The Story of the Orange Wall

Our living room is shaped like an awkward L. Hard to know where to place the TV...hard to know what to do with the tiny end of the L that doesn't have the couch or the TV in it. There were some bookshelves currently living on the far wall of the L that had been intended by the previous owners to flank a fireplace. If only they'd followed through on that...I'd love a fireplace. I figured out pretty soon that I wanted to take down those bookshelves and line the whole wall with new bookshelves, and figured out exactly the number and sizes I needed to fill the wall. After an emotional trip to Ikea, though, we ended up with an entirely different design than I'd originally intended...which usually creates the best designs anyway. (This I've learned after the emotional trip to Ikea. I didn't see it as clearly at the time.)

Now came the issue of color. The wall had previously been painted a deep purply color by the previous owners and my husband had left it when he bought the house. We both like accent walls, so we agreed we would paint it a different color...but we have slightly different ideas about what the word "color" means. I think in reds and greens and blues and he thinks in beiges and greys and sometimes greens. So when he said out of nowhere one night that he was thinking orange for the accent wall...I didn't argue. I was shocked, and secretly wondered if anyone had ever painted an interior wall orange, but I didn't argue.

This is the part of the post where I encourage you to prime your walls before painting them a new color. That seems pretty basic...but sometimes even the most experienced and intelligent of homeowners make mistakes. We got the primer/paint combo gallon...and the orange simply did not cover the deep purply color until coat #7. This didn't make me super happy at the time, but now that it's approximately three months later I'm laughing about it.

Here are some before, during, and after pics, in chronological order:

 

 

And there you go! The orange wall. We're pretty happy with how it turned out. I had a lot of fun styling the bookshelves and incorporating little nick-knacks from both of our single possessions as well as things I'd made for our wedding. Every little new thing makes it feel more like our home!

Recipe: Quinoa-n-Cheese

Remember when I wrote a post about how there's a transition in my life and therefore my blog, and how I was so excited to start blogging about things like home renovation/decorating, cooking, and marriage? I really was excited. But marriage, as it turns out, is time consuming. Especially in these early days. And then we got a puppy. A handful of a puppy. And I picked up a small part time job at church. And suddenly here we are, in December, and I haven't blogged again. Consider this my official apology. I've gotten the bug again, though, and I'm back!

I have a string of posts lined up, but for the sake of not writing them all tonight, I'll start with a recipe. I've made it twice now, and it's so good!

Quinoa-n-Cheese

baking time: 30-35 minutes
preheat oven to: 350 degrees

1.5 cups quinoa
veggies of your choice (optional)
good pinch of salt
a few grinds of seasoned salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 large eggs
1 cup skim milk
1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese
Panko bread crumbs for topping (optional)

Lightly saute any veggies you want to include. Cook quinoa completely. Coat 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray. Whisk together the eggs and milk in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the quinoa, salt, seasoned salt, garlic, and veggies if you're including them. After mixed, fold both the quinoa mix and the cheese into the egg/milk mixture. Stir very well until the cheese starts to melt. Transper to baking dish and if using Panko bread crumbs, sprinkle on top now. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350, or until bread crumbs are browned.

*Gluten free notes: Obviously, the bread crumbs could cause some problems, depending on the stores around you and whether you can find any. You can either make your own by smashing up pieces of your own gluten free bread, or you can check your stores for some. I have found a great corn based Panko-style bread crumbs brand at Food Lion.

*Other notes: I haven't added veggies either time I've made this dish. I can't really imagine why you would want to...but apparently it's an option.

The beginning of a new era.

Well...I'm not teaching anymore. Not for the moment anyway. At least for this coming school year, I'll be outside of the classroom. Although that's very weird for me and has been difficult to come to terms with, that's not what this post is about. Since I'm not teaching this year, this obviously can't be a blog about teaching; I'm going to shift blogging gears, then, and focus on my new chapter in my life. As of today, I've been married for three wonderful weeks. There have been ups and downs...there have been moments of both laughter and conflict...there has been an incredible amount of Olympics watching...but it's all been wonderful and they have all been opportunities for growth and strength in the foundation of our marriage. Even though those last couple sentences may make you doubt me, this blog is not going to become my personal journal about my marriage. It will not become the place I vent or share personal pieces of information about conversations and situations my husband and I come across. It will probably just be a place where I share funny anecdotes and home decorating/changes I get excited about and recipes that are really successful. And maybe some of my journey as I adapt to and figure out this new classroom-less life.

The end of an era.

Today was the last day of my first year as a teacher. But even though more days have been terrible this year than the days that have been good, and even though I've been counting down the days till today for months...I woke up oddly down. These kids have tried every last bit of my patience. They have threatened me, destroyed my personal belongings, vandalized my classroom, and cussed me out on a daily basis. They have tried to kick down my classroom door, they have gone entire marking periods without doing a single assignment, and they have literally chased subs out of my room after three minutes. They have been led out of the school by police officers. And even though some of them are really not my favorite people in the world, some of them kind of are.

