Work

I can honestly say that if there is one reason that I have not been posting, it is work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job but it is definitely more time consuming then I ever imagined. The first semester of school for me was a little rough. I found myself questioning if what I spent so much time and effort in college for was really the right thing for me. My days would go from 7 am until late afternoon or early evening. When I would get home, I would have enough time to talk with Caleb for about 10 minutes and then it was off to get more work done for school. It felt like it was never ending. Caleb was a huge support though. I talked with a lot of teachers who said that their marriages struggled a lot because the work never ended. I can completely understand how this could happen. I, however, am really lucky. Caleb has been unbelievably helpful through all of this. Instead of just going into another room and hanging out by himself, he would join me and do whatever it was that I needed him to do. I can't tell you how many nights he would sit on the floor with me and color and cut different activities that I was preparing for my lessons. There were the occasional days he would ask me, "Isn't this what a TA is for?" but he never complained. I guess the most important thing for him is that we were spending time together. How lucky am I?
Things have gotten a lot better since Christmas. I actually feel like I have fallen into a great routine with my kids. They are learning so much and I can really see the progress that I am helping them make. I have one child who is reading and a few more who are so close to reading. It really makes me feel good. I have a new TA who is the most wonderful person ever and I love her very much. I realize now that I do not have to do everything myself. I am able to leave work at a reasonable hour and come home and hang out with Caleb without doing any work for the classroom. Yes there are still several days where I am swamped with paperwork, etc...but there are also days where I put it all aside and just relax. I guess it just took a few weeks off and a nice visit with my parents to realize that there is no point in stressing over things that I cannot control. There were a lot of downs in my first few months as a teacher and I had completely shut myself down. Thanks to Caleb, my parents and my new TA (oh yeah and Powell), I have done a complete 180 and so has my classroom. There is life again and I actually wake up (most mornings...haha) ready to go to school not work. :) I cannot post pictures of my kids online but I will post some pictures of my classroom once the camera charger returns to us.
Caleb's job is going ok. There are a lot of what if's at this point. The economy is taking its toll on Caleb's company. They are making a lot of changes that could affect job security. He now has to work Saturdays which stinks because it is less time we see eachother but we are just both thankful that we have jobs. Caleb has another opportunity that might present itself in the next few months. He is really excited about it and we hope it pans out. I will let him post about it later! :)

Where Does the Time Go?!?

Ok...so I swore to myself that I would keep up with this blog...5 months later...here I am. Things have been rediculously busy over the last few months! I cannot believe it is February, 2009 already. So I guess I will update in a few entries about what has been going on in our lives since I last posted. First things first...

THE HOUSE
We are absolutely loving our new house. It is so nice to come home everyday to a place that you work so hard to have. It is tough work keeping up with everything though. I feel like we constantly clean and it never feels finished. We still have boxes that have not been unpacked from moving over six months ago. I think I am just going to take those boxes to Goodwill and donate them. If they haven't been opened yet, I am sure there is nothing that we would miss too much in them. HAHA!
We have several projects that we are working on at the moment. The biggest is our garage. Right now, it looks like a bomb went off. During our move, it seemed like the general statement was, "Just throw it in the garage, we will get to it later". We started cleaning it out a little in the fall but then the weather got pretty cold and we put it off. Well...it is no longer being put of. I cannot stand to go outside and look at our neighbors with their garages open and so organized. I feel embarassed to have ours open for 10 seconds. My goal is to get the garage so organized that we can pull one of our cars into it. I think we might try our hand at a garage sale and then donate whatever is left after that. Our neighborhood had a community garage sale back in November but we just weren't prepared enough for one at that time. Only a few houses (all in our cul-de-sac) participated but the turnout was great! I think we might try and organize another community garage sale in the spring. I think we will definitely take advantage of the "spring cleaning" this year. Anyway, the garage is just one of several "to do's" we have on our list. Hopefully by this summer, we will have made a dent.
I have some pictures of our house and the pups in the recent snow. We left our battery charger for our camera in Virginia a few weeks ago and the batteries are dead. As soon as we get them back, I will post pictures.

