Celebrating

I am celebrating the fact that I have graded more than half of my students' papers...by blogging. That may be sad, but I do love writing, and miss my blog when I don't get to write in it for a while.

This past week's news is as follows:
1) We finally replaced our front windows. When they were assembled (before we bought the house) the seal wasn't done correctly, and there were rust-colored finger prints all over our windows. They appeared during the winter, and we thought at first that the kids had done it. Sadly, $250 worth of glass later, that illusion is blasted. But the new windows are great!

Before:



And After:


2) I mowed my own lawn for the first time in my life... last week. I'm really eager to do it again, but it keeps being rainy. So I'll wait for a sunny day. I did learn that I should "drive" the mower in a certain direction when I'm mowing beside the driveway so it doesn't shoot grass onto the driveway. Lesson learned.
3) We got Isaac a new bed. His old one is so cute, but he was growing bigger, and we anticipate having a lot of company in our home this summer and in the future, so we wanted a guest bed and a guest bedroom of sorts..Isaac will have "sleepovers" with Lucy when company comes. And the baby will eventually get the second crib. So here are the before and after photos of his room. We'll decorate it with an airplane picture above the bed some day. Isaac selected the airplane pillow at K-Mart, and loved it even better than a great bird one I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Before:


And after:I had the duvet, but I needed to get the bed skirt, sheets, airplane pillow, and the bed. The headboard is from his old 4-in-one crib. We have now used every stage of that awesome crib.
4) Doug also put shutters up in our front yard, and we're excited to plant flowers in our window boxes and plant some veggies in our garden. Pictures to come.
5) Our realtor told us tonight that it is the very worst time to sell a home in Pocatello in the last 30 years, according to the quarterly reports. Fewer houses are selling than ever, and the average house prices have depreciated significantly. Doug wants to lower our price again, and I hate losing money just to sell our house quickly. We're at a bit of an impasse.
6) I learned this week about a disadvantage for teaching for BYU-I online. We are contracted on a semester-by-semester basis, which means I may not get the classes I want, or the amount of classes I want. I only received one contract for the fall, and have been working with many people since then--letting them know that I am interested in getting one more class, and asking how they decide which instructors should get two classes. Currently, there isn't any system in place to determine who gets what, but I have been assured that I am a fantastic instructor, and that, when a reward system is put in place, I will get the classes I want. That makes me feel good, but I am bummed at the prospect of adjusting our family budget with less money. I thought we would only go up from here, with more money to put toward our student debt. Sigh.
7) Doug is still being a champ and reading Twilight with me. Because he has had a terrible cough for weeks, he has me do the reading, and he starts falling asleep at all the interesting parts. We're going to have to adjust our system somehow.
8) If I were my sister, I would have already had my baby by now. Not fair. I have less than 2 weeks to go, and not an end in sight. Maybe mowing the lawn will help....