This is what democracy looks like

"Since Tuesday, February 15, tens of thousands of Wisconsin residents have been flooding the State Capitol in Madison in protest of Governor Walker's proposed budget "repair" bill that would end 50 years of collective bargaining for Wisconsin workers." (www.prwatch.org)

For the last 8 days, Andrew and I have been fighting for our rights as teachers, and Wisconsinites.  On Friday, February 11th, our governor, Scott Walker, proposed a bill that would demolish unions for teachers and public employees.  I won't bore you with all the details, but I will tell you, it has been quite something to be a part of.  While there are many, many specifics that go beyond collective bargaining, I won't go into detail.  If you wish to learn more about how it is affecting us and our state, please let me know.  I will be more than happy to explain what I know.  

For now though, I will share some vids and pics of the last week.  I've said it this whole time, I have learned more this week about myself, Andrew, our feelings towards education, the government, and how a bill works in these past 8 days than I have in my entire life.  As our state moves forward, we are very unsure what will happen to our jobs and education in general, so we'll just have to see what happens.

I can only hope that these images inspire you as they have us to fight for what you believe in. 

This is the firefighters joining our protests.  So moving...

Lots of people out on a bitter night in WI.

 In the capital.

 A beautiful night at the capital.

 Supporting our cause.

 Almost 70,000 people on Sat. 2/19.

 So many supporters...

A Sneak Peak

With the new year come and gone, I have gotten into a couple of new things in 2011.  To start, we have painted and started working on the office.  If you haven't seen our office, or don't remember it from our house video seen here, here are a couple of pictures with the office we lived with for the last year and a half (except this isn't our furniture).

 The hideous green wall....I hated that color (even though I have several friends who really liked it).

So, a couple of weekends ago, Andrew and I went full speed ahead and painted the office.  I knew I wanted chocolate and vanilla paint colors so we went to our favorite home store and picked up the paint.  We didn't even do a sample painting, we just went for it (which we really never do).  

We aren't done by any means, but I wanted to give you a peak to show you what we've been up to.  With my dad's help, on another weekend, we added some shelving.  If you also notice, that is a sewing machine, which is something else I have picked up this year.  You'll see more on that later.  

Don't you like the paint colors though.  I was concerned the brown would either be too poopy or dark, but I just love it!

That's it for now, you'll just have to come back to see what else we have done.