Nail Polish

I don't often do my nails. More often than not, my nails only have polish on them if I've gotten a manicure for a friend's wedding or some other special event. One reason us that I am terrible at painting my right hand nails with my left hand.

Tonight, however, I decided to paint my nails. I had recently seen on pinterest a "hack" that uses elmer's glue. They suggest that you put glue on your finger around the nail. After that dries, you paint your nails as normal (or in my case, abnormal...ha!). After your nails dry, you peel the glue off your fingers, and any misplaced nail polish peels off with the glue.

It seemed easy enough, so I figured I'd try it. Here is my LEFT hand after glueing, painting, and peeling the glue:

In my opinion, not bad! I could actually use this strategy if my efforts always turned out this well...

After I finished my left hand, I was a bit concerned that I'd mess up my right hand. I was determined, however, to "prove myself wrong" after the results on my left hand.

Here is my RIGHT hand after glueing, painting, and peeling the glue:

Ok...not too bad. It's not as good as the left hand, but it's WAY better than any attempts without the glue!

Have you tried any makeup, hair, nail techniques or tips out that you've found on pinterest? I'd love to hear how it worked out for you!

A House on Oak St. (Part 1)

I posted these pictures on Facebook, but I totally forgot to post them here. (Sorry, Julie!)

We took possession on Sunday, November 30. That whole week, we cleaned and painted in the new house. My sister and I left the morning of Friday, December 5 for a Bible Quiz trip to Idaho. While we were gone, our mom had movers move our things from our apartment into the house. She also put up curtains in our bedrooms, which was pretty kind of her, especially considering the blinds were pretty mangled and didn't keep things very private. When we got home from a trip, we were able to go home to the new house.

I haven't had time to take any after pictures yet, but here are some before pictures:

Laundry room view 1

Laundry room view 2

Main bathroom view 1

Main bathroom view 2

Main bathroom view 3

Hallway leading to 2nd and 3rd bedroom

Office/Mom's room view 1

Office/Mom's room view 2

Tracy's room view 1

Tracy's room view 2

Tracy's room view 3

Tracy's room-this was underneath the comic wallpaper!

Living room view 1

Living room view 2

Entry way off living room

Dining room (from living room)

 Kitchen view 1 (from living room)

Kitchen view 2 (from dining room)

Kitchen view 3 (from dining room)

Pantry

Master bedroom view 1

Master bedroom view 2

Master bathroom view 1

Master bathroom view 2

Master bathroom/closet

Master closet

I plan to take more pictures once I get the house cleaned. With the craziness of the end of the school year, I let everything become a disaster. My poor mom and sister were a little overwhelmed, I think, and they did clean some, but I wasn't doing my part. That's not fair. So, now I'm going to clean the house since I have the time. Once I get it cleaned, I'll take "after" pictures of all the rooms. The living room and dining room still aren't painted the new colors, but they look much better with the furniture in them. :)

Happiness vs. Joy

So, I've been promising a blog update for months now. Here it is...finally.

I have been very busy the last few months. We had our school auction, which is a lot of work to put on (and I don't even have a big responsibility!). It was a wonderful event, and we raised about $33,000 for our school, which is an all time record for the auction.

Last year, I copied a friend's auction item from when I worked at SJA. She auctioned off a day with her for students, so I did the same. At the auction last year, it went for $375. I auctioned it again this year, and I was SO blown away when the bidding kept going up...and up...and up...and up! It stopped at $1700, which was astounding! I had told the auctioneer ahead of time that if the bidding got high enough, I would do 2 days to double the money. So, he asked if they'd both pay $1700, and they said yes. So I brought in $3400 for the school! Wow.

The end of the school year is always exhausting. Lots of things going on, preparing to say goodbye to students, and grades to complete. It's also the time of year my brain just starts to give out. So, I had a blur of a couple months.

Here we are. It's summer! I've turned in all the grades, I've cleaned my classroom (a little bit, anyway), and I've had a week of relaxing. I told myself today that my "Blah" week is over, and now I need to start getting into a routine of some sort, because I can't stay up until all hours and sleep late every day. I can't eat tons of junk and lounge on the couch or my bed watching netflix all day. I have to clean, and organize, and think ahead to next year. I have to do yard work and hopefully finish painting the last 2 rooms of my house. I have to fundraise for Bible Quiz. I have 4 camps to counsel and 1 conference to attend! In August, I have a friend's wedding to attend. Woah! Summer is going to fly by, and while I'd like to rest and relax, I also have a to do list a mile long, and reading to do, too.

Anyways, to the point of this blog. My coworker said to me last week, "You seem different lately." "Good different, or bad different," I asked.
"Good different. Happier or something."

I have been processing it since our conversation, and I can't find one real big reason for that change. A few things have changed over the last few months: my mom sent my dog to live with me, my mom moved in with us, I added some "pep" to my wardrobe, I was caught up on grading which took a ton of stress off at the end of the year, etc. I can't say why I have seemed happier lately. I guess it might just be joy showing, because I truly don't know what's different.

Whatever it is, I'd like to keep riding that train! It's been a good few months, and I expect the next couple of months to be pretty good, too. :)