"Smiling is my favorite." Buddy from "Elf"

I am so excited!! I won the Target gift card giveaway over at My Life with Boys! Thank you so much! Now I can put it towards decorating my house!! YAY!! This is the first giveaway I have won, so I am super excited!

I return to school next week for some training and to put my room together. We aren't contracted until the 12th, but there is no time to put your room all the way together in a matter of days with all of the meetings we have to go to. Fun stuff.

Also, at our school the teachers do the school supply shopping for all the kiddos. All they have to bring are backpacks and lunchboxes. We get the folders, pencils, markers, Kleenex, etc. They pay a supply fee each year so that we can go and get their stuff. Now, this seems like a wonderful idea to parents...and really it is nice because then all of the kids have the same thing...but, people literally think you work at Wal-Mart while you are shopping. Every year there is someone that asks my grade-partner and I where to locate something because our baskets look like we are stocking items. Awesome, really.

I still have about 800 things to get done here at home...not sure when all that is going to happen. My mom is supposed to come up this week for a visit and then my girls from college are coming to stay this weekend!!! This might be what I am living for this week. Yes, it is. These girls are my bestestestestest friends EVER! They are a blast, so I can't wait! We always have a great time and it is a great way to kind of "close-out" my summer.

Alright, I need to begin my week of cleaning. Otherwise known as, "the last time I will clean this year because I go back to work in a couple of weeks". Haha!

The summer night is like a perfection of thought. ~Wallace Stevens

My air conditioner has died. A moment of silence...........okay, seriously, I am glad that it is unseasonably cool right now, but I am unhappy about this broken A/C. I hope to goodness the people coming for the bid in about 15 minutes tell me that it is just a simple motor problem and we just need a new one. That would be amazing...but something tells me it won't be that easy. Grrrr....*fingers crossed*

This weekend should be fun...Relay for Life on Friday night, Saturday night is free comedy club, and Sunday is date day with my husband. We were going to have date night on Saturday night, but my friends got free passes to comedy and I can't pass up the hilarious comedy of Rob Little. He is too funny!

Rob Little

So, yes, busy weekend. Then I realized that I have one more week of freedom-ish. I really need to go in my classroom and do some work next week. Then I have training the week after and the next week we are contracted back at work. Holy crap...where did summer go?

I hope to post more pics of the house soon. I really wanted to get my furniture painted and put back in before I posted more pics, but the A/C has put a little hold on other house projects right now. *grumble*

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Lewis Carroll

I am going to do a 2 part post here...actually, I am going to post quickly and then run downstairs, snap some photos of my ALMOST completed floors, and then put them on here. YAY!!!
Okay, here they are! He has a few more strips to put in the hall and he is done! Then I have a lot of cleaning and reorganizing to do.
Mr. S. is going to need a vacation after his vacation. I feel bad that all he did was work on his vacation, but the floors look wonderful. Although he dripped sweat, cursed, and pondered over the floors more than he wanted to, he did a great job. I am pretty proud of him! I thought there were some moments he was going to kill me for wanting to put these floors down, but I think he got over it. Haha!

I bought and put together a new entertainment center this weekend. I also went to Pier 1 to look for some decorating items. I found 'em, too. I loved almost everything I saw, although my pocketbook did NOT. I can't afford a lot of items that are higher priced. I can afford a lot of lower priced items though...I hate decorating due to the money restraint, but I love it because it is fun. I just need some more money.

Alright, I am going to post this and run to get some photos. I shall post them soon!!!

Check out my wonderful blogworld friend, My Life with Boys...she is giving away a $20 gift card to Target!!

"Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time." Marianne Moore

My house is covered in dust. And by covered, I mean COVERED. We are removing the tile from the kitchen. Maybe I should rephrase that...Mr. S. is removing the tile from the kitchen. Removing ceramic tile is the messiest, dirtiest thing that I have ever seen. I am having a meltdown because my house is a dusty mess. I can't deal with it. Today he is sanding the grout off the floor...tonight I might try to mop up the mess...and tomorrow I am hoping to lay the new floors! I just bought the new floors today, too!!!! WOO!

I will post pics of the mess. I took pics yesterday and I will today, too. The camera is down in the dusty living room. I am upstairs where there is less dust. I'm sure I need to go down and sweep something. That's been my job...clean-up crew.

Oh, and it's hot...and the AC is off because we opened the windows for dust. Awesome, right? Yes, the thermostat in the house says it is 78 in here. Way too hot for my liking. I did get a Vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic, so life is a little better. Though there is a cup over the lid as to avoid dust in it. I know you all are jealous, right?! Haha!

Off to see what I can clean!

There's nothing to match curling up with a good book when there's a repair job to be done around the house. ~Joe Ryan

Remember when I said I had painted 4 stripes on my wall? Welp, these are it. I can't remember all the names of the colors, but they are the 4 I thought I might like. I went with the third stripe.This is the "after" of Faint Maple. I like it. As you can see, I am still in the middle of "Project Living Room". It's a mess right now...or a work in progress as I should call it. I need curtains, pillows, oh! and a floor. That should be in next week.

Now I still have a wall to complete because I am waiting for putty to dry and for Mr. S. to finish sanding it down so I can paint. This is the yellow wall left in my living room right now.
So that is the living room for now. Still a ways to go, but I am okay with it because I have a few more weeks off from work and need something to do to fill my time.

We are leaving tomorrow for our float trip, which I am SUPER excited about! I can't wait to have a weekend away.

Enjoy your weekend!

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." Robert Orben

In 2 days we are leaving for our float trip! Woo! My husband is on his way home and his vacation will officially begin for the next week and a half...double Woo! So...things are good!

My living room is mostly repainted. I had to let some putty dry on one wall before I can paint it, so hopefully tomorrow I will get to do that. I took curtains back to JCPenney because they hung oddly. No good. It has been productive.

The Body Jam launch of the new tracks is in the morning, so I am super excited about that. I get to teach the first 3 tracks, so that isn't nearly as nerve wracking as it could be. I am pretty excited to be launching in the morning so I don't have to think about it ALL day! Haha!

I will try to post pics tomorrow of the new color in the living room...pretty exciting!

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought." Wallace Stevens

I am officially in summer right now. Yes, summer school is over and I am at home. Now, I have a list a mile long of things that I need to do, but you know what the funny thing is? They all take money. I don't want to spend money everyday on new projects, but I know that it is necessary. Yesterday I pulled up all the baseboards and door trim downstairs. Yeah, that's right...me doing demo. Mr. S. was pretty impressed. Haha!

Trying to pick out paint colors for downstairs. Let's just say I struck out on the first 2 samples I brought home. I am off to Lowe's this afternoon for one more go of it. If I don't find something then we are using the same color that is upstairs in our office/guest room because I love it!

Oh, I have to pass on this wonderful dinner that I cooked this week. It was so good that the husband asked for it again the next night! WOW!

Turkey Pesto Panini

Pesto Recipe

A couple handfuls of fresh basil

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 c. walnuts (or pine nuts)

2/3 c. olive oil

I mix it all in my food processor (I love that thing!).

Panini

French bread (I bought some awesome panini bread in the bakery from Wal-Mart)

Turkey

Pesto

Mozzarella Cheese

Butter the outsides of both pieces of bread. Put the first piece in a pan on medium heat, spread pesto, place cheese, place turkey, cheese, top of bread. Cover with lid and let sit for about 2-3 min. Flip and repeat. Serve. YUM!

ENJOY! I am off to the gym!