… and if you are reading right now, you’ve got it!
Thanks for hanging in there for my crazy ride. I have SO much to catch you up on from the last few months and there are a lot of changes coming in our lives in the next few months!
First of all, we took a trip to Florida at the end of July to visit my wonderful in-laws. It wasn’t too much of a vacation for J and I since both had classes both weeks, and my classes had set times to attend (Monday through Thursday 8-9:30pm), but it was so nice just to get a change of pace and a chance to go to the beach! We didn’t take too many pics, so I only have a few, but my MIL had some pro pics done and I’ve included a few of those as well!
While in Florida, I got a call with an offer for a teaching contract! I had not heard from the interview for almost two weeks, so I didn’t think I got it, but I’m so glad that I did. I’ve been teaching since the end of August and things are going great so far, although with the school, district, and grade-level switch I’m swamped with work and a tad overwhelmed. Things will get better, though (they already have in the last four weeks!) and once I get used to everything, I’m going to have some free time again and I might be able to start doing real estate again in the next year (which I really miss!). I’m teaching third grade, the same level I observed/participated in during student teaching, and I can already tell that this is a much better fit for me than teaching French ever was, even though I love the language. One thing I already love so much more – only having 21 students to have to call home for instead of 150. It is so much easier to stay in contact with parents and keep everyone updated, and I can call home for a third of my class in around an hour (instead of several hours like it was before). I miss my coworkers at Cooper terribly, though, but I do absolutely love my new colleagues and I’m starting to make friends.
What else? I’m sure that I’m missing some things. I’ll do a separate post for Clark’s birthday party.
Oh, we have been working hard on our finances, and things have really been falling into place. We’ll look for a place to move in December/January (house rental prices are MUCH lower in this area in the winter – we can save $100-200 a month) and have all debt except student loans paid off by next summer. We could really buy a house by next summer, but knowing how everything works, we’ll wait for probably two years to buy just to make sure we get what we want and to pay off our private student loans.
What does this mean for the blog?
Well, the home aspect of the blog is coming back. It’s the aspect I love most about the blog and it’s why I started blogging in the first place. However, since we will be renting a house instead of buying, I will focus on cheap and functional options for rentals since I won’t be able to make structural changes (or even paint changes in most homes – that will depend on where we rent), and things that aren’t damaging to walls, etc. There is nothing more frustrating to landlords than major wall damage because people use wall anchors when they shouldn’t, or move pictures 400 times, etc. There are so many instances where landlords might have to replace the drywall in a whole room because of this, so I’m going to look at ways around this.
I’m keeping the family/life aspect of this blog because most of my readers are friends and family, and quite frankly, I think blogs are boring without the family/life part.
I’m hoping to start adding more about food and occasional tidbits about parenting or teaching, but most of my teaching stuff will go on my other blog unless I decide that I just can’t keep up with two blogs. I’ll also continue to post invitation designs, although my invitation business is on the back burner until I get my paper supply issue sorted out.
Finally, I will focus on trying to finish my DZP list. I realized that I only have one year left to finish everything, and a lot of it isn’t going to get done so I will need to really push to get as much done as possible or save money for those items I don’t finish. Craziness, I tell you! Check out my DZP page here, where I am currently updating on the goals in the next few days.
One last thing before you go – my favorite bloggers, the ones who made me feel encouraged to start blogging, the ones who showed me why blogging was so cool, are publishing a book this November. It’s ALL NEW CONTENT – nothing has been recycled from the blog (*eye roll* at Bakerella, who just publishes mostly what she’s already posted for free on her blog) and it’s AFFORDABLE. You gotta love John & Sherry! Check out this awesome video from their book publisher, and go pre-order their book on Amazon!
Two Blue Pillars 