So Busy

It never fails. May is so busy it always seems like the busiest month of the year. I apologize in advance if this post seems scattered and all over the place, but that's how life has been for us lately. Here's a brief overview of what this month has looked like:

• We welcomed two more cousins back into an already full house. Beth and Becca came home to stay for the summer before they go back to college in the fall.
• I had a Spring Program at my school.
• We celebrated several birthdays as well as Mother's Day.
• I had two field trips.
• Meghan had a field trip.
• I had field day.
• Jason and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.
• Meghan graduated from preschool.
• I got a new job for the fall.
• We close on our house this next Tuesday.
• My last day at my current job is next Friday.
• We move into our new house next weekend.

Wow! What a month! God has blessed us so much this year that I can't begin to describe my amazement and gratitude for all He has done.

Jason and I were talking earlier today about how smoothly things have happened for us lately. Yes, we've done our fair share of waiting. I know I might get quoted on this as I am known for being patiently impatient. All the waiting and all the worrying was worth it in the end. There. I said it.

There is no way on the face of this Earth that I could have planned this better myself. I know that with every cell in my body. I am constantly reminded of how God has a plan for me that is WAY better than anything I could have done on my own. How can I argue with that? I got my current job the exact same day that Jason and I decided it was finally time for us to look into renting a house for awhile. It was almost like God was saying, "Not so fast! I have a plan for you, and you are not trusting that I will provide for you!"

It was because of this job that we are able to purchase our house we will be moving into next week. Because I got this job when I did, we were able to find a house and get a contract on it before the housing tax credit expired. Yes, we are going to take that money and pay off our van! It was because of this job that I was able to put behind me all the issues I had with my other school and have the opportunity to work with some amazing teachers that would be able to give me good references after I lost that opportunity with my former principal.

Yes, I got a job for next year. I only interviewed for the job almost 7 weeks ago. Yeah, apparently these people don't have any sense of urgency. I was getting really frustrated...until I got the job offer. I even get to work with my sister-in-law who teaches 1st grade at that school! The best part is that Meghan will be coming to school with me when she starts Kindergarten in the fall! My Meggie-Beth will be starting Kindergarten this year. I am so happy I can have her with me. That has always been a dream of mine, and God has answered my prayers and provided me with a job and Meghan with a school to go to. I got her enrollment papers sitting on my desk right beside my new teaching contract for next year.

Jason and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on the 18th. I can't believe we have been married that long. Time has flown by so quickly. As they always say, "Time flies when you're having fun!" What a blessing Jason is to me and our girls. When I married Jason, I had no idea how much we would grow together and grow deeper in love. We are the best of friends and I can't imagine a life without him by my side. He makes me laugh, he makes me smile when I want to cry, he picks me up when I am down, he is my biggest supporter, the first person I go to for anything, and everything else God knew I need in a husband.

What have I done to deserve all this? Absolutely nothing. I am so grateful. I will continue to thank God for His blessings as I continually find myself speechless and amazed for all He has done.

It Actually Happened

We got a contract on a house. I still can't believe it happened. There were times when I felt so discouraged that it seemed like we would be living in this basement forever.

It's actually pretty funny how it happened. I was at work the other day, and I was quickly checking my e-mail before I left work and I discovered one of our offers got accepted! Remember, we have seen at least 100 houses by this point and put offers in on about 10 houses while praying that something gets accepted. The part that really surprised me was that our offer was accepted immediately. There weren't any counter offers or anything. Accepted as is. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I was so excited. I couldn't believe it....but then I wasn't too excited because I couldn't even remember what house that was. I do remember seeing that particular house less than a week ago, but we had seen about 5 houses that day and they all had the exact same floor plan. Was it the one with all the upgraded fixtures? Was it the one with the bigger backyard? Was it the one with the funky basement? I couldn't remember. But we had a contract on a house.

I quickly called Jason to share the funny yet exciting news. We both laughed at our similar responses to the house. "I guess it'll work." We said. I was struggling a little with the fact that I couldn't even remember the house! My mom just laughed at me when I called her. She couldn't believe I had a contract on a house I couldn't even remember. I told her that we wouldn't have put an offer on a house if we didn't like it enough to live in it. I believe that near the end of seeing all those houses that looked exactly the same, we were eventually thinking, "That'll do. I'll just take any house. Please, someone. Just give me a house!"

