Schaefferstown

via flickr

I recently discovered there is a town in Pennsylvania by the name of Schaefferstown. This is a fabulous discovery. I'm pretty sure they are just pinning for a new resident and will shortly thereafter elect me mayor. If you are curious about some of the stats of my dear town, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaefferstown,_Pennsylvania. Maybe I could convince my father and my brothers to move there and we could take over (ala "...theres a new sheriff in town" Tombstone-style). Okay maybe I'm taking this little daydream of mine too far. I discovered this town because I was admiring one of my favorite kitchens in the blogosphere via http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/search/label/kitchen, and did a little research to find out who made her cabinets (in an effort to price out my dream kitchen...and no, I don't know why I do these things to myself) And found out they were made in...SCHAEFFERSTOWN! My people are skilled craftsfolk. I love them already. I mean check out their handiwork:

"not by the color of their skin..."

I paid tuition today. I had to pay the full tuition because I can't get a scholarship. Never mind that I have a 4.0 in Graduate School, I was told that is of little consequence when I went to the scholarship office today. After the lady asked if I was an incoming freshmen (yeah awesome- my self esteem went down a few more points, thanks) she then asked if I qualified for any of the minority student scholarships. Um what do you think lady? You color blind too? I told her that I am one of a handful of females in my entire program, that I work, that my parents didn't graduate from college, that I was raised on the streets by wolves but it didn't matter. She stamped my profile 'whitey' and then slammed the door on my 18-year-old looking face. Grrrr. I'm not asking for full tuition. I'm not asking for much, just a little help would be nice. I've got bills ya'll and I'm not talkin' dolla bills.

"...but by the content of their character."

She probably didn't celebrate MLK day yesterday.

living room before and after

So here is the living room before and after. Let me say a few things first:

The before photo was one from the ad for the house when we were looking to buy it. The after is pre bookcases,etc in the living room and has fall accents because the picture was taken a while ago. The giant photo is of our awesome cat but we don't worship her. We just have a large picture of her and pray beneath it a few times a day... :)

I WON

Oh man I am so excited right now! I entered a blog giveaway and I actually won! Check out these awesome pillows!

Major thanks to CocoCozy for not only starting my week off on a VERY happy note! but for helping make my home more beautiful!

Check out her lovely blog here:

http://www.cococozy.com/

Little boat on a big sea

The thing is, if you keep changing the final destination, it makes it hard to know where to steer the boat. You know? I've been talking for the last two weeks or so about goals. I am a big goal fanatic. I think about them alot and I do my best to make ones that stretch me but that are attainable. I write them down and I review them weekly. I get alot accomplished because I have serious goals. I tell people that the first step when making goals is to think about where you want to go, what you want to do, and who you want to be. These are big questions. They require a ton of thought and even then, it changes. Today I'm feeling like the problem with being a multi-faceted person (if I may be so presumptious as to state that I am- or at the very least strive to be) is that its difficult not to be overwhelmed by the multitude of options. Why can't we just try other people's lives on for a few days and see what we think? Do you remember job shadow day as a school kid? I went to work with my father a few times and with my stepfather a few times. And while I realized that I wasn't interested in either the military or being an airconditioner salesman, I at least had the opportunity to discover the things I didn't want to do. It feels like now that you have to commit before you even really get a good idea of what you like. Right now I feel like I'm just hoping that I'm on the right path to the thing that I think I want to do. I hope its the right path and that I actually enjoy the destination.

master bath before and after

This is the first of a number of posts I'll be doing on before and afters of our home. Over the past two years we have done many many projects on our house and its become quite lovely in my humble opinion. Anyway, heres our most recent project- our bathroom. I forgot to take pictures before the tile was laid and when the old vanity and laminate were in. Ah well.

and after