A Not So Welcome Guest...Or 4

Caleb and I woke up this morning determined to clean the garage out. Over the course of the last month and a half, our garage turned into a clutter zone. It was filled with emptied boxes, paint supplies, and of course all of the stuff we will be storing there. It was very hard to walk around and we wanted to at least get it cleared so we could have room to put shelving in. I am a huge organization freak and everytime I would open the door to the garage I could feel the panic creeping up my chest. It was time to do something.
Caleb got started while I finished up some paperwork for work. I was on the phone with my dad trying to figure out the best benefit package to choose and I hear a loud crash from downstairs followed by Caleb dashing up the stairs. It was so loud my dad heard it on the other end of the phone. I thought Caleb had hurt himself but as soon as he got to the top of the stairs he stopped and just stared at me. I asked him what was wrong and he got one word out of his mouth....."SPIDER". I laughed because I was thinking it was just a small spider that I would have to go and kill. Caleb HATES spiders and wont ever go near them. I am not a big fan of spiders myself but I will kill the occasional spider that makes its way into the house.
I told him I would be there in a minute and the next thing I know, Caleb is at the door again with his paintball gun gased up and ready to go. I laughed again telling him that I would kill the stupid spider and he did not need to worry about shooting the poor thing. Then it hit me, what type of spider was this?
I took one look at this spider in the corner of the garage and said..."shoot it". It was a black widow and I drew the line there. One black widow to kill is not a huge deal but the next thing I know, Caleb turns around to find two more black widows right outside the garage. Now, I am not opposed to sharing my living space with furry members of our animal kingdom (aka, dogs) but cohabitating with arachnids, especially those deadly ones...no thanks.
After our lovely encounter, we cautiously removed boxes from the garage to load into Caleb's car. We had made a pile right outside the trunk and as Caleb put the last box down, we noticed a nice little black blotch with a red spot on its back about a foot from his hand....yep you guessed it, ANOTHER BLACK WIDOW.
4 black widows in one day was more than enough for me and we took a trip to Lowes where we purchased Home Defense Spray and Insect Killer for your yard. We probably overdid it but the only time I intend on seeing a black widow ever again is....NEVER! I guess I should count my blessings though...at least it wasn't a snake...or 4.

Our Mini Vacation

At the end of May, Caleb and I took a long weekend to go to Massachusetts to visit some very close family friends, the Birenbaums. Their oldest son, Justin, was graduating from highschool (this makes me feel very old, he was only 4 when I first met him) and I absolutely could not miss seeing him walk across the stage. Of course I loved seeing Marisa and Corey too. They have grown up so much.Justin Getting ready to graduate

The Birenbaums have a beautiful home and were nice enough to welcome us to stay with them. Our first day there, Adam took us on a nice hike up Blue Mountain where we had a great view of Boston. Unfortunately, he failed to tell us about this view and we left the camera in the caaaaa (car for us southerners). Of course then Adam had to take us by Gillette Stadium and try to convince us to become Pats fans (HA...never...GO FINS).

Laughing at the thought of being a patriot fan

Gillette Stadium


Caleb had never been to MA before so I was so excited to take him to my most favorite city ever, Boston. The Saturday before we left, we took the T into Boston with Corey and the three of us walked the entire city from, Fenway to the North end. Adam, Janet and Marisa met us for some more walking (including Adam's famous tour of all the historical spots) and a GREAT dinner at a small Italian restaurant and then of course desert at the pastry shop. Caleb absolutely loved Boston and although the Sox weren't in town, we did take the tour of Fenway. Caleb was in seventh heaven! I had been to Fenway before for a game and while that was a great time, the tour was a lot of fun as well. There was even a couple getting married in the stands behind home plate while we were there. Now that's a way to get married!

Corey and Caleb in the park

Caleb taking it all in

Fenway

Caleb and I at Fenway

Marisa, Corey, Caleb and I at Faniel Hall

Marisa and Corey

They love eachother and I love them!

We had a wonderful time in Boston and I cannot wait to go back!

As promised...

Here is a picture of the outside of our house and one of part of the family room. I thought that I had taken more of the inside but I guess not. The living room is still a very big work in progress but we LOVE our new furniture and the color we chose to paint the room. It gives it a very Florida feel and you know that I love that! :)

We are planning on doing some different things with the outside landscape but for now it works. Little by little, things will really start to come together!

