..

The more we continue to plan and plan our lives out and leave God out of it.. the more he will continue to lead us to know that ultimately he is in control.

A couple large events have panned out since this summer and when these things happen I always think why.. sometimes I feel like it is always an uphill battle.

Than I am reminded things can always be worse. There is always someone else with bigger problems at the end of the day and ultimately it isn't my wants that truely matter.. it is his plan for me.

I am starting to realize his plans and I am so glad I didn't lose sight of what are my talents and abilities he has created me to use..

Remember it isn't what we want but what God wants..

My Mentors Classroom

I told you all I would show you my mentor's classroom. I have been so busy.. I forgot.

My mentoring teacher did a camping theme last year, but this year we wanted to change it up a tad. So we made it a nature them with owls!!

Here is her work display board that says: Something to Hoot About with owls at the top!

 Below her chalk board is a pond with 4 animals and she writes their reading groups under each animal.

 Above the chalk board is Work Habits with Owls and in the corner is the reading tent and and Owl in the tree saying "HOOT HOOT HORRAY FOR READING".

 Along the next wall is her wall word wall which is "Take a picnic with WOW Words"

 The back wall has checkered pinic border with ants and parts of speech.

 In the front corner opposite the reading wall is the Mrs. Henry's Peak! She has her calendar and behavior chart up on the mountain now.

Tara is a great teacher, but she felt her downfall last year was organization. So she spent the first week back at school organizing while all of us decorated our rooms. We literally decorated her class in two days and I would have to say we did a fine job!!

Labor Day Weekend..

The three day weekend was full of catching up around the house, DIY Projects and School work.

I came home Friday and decided the small changes I made in the entryway were nice but the gallery wall looked empty above the lamp.  Below  is the pic of the small changes I made last week.. but for some reason it just didn't seem like it fit. So I sat and stared at it till I could refigure it in my head..

 Here is what I did.. I added two new pictures and reworked the ones I had.

 First I added this color one here with the scenic view of Hawaii and moved the pic of my sisters with Nate next to the lamp. Above the lamp I added a vintage map print of Hawaii. I think it evens it all out perfectly! It really makes it seem like the shorter glass lamp is meant to be there now. (Remember I had the lamp that is in the dining room there before and it is taller.)

Than on Sunday I went to my mom's to sew the curtains for our third bedroom. I forgot that I needed 4 panels.. I was just thinking curtains for the window(2 panels for the closet and 2 panels for the window). So I ordered more fabric for the windows with pom pom trim in green! Which we'll finish those next weekend. But we did get the curtains for the closet up so I can hide all our junk now! I love love chevron.. so I chose a fabric that is gender neutral and would be perfect for a baby (if we are blessed with one) or an older child (if we end up adopting later).  This room will eventually be a child's room so I wanted something that was timeless and fun yet neutral enough to go boy or girl.

The fabric I chose is by Annette Tatum and panels would sell for $180.00 each. I spent less than $12 a panel and I will have four panels and tie backs!! Plus we had extra for pillows.   I love the results. The chevron has a lighter aqua that blends with the walls and a teal plus lime green. So if we have a girl we can add pinks and if it's a boy more greens and browns!

Here it is closed with my grandma's stool recovered in the same fabric as the rocker.

Here is open.. Mom and I are working on Tie backs so we can tie it back if needed or close them. The tie backs are going to be made with Annette Tatum Blue Alphabet material. It is so adorable and we'll make extra pillows with it too.  I think kids will have fun with this being a stage or reading nook later.

We had extra fabric so we made a regular pillow case cover and a lumbar pillow. When my additional fabric comes in we will make more pillows and it will become a reading nook like YOUNG HOUSE LOVE did in Clara's Room here:

Plus I figure it never hurts to have additional matching pillows. I really believe in pushing your children to be creative and push literacy. So if I can make a small cool nook for them to play games and read than it's an extra plus! I mean it already hides the clutter!

Than yesterday, I went shopping with one of my BFF's Kourtney to find decor for these cuties (Kylie & Chole) big girl room. Love these girls and their need to accessorize!! LOL..

We had a great time eating lunch and buying goodies for their big girl room which I will show you soon!

But Kourtney wanted a solution to cover all her clutter in her laundry room too. I suggested wood blinds like YHL did in their last house. But we couldn't find an affordable solution. So I suggested curtains.

Here is the before with all the clutter we all have.. and here is the after with no sew curtains!!

Kourtney wanted a traditional fabric that would match the rest of her house.. we found this on clearance at Hobby Lobby and it coordinates so well. I love that it instanly streamlined the laundry room. We made two panels so she can easily access her laundry supplies and there is room next to the washer to hang clothes on the rod that the curtains hang on. The curtains cost $10!  Next on the list is painting her laundry room (which will be free since we already have it) and organizing her 3rd bedroom once we finish the girls' big girl rooms!

