I'm back with news x2!

Okay, so I know that a seven-month hiatus is a bit unexcusable, but I hope you'll forgive me all the same! I don't really have a good excuse, just that, after the wedding life resettled and I didn't feel like I had a lot to talk about that would be interesting to the outside world. Now, I think a little differently so I'm back with a fresh commitment to this blog.

And I have news! (But not *that* news...there are still just two of us.)

News #1
As of 10:30am yesterday, Brian and I are now the proud owners of this:That's right! After making an offer in late March, the short sale is *finally* complete. The house is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom colonial in Crofton, MD - seven miles north of where we live now (2 miles from Brian's mom and only a half mile from Brian's sister). There is work to be done and I'm hoping to keep track of our progress via the blog, but we're pretty happy with the potential of the house and are very happy with the neighborhood. Once it's fixed up, we hope to have many visitors!

News #2
As of July 1st, I will no longer be a classroom teacher. Many of you might remember that I was struggling a lot with teaching last school year, but that I decided that I needed one more year without the burden of wedding planning and grad school to see if I was really done with teaching. Turns out, I totally am. I was more in love with my students than ever before this year and yet I was more disinterested in teaching than ever before. In early April, I told my principal that I was not planning to come back to the classroom and explained that I would love to stay at the school, but just in a different role. After a few meetings and some fortituous departures by others, I was offered a new position for the 11-12 school year - Director of High School Programming.

This position has never existed before, but the work I will be doing is not new. The school has eliminated the Asst. Principal position and created two new positions - Directors of Middle and High School Programming. The current AP will become my MS counterpart and her workload is split between us accordingly. I will also take on part of the work that is currently being done by someone not coming back next year - like most schools, mine is not in a financial position to create new f/t jobs, so my role is actually the renaming and reshuffling of an existing role. If that makes sense. In short, my job is to run the high school (my school is a 6-12 school), but, if you're interested, here's what I'll be doing with my time:

• supervising 15 f/t HS teachers and 3 p/t HS teachers
• administering the AP program
• serving as the 10th-12th grade team leader
• tracking and managing HS 504 plans
• tracking and managing HS graduation trajectories and transcipt audits
  
• streamlining and updating HS course catalog
• sitting on various leadership teams

I am really excited about this new opportunity, although I am also slightly overwhelmed by how my professional life is about to change. Still, I think it is a smart move for me and I look forward to seeing where it leads.

So, that's all for now. Brian and I are going to the house tonight to make a projects list - I'll try to remember to take photos to share with y'all.

Just another Friday night...or, reason #98569 why I love my (former) roommate

What? You know you want to know what all the fuss is about too. Turns out, the fuss is about nothing. It was pretty gross. But I'm glad we tried it. And since we work with children and judges, we went with no-face photos.

that's too bad

I really wanted to like my kids today. Really did. But they sure did everything they could in the last 90 minutes to make that basically impossible. ::sigh:: At least it's Friday.

Decision made

Thanks for all the help, ladies! I ended up buying a pair of shoes for Maggie's wedding at DSW this afternoon. They are nothing like what I was looking at online, but I was able to try them on, which is always helpful. And they were a "Big Deal" which meant I got them for less than $50!

Check them out:
They're actually a little less pink and more of a bronze color. And they're about 3.5 inches high. I think they'll be good. Your thoughts?

Grown up sleep

As you know, the bed bugs ruined our old bed. It had been Brian's bed since he finished college. He was sad to see it go. And I was sad because he was sad. But we were *both* sad because, with it gone and our bedroom infested, we had to sleep here:


Some of you have had the privilege of sleeping in our guest room/library/storage space. If you have, you'll recognize what has been our bedroom for the last two-plus months. The bed has been with me since *I* finished college and while it was perfect for single me and okay for guests visiting for one or two nights, it is not so awesome for me and my 6'3" husband. Certainly not for 60+ consecutive nights.

Imagine our happiness, then, to have this delivered today:


Nice, huh? Just wait until you see it dressed! Thanks to the many C&B and Macy's gift cards we received for the wedding - and the flexibility of credit cards - we were able to purchase a very fancy bed (from C&B) - you might not be able to tell, but that's a leather panel inset in the headboard - and a super luxurious mattress (from Macy's).

And thanks to those who bought us the bedding on our registry, our bedroom is now quite grown up. Witness:


Sweet dreams, all!

MOH fashion advice

As most of you know, Maggie is getting married soon and I am the MATRON (!) of honor. The wedding is happening HERE (indoors) on a Saturday evening in November.

I am starting to shop for my shoes and could use your help. My dress - each BM is wearing a different dress - is this beauty from Bill Levkoff (in case you can't tell, it is navy, not black):


I originally hoped to wear something along the lines of an emerald green satin shoe, but I cannot seem to find one in my size that is the shade of green I was hoping for. So, I have rethought my options and have decided that I can be happy with one of the following four options. But, of course, I want to know what YOU think!

Option #1Option #2
Option #3
Option #4Sorry the sizes are so off; most days I don't have the patience to play around with formatting here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Skeptical

I am always amazed when things work the way someone says they would. Not normal everyday things, mind you. I mean, I'm not amazed when my car starts or when hand soap gets the dry erase marker smudges off my hands, but when someone shares a less than well-known use for something and swears that it works...well, I'm a little skeptical.

Brian and I have tried every bathroom cleaner in the store in our attempt to combat the mildew buildup in the corners of our shower (you know, the place where the bathtub edge meets the tile wall). Nothing has worked. Last night, my latest issue of Real Simple offered another option. A reader suggested that you can soak cotton balls in bleach and wedge them into the aforementioned corners for an hour. She swore that this removed the mildew completely. I told Brian, but cautioned that it might just lighten the mildew as other chemical cleaners have done.

This morning while I was running errands, Brian put this new method to the test. I couldn't believe what I saw - clean white grout where mildew had once been. Thank you, lady from Lindenhurst, IL, for sharing this wonderful cleaning tip. Who'd have known?