Back on Track

Ok...so I know that I said that I was going to keep this thing updated but I did not realize just how little free time I was going to have the past few months. My summer has been completely taken up by moving, working and trying to find a job within one of the county school systems. I am happy to say that moving and finding a job have been completed....WOOHOOO!
I will preface my update on the new house by saying....Caleb and I will NOT be moving again for a VERY long time....HAHA! Moving is so exhausting and it seems as though it never ends. We are still swimming in boxes trying to find each thing we own its new place ; however, I can finally say that our house is starting to feel more and more like a home. We started by painting the kitchen and family room and are SO happy with the colors that we chose. The kitchen is my favorite room in the house and for those of you who know me, that is a BOLD statment! HAHA! Caleb is loving the fact that I love my kitchen because it means that he is not cooking as much as he used to at the old place. Well, I take that back, he is still cooking a lot but now he has a cooking partner which both of us are enjoying.
The first weekend we were here, Caleb, his dad, Evan, Stephen, and Jerry all built our fence. It was a huge project and I know for a fact that it is the last fence that at least 4 out of the 5 guys will ever build themselves. They did an amazing job though. Our builder came by and said it looked like it was professionally done. Our backyard is huge and I cannot wait until fall when we can finally get some good grass seed down. Right now, there are huge patches of red mud in between weeds. We can use the backyard only when it has not rained for 2 or 3 days otherwise our dogs are being walked around the neighborhood. Cleaning the red mud off of our new carpets is not my idea of fun!
The house is really starting to come together. Of course we have a list of projects we want to do but owning a house is an ongoing process and they will get done little by little.
On another note, I finally got a job! YAY! I am teaching in the Orange County School system. I am one of three new Pre-K teachers in the system. The program is funded by Title 1. This means that the children who qualify for this program are at risk of failing school before they even start. This can be because of the child's family's socio-economic status, if the child does not speak english or many other reasons. I am really excited about this job and cannot wait to start next week. I actually have workshops and training starting tomorrow but the 18th is my official start date. I don't think the kids will be coming to the classroom until the 1st of Septemeber but I will be meeting them at their homes before we start.
Caleb is doing really well. He stays busy at work but is not the happiest there. Once I get established in my job in a few months, he will start to look for another job. He has his degree that Timco does not recognize and he is just frustrated with the situation. Hopefully something will come his way. He definitely deserves it.
I have pictures on our camera of the new house and all of the progress we are making that I promise to post as soon as I find the transfer cord. I am going to go through the office boxes now and hopefully within the next hour, I will have pictures! I am really going to try to keep on top of posting. It is definitely a great outlet.

House Progress!

Last Friday 3/28, we went out to the house to see what type of progress they had made. The workers were still there at around 7:00 pm and they were finishing up smoothing the cement they had just poured. The builder told us that after the cement was poured they needed to wait four days to let it completely dry before they began anything else. The four day mark would have meant that any more work would not start until this past Tuesday. Caleb and I thought about going down to see if anything had been done on Wednesday but opted not to as we were sure that because of the continuous rain nothing would be done. Yesterday (Friday), we decided to go ahead and make a quick trip down to the house just to see if maybe they had started since we did have one day with a break in the rain this week. We were sure that any progress would be minimal but were excited none the less to see anything new.

As we were driving the last 1/2 mile up the road to the house, I joked with Caleb that we would be able to see the top of the house over the neighbors house. He laughed and said, "Yeah, I wish". The next thing out of my mouth was, "Hello house!" To our shock and surprise, as we rounded the corner, the entire structure of the house was up. The roof, outer walls with windows cut out, porch, etc... were all there. Neither of us could say a word, we just stared in amazement that just 7 days prior, there was newly laid concrete.

We watched the workers lay the tar paper on the roof and then decided to go and grab a bite to eat and come back when they finished working so we could go inside and look around. When we left, they were still laying tar paper and there was one half of the garage roof missing. We returned about an hour or so later and to our surprise, all of the tar paper was laid and the other half of the garage roof was there with tar paper over it. WOW!

It began to rain at that point but we were too excited to care and got out and tredged through the famous NC red MUD right into the house. It was so exciting. We could see all of the rooms and just imagined how it would look when it was all finished. We did notice a few things that need to be addressed with the builder but they were not major and will not get in the way of any more progress! Here are some pictures of the progress that has been made. We signed the papers at the pre-building meeting on March 21st. The house was boxed out and they put in the plumbing that following week followed by the cement for the foundation. Now we have a house....WOW!

The house boxed off on the "building pad"

Boxed off from the front

Boxed from the backyard property line

We have PLUMBING! Woohoo!!! :)

And the cement is poured

Michelle, Evan, Liam, Caleb and I walked up from their place to see the progress last Friday

Liam was excited, haha, too cute, he met the little boy his age down the street too!

This is what was waiting for us after only a week of not coming to check!!!

A Little Hard to see through the rain and dark but there she is!!! YAY!

I will post pictures of the inside soon! I haven't uploaded them all yet!!!