Papers and Birthdays

          It's been a busy week full of paper writing, so I've had to put off blogging for a while.  Last week, once Toby went back to work, it was time to get down to work on my  School Law paper.  To say it was frustrating is an understatement.  After two days in the library, though, I was able to produce a 9-page paper and prepare my presentation.  I presented and turned the paper in on Thursday, and am super glad to be DONE with it.
          I wrote my paper on Off-Duty Teacher Conduct - and the consequences some teachers suffer.  This includes teachers posting pictures of them holding alcohol on Facebook or being caught having an affair outside of school.  It's amazing what some teachers get fired for.  It's frustrating that teachers are held to such a high standard in some regards (having to act like saints 24/7) but such low standards in others ("those who can't, teach"; overall disrespect for teachers as a profession).  It was an interesting topic to research, but I am happy to be done with it!
          Before the mayhem of trying to write my paper, it was the July birthday weekend, which is always one of my favorite times of the year.  My mom's birthday is a day before mine, so we always get to celebrate together.  She turned 60 last week which is crazy because she doesn't look anywhere near 60.  I took her out for pedicures, chocolate from the local chocolate shop, then we went to a local bakery for breakfast goodies.  The day after was my birthday, and Toby, as always, over did himself once again.  We had a nice birthday celebration at his parents' house last night which involved fresh lobster and cheesecake!  YUM!
          I hope to get into my classroom a little bit this week to get some things settled.  I'm in a new room so I have a blank slate which I'm excited about.  I always love getting in and playing around with furniture set-ups.  I also have more paper writing to do for my research class.  We'll see how that goes.  Graduation can't come soon enough.  We're down to 279 days!

Vacation!

            We just booked a mini-vacation!  We're headed out in August.  We like to try to get away for a little bit each summer.  You would think that with me having the entire summer off, and Toby having three weeks off in the summer, we would have time for more than just a weekend, but sadly that's not how it is.  Every week Toby has off, I have either work, class, or a workshop.
          We decided to go to Bennington, Vermont.  We've been through there once before and stopped at a great brewery, the Maddison Brewing Co.

          We loved the brewery, and it was a really cute Vermont town, so we decided to head there.  The drive out is beautiful and it's not too far, maybe two hours.
          I stopped by my school yesterday to visit my students in summer school.  It was so nice to see them!  On my way home, I bought some stationary, and am currently writing little letters to each student just checking in on how their summer is going.  I can't wait to get back into another school year, but I am enjoying my time off.

Kitchen Completed!

          For two days now, I've been saying "Our house has been in ruins for three weeks now, ever since we started the work on the kitchen."  Well, once I looked at a calendar, I realized it had only been a week and a half.  The work actually started two weeks ago today, and life, and the kitchen, is all back to normal.  We decided we needed to re-tile the floor.  We had stick-on vinyl before, and it was peeling up, dirty, and disgusting.  
          Here's the before:

We picked out some great tile and found a good tile company to install.  Of course the job didn't turn out to be as easy as they predicted, because there were two layers of vinyl and lots of rotting wood underneath.

They laid down new plywood:

Then the tile began!  From tear up to sealing the tiled, grouted, floor, it took one whole week.  

After the tile was finished, we decided to repaint the walls and replace the base boards.  Toby did a great job measuring, sawing, and putting them in.  It really tied the kitchen together.

After a serious "deep clean" of the whole house yesterday, the kitchen was put back to normal  The food is back in the pantry, the appliances are on the counters and hooked up, and the sink is working again (that's a whole other story!).

The kitchen is definitely brighter, and a happier space to be in now.  Soon the table is going to be replaced with a two-person pub table.
          The next big project is to redo the basement, where our bedroom is.  The carpet needs to go and the walls need to be painted.  Toby also thinks it's the perfect opportunity to get a new TV.  Before any of this can happen, though, two papers need to be written.  One is for my school law class - off-duty teacher misconduct, and the other is my annotated bibliography for my research class.  Oh!  And another journal for the research class.  I guess I need to get to reading and typing and less blogging!

Introducing . . . The Iselins!

          I've been wanting to start blogging for a while now, but never thought our life was exciting enough to write things down.  I say this as we are both neck deep in graduate school and our kitchen has been torn apart for two weeks, so I guess we have some things going on.  So, anyway, here is my attempt at a blog for the Iselins - Me - Brenna, and my husband, Toby.  Your average American-dream style couple.  We've been married for two years, own a home in our college town, both work in the educational profession, and are working towards our Master's degrees.  We are counting down the days until May 5 (290 days - that's right, less than a year!) when we both graduate.

          I plan on sharing a lot on here about the final year in graduate school, more home improvement projects, and life in general.  

          In the meantime, I need to get back to working (supporting Toby working) on the base boards for the kitchen.  More on that project later!