Mark's 2011 New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year again - time to reflect on what I did and did not accomplish last year, and time to prioritize what I would like to accomplish in the coming year. I should preface this blog by saying that my resolutions are goals. I use them as guidance, but they are not law or reason to punish myself should they not work out. This works out better for me and my ego! So here they are. 

My New Year's Resolutions for 2011:

• Get a job! Looks like we are good staying in the SW Ohio region for Shelby's work, so we're running with that. Which means I can seek employment, preferably teaching, or something somewhat in the education field.
• Get a house!! Oh, how we've waited for this! We should be ready and able to get our family farm sometime before the kids end this school year! We're forecasting our buy using Shelby's paycheck only, but we're definitely going to need to get my career going, as well, to keep up the pace. 
• Fruits, veggies, chickens, bees, composting, recycling, and homemade food! These are a few of our favorite things that we are unable to do in this apartment, but will definitely do on our new farm. I cannot wait to plant the trees and bushes that have been living in pots for the past months waiting to stretch out their roots!
• Write a book. This is a leftover from last year...I have the ideas, so I just need to work on the writing and illustrating part. I did start an outline...so, there's that...
• Email, phone, and visit more often. In all of our hecticness, all of the time, I have lost real-life touch with friends. I try to keep up with Facebook and my blog, but it has been to long since we've actually sat down with many of our friends.
• School. I would like to work on my Master's, preferably in Environmental Education. Of course, I have loans to worry about, so a job is first priority.

Alright...I think that's it...for now. Feel free to comment.
Or offer me a job. 

Or just let me know what your resolutions are :) 

Whoot 2011!

2010 Resolutions in Review...

In 2010, I would like to:

Go camping more often.

Did this - more often than the past few years, anyways. Partially thanks to the in-laws, who initiated with their RV at Arrowhead and then at their new RV home in Wilmington!

Live in the city that will end up being our home.

Right now it appears that we are doing that - Shelby is due for her promotion here, so we're planning on staying in SW Ohio.

Graduate, become a certified teacher, and get a teaching job.

I am a certified teacher :) But I do not have a teaching job...yet. My fault, really. I didn't want to commit to a job with the chance of moving looming over us, so I only just kinda looked. Now the search is on!

Go on an out-of-state vacation once with the family, and once with just Shelby.  

Went to New York (thrice), Pennsylvania, and New Jersey with the family, and Pennsylvania with Shelby. Mission accomplished!

Write, or get a good start, on one of my books.

Well...

Make a plan and get started with my 4/5 Endorsement and Master's (in Environmental Ed?).
Again, did not commit since the chance of moving out of state was pretty realistic. New goal - get a job first, then work on my Masters or/and 4/5 endorsement.


Not too shabby :) Now time to think about the New Year!

We're Getting a House...Soon

We're getting a home. Soon. Like, first half of 2011 soon! It all seems a little surreal and, as usual, I am cautiously optimistic, but very excited nonetheless. Extremely excited! We have been working towards this goal for so long and it feels so good to be so close to the dream. We have an idea of what we want, what we don't want, what we are willing to, and not, tackle to make our home...well, our home. The hardest part is telling people about this venture. Somehow the news turns on the lecture in people, like we haven't been discussing this for the past fifteen years. We are 46 and 36 years old, people - we value your opinions and advice, but what we really want is your excitement. We're happy to talk about our dream - we welcome the opportunity to share! But please don't try to give us a reality check by telling us how hard it is to own a home or what we should buy or how we should buy it. We don't care about resale. I know, it's crazy! We want this home to be IT - the home that makes memories and we can call home for the rest of our lives. We want the farm and we will make it ours, one step at a time. It is an exciting time, and we will be so happy to breathe the air of our land, sink our hands into the dirt, and build a home for us and our animals. We will work through, persevere, adjust, and live our lives as we feel works for our family, not blindly, but with the care and diligence that we give every moment of our lives for our family. We're getting a house...soon...and we are SO excited! Please be excited with us and ride along with our dream :)

Christmas Joy!

