rocks! What an amazing organizing system!

   TGIF!

8. Posted by Rebecca - 06/11/2010

   At home we also put a picture label with a word label as well on the box or crate the item lives in. It makes cleaning up a lot easier for parents too. And it helps teach kids that things in life have “homes” too and they need to put stuff back where it belongs so they can find it again later.

9. Posted by EJ - 06/11/2010

   This is a lovely classroom but its pretty standard, also. i’ve toured way too many K classes, and this is what they look like. Also many preschools. The visual labelling is a great thing for kids.

10. Posted by Ris - 06/11/2010

    This is brilliant. Getting kids to pick up after themselves can be so hard but with pictures it’s easy to start early!

11. Posted by chacha1 - 06/11/2010

    Absolutely agree with JustGail and Rebecca, the photos alone are terrific but adding a word would be educational.

    Wish I’d had a classroom like that when I was little!

12. Posted by Steve Clement - 06/11/2010

    This is my 22nd year teaching primary.
    I just started labeling shelves with pictures this year.
    It works great!
    I have different shelves for math centers, word work centers, and toys and games for free choice and rainy day recess.
    Every morning my students use clothespins with their pictures glued to them to sign up for the various stations. Red clothespins for word work, yellow for math centers, and green for free choice. They clip their clothespins on long pieces of tagboard next to the pictures of the manipulatives they wish to use. Two (or three) children can sign up for each activity.
    I’ve placed velcro on three long pieces of tagboard which makes it easy for me to switch pictures and change which manipulatives are available at each center each week.

13. Posted by MinsyMins - 06/11/2010

    The bins are from Target or Wal-mart. They are the Sterilite brand – very light, easy for kids to carry and very easy to clean/disinfect.

    I have a LOT of pictures with word labels around my classroom – pencils, paper, caddies, markers, clock, door, etc. and this is one space that I felt could use solely photos. I’ve been in a lot of classrooms where there is just too much – too much on the walls, on the tables, on the shelves – and it can be overwhelming for kids. Especially little ones or those with special needs (my class is full inclusion – special needs, kids who speak no English, etc).

    If you check out the rest of the photos in the pool you can see where I’ve chosen to pair words with photos.

    Thank you for the kind words. You can see the before photos on the Flickr site also!

14. Posted by We Live Simply link love | we live simply :: learning to live simply so others may simply live - 06/11/2010

    [...] :: Workspace of the Week: Classrooms are workspaces, too 25 Areas of Digital Clutter to [...]

15. Posted by terriok1 - 06/11/2010

    It does not look to me that the kids are using the manipulatives much.

    Even in a Montessori class, where the kids are trained to be organized, does not look that good.

    You bet kids can be taught to put toys away but…

    I have never seen a classroom look like that.

    More power to you!

    The ideas of photos is a great one. I have done it myself. ) They often cannot read.

16. Posted by Jen - 06/12/2010

    As an upper grade teacher, I also use these same bins. We do not have permanent furniture in our rooms. We have rolling cabinets and those bins are great for organizing supplies to store in them. I also found that most paperback books will fit in them and then can be taken off the shelf and taken to a table.

17. Posted by Kate - 06/12/2010

    Those with questions or critiques should take the time to look through the whole collection of photos and informative captions on Flickr — this is truly a great project. Congratulations, MinsyMins, your students are really lucky!

18. Posted by Chuck - 06/12/2010

    Great post…glad to see a classroom make it onto the WOTW. I bet it is a public school classroom led by a highly-effective public school teacher. And for a change…she’s not getting bashed. Okay, off my soapbox. Love the organization scheme!

19. Posted by terriok1 - 06/12/2010

    I apologize. I was just a little taken aback. It is obvious that the teacher works very hard!

20. Posted by Nancy - 06/13/2010

    I’m a big fan of the baskets from Really Good Stuff. They are a teacher resource company, but they sell a mind-boggling array of baskets and organizing tools for classrooms and offices. I order from them every year and drool when the catalog comes in the mail. http://www.reallygoodstuff.com.

21. Posted by leansim - 06/13/2010

    Great example of organization. Also perfect for teaching adults the basics of 5S and visual controls for their own workspaces!

22. Posted by Margaret - 06/14/2010

    Love it — I’m going to use it as inspiration to deal with my kids’ stuff at home, which is my next big project.

23. Posted by Tiffanie - 06/14/2010

    Is it strange that I was more touched by the bear toys than anything else? While the overall pictures is quite pleasing and organized – I was transported to 6 years old just by those bears I immediately remembered the smell and touch of them. Thanks for bringing that memory back

24. Posted by Leonie - 06/14/2010

    Kudos to you!
    Especially as you had to use your own money to buy some of the baskets.

    Did anyone catch the reference to her keeping some of the toys/materials in a closet and switching them out – “too many toys can be overwhelming” (I paraphrase).

    thanks for the reminder!

School's Out For Summer!