I’m having a really difficult time writing this post, mostly because I don’t know what I want to say or how to say it. I have spent the last year dying to get out of that place and away from those kids, and now that I’m officially gone I feel like I need more time with them. I have two girls who call me “Mom,” one girl who comes to hide in my classroom to cry when she’s having a bad day, and a boy who spent two weeks threatening my fiancée because I should have married him. I have a boy who has shared all of his sadness and frustration about his dad who has been stationed indefinitely in Korea. I have two boys who almost daily ask me why I’m leaving and am I sure I want to leave because they will really miss me. I have relationships with these kids that I’ve only just started to become aware of. And now that it’s, for all intensive purposes, over…I’m having a really difficult time getting over it and moving past it.

One of my boys, the one with the father stationed in Korea, came up to me and was chatting a few days ago and I told him that he kicked butt in the teacher-student basketball game, and he got excited and said that he can’t wait next year to be on varsity. I told him that I can’t wait either because I’m going to come back to watch him play. He got so excited and asked me repeatedly if I meant it, and I told him that I’m completely serious and that I’ll come as often as I can to watch. This morning he came into my homeroom and asked me again, totally serious and quiet, if I was really going to come watch him play next year. I told him again that I can’t wait to come back and see him play. This afternoon, when the last bell rang and my kids were dismissed, I stood in the doorway and hugged student after student as they walked out, so many of which mean so much to me. That boy, though, hung back and waited, holding hands with his girlfriend, for everyone else to leave. Then they both came up and separately hugged me and thanked me, and then walked out quietly.

I didn’t expect a lot of things about this year…but I think what I expected the least were the tears I’m fighting back right now as I think about not seeing them every day anymore.

Marty Wolf Pictures, please hold.

I mentioned last post that we were in post-SOL movie-watching mode. Now we're officially out of movie-watching mode and into post-movie assignment mode, which means the children are whining again. We watched Freaky Friday, Rookie of the Year, and Big Fat Liar (except for 5th block which whined so much when I tried to put in Freaky Friday that they got Antz instead. Antz is a legitimately stupid movie). Now that they're done, the kids had to do a day of plot structuring, indirect and direct charaterizationing, themeing, and summarizing...but today marked the start of a longer project in which they picked one of the three movies their class watched and were given the task of writing a sequel to that movie. If you notice, Miss Melchione was clever enough to pick only movies with no sequel already in existence. Today, one of my girls in 5th block spent all class working on her pre-writing for her sequel to Big Far Liar, and she came up to me at the end of class and said "Miss Melchione, what if someone steals my paper, and turns it into a successful Hollywood movie?" I laughed and said "I don't think that's going to happen." And she looked at me, dead serious, and said "Miss Melchione...Marty Wolf is out there. He is out there and he is real and he's going to come steal my paper and get rich!"

That entire blog post was useless to you unless you've actually seen the movie Big Fat Liar.  If you haven't seen it, you probably should immediately. Or watch this trailer.

The return of the blog.

I'm going to skip my usual opening line of "it's been a long time," mostly because it's been too long to even legitimately make that comment. It's been like a month and a half. It's been a rough month and a half. I've laughed a little, cried a lot, but me and fiancee have endured and there's light at the end of the tunnel. He has been painfully patient with my weekly breakdowns, providing the support and encouragement and realistic practicality that I've needed to turn my focus back towards my Lord who is dying to help me through it all. My time with Him has transformed from pride and ignorance to humility and earnest desire for His guidance, and I am eternally thankful. It's finally become a bittersweet time, as I stare down the end of an era with a brief 12 days left.

My kids are making me laugh again, but it's mostly because I'm seeing their humor again when for so long I only saw their rebellion.

My kids are making me smile again, but it's mostly because I'm seeing their humor and good intentions again when for so long I only saw their disrespect.

SOLs are over and we're officially in movie watching time now. Yeah...I'm that teacher. But I have a legitimate and Language Arts related writing assignment planned to begin the moment the movies end, so have no fear. Funny things that have happened in the last week:

A boy from my 5th block came into class and wandered around my room for about four minutes whining about how he's in the mood for an apple. "I really want an apple...I"m really in the mood for an apple...do you have an apple for me, Miss Melchione? Please give me an apple, Miss Melchione." I didn't have an apple for him. He picked a piece of trash up off the floor though and walked it over to the trashcan, and then looked inside the can and screamed "THERE'S AN APPLE IN HERE! SOMEONE THREW OUT A PERFECTLY GOOD APPLE!" I nearly died of laughter.