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Walking Bare-Socked

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Merry Christmas, Eyes Forward

It's the eve after a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed our traditional at-home Christmas Eve with a nice variety of snack food (healthy and not) and Christmas movies - this year we watched our pick of favorites: Christmas Vacation, Elf, and our traditional end-of-the-night movie, It's a Wonderful Life. (We started this at-home tradition while living in Florida and realized that it greatly reduced the stress level of Christmas, compared to the running around to both families and then laying kids down and THEN finishing Christmas preparations that needed to happen before Christmas Day! So we decided that this tradition is a necessity, even upon our return to Ohio.)

Christmas morning came fast, and it was a great beginning to Christmas day with all seven of us home, and each of us fully aware of the gift that our togetherness actually is. Our kids enjoyed this Christmas with giving as much as they enjoyed receiving, which is a wonderful thing to see in your children. The day followed with a visit to my parents' house for gift giving, coffee, snacks, and catching up; Shelby's brother's house for festivities and dinner with that side of the family, and a tired trek home to recover from the day. This morning we wrapped up our festivities with a McD breakfast with Grandma to exchange gifts and enjoy some time with her outside of the typical holiday bustle. A much needed nap followed, then some minor straightening up and cleaning up to take the edge off and give a little breathing room. Of course, amongst all of this was lots of filler activities, included snacking, Cartoon Network, and virtually non-stop Wii. It was a good Christmas. It was a GREAT Christmas!

I am in a particularly positive mood this holiday, and looking forward to the year and years ahead. Shelby took the initiative (I know - weird, right?) to contact a real estate agent couple, who helped us find a very helpful lender agent. Collectively, they have confirmed that we are on the right track in getting a house, and have given us pointers to set us up for getting a house (credit wise). So it looks like our goal to get a house by March-June is totally realistic! And with news of Shelby's impending promotion in the Dayton program, we have decided to search in this area, closer to the Indiana border. So hold your breath, ladies and gentlemen...we have direction. Of course things can change as they always can, but this is the road we're preparing for, and this is the focus that we've been looking for since the beginning of this year. Could limbo be broken (knock on wood!)? I'm so proud of Shelby's successes and her talents in making all of this happen :)

I need to focus my attention on getting my career started, which is both exciting and scary. I am SO ready. I feel a little behind the game since many of my classmates have classrooms of their own now, but that was our choice and I need to adjust my starting line accordingly. I hope to find something in the education field - I know that teaching jobs are scarce, so I'm ok with an educator job outside of the classroom, but I'd rather not have to resort to a job outside of my degree. We will see... I will focus on Preble, Darke, and Montgomery counties first, on both education and other job sites. Wish me luck! We'll do what we need to do, and things will work out how they should. Everything happens for a reason, right?

So here's to the new year, a new life, and the beginning of new challenges and successes! Bring on 2011!

Just Dance Christmas

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Just Dance Christmas...2

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Holiday Season!

Christmas week is upon us, school break is here, and the kids are enjoying their mega extended weekend. I love this time of year for our family, but I'm finding myself more excited to begin the New Year and begin what I hope will be our transitional year to our new life. As the end of this year approaches, Shelby and I have developed our plan to make things happen...as we realize things may also change as we begin our strategy!
#1 We have determined that it is most likely that we will remain in the SW Ohio/Indiana area unless some awesome twist of destiny is bestowed upon us. But the likeliness that Shelby's job will evolve and continue for at least a few years here is good, so we have decided that our best location for our home will be Preble, Darke, or Mercer counties. We are going to start our quest with open houses, and find a realtor that we're comfortable with and who can help us to do the things we need to do to make this happen.
#2 Get a job. I have an appointment for substitute teaching in Kettering next month, and my name in the hat for substitute teaching in Dayton at their next selection. I have downloaded information and created my spreadsheets on Darke, Preble, and Mercer school districts and pk-3 schools, and have bookmarked their websites. I need to fill out an application for Darke County, which I'll work on during these last days of this year. A job will really help out financially and as a means to get our home loan.
#3 Save. Of course, this is nothing new as a goal... We have made strides in getting rid of debt, but we need to clean up a few things before we get our house. Our plan is to attack the biggie with all we have, and then clean up the odds and ends that have been tagging along with us for awhile. Hopefully #2 will speed this up :)
#4 Get out of our apartment! With or without the successes of the above, whether staying in the area or transferring, our goal is to be out of this apartment by or on June 4, the weekend after the kids' last day of school. It is more apparent and evident that this building is not on any kind of an upward turn, but only relieved of bad neighbors for the moment. I don't mean to sound negative, but I have lost my optimism that this place will get better. The owner has hired an on-site manager, but the ice and snow still cover the walk and parking areas, the lobby and outside lights are still out (2 weeks), and icicles are forming through the cracks in the eves of the roof. Enough said about that.

