Classroom Project...Incentive!

As you know, I'm currently teaching in Detroit.

Here's what you might not know: to help my students achieve great things this year, I've posted a request at DonorsChoose.org for the resources that would make the biggest difference in my classroom. If DonorsChoose.org teachers collectively get 5,000 people to give to projects, $100,000 in additional funding will be released.


Please help! Visit http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=303536 and support my classroom project!!

Alright, You've Been Patient Enough...

So I'm hesitant to say this, but I think our basement is FINISHED. The last contractor finished up yesterday. Now I think the only things left are rehanging the towel rack in the bathroom and putting furniture and "stuff" back downstairs. Check out the life, death and rebirth of our basement below...

Basement as we bought it:



Basement 2 Weeks into Home Ownership:


And finally... The basement as it currently resides. Yes, we will one day add furniture and decor:

So glad that they were able to match the tile!

Now, onto the laundry room. All you need to know is that the tile did not match the basement, nor was it all the same tile. The previous owner had thrown in some random color variation for fun. There were also random pipes jutting out of the bathroom wall under the utility sink. We just wouldn't stand for that!

The tile in the laundry room is now a smaller cut of the same tile used in the main room in the basement. Cohesive, I like that.

Now, my favorite part of all. The bathroom.
Original Bathroom:


Bathroom 2 Weeks into Home Ownership:

We can't forget about that buried trash can...So strange.

Drum Roll Please...
New Bathroom:

I'm a big fan of the new tile. What do you think?


Now onto buying new furniture for the living room upstairs and decor (yes!!!) and of course, unpacking all the junk in the guest room.

It is so nice to have a functioning basement again!!!!

An Example of Why Homeownership Can Stink...

So, I'm returning from grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. I pull into the driveway. I hear a strange noise like a tree branch hitting the car. "Hmm, wonder what that was," I think. Get out of the car to get groceries and what do I find? A BLOODY SQUIRREL flopping around as it dies. OMG. I stand behind my car hiding for about 3 minutes before I get up the courage to run inside to get the husband. Obviously it fell out of one of our tall trees and hit my car. Gross!

Now, what to do with a bloody, dead animal? We call the non-emergency police number to find out if animal control can come to dispose of the squirrel. Instead they tell us, "Just get a shovel and hit it or back over it with your car and put it in the trash." Doesn't that seem unsanitary, wrong, and disgusting? Shouldn't there be a government service set up to deal with dead animals???

So as I type, my poor husband is spraying down the driveway. Worst. Thing. Ever. It's instances like this that I miss our old apartment where maintenance would've dealt with it!

One Down...

Just thought everyone would like to know that I survived my first week of school. It wasn't a full week, but it sure felt like one! So far my class is pretty good, but I'm still missing a lot of kids. The first couple of days I had 12 or so out of 20. By Friday, I was up to 16/20. But, where are the rest? It's a pretty good group of kids and I can already tell who my major challenges will be this year! I have a lot of cute personalities this year. I wish I could have back some of my favorites from last year and create the perfect class. :) It's been fun to see some of my old second graders and I can't believe how BIG they look this year as third graders, sigh.

Classroom, Baby Party and State Fair!

I'll start off with a lovely photo of my classroom, still a work in progress. Notice the yucky rug...Can't wait to receive the new one from Donors Choose! For the most part, I'm all set for my new class to arrive tomorrow morning! Gulp.

This is a shot of the calendar area and classroom library (blue and red tubs of books, thank you IKEA). On the "Reading" bulletin board, you can see the Genre posters from Beth Newingham's awesome teaching website in Troy. When we complete a read aloud book, we write the title on a sticky note and stick it to the corresponding genre poster.
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Next, we're on to the Baby Party. Last weekend, my sister hosted a baby party for the end of summer. I was the only non-baby owner who attended. It was a fun day hanging out in the sunshine.



Kiki had a little trouble steering...

And finally, an attempt at a group photo. I kind of just stood to the side and laughed as the madness ensued. :)

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Last but not least...The State Fair! I had never been to the fair and unfortunately it's going to be the last one.

We had lots of fun, although the building full of roosters? Terrifying! Who knew there were so many kinds of scary, ridiculously loud roosters!?
Like this pompous rooster here. Or this rooster on stilts. He had a head, it's just tucked, I promise.

In the science building, the guys attempted to spin the plates (w/ one 5 second success) for about 15 minutes.

The babies saw some turtles and frogs. They do classroom visits...I want to set that up for this year!

There was some comical logrolling...
And Wonder of Life...aka CUTE BABY ANIMALS!
Little Lambs

Tiny Piglets

This little guy was pretty exhausted.


It was a fun day to hang out in the sunshine, feeling happy to be a Michigander!

Dilemma...

Have you heard? Our basement is done (minus fixtures)!!!! We will finally be able to start cleaning and moving stuff down there again soon. Now here's the dilemma:

We currently have this vanity sink in the basement bathroom.

Lowes.com

We still like the vanity, but the granite counter top matches the granite that used to be in the bathroom and no longer matches our new tile. We were planning to simply buy a new black granite counter top. But here's the thing, this counter top is 28" x 22" and apparently that size does not exist anywhere else except for on this specific vanity. What to do? New vanity/counter altogether? That's pricey. Have a custom granite piece fitted? That's pricey, too. I'll let ya'll know what we decide. When everything is back in place (i.e. toilet, washer/dryer, sinks, etc.), I will post pictures of the final result!

On another note, I have been working in my classroom for the past two weeks, getting everything ready for the first day of school. Can you believe that school starts on Tuesday!? Although I have some last minute things to do, I definitely feel 150% more organized for the first day than I did last year. Three cheers for not being a first year teacher anymore!!!