Yesterday my [favorite] student got caught by his homeroom teacher wearing a hoodie and was told to put it in his locker. He came into my room freaking because he was wearing his track uniform underneath the hoodie with no shirt underneath. Hoodie = not school uniform. Track uniform with no shirt underneath = not school uniform. Quite the quandry he was in. So he went around asking all my kids if they had a sweater he could borrow, and none of them did. I said, as a complete joke, that he could wear my little gray cardigan...and he said okay. As he was putting it on, looking a little bit like a moron, my mentor (his homeroom teacher) walked in looking for him, and laughed. This is a man who doesn't laugh. We told the kid that he better wear the sweater all day long....which he probably would have done if the French teacher hadn't told him he needed a pass from the office to wear a women's sweater that's two sizes too small for him. I have to say that when I heard that, I nearly died. Kid went back to the hoodie and wore my sweater around his neck until lunch when I walked into the cafeteria, frozen in my sleeveless dress, walked over to where he was sitting with all his friends, and took my sweater back without saying a word. I feel like he might be getting crap for that whole exchange until he graduates from high school.

A male student who I don't have said last week in my presence that I'm too beautiful for anyone. And then yesterday he told me that my cheekbones are perfect. I told him I'm starting to get creeped out.

In other news, I was treated to my very first manicure/pedicure last week (have I mentioned that I have a fantastic fiancee?) and I am kind of in love with my French tips that are now sadly chipping. I've literally never liked French tips on anyone and never had a desire to have them. The sweet manicure lady pretty much told me I was getting them and didn't give me the choice, though, so I rolled with it. And now I want them to always be French tipped. And less chipped than they are right now. I need to come up with a way to legitimize regular trips to the nail place...

Engagements and Middle Schoolers.

Well...today was eventful.

I was given a beautiful engagement ring last night from the love of my life, and after all the conversations and pre-planning that has taken place about us getting engaged, I am so excited to be wearing his ring and officially able to tell the world that it's happening. I was so excited to be able to come into work today and have all my nosy little children see it and freak out and get excited for me...but no one noticed. Aside from the extremely rewarding scream and tears that came from my close friend and coworker when I crashed through her first class of the day to show her the bling, I got nothin' from anyone. If they noticed, they didn't say anything. It seemed a little anticlimactic...I'm not the kind of girl to announce it with no lead in, so I was lost. Do I just go through the rest of the school year without them knowing I'm getting married? After they've stalked the heck out of our relationship for months trying to get as much info as they can? Should have known that wouldn't be the case. This is how it went down:

4th block was ending and one student sleepily said "...is that an engagement ring?" and another girl said "I saw it but didn't say anything." Three nearby girls freaked and came to look at it, and then the bell rang. One of them went out into the hallway screaming "MISS MELCHIONE IS GETTING MARRIED!" and then every. single. kid. from my 5th block that was standing right outside my door ran in screaming "MISS MELCHIONE'S GETTING MARRIED?! MISS MELCHIONE, YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!" and then Miss Famous 5th Block Girl ran up and down the hallways screaming that I'm engaged. My homeroom kids showed up in awe because they never saw it. One boy from homeroom came barreling in screaming "YOU'VE GOT A RING?!?!" and then the bell rang and Miss Famous 5th Block Girl wouldn't shut up until I told them the story. So I told them how he did it.

Class: Are we invited?
Me: Of course.
Miss Famous 5th Block Girl: I'm going to be up on the stage singing and rapping.
Me: Of course.
Male Student: Can I be the best man? And the guy that makes a speech and cries?
Me: Of course.

I was immediately asked what my name is going to be [it had never really hit me how much my last name is my identity as a teacher...] and when I told them it would be Mrs. Moore, half of my students said that they'd still call me Miss Melchione, half of my students asked if they could start calling me Mrs. Moore now, and one student said he's just going to call me Ms. M, and then paused and smiled and said "...get it? Get it? Because they both start with M."

One of my [favorite...shhh] students came in late, and Miss Famous 5th Block Girl says "Miss Melchione's engaged" and he stopped frozen and said "....really? REALLY?! Ah!" and then rushed me with a hug. It took everything within me to get them quiet enough to explain what we're doing today. Thankfully, what we're doing today is watching the movie Hoodwinked to review direct and indirect characterization. A couple of them are having a hard time grasping the concept of a fairy tale cartoon, though:

Miss Famous 5th Block Girl: She is a little girl...and she's singing to the animals! Singing to the animals, Miss Melchione! This is why little kids love fantasy trash now!

Miss Famous 5th Block Girl: A taxi in the middle of the woods?
Me: Move on.

On an unrelated note, one of my boys has told me that he would like to be called "Batman" from now on. Not sure where that came from...honestly don't want to know. Also, I took one of my boy's phones about a month ago, and his mom never came to the school to pick it up because his grades sucked. He kept coming to me and whining "my mom won't come get my phone until my grades don't suck!" and I would say "well sweetie...your grades still suck." He walked in today with a HUGE smile on his face and a swagger to his step, announcing the my engagement is not the biggest news of the day: his mom gave him his phone back. And then he interrupted me several times to tell me, with a huge smile on his face, that he got his phone back. Ten minutes into the movie I look over and he's staring at his lap. I called him out and said "you wanna lose it the day you get it back?" He's been dutifully watching the movie since then.