Getting back to Christmas, though - it looks like we will have a very nice Christmas this year :) Our early family Christmas gift from Mimi and Papa was tickets to The Nutcracker at the Schuster Center - AWESOME! We took this opportunity to relive our engagement night from fifteen years ago, this time with our five kids :) It was so nice! Dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse, balcony seats at the ballet, and a drive through Lincoln Park, where I proposed to my wife, she said "yes", and began this wonderful journey that we're on! Everyone seemed to enjoy the night as much as we dido, and I'm so glad our whole family was able to have the experience.
As much as I love the beach and devote myself to the water, it is nice to see white on the ground at this time of year, and I love the contrast of bare branches against the winter sky. The Christmas lights shine brightly against the snow - it really is very beautiful. Of course, warm weather is more than welcome to return in January! We helped Grandma put up and decorate her trees and window last weekend, and I think we enjoy seeing them as much as she enjoys having them. Last week we prepared our fleece for Shelby's charity hat project, and went to Drake and Cora's classes to let them make hats for themselves and for Children's Hospital. The kids had a great time and were able to help others, whether it was family or other kids in need. We wrapped up the week hosting the kids' school holiday parties, and we also presented the teachers with a photo of their class wearing the hats that they made. The students all signed the mat - it was all very nice and festive! Yesterday wrapped up our busy weekend with a dinner at Aunt Barbara's. The pot luck dinner was a nice gathering of the Schimer side, highlighted by a visit from some deer in the back yard! The week ahead needs to include Gage shopping for the family, food shopping for now and our at-home family Christmas Eve AND Christmas day dessert, along with whatever work stuff Shelby has planned for the week. Busy, busy, busy! Which means I should wrap this up. We wish you and us luck for the joy and insanity that the holiday season/school break brings, and for the dreams and hopes of the new year!

Snowy Saturday

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Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Wow - it's been quite a while since my last post. We've been busy with Shelby's store visits, the apartment, events, and our sad trip to New York for Lynn's funeral. Seems like we're on the road or catching up with some chore, always... But here I am, finally, thanks to a long holiday weekend :) My biggest accomplishment this weekend was finalizing my Consortium application after several months of setting it aside for one reason or another. I finished my teacher preferences (whys and hows), added my certificate information, and attached my documents. Quite a bit more to finish up than I had thought! I am so glad that this is done, partly because it is off of my plate, and partially because it makes me feel like I'm more in the game now. Shelby and I decided at 7am on Black Friday to go shopping, and it worked out great! We had fun together and were able to score a few of the deals we had discussed on our Thanksgiving Day ad review. It was a cold but sunny day, and a power outage by the Dayton Mall makes a great story to tell without damaging our shopping too much. The weekend is ours, from last Wednesday through tomorrow, Sunday. We (Shelby) made some awesome apple pie, pumpkin muffins, and chocolate pudding cake, with the help of the kids. Thanksgiving Day was nice - Tiffany was able to go, and Kait was over after work ended at 3pm. Drama was minimal (a great relief) and we were able to visit with the Eggert side, many of whom we don't see very often.

With the holiday season here and running, and the recent reminder that life is not everlasting, I think we're both feeling the need for life to get going to start this next chapter. We've made June 3 our next out-of-here goal. The kids' last day of school is June 2nd, a Thursday, so the weekend seems to be the logical choice. But it's more than that...we have to make a change by then. We trust destiny and believe that life will happen, but we need to make our change. We have been in Dayton for over two years and it is not currently the life we want. Not that Ohio is out of the question, but Dayton is. This apartment is. We need our place and our yard for our family to work at and from, and a home to create memories in. I have no expectations of a place, location, or size of home/land, just that we find our spot. So, June 3. June 3 we pack the truck and head out to wherever and start our next chapter in our new home. Start the garden, plant our trees, explore and make our mark. The beginning of our future and the peace that we felt with our family while living in Florida.