While I was still on my way home from work, I got a call from my realtor congratulating me on the contract on the house. I laughed and told him about Jason and my similar responses regarding the house, and he said, "No, not that house, the other one. You got a contract on your favorite house." "What???? We got two contracts?" Yup. We sure did. That was a no-brainer. I didn't even need to talk to Jason first before telling the realtor which house we would go with. Both of us liked this house from the beginning.

Here's some pictures from the listing:

I love how the front of this house looks. Yeah, the yard needs some serious revival, but it's nothing we haven't dealt with before. Jason loves the 3-car garage. He wants to make it his little shop for tinkering. Whatever that is. Every man needs their man-cave, and I guess this will be his.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this staircase. It just looks so cool. I love how it is so open. Thankfully I won't have to worry about walking up and down those stairs with a load of laundry. The washer and dryer are on the top floor to the far right.
The family room. The first room we will be painting. In natural light the ceiling is not blue. The walls are currently a rusty orange. Maybe the people had some sort of southwestern theme going on. No thanks. I love how this room is right off the kitchen so I'm not exiled to the kitchen when entertaining guests. The decent-sized kitchen. I like how there is the island. In our old house, I was so limited with cooking space. I hated that. Thankfully there is still a good amount of space around the island so you don't feel too cramped with other people working in the kitchen. I think. I'd have to test it out to be sure.

I am really excited about this house. It really has so much to offer us. We were really thinking hard about what we wanted in our new house, and I think we really got a keeper with this one. We really want that house that lasts us a LONG time. Others don't seem to think we'd stay that long, but that is something we really want. We want that house the girls live in the entire time they are in school. I don't want them to have to worry about going from one school to the next....except for the natural transitions between elementary to middle school and from middle to high school.

Now all I have to do is wait...again. It seems like my big lesson in life is patience. I'm just so excited, though! It just seems extra long because we are so cramped in this basement. We've lasted this long, what's another month? We close on our new house on May 21st.

Looking For The Perfect Home

Okay, so things have been pretty crazy here.

I had my long-awaited Spring Break a couple weeks ago, and it sure seemed to go much faster than I anticipated. I guess it never seems long enough when you have a lot to do. My primary purpose for break was to do some serious house shopping.

My brother's father-in-law is a realtor, and he happily agreed to help us find our perfect house. The big challenge for us is finding the house that we can afford as well as the house we can see ourselves living in for many years to come. We have always said that it would be nice to live in one house the entire time the kids are in school. I want them to have the opportunity to go to the same schools with the same friends and not have to worry too much about going to different schools and making new friends.

I have seen so many houses, that by this point I am really having a hard time keeping them straight. I think there were only two days during my Spring Break where I did not physically go and see houses. Since we started looking, I'd have to say that we've seen at least 50 houses. That's pretty amazing when you think about it. Right now, we are in the best position to buy a house. The market is flooded with houses for sale, short sales, and foreclosures. It's pretty exciting, but also very exhausting. I know that our new home is out there somewhere, but it almost feels like looking for a needle in a haystack.

We've seen a lot of really nice homes, but not necessarily one that we feel could be "the one." We actually put offers on three different houses last week. We haven't heard back from one of them yet, but I don't expect to hear anything on that house anytime soon. It is a short sale that already had a contract on it before we got to it. The other houses were great possibilities, but the homeowners seem to think they can get more money for their houses than we were willing to pay. I'm okay with that. I wasn't totally feeling it with those houses anyways. When you look at the recent sales in the area, there is no way those people could get as much as they were asking. It all depends on how quickly the sellers are willing to get out of their house. They'd be lucky to find buyers in similar situations like us. We can move quickly. We don't have a house to sell first. Their loss.

We were able to go out again yesterday, and I think we have made some serious progress. I think the greatest success of the weekend was that we were both able to agree on our #1 pick of houses. Previously, there was one house that was my particular favorite, and then there was one that was Jason's favorite. Now we both like the same house. That's a big deal for me. I don't want it to be that one of us is settling with one house wishing we got a different one. I am really excited about this house, and I just pray that it works out. We should be putting in an offer on this house hopefully by tomorrow.

I am SO ready to have our own place again. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I am really longing for my own place to spread out and do what I want to do and to get settled. I am looking forward to establishing a new routine for our new place. I am looking forward to the girls being able to play in and out of the house and not having to worry about where they are and whose stuff they might be messing with . I am practically counting down the days to where I don't have to share a room with my girls and always worry about them messing up my space or getting into my things. I am looking forward to finally knowing where we are going to be living so I can get started on getting Meghan ready for Kindergarten (gasp!) this fall. I still don't know where she will be going. I pray that this issue will get settled pretty quickly when we actually move. I am really looking forward to this summer where I can have fun with my girls again and finally get to feeling like normal. It will be nice. I think I will appreciate it more than I thought I would just because I haven't had my own space for almost 6 months now.

