Okay, it's been awhile, but I really had nothing to write about. We still have to do the crown molding (which I believe we're waiting until my dad gets up here because he wants to learn how to do it) and put our new bedspread on our bed.

    So, on Tuesday, I was substituting in a 5th grade classroom for the same school I permanent subbed for last school year and the Principal walks in. I didn't hear him walk in and all I hear is,"Tracey!" I about jumped a mile...lol. Then he asks if I was interested in a long-term subbing for a 4th grade teacher that has been out. Of course I jump at the chance! I will be in the classroom until December 19th, only 3 weeks, but I will take those three weeks and give it 100%. I just love that school because the teachers are so welcoming and treat you like you belong. It's awesome. Then I have students who know how to say my last name the right way and some who just say,"Mrs. B" saying hi to me. It's such a great feeling. Oh and the kids in this classroom are so well-behaved. There are a few that I will have to watch out for, but I'll take it! Unfortunately, I won't be able to be in this morning because I'm getting my upper braces off!! Yay!

    Well, I hope everyone has a great 1st of December! I celebrated by giving Jeff an advent calendar so he can open each one every day until Christmas. When he saw it this morning, he didn't even know what it was! Since we don't have kids, I'll have to just make do....I know my mom bought us elf in the shelf for our potential future child so maybe I should just hide it around the house for Jeff to find...haha!

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I'm not sure if that button up there will work, but here it goes. What's been going on here? Well, we finished everything in our house EXCEPT for the crown molding. I'm not sure if we'll ever get to that. I did have my best friend (for 20 years!) come visit with her husband and barely a year old son. They were so much fun! I hated to see them go. We went to the Butterfly House, Lone Elk Park, visited Main Street St. Charles, went to the Zoo, and then finally Grants Farm. What is really neat about them, is that they are vegetarians....which is the total opposite of what Jeff and I are (we can't stand veggies!). They do eat more than just veggies, but it's just funny and different. I am just awed by their lifestyle change since they did not grow up as vegetarians. I need a lifestyle change....maybe I'll start exercising. I know Jeff would be happy about that. Anyways, it was an awesome visit. I'm excited to do some subbing this week (only two days so far, but hopefully more will pop up). As much as I would LOVE my own classroom, I do love having the day already planned and ready to go. I just need to worry about time and classroom management. Which can be difficult, but I love the challenge of it. :)

so exciting!

Tomorrow, is the start of our hardwood flooring to be refinished! Yay! They'll be here around 9-9:15am (depending on traffic). We have moved into the basement until it's finished. It's almost like we're in a 5 room house....we have the basement, extra room in the basement, laundry room in the basement, our kitchen, and sunroom. Very, very cramped. I would love for Jeff to take pictures of our cramped quarters, but he can't stand the clutter. I'll try and talk him into it. I guess I can update on the shows we've been watching. We're on Season 4 of Madmen...such a good show! I highly recommend Sons of Anarchy, we're hoping Netflix will put Season 3 up soon. Season 4 on FX will start next month. The League is hilarious. We've started The Good Guys, it's so cheesy and funny. I do not recommend watching Kenny Vs. Spenny...awful, awful show (only watched the 1st episode) Oh and I have the best news!

One of my best friends, I've known her since 2nd grade, is coming to visit us with her husband and baby!! I am so excited. I just hope we finish our renovations and have everything complete before they get here. Or at least this gives us an incentive to get everything finished.

Oh and a little tip; do not put a clothespin on your cat's tail, she will go crazy! I promise we do not abuse our cats! Jeff just didn't know what kind of reaction she was going to have. Poor Miss Cleo. She seems to have gotten over it, though.

90 minutes of Heaven

Oh my gosh. That massage was amazing. I'm a little sore today, but it didn't help that we had to sleep in the theater chairs, in the basement, since our power was off from 7:50pm-3:40am. The massage therapist kept telling me that I was so tense and a hot mess. She couldn't get all the kinks out so she told me to come back in a few weeks. I'm not so sure that Jeff will be on board, but I will try :). Afterwards, I felt so relaxed, I've never felt that way before. The lady also gave me $10 off for my next session that I have to use by the 31st. My bulging disc doesn't seem to be in too much pain, but then again, pretty much all my muscles are sore and I just woke up. So, now I'm watching Twilight since I just finished reading it. Yes, I'm a twilight fan :). This movie is awful, but it doesn't feel right not watching it after reading the book. I'll do the same with the Harry Potter series after this.

No more painting walls

Our bedrooms are finished! Well, the painting part, that is, which was the biggest project we have that we're doing ourselves. We still need to put the blinds back up in each bedroom, the outlet covers need to go back on, and the vents as well. Last Monday, I could barely paint because my back was hurting me. I have not had this constant pain (at this magnitude) in a long time. It's so bad that I am going to a doctor on the 12th at 10am. I am counting down the hours and days. I also talked Jeff into letting me go get a massage. A real massage. I've never had that done before and I am excited. It's going to be at 10am tomorrow and I just can't wait! 90 minutes of pure relaxation coming up :).

Update

Yesterday, my mother-in-law called as usual on Sundays. Well, she offered to come up to help us out with the painting! Now, some of you may shudder at the thought of your mother-in-law coming to visit. I, on the other hand, am ecstatic! I get along great with my in-laws. She will arrive on Wednesday. I'm a little nervous about driving to the airport by myself, but I think I'll be okay...lol.

We didn't get a lot accomplished yesterday. I did get laundry finished (but that's every Sunday) and grocery shopping completed, but all Jeff was able to do was to move the electrical outlet up behind the tv. This is no easy task so I'm not saying that I can't believe he didn't do a lot. It just took a lot longer than we thought. So, we still need to prep the walls in our bedroom to get ready to paint. I'm not sure if Jeff is wanting to wait until his mom arrives or if we're going to get it done tonight and tomorrow night.

I am going to be busy with cleaning house and getting it ready for the visit. I also have a floor guy coming for an estimate today, and then calling the other floor girl to change that appointment since it will be at the same time that I need to head to the airport on Wednesday. Fun fun!

Holy Cow!

Well, today we had a guy come in to give us an estimate of the refinishing of our hardwood floors. It was a bit more expensive than we thought, but we still have 2 other companies coming over next week (Monday and Wednesday). We really liked the guy, though, he was really nice. I hate that Jeff is going to be at work during the other 2 estimates, though. Before the guy arrived, I was busy cleaning off the shower doors and other odd chores around the house while Jeff was putting wall putty up and sanding. Then he took off the baseboards while I took out 90% of our clothes out of the closet....It's so weird having an almost empty closet. I even had to pack up most of our shoes as well (kept a few flip flops nearby though). We then moved to the basement after dinner to clean out Jeff's music room so that we can have room to store everything from upstairs down there. Luckily, we will only stay down there for 24-36 hours before we can walk and start moving furniture back upstairs. Oh, we finally received our Roku player (it was suppose to arrive yesterday). It's pretty neat. We received a movie from Netflix, though so we didn't play with the Roku player too much. We got Rango. I'm sorry if this post is boring, I'm just way too tired to be interesting at the moment. This blog is really to let things off my chest so that I can get some decent sleep at night. This way I can get most of my thoughts of the day on here and not think about it too much later. Very therapeutic (sp?). So, once again, so sorry that this post is awful.