Mark Murdoch stopped by the apartment last Monday with a worker(?), but we haven't seen him or any changes since. I've lowered my expectations of living here, but it has been much quieter since so many people have left. Building 2 and 4 are empty, and 1C and 3B are gone. I have lost the anxiety every time we return home, thankfully. I haven't tackled the leaves, but will make my rounds and also remove trash from the vacant apartments if MM or his workers(?) don't beat me too it. We have plans with Grandma for breakfast - she's treating us to Bob Evans - and we're planning on decorating our tree while Kait's home tomorrow morning. Kait is leaving for her Florida trip on Tuesday, and returns a week from next Saturday. It will definitely be weird not having her around, but it will be nice for her. Grandma gets her new awning on Monday, I think, and she wants to have us over to decorate her tree next weekend. Life will be super busy for the next couple of months with the holidays and Shelby's work - good for helping time by and allowing us to enjoy our family here as we get ready for the hope of a new year.

Busy Not Working

It seems like forever since I've written a blog, and it also seems like there has been a whirlwind of activity in my at-home-dad life. I'm not sure exactly where time goes, but it has been going fast. Shelby and I have been running store visits, which are nice drives spotted with trips to Family Dollars, Home Depots, WalMarts, and Ace stores. There are the never ending chores of dishes, laundry, cooking, and cleaning, which are...well, never ending. But nothing extraordinarily time consuming. We watched our son Drake perform in the Greenmont fourth grade play last Thursday, and hosted two school Halloween parties at school yesterday. Which, as a side note - what the heck was I thinking there? I'm an at home dad and want to help with school things, but being a homeroom parent for two classes means trying to be two places at once for EVERY school party day. Thanks to Shelby and Kait for helping! So, anyways, it has been busy-er, but feels like a can't-catch-your-breath kind of busy. This is good though, as it helps time by and keeps our minds busy.

Shelby's back is still aching and we're waiting on physical therapy. The MRI is a big expense for us so we're waiting on that one. Life is quiet at the apartment as people move out, at least their persons. Still waiting for people to move out their "stuff" so I can get in there and cleanup. Cora's birthday at Delco Park was awesome, and before that, Kings Island and the Haunted Hayride at Young's Dairy was so much fun for everyone! Did I already write about the Renaissance Festival? Ok - I guess we have been busy...we pretty much rock right now :)

Our hopes are still to get out of here, and we continue to receive encouragement that we will achieve that goal. Just a matter of time...which makes moving the coats and Halloween supplies out of Grandma's attic and into our house a little heart breaking, but acceptable as we keep our eyes focused on our future.

The Beach

Living in Clearwater, Florida definitely tops the list of places we have lived. The two years that we lived there gave us so many more memories than seems possible for that amount of time. Being water people, we know of nothing more powerful than the call of the ocean, more peaceful than toes sunk into the sand, water overlapping occasionally, and nothing more exhilarating than watching the sun singe the horizon as it sets in an explosion of oranges, reds, and purples. Spectators applaud these sunsets...literally. The Pinellas County side of the bridge is laid back with no worries, and there are always, always plenty of activities going on for everyone to enjoy, often for free. When I close my eyes, I can feel the humid and salty ocean breeze, the dried salt on my skin and in my hair left after from a dip in this endless pool, and the cool fine grains of sand surrounding my feet. So, why are we here? Why, oh why did destiny bring us back to Ohio? I've heard some say that Ohio is a black hole that few escape from. I prefer to believe that destiny brought us to Ohio to open the door to ECOS for Shelby, and to confirm our feelings for our home away from family. The Island is calling, and we will be back (LOST reference - you're welcome). Back may be Florida or some other location, but it will be a place that we can be confident as our own family unit and confident in who we can be. Granted, Florida would be awesome, but Florida will be a part of our lives whether we live there or not. Destiny works in funny ways - we have accomplished many things in Ohio since we returned, the most important being that we know what is right for us and our future. Look back at this from wherever you end up, and tell me that I was right!

Reflection

The hardest thing to do right now is wait...I'm kind of done researching and planning until we know what we're researching and planning for, and I'm ready to live life like we love to do. But...the benefit of limbo is the reflection  of who we are and what we want. Today is a dreary, hum-drum day, and I feel like doing nothing. I will, however, take a moment to sum things up.

