Ready!

We are officially moving tomorrow! The time has finally come and after a harrowing day we passed our final inspection and got the green light to move in. I wanted to take a few pictures before we got our stuff in. So welcome to The Burris Abode at 603!

This is the view of the dining area immediately upon entering:

Turn to the left and you see the living room. (The doorway leads to the master area.)

This is looking through the doorway through our sitting room and into the bathroom:

This is standing in the door of the bathroom. Our shower door is not yet here nor are our mirrors. Never fear, Dave and I do not sweat and we look amazing at all times so I'm sure we won't even miss these things ;)

Our closet (can I get a "woot?")

When you walk out of the master area this is your view of the living room. (The kitchen is through the opening on the left.)

Walking up to that opening there is a bar area on the right and a pantry on the left.

And here are some views of the kitchen:

This, my friends is my laundry room. (Does anyone else hear a chorus of angels singing?)

I skipped photos of the bedrooms because they're not terribly exciting. Wish us luck with the move and I'll blog soon!

It's a little busy

Life has been busy at The Burris Abode but we're not complaining. We just got back from a fantastic long weekend in New York City! I have bunches of pictures and stories but am not going to have time to post anything for a few days. I am currently packing the rental to move. We HOPE everything goes well with our inspection today so we can start the transition tomorrow!! I will have lots of pictures of that, too. But I just want to say have a little patience, I won't forget about blogging. Here is a group pic from NYC with my parents and bro to ride you over.

He Sings!

Will has some songs he knows and likes to sing, but he usually has us hide our eyes or he hides while he sings. He's a shy vocalist. Here are some videos I managed to catch the last few weeks. ABC's (he under the covers) Little Bunny FooFoo (we were riding in the car at night) And here is his beautiful face (albeit upside down and partially hidden) I love this sweet little voice! It is starting to change a little bit. It seems a little scratchier and lower :( I'm so glad I captured his sweet toddler voice!

Rain Barrel

Dave was really concerned with making our new home as environmentally friendly as possible. From the paint we used to the type of wood floor, we tried to be nice to Mother Earth at every turn. This rain water collection barrel is just another thing we're doing to be green. Dave found a guy who sold these 250 gallon jugs. Nevermind the fact that we had to clear a little honey out of the bottom. Now we've got it buried in the backyard and our downspouts will have hoses running right to this. We plan to use the collected water to water our lawn and plants. For now we have to partially fill it with hose water to ensure it stays underground when the first rain comes. Will enjoyed helping Daddy fill it.

Stone and M&M's

We are finally getting the stone put on the outside of the house. I love it so much! It really helps it to look almost finished. Our flooring and appliances go in next week which pretty much just leaves us with countertops which won't be here until the 25th. We're almost there!!!

The last photos are from brunch this morning. Most of you probably don't know that Dave has a huge, massive phobia of M&M cookies. He got sick on them as a child and can't hardly walk past them in a grocery store without turning green. I made the mistake of buying some once and I thought he was going to go to a hotel until they were gone! We all have our things, right? Well this morning only the M&M cookie looked good to Will so being the good parent he is D sucked it up and bought one. What was SO funny was that Will didn't eat it like a normal cookie. He dug the candy out first. Oh these boys.

What’s Going On

 

I have just a few random pictures here. Honestly life has been so busy the last few weeks; the house is in the 9th inning, I had my annual school wide art show, and then we have this 3 year old to keep up with. I can honestly say we have been so busy… but with nothing blog-worthy. So here is what I’ve got:

This is what I saw when I picked up Will at day care about 2 weeks ago. They were having an outdoor story time with a guest reader. He was in the front row and so engaged!

Some rare falling asleep at random times:

  

Playing on the climbing wall at the park:

First swim of the summer. It lasted about as long as it took me to snap these two pictures.

  

Silly playtime pictures:

Shoe shopping with Momma:

Loving up on his favorite uncle!

Life is going to be crazy for the next 4 weeks with 2 moves and 2 trips, but then I can relax and enjoy my summer! I’ll do my very best to keep up with the blog.

House

Here are a few pictures of the new house from yesterday. The painters are now done and doors are hung. The cabinets are in and painted and the tile guy is slowly but surely finishing the laundry room and bathrooms. There is still a lot to do but you can finally tell what our house will look like without having to use too much imagination.

A New Chapter

Last fall I received an email from the Arkansas Arts Council letting me know there was a watercolor artist who would come to my classroom and teach some new techniques to my students and all I had to do was fill out some paperwork. Uh, yes, please!

Ms. Cedar Kindy came in February to my class to teach my 6th graders for two weeks. My students were so enthralled and engaged with this session. Maybe it was that the material was new and different and maybe it was the fact that it was someone besides me teaching ;) Here are some photos of Ms. Kindy and my kiddos:





Look how hard they're working! I'd LOVE to say they were always this engaged...





These were the products after week 1 (they added more details on weeks 2):




Look how excited!!!



Ms. Kindy was with me for two weeks and we talked a LOT about teaching art and the building I was in. It got me thinking about the building in which I teach in and the pros and cons. Now, I LOVE the building I work in. I have made the BEST friends and have a principal that I adore to my core. But, there were a few negatives (which I will not mention here) that were making it kind of hard to look at the glass half full. There is a new middle school opening in my district in the fall and it got me thinking; I wonder if this is the time to transfer. As it turned out, with a few emails I discovered there was a position open at another middle school- the one RIGHT down the street from our new house!

So a few emails later I took a day off work to visit this school. I prayed for a clear answer to my decision and I was not let down. I had the BEST day. I was inspired by the other art teacher at this school and we had a blast talking. Many texts and an interview later and I was hired at Old High Middle School. It is the same grades and same district so not too much change, but just enough to invigorate me! I really look forward to working with the art teacher at this building. We laugh a lot and share ideas like we're best friends.

There are a total of 6 teachers in my distrcit with the same job as me; two art teachers at 3 different middle schools. A few times a year we get together to share ideas and talk "shop." I taught them the watercolor lessons Ms. Kindy had shown my students two weeks prior. (The teacher in the center of the next picture is my future partner teacher)




It is so fun to get together with these 6 gals. We work, but we do a lot of this, too:



These girls are so much fun and so creative. They had fun doing the watercolor lesson, too (oh, how I would love to teach adults!) :





The new beginning inspired me to do some learning. I spent 2 days of my spring break in St. Louis at the Missouri Art Educators conference meeting with other art teachers, hearing about news in education and learning some new ideas.






So with some new ideas I feel refreshed to finish out my year and start a new one. I feel so overjoyed at this opportunity. The timing was totally meant to be. To think back that my reply to a simple email in August set me up to change jobs is amazing. I am so excited and ready to begin a new chapter in teaching! I could just cry I'm so happy!