It's Been Too Long...

Okay, so it's been a while....quite a long while.

As you can imagine, life has most definitely been busy. I am finally starting to get into a groove with my new job. It has been quite a challenge. I don't know if the bigger challenge is transitioning from teaching Junior High to teaching 1st and 2nd grade, or if it is going from teaching hearing students to deaf students.

It has been a good opportunity, though. There still are days where I question whether or not I want to pursue this type of career, but then there are days where I feel I am at the right place at the right time. One encouraging thing is that I have heard from a few colleagues that they have definitely seen a big change in the attitudes of my students (in a good way). Their old teacher was very negative and very demeaning. I had the unfortunate experience of observing her for a day.

Aside from my starting a new job, Jason and I finally had the opportunity to get approved for a mortgage loan! Yippee! I am so excited. I am very grateful for Jason's family opening up their house for us to live in, but I am READY to get my own place.

Jason and I spent about 3 hours with our realtor (my brother's father-in-law) and we got to take a look at quite a few places. We have a couple houses in mind, but we're just in the beginning stages of looking around. Our realtor seems to think he can find us a really good deal for the money. Hopefully he can find us that diamond in the rough that we can live in for decades to come! It is our dream to stay in the same house for the entire time the girls are in school. That is something I never had, and I desperately want that for my children.

Hopefully we can find our house soon! I am ready to get started with this new phase in our life!

What A Crazy Week

I finally got a job.

Last Wednesday didn't exactly go as I had expected it to go. I got a call in the morning on Wednesday letting me know that I didn't get the job I interviewed for the week before. It didn't really bother me all that much. I was okay with it. I was just starting to get into a groove and really enjoying my time at home with my girls. I know, you'd say that after THREE months of being unemployed, why was I just now starting to get used to being a stay-at-home mom? Well, I was so consumed with trying to find a job that it took me a while to be satisfied with where God had me. I was obsessed. I was checking district websites multiple times a day just to see that just maybe they'd post something through the course of the day, and I wanted to be the first person to apply.

It took me quite some time to finally admit the fact that I just might not get that job after all, and that I would just end up getting a job for the Fall. I was okay with that. Really. I was. Wednesday afternoon I was sharing with Aunt Kim (whom we live with right now) that I didn't get the job and that it didn't really bother me all that much. Right in the middle of our conversation, I got the call. I was told that the person they offered the job to was unable to commit to the position, so they called me instead. What a shock that was! I was totally and completely caught off-guard. Especially considering the fact that I had just finished saying that I was okay with not working until this Fall.

I was completely speechless. I couldn't believe it. The one thing I wanted so badly for what seemed like an eternity was finally within my reach. The real kicker was that this job was EXACTLY what God had promised to me all those months ago. He told me (in a dream) that I would be teaching at a new school and that I would start in the middle of the school year. The thing that gets me every time was that in my dream I was signing to my students in Sign Language. It seemed foolish to turn something like this down, so here I am a week later and that is exactly what I am doing. I am now the new 1st and 2nd grade teacher at the Deaf school here in town. How amazing.

I did have the opportunity to observe the previous teacher for only one day, but it was better than going in without prior exposure to an environment that is so incredibly different than anything I have ever experienced before in my life. This week has most definitely been very difficult learning new rules, procedures, and all the ins and outs of a new school, but it has also been extremely difficult getting used to teaching a group of students whose needs are much more intense and extreme than any I have worked with before. One thing that I do know is that I am exactly where God wants me to be right now. There is no doubt in my mind about that. These kids need me just as much as I need the exposure to something like this.

Right now I am considered as the long-term substitute teacher and it is very likely that I will not be hired for the following school year, but at least this is something to get my foot in the door. I have wrestled for many, many years about whether or not I want to get my Master's degree in Deaf Education and this is the opportunity I need to help me decide if this is something God wants for me. There are a lot of variables as to whether or not I decide to pursue the degree starting this Fall, or if I decide to wait a few years first.

Right now, I am happy for the job, for the students that have already impacted my life so much, and for God's unfailing faithfulness and provision for me. I sit here in awe of how God continues to provide at just the right time and not a moment sooner. I don't deserve it, but I am most definitely grateful. Yay, God!

Me? Impulsive? Maybe Just A Little

I've never really been an impulsive person.

