Home Again…

Remember that job interview I had a while back, before we left to come to San Antonio?  The phone interview went great.  The principal seemed really interested and then called me back a week later asking if I was still interested in the position.  Sounds good, right?  She said that she wanted all the new people to come in and meet with the priest so we scheduled a time for that to happen the day after I got into town.  I showed up at the school dressed up, not in a full-on interview suit but dressed up.  Dressy capris, heels and a jacket.  I thought I was hired, I thought I was meeting the priest.  Nope, I was interviewing again with the principal, 2 teachers and (in the priest’s place), the president of the parents’ council.  It would’ve been nice if I’d known I was interviewing again so I could’ve worn my suit.  Anyway, I was asked all the same questions again that the principal asked me over the phone and I gave the same answers.  I thought I was doing good until I accidentally mentioned that Ryan had been deployed to Iraq and my faith got me through the 14 month deployment (I was being asked about how my faith is a part of who I am).  I saw the parents’ council lady write “Husband military?” at the top of my resume’.  Well you might as well have stuck a fork in me then because it was all over.  I left feeling like crap and then got an email on Saturday telling me that I wouldn’t be hired.  Yep, we’re military, damn it.  My address on my resume’ says Ft. Benning and we moved to friggin’ “Military City USA” and your school is the closest one to the Army post in town.  Don’t act shocked to find out an applicant is a military wife.  I’m sick and freakin’ tired of being discriminated against because we’re military.  Schools need to get it through their thick skulls that there are a lot of military wives that are teachers.  It’s a nice, portable career for women who get dragged from pillar to post every 3 years.  Grr…I’m really frustrated.  I thought I had it all secured until this load of crap got put in my lap.

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In other news, does anyone know what kind of plant this is?

The color of the flowers didn’t show up well, the flowers are purple.  I saw them all over my parents’ neighborhood in landscaping and I just love them and would like to see if they’d grow here.  So, any thoughts on what it might be?

I made it, I’m here in San Antonio and loving it!  I’ve actually had the week to myself.  On my way through Houston, I stopped at my mom’s and spent Saturday and Sunday nights and left Aidan there to spend a week with her grandmommy.  I came on to San Antonio on Monday morning to get into the house, get in-processed on post and get all of the other logistical stuff done.  Can I tell you how nice it is just have a few days for just me?  I’ve definitely missed it.  I’ll go back on Friday morning to get Aidan and to see one of Ryan’s cousins graduate from high school.

So, a few pictures?

Unlocking the door…she’s mine, all mine!  (The lockbox was still on the door so they could get me my key on Memorial Day).

How should I deal with these windows and this whole wall room in general??

I plan on putting the armoire (that we don’t own yet) in the corner, either 1) the corner by the windows or 2) the other corner of that wall you can see that doesn’t have windows (it meets a half wall).  If I go with option 1, I’ll put the couch that we don’t own yet, jutting out perpendicular to the wall with the window, next to the righthand window and then the chairs (one of which is being delivered 6/1, the other we don’t own yet) against the half wall with an end table and a lamp  between them. 

If I go with option 2, the armoire will go in the corner shown here where the full wall and half wall meet.  The couch will go against the wall with the windows and the chairs will go perpendicular to that wall (where the couch was in Option 1).

Either way, I’m going to have an expanse of wall that’s basically empty.  I really didn’t want to go the route of  “Center the armoire on the wall with the cable outlet. Done.”  I’m trying to expand my horizons and put furniture on angles (I’m a big fan of the 90 degree angle…anything beyond that is stretching it for me).

So, any ideas?  Do you have a totally new idea that my small decorating brain hasn’t even thought of yet?

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I have a similar issue upstairs in the playroom. 

When I first envisioned this room, I had the idea of a low TV/Media stand to go against the half wall here where you see the outlet.

Unfortunately…

The cable outlet is on the other side of the room.  The husband of a friend of mine suggested (via Twitter) that we (meaning, Ryan) could run white cable from the outlet, along the baseboards, over the three doors between the outlet and the other wall and connect it that way.  Otherwise, I really can’t figure out a good configuration for this room.  I need a little corner for sewing, the long wall for the couch we currently have and a spot for the chair and a half that Aidan loves to climb all over when she’s watching Noggin.  Plus space for toys.  Am I expecting too much?

I’m thinking this short wall for sewing (the one without the vents), it’s close to the utility room so I could leave my ironing board set up in there and it wouldn’t be in the way.

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I need my furniture here!!!  It was supposed to arrive today but it didn’t.  Grrr…  Not sure what’s going on with that.  So, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade and go shopping…but that’s for my next post.  Found some cute stuff at World Market.

This was my living room on Tuesday night:

The biggest part of our belongings, neatly packed into cardboard boxes.

On Wednesday, they all got loaded onto a truck:

Having the Army deal with the heavy lifting part of moving is one of my favorite benefits of being an Army wife.  I know a lot of military families prefer to do it themselves (DITY moves) and pocket the cash but for me, my time and energy is worth FAR more than the Army could ever pay me.  These people are professional movers, they do this every day.  I HATE packing with a purple passion so I’d much rather they do it. 

In other news, I need a blog name change.  I was thinking about this at about 4am when I couldn’t sleep (our air mattress has a hole in it that we discovered at about 10pm last night so we slept on the HARDwood floor…I feel like I’ve been beaten by sticks).  Any suggestions?  Something Texas/military/crafty?  I dunno.  It’ll come to me.  It has to change though because we won’t be living on post anymore and I’m weird about authenticity that way.

Tomorrow will be my last day with Internet for a little while.  We’ll be driving to Texas on Saturday, I’ll stay with my parents in Houston until Monday morning then I’ll get up and drive to San Antonio (leaving Aidan with them for a week).