Hope you enjoyed my projects. I have more curtains DIY projects coming soon..plus the girls' room. I hope everyone had a great labor day and please pray for all those in Texas that are being effected by the wild fires. Two people I work with had to evacuate their homes and still don't know if their homes  are ok.

Changes around the house..

This is what our dining room looked like this summer.. I love this room because it is cozy and my fav seagrass chairs. This summer  I updated it with a latern on the bar cart and new latern on the table. But it was missing a mirror.. I always wanted a large oversized mirror to reflect the light that comes in from the front door. But the budget at casa de Embley has been zip..and I can't afford the price  tag of those large beautiful mirrors. So I shopped the house like Nester suggests and used what I had.

I had purchased a large mirror last year for the third bedroom. But it was too large to go over the dresser in that room and was missing hardware to hang it .. so I decided to lean the mirror on the bar cart like Inspired Room does! Boy that Mirror is heavy but sure do love it leaned! I like that the it accents the moldings above the french door well.

I love  love the brightness the mirror brings from all the light in the middle of the day! I felt like the cork wreath fit nicely over the large mirror but needed something else. So I stole the lamp from the entryway and added it over on the bar cart! Perfection! I think the lamp compliments the chandelier also. Here are some more pics taken at different times.. notice in one the linen runner on table is missing. We had a mishap and it needed to be washed.. We do live here!!

I also think I might have a lamp obession. I have a lamp in the dining room, a floor lamp & table lamp in living room and a lamp in the entryway. But I love the light lamps give off verses overhead lighting.

Little Blurry Sorry!

Because I stole the entryway lamp, we needed one in there. So I shopped the house again..

I came up with the Home Goods Pottery Barn Lamp.. I love this lamp because it is full of Hawaii wedding sand, seashells, sea glass and coral from our anniversary trip to Belize! The lamp was originally bought for our third bedroom (eventually a nursery).  It will be in the third bedroom eventually.. but as of now no one is staying in that room and we needed it down stairs. I want to replace it with a fun turqouise lamp later. But that isn't in the budget now!! Here's a shot of the whole view.. at night and during early morning.. I love all the light that comes in our house thru the front frosted door and the back with the french doors.
 

So those are the changes made.. small but I am very pleased. If you noticed I removed coral and a tray from the entry way also.. simplize the look. 

 Nate really likes the mirror in the dining room. I have caught him checking himself out before he leaves the house..lol.

But let's look one more time at the dining room..

It's still missing something.. I think it's curtains.. So with my magic couponing skills I got these awesome Ikat Curtains in my fav color Turqouise and Nate's fav color red. Can't wait to put them up and show yall.. I'm gonna hang them high above the door and they will never be closed to allow all that light in and let us still have a view of the pool (who's brick is red and water/tile is blue).. curtains are going to look fabulous with the pool behind the doors and my PB rug!

Here is a thumbnail of it from the website. Ikat is all the rave right now and I am so excited to find some in colors that match our home's personality and budget (20 bucks a panel). I have found ikat curtains every where but selling for over 100 a panel!!

As soon as I finish DIYing the third bedrooms panels and hang these I'll be posting pics.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend.

PS the curtains aren't 20 bucks a panel.. it's just I am pulling a Young House Love Trick and splitting one panel to make skinner panels.. which will lower the cost of panels and allow light to still come in the french doors.

My Classroom 2011-2012

Hi! How are yall.. I know I haven't been keeping up.. I am just swamped with school, helping Nate with his side business, trying to keep up on my studies for my masters all while teaching and running a household.Geez! Nate started school too and tennis season is in full swing which means it is hectic. I have been meaning to update on here but haven't had a chance..sorry.


Last year I went all out with the Hawaiian Theme..it was only approriate since we just got married in Hawaii and no one was doing it! But this year,  with money a little tight due to the hospital bills and other large expenses I didn't want to have to go out and buy all new classroom items. So this year I went with a Beach/Nautical  Theme.. but think not just hawaii.. any beach any where!!! I worked two weeks 12+ hour days to get ready for school. It is so tiring at the start of the year. But teaching is what I love to do..

Three weeks later here is my classroom!!! Big Reveal ;)









Here is our class libary. I put book covers in the net! One side says dive into a good book and the other side says get hooked on a good book! Totally cute with the fishing net!