It's just not me. I am so far from being impulsive, I almost have to look up the definition in the dictionary. Most of the things I do are mostly well thought-out and I rarely regret doing what I do...until today. Today was the day I actually acted upon an impulse, and now I'm seriously feeling quite a bit remorseful. It's not completely my fault, though. I blame my phone.

I have been having serious problems with my phone lately, and I have had enough. Over the past few months I've been experiencing more and more issues with my phone which has resulted in a growing aggravation with the phone itself. You name the problem, I've experienced it.

Here's a list of reasons why I acted impulsively today: (which I will share shortly what I did)

1. My phone rarely rings when someone is calling me. Yeah, I know. It's a phone; it's supposed to ring, right? Wrong. Not my phone. Everyone else gets a phone that rings, so why can't I have one too? Is that too much to ask? I think not! Don't even think of suggesting that I check to see if I have my phone set up to ring when someone is calling, I have checked numerous times!
2. While having an instant message conversation with someone, my phone will exit the screen and not allow me to return to my conversation. When I am finally able to return to my conversation, my phone refuses to allow me the privilege of continuing my conversation which results in a one-way conversation. It gets very upsetting to those who are trying to talk to me. They then get so frustrated that I do not respond to their texts, so then they call me. See problem #1.
3. My phone freezes up several times a day. Yes, I get that stupid hourglass thing that just continues to rotate without solving my problem.
4. Because my phone freezes up so often, I end up having to remove my battery countless times a day! That should not be happening, PEOPLE!
5. I have the privilege of receiving e-mails to my phone. Sounds nice, right? Not when the ONLY e-mails I get are JUNK e-mails! All the people on my safe list do not get forwarded to my phone, but all those who are in my junk box get forwarded to my phone! SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Over the past several days, weeks, months, whenever it was that I started having these serious issues, I have been seriously tempted to just run over my phone with my car. Being the rational person that I am, I stop myself before I get too far with that idea and realize that doing so would produce a much grater problem than necessary. Today, however, I gave in to that impulse and did something really stupid.

By the time it was 11:00 this morning, I had already missed at least three phone calls because my phone didn't ring (see problem #1). I was already beyond the point of getting annoyed. While driving home from an outing with my girls, I received a text from my sister (see problem #2) and was starting to get even more aggravated. As you can see, my frustration and lack of compliance from my phone had escalated this situation past reconciliation. I finally gave into my impulse and I threw my phone.

I didn't think it would be that big of a deal until I realized that I could no longer see where my phone went. You see, I threw my phone towards the passenger seat by the floor. My phone bounced a time or two and suddenly disappeared. I think it went up around the wires or behind some of the plastic covering that is stuck to the door or something. My only problem is that I can call my phone to see where it is, but again, it doesn't ring. I gave in to my sudden impulse and it didn't pay off one little bit. I don't feel the slightest bit satisfied with my decision. Here I have created a bigger problem than the one I had before.

"Just get a new phone," you might say. Yeah, that is easier said than done. I have already tried that avenue a long time ago. They don't seem to care that my phone doesn't do what a phone is supposed to do. I don't understand how I am expected to deal with the phone I now have and to suffer with it for much longer! Either way I go, I am getting robbed! I have been told that I can either upgrade my phone and pay about $300 for a better phone than the useless piece of plastic I now have, or I can wait until my early upgrade date.

This sucks.

Happy Birthday Meghan

Today is Meghan's 5th birthday.

I can't hardly believe she is already 5 years old. I know that doesn't seem very long to some people who have kids who are much older, but these past few years have gone by so quickly.

Meghan has grown up so much just in this past year I am excited for what this year has in store for her. Every day she is amazing me with something else she has learned or with her ability to charm me with her great personality. I know many parents feel this way about their children, so this shouldn't be anything new. I was reflecting on what I had to say about Meghan on her birthday last year, (which you can read here) and I would have to say that Meghan continues to grow in her compassion and love for others, her desire to learn, and being such a good friend to anyone who is around her.

Lately one of Meghan's favorite things to do is to draw pictures for people and to roll them up like a scroll which is held together with a rubber band. It's pretty cute. She LOVES to play on the computer on this website which is great for early literacy development. She is ALWAYS asking me to spell words for her as she has come to the realization that words contain letters and that each letter in a word work with the others to create specific sounds. This is a very exciting age.

I am so blessed to have her in my life. I am so excited for what God is doing in her life and how she is continually learning more about Him and what it means to love Him. I just pray that Meghan continues to learn more about all God has to offer us and that she will learn to listen to God and how to follow Him in everything in her life. I love you, my Meggie Beth. Happy Birthday.