Living Room Updates

The world's slowest decorating project, which happens to be taking place in our very own home,
took a giant leap forward over the weekend. After officially living in our first home for over a year, we finally invested in some reasonably priced lamps for the side tables in our living room. Prior to last Saturday, the only light in the room came from a small floor lamp. The second picture has a better view of the lamp base.

Those of you who are familiar with our living room will also notice the addition of the green and gold suitcase on the shelf beneath the coffee table. It belonged to my grandmother (it has her initials on it!). I relocated it from the basement in August after we had our water problems. I kind of like it in this spot, though, so it will probably stay in this location for quite some time. The colors match and it adds a little more personality to the space.


Here's a close up of one of the lamps:


The base and post are antique bronze. At either end of the beaded post are glass balls that have gold flecks on them. The lamp shade is gold. This picture doesn't do it much justice. You'll just have to trust me when I say it looks good.

I also found (thanks to the 30 boxes of "memories" from my closet at my parents' house that recently made their way to our house) three brass animal figurines that I used to play with at my grandparents' house. When my grandpa moved from that house, I requested the trio and they must have sat in one of those boxes for the past twenty years. We now have a small owl (in the above picture), an elephant and a snail. I love having them in our living room.

All for now, and probably the next few weeks. Life is busy. Life is good. :)

An update.

One-and-a-half weeks into the school year and there is much to report:

1. I am so blessed to work with such an amazing team of energetic, driven people. The classroom teachers I get to work with this year are fabulous, and I know from my short term subbing last spring that the sped coordinator is going to be an excellent mentor. We've spent the last 8 days in training and have our open house tomorrow night. I am really excited for next Tuesday!

2. Tomorrow also marks the first day that I get to dress up for my new job. G had absolutely no problem with me revamping my wardrobe (yes, MV, you read that correctly) and I am excited to cut the tags off of one of my new outfits:

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I have some cute black flats with little ruffles on the toes that I'm planning to wear with the dress.

3. G and I are currently obsessed with Häagen-Dazs new ice cream Five. It is incredible.

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We've only tried mint, but I have every intention of trying every flavor I can find. It's hard for us to admit, but it might surpass our love of Ben and Jerry's.

3. I finished another chapter of my dissertation. *Insert major sigh of relief here.* Two down, five to go. Keep sending me pictures of your smiling babies and small children. Excellent motivation.

4. Speaking of babies, the major highlight of the time that's passed since my last post was definitely meeting one of my nearest and dearest friend's baby girl, Harper. So tiny. So cute. I (rudely) arrived at my friend's in-laws' house earlier than I probably should have, but I really wanted to squeeze in some time with the baby. And my friend, of course. I couldn't focus all morning, so I finally just jumped in the car and headed south for Cleveland, MN. I managed to get in some quality QT with my girls before other people arrived so even though I had to leave earlier than I wanted (dissertation chapter deadline), I left with a happy heart. What a honey.

5. We've scheduled visits with G's grandparents for the next two Saturdays. I am looking forward to seeing them!

6. My dad has started working security for sporting events. The man just cannot retire. He loves being active. He emailed me tonight and casually mentioned that he's taking a bus to Kansas City to work security for a pro football game. I think he's serious. That's crazy.

7. G has been practicing his trumpet for a wedding in September. Rachael, you should know that he sounds amazing. Also, since Mary has given him permission to play whatever he wants as prelude, you should probably know that he's selected the following pieces (performed at the same or slightly better level as the featured performer): First, second, and third. No need to stress out about the accompaniments and rhythms. R has volunteered to run both the cd player and the metronome so V can focus on her dancing.