Below: This wall has a large bulletin board which I change out the work of the students all thru the year. It says "Sea Us Make Waves".. it is about to be full of work About "What America Means To ME". Next to that is my writing palm tress. One has the cocunuts with the writing process- Think, Write, Revise, Proofread, & Publish. The other has parts of a story- character, setting, plot writen on bananas. On the table is the trays for turning work by subject matter and their homework folders. This has helped tremendously with staying organized.

This is looking towards the front with our reading chairs/couch and palms. I have a tiki lamp behind the couch. On the couch are ikea throw pilloes with a shark and gorilla. The kids love the couch and I wish I had it last year.

Below is the front of the classroom. Which has our Helper board. Class Rules/Homework & Schedule on the other side. Above the board is Hello in different languages.

 Here is the rules "Learn the Rules or Walk the Plank" with their homework below. The Homework poster is laminated so I can wipe and write everyday their homework. I also have a class website so the students/parents can check. I wrote HW on the white board last year but it became a hassle with taking up most of the left corner for HW. I wanted more room to write.  Beside that is our daily schedule.

Close up of our Embley Helper's Sheet. I have Exploerer of the week, administrative assistant, safety commissioners, library liaison, textbook brigrade. Each week these change!
Below is our behavior chart clip system. As well as a pic of the back of the classroom. The other side by the entrance is our news/calendar station.

Here is our WOW Words Wall. It says get hooked on Wow Words. The fish are laminated so that we can wipe and write on them all year long. If the students find an awesome word they can add it to the WOW Wall.

At first I wasn't going to put all the junk on the walls this year.. but I had some of my previous kids come and say they preferred the walls to have things on them.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Click HERE to go see my classes website. Tomorrow I will show you my mentoring teachers classroom. I helped decorate hers also.. she was mass organizing till the last minute.

School's in Session!

School has started which means that I am working 12 plus hours with maybe a 30 minute break worked in there. I love my job and I wouldn't change my career for anything.. but I am tired.. Which means I my first job is teaching, second blogger/decorator.. so sorry you'll have to take a back seat for awhile!

Life hands you lemons.. and what do you do with them??

So this summer we have had our fair shares of downs! It all started great with our 1st summer off  togeather since I was in college and we found out we were preggo! But than plummeted when we lost the baby.. shortly after that we enjoyed our 1st anniversary married (7 years going strong!).  Once we returned I even had an interesting opportunity come up- I got super excited because basically it was my dream teaching job! But it all feel apart when I didn't get it.. because basically they had to hire within their district.. I was upset.
DON'T get me wrong, I love teaching where I am.. but my employer has  no health insurance (so I am on Nate's- which is a huge expense), I have no retirement, no sick days, no summer pay, and pay is not comparable to public school. We had planned that I would get into public school this year but with all the cuts in the state we thought maybe not and though ok we'll make it work.. until this opportunity came along and we counted our chickens before it hatched!

So basically- I thought this great opportunity came along and didn't pan out.. than we got hit with huge medical expenses from my lovely visit to the hospital..when I say HUGE- think thousands. We are still debating with the insurance company.

Well it gets better (sarcasm)- yesterday we went to the grocery store to get food for lunches since we both go back to work. We spend a ton of $$ on groceries and come home to find out my tire is flat on the Toyota!! It is a blessing it didn't happen at work, on the first day of school or while I was driving..  We knew the tires were gonna go soon- we had even talked about it. But we were crossing our fingers it would wait till school started back again- insert Tricia has a steady pay check again!

My lovely hubby put the spare on last night because there has been heat advisory here and so hot.. so he put it on and we drove it straight to Discount Tire ( I had a spare go flat one time driving to the tire store- so we wanted to avoid that). We placed the keys in the overnight box and went home. This morning they said that due to a new law each sets of 2 tires have to match within I think he said 2 cm.. so basically because one was new I needed a second. Which the flat was on the back and I really needed new front tires- needless to say it turned into 4 new tires! Surprise!I guess I will be riding in new tire style to school at least..lol.

In addition to all that has already panned out this summer we had some big choices to make about life.. stuff that isn't little.  We both also go back to school which means Nate is starting Tennis and will be gone all the time and I will be stressed and spending my life at school. We both love our jobs but when you have been off for 2 months going back is a huge anxiety on top of everything else that is happening. Yesterday I actually had an anxiety attack about it all- $$, school starting, everything I needed to do at home and school, my master's program and my alternative certification program.. It is just alot.

Than today my boss and a coworker called me. I found out enrollment at school is down and that a couple teachers will not be coming back because they don't have a job for them.  It all put it in perspective to me.. We may be dealing with alot.. but I have a job to go back to.. and that's life..

Life hands you lots of lemons.. and we have to make lemonade..I think I am starting to be a pro at this lemonade business.