Clearance Aisle Love

I have been looking for a framed mirror to go over my little table in the hallway, but the other day I was looking over the clearance aisle at Bed Bath and Beyond, and I spied this baby. On sale for $9.99 because it was returned without the hardware and has a scratch (where??). I think it will do!

I think it looks a bit like this ($200) mirror from Ballard Designs, don't you? I was going to hang it in the other direction, but it looked to low if I put it close to the table and too high if I hung it so you could see your face. What do you think about the placement ... should I flip it around and hang it horizontally or leave as is?
Tomorrow I hope to be posting some furniture makeover pix. I think they are going to turn out really great, and hopefully I can finish them up today. I will leave you with some family pix:

Here is Tweeny fishing at Grandma's. I just love lake pictures. They are so much easier to take than beach pictures.

Here is a closeup of Middle Child fishing.

Here is the Happy Little Man getting a ride on Daddy's shoulders. This kid just loves life.

And a new pet picture. This is one of the guinea pigs drying off after a bath (thaaaat was an interesting experience!). Yes, we have 2 guinea pigs, 2 dogs, 3 fire belly toads, and a gazillion fish. I didn't think I would like the toads, but I was forced to pick one up one day and it wasn't that bad. I even feed them the crickets now (swore I would not do that when we were at the pet store).

I think the pet love goes back to first grade for me. I had the coolest teacher *ever*. I wish I could find that woman, because I would love to send her a letter. She must be really old by now though.

She had a tarantula, snakes and rats in her classroom, and yes I have held them all! Sounds really gross, but to a 6 year old that is *way* cool. We would sit in a big circle and watch the snake eat it's lunch. She had a claw foot bathtub that we could read in. A really old-style typewriter we could "write" with. She had this loft area we could climb up and hide in to do our work. The much anticipated Grand Finale of the year was a sleepover in the classroom, and a tour of the boys' bathroom (if you were a boy, you got to see the girls' bathroom). We finally got to see that secret, unknown, disgusting room the boys went in every day. Wow! A bit anti-climactic actually, but the anticipation was great It was a magical classroom. I wonder how many places don't even let teachers teach like that anymore.

I had a couple GREAT teachers at that school. Anyone know how to track down former teachers? Thank you Ms. McCarthy!

And to everyone ...

~"May the Lord continually bless you with heaven's blessings as well as with human joys." - Psalms 128:5