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, all!  Catch you on the flip side!

I’m officially obsessed with the black and white train sign in this picture.  We wants it.  (Or a reasonable facsimile.)

I like this one because it says Houston, our hometown (even though it’s technically referencing Houston St. in NYC)

From http://www.subwaysigns.com/  Those are more NYC oriented though and we have no connection to NYC.  I prefer for things in my home to have some connection to us.  Hmm…now to try to find a black and white Texas train sign.  Easier said than done!

PS. Anyone know where that first pic with the Virginia railroad sign is from?

I originally thought I wanted to do her room in pink and zebra but I’m really not feeling it anymore.   I’ve been looking around and have found some cute pink (MUST have pink, MUST!!) and multi-colored bedding and I think I’ve found something I like.

It’s Pottery Barn-ish.  But not at the PB cost.    I think with this bedding I have a lot more colors to work with and it’s not quite so trendy.

I’ve been cruising around Craigslist lately, mostly just browsing but last night I found a white dresser for sale for $30 that looked pretty good in the pictures.  I went by today to check it out and with the exception of a few scratches on the top, it looks like new.  So, home with me it came.  Aidan’s been using her changing table and some Rubbermaid drawers for storage in her room.  When we get to our new house, the changing table is going in the storage room/future nursery so she needed somewhere to keep her clothes that was a tad more aesthetically pleasing than Rubbermaid drawers.  It’s got a couple of scratches on top from wear that we’ll either cover up or paint over.  It’s laminate covered particleboard so I’m not quite sure how well it’d take paint.  Of course Aidan is sleeping in there so no pics.  I’m also not sure if or how to cute-ify it.  Maybe some cute pulls but that’s about it.

For her bathroom, I found these on Ebay:

Pottery Barn Kids Emerson Stripe Shower Curtain Pink

Pottery Barn Kids Brooke Bird Bath Mat

I had a little over $40 in my Paypal account from an order that got returned (Aidan’s birthday present that I ordered from the UK…apparently the company I ordered it from doesn’t ship umbrellas abroad), so it was almost like free shopping.  Almost.    I still want to find her a white wooden step stool.  Her Rubbermaid one that we’ve been using here is functional but not all that aesthetically pleasing.  I can move that one into the pantry to use when I’m vertically challenged (which is often) and Ryan isn’t available to be tall for me.

Only a day separates Aidan’s birthday from Mother’s Day, this year and the year she was born, and I love it that way.  Such a wonderful reminder of who made me Mama.

Aidan and Mama, the day after she was born

Aidan and Mama, on her first birthday (I was on the phone with her Daddy who was at Basic Training at Ft. Knox) I love that my precious Granddaddy was watching us quietly from behind.

Aidan and Mama, on our way to Aunt Tara and Uncle Chad’s wedding in Birmingham, Alabama, shortly after Aidan turned 2 (Daddy was deployed to Iraq)

Aidan and Mama, at the Halloween Carnival at First Presbyterian Church, Columbus, GA, Aidan was 3 (Daddy was at Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning, GA)

Aidan and Mama, Easter at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, shortly before she turned 4 (Daddy was at MIOBC in Ft. Huachuca, AZ.)

Aidan and I have spent a lot of time together, just us, with Daddy gone so much.  I can only hope that we’re building the kind of relationship that my mother and I have.

I am way overdue in updating y’all in what’s been going on in our lives.  We haven’t moved yet.  We’re still in Georgia until Memorial Day weekend.  School has been CRAZY busy!  Since spring break we’ve had field day, a HUGE rummage sale which I co-chaired (we made almost $1000!) and the Book Fair is currently going on.  For some reason we’ve had very little parent help on things this semester so we teachers have really been working overtime (FREE overtime) to get everything done.  Last Wednesday I pretty much singlehandedly set-up our very large book fair by myself.  Over lunch I had 1 parent and 8 or 9 8th graders that I recruited out of their recess that helped.  Other than that it was all me.  By Thursday morning I felt like a truck hit me.  I also have something like 6 or 7 poodle skirts to make by Thursday the 7th.  So, THAT’S why I haven’t been by in a while.

Since I last wrote, I ordered one my one of my chairs.

Now that it’s mine (muah ha ha ha ha!) I’ll let y’all in on where I got it.  I got it from the awesome Sara at McNeeley Girls Furniture in Cherryville, North Carolina.  It’s a market sample and they had it on Ebay for a great price that included shipping.  They’re delivering it to us in San Antonio so I don’t have to worry about it getting here in time or moving it to Texas with me.  I’m really excited about getting it and seeing it in my new living room.

I’ve decided not to go with the apple green chair because, as much as I love the color, I feel like it will limit me too much decor-wise.  I’d really like to get a leather club chair as an accent chair.

This one from Clubchairs.com is on sale for $479 with free shipping and is a recliner.   I really like it and feel like it’ll work well as a neutral in the room.

The couch I had originally wanted is another issue.  I had originally wanted to go with the couch from JCPenney because it so resembled the Pottery Barn sofa but was not as pricey.  Apparently everyone else saw the same thing I did because it’s sold out.  Durn it.  Ya snooze, ya lose.  Not that I’m snoozing; I can’t buy that stuff till the beginning of June.  So, I’m thinking I probably will have to go with the original.  I really like the PB Comfort Sofa in Twill Stone.

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In other news, I have a phone interview for a history teacher job on Wednesday, so pray, hope, wish, cross all crossables, send good vibes, whatever it is that you do, do it for me on that day that it goes well and she’ll want to see me for a formal interview when we get to San Antonio.  A fulltime teaching job will really do a lot towards helping us pay off debt and build a good-sized nest egg.  We’s tired a-bein’ po.