Today is officially the first day of summer break. It is amazing. I woke up at 9:00, I'm sitting in bed, drinking some coffee, made a few phone calls. I LOVE IT. Really - being a teacher is the way to go. You work your behind off for 10 months and then get 2 to relax. And if you're really smart, you spread your paychecks over 12 months so it's almost like getting paid for doing nothing. :-)

Friday was our last day of kindergarten and it was a little sad and very chaotic. A few kids cried and said they didn't want to go to first grade which made my heart happy. And then I looked at the preschoolers and realized I have to do this ALL OVER AGAIN. I have to retrain all these little monkeys. I definitely need the break that's for sure! Because of all the snow days the City Schools lost all professional work days. So after I shipped the kids off at 1:00 for an early dismissal I had TWO AND A HALF HOURS to get my room ready for summer cleaning and hand in my keys. I'm sure I'll be back later this week or next to start doing some odds and ends but I was one tired girl when I left.

I got home to find that my classroom had been featured as the "Workspace of the Week" on one of my favorite blogs - Unclutterer. Unclutterer is all about simplifying and organizing your life. I have dreamed of being the Workspace of the Week and ta-da - I won! Of course, I took all comments very personally but that's just how I work. You can see the post here.

If you visit the Flickr photo pool for Unclutterer it shows the before and after shots that I took when organizing my room. I was pretty proud of being featured.

Saturday was a pretty ordinary day. CGH and I went over to the new house to check things out. It is REALLY coming together. Our pre-settlement walkthrough is this Wednesday morning and then we close on the 22nd. I can't believe it. WE CLOSE ONE WEEK FROM TOMORROW. Insane. I'm so excited.

Our air conditioning went out and since it is 95 degrees with 85% humidity down here we were ROASTING in our house. It was hard to sleep and CGH tried everything he could think of but we had no cool air. We called the emergency HVAC man and he came out to take a look. Turns out that a mouse crawled into our outside unit and shorted it. The man said the mouse was not in good shape. Come to think of it... I wonder where he put that mouse? Either way, we're fixed and have our AC back.

And then... yesterday. I ran a bunch of errands (which all proved unsuccessful) and then went to Suzie's to hang with her and Grey. I get a random call from my neighbor across the street. "Hi Kristi, it's Allyson - I wanted to let you know that your mailbox is on fire." WHAT?!?! Seriously, we're out of this house in TWO WEEKS and some lit our mailbox on fire??? So I go racing home (Suzie lives in our neighborhood) and find this disaster...

Luckily a man down the road smelled the smoke and came running up with a bucket of water. This triggered my neighbor across the street and he saw the flames shooting out of the mailbox. So he went and got a hose and tried to get it to reach (which it did not) so he had to go find another hose. Finally they extinguished the flames. Allyson called 911.

Directly after I pulled up fire rescue came. And then the ladder truck. And then the county cops. And then we had to wait on the fire marshall. They think it was just a bunch of neighborhood kids playing a prank but boy, they don't mess around with the mail. You've got a federal offense paired with arson. Lovely.

House Update

It's been some time since I updated the house photos on the blog. I realized that I'm pretty good about uploading them to Facebook immediately but not everyone has Facebook (GASP!). Our pre-settlement walk-through is on the 16th and we officially become homeowners on the 22nd so things are REALLY beginning to move along. These photos are older but show the progress that has been made since I last posted an update.

We have drywall, cabinets, counters, a bathtub and shower!

Railings are in and stained and we have countertops in the kitchen.

Personally I like the countertops - CGH isn't so sure about them. I have to remember that when we ordered them we thought we were going to have black appliances, not stainless. I think they'll look great though. :-)

Hardwood floors are installed in the kichen and reading room.

The most recent update is the addition of our appliances!

Christopher is SO excited about the appliances. I figure I can boil water on an electric stove just as well as a fancy gas stove so I'm not quite as jazzed but it's nice to see him excited about SOMETHING!! We have siding on the back and side of the house and it should be going up tomorrow on the front.

This week is my last week of work (can you believe it?!?!) and then most of my kindergartners will be graduating to first grade. Summer is almost here, Stephanye is almost here, my house is almost here - hooray!!

How Hungry is YOUR Caterpillar?

This week we have been studying Eric Carle in our classroom. We're growing our very own butterflies so it seemed the perfect time to pull out The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as well as some of Carle's other amazing critter books. We studied how Eric Carle makes his illustrations - by first painting an entire page, adding some texture and then later collaging. The kids had the BEST time making their caterpillars and I must admit - they turned out pretty darn cute.

Our wall of fame.

Painting our paper.

Adding texture with sponges, bubble wrap and even a bouncy ball!

If this caterpillar eats as much as my kids, he'll be a butterfly in no time!

In other news, we got out of our lease at our current house early so we have to rock and roll with packing and moving. We close on the townhouse June 22nd (EEP!) and need to be out of here by the 30th. If anyone feels a strong desire to help paint or move let us know!!