What I want for us:

• At least 5 acres
• Off grid
• A well
• Awesome vegetable garden - totally organic
• Berry patch started with the raspberry, blueberry, blackberry bushes and grape vine we have now
• Fruit orchard including the apple, peach, and nectarine trees we have now
• Lots of trees, including the starts we have now (sycamore, hickory, tulip, maple, and pine)
• Water gathering and recycling features
• Composting and recycling capabilities - I'd like our trash to be minimal
• Bees
• 2 Goats, lots of chickens, 2 sheep, a cow, and maybe a pig
• Lots of outdoor living space
• Space for living, workshopping, and growing
• Spaces for family and friends

Who we are:
Not that I'm and expert in any of these, but I feel a connection to many different cultures. We share the Native Americans' love of the earth and beliefs that we own none of it, but are responsible for the welfare of all of it. We admire the sense of community of the Amish, their sustainable off-grid living, and preparedness for the future. We believe in a pay-it-forward society and teachable moments. Life should be lived and enjoyed every day, not spent working overtime for those few days of vacation. Recently we feel that destiny has guided us down certain paths, although I believe that you can choose which path you take (but do you still end up at the same destination?). Like Shelby says: "We're not extreme anything." Extremists are fanatics and tend to be scary. Our beliefs evolve and grow, yet we're not purists in any one of them. I value life, but that fly I destroyed earlier probably doesn't get that. I don't drink soda, but I'm pretty sure my body would go into shock without coffee. It's not only that I want to live on renewable energy, but I want to reduce our energy use dramatically...yet I don't want to give up this laptop. The journey will be awesome, and hard, and will give us life. I know that we will spend way more time outside, and learn so much about ourselves while we build our home and grow our food. The place where we want to be will be our own, and our few dependencies on others will be tied to our community, education, and medicine. We will learn, and then teach, about this way of living because it is a growing wave that many people are gravitating towards. I think it is essential to our spirit. We will get there, but the dream makes waiting that much harder. I sit in an apartment that is lit with computers, video games, and lamps. The outdoors offer little here. But life will change drastically, hopefully soon, hopefully for the better that we are dreaming for!

Buzzy Weekend!

It's Monday morning and I'm hustling to recover from a weekend away with Shelby in Pennsylvania. We were only away for three days, and Kaitlyn did a great job of taking care of the kids and keeping up on house chores. So, a little bit of laundry to catch up on and some other odds and ends, including a trip to the grocery, is all I need to get back in gear. The weekend was awesome, once we got past the suck traffic jam on I-70, which added three hours to our trip because everyone was detoured off of the highway (eastbound and westbound) around some sort of an accident. The source of our trip was a work event of Shelby's with Duquesne Light. We were able to help with a bulb giveaway at Home Depot on Saturday, which was a lot of fun and happened to coincide with some beautiful weather. Besides the event, we were able to visit  with the Duqquesne and surrounding Pa. ECOS teams for pizza, a cookout, and drinks - everyone was awesome :) We also were able to  have a little "shop talk" on to the future of the company and Shelby's potential, which was very satisfying and exciting, pacifying us a little bit while we sit in our limbo.  
On Sunday, Shelby and I drove to Seven Springs to attend the second day of the Mother Earth News Fair, which was amazing. Our favorite speakers were Wanda Urbanska (Simple Living) and James Zitting (Beekeeping), who were inspirational and very informational. We also enjoyed the abundance of vendors and informational stands that filled both the inside and outside of the resort. Although there was plenty that we would have liked to buy, we narrowed our purchases down to a spearmint plant, a lavender plant, and the book "Rural Renaissance" by John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist. The fair was very well executed and so much fun, especially for the two of us on our quest to our new future. What we did realize over this trip is that we have a pretty good idea of what we want and basically how we want to do it. We are also seeing, especially through events like this, that we are part of a revolution that continues to grow and gain momentum. I've got to say thanks to The Unusually Unusual Farmchick again for giving us the opportunity to attend this spectacular event! Wish we would have been able to meet our benefactor...perhaps another day!

Farm Season

Now, where was I? Oh, right - I was on a rant about my neighbors...snapped a little... Since then, the guy next door (same apartment of said rant) drop kicked a kitten into the yard after fighting with his girlfriend. My boys happened to see the kitten hit the ground, or it may have been just after it hit the ground, twitching and dying. He did it in an angry moment, and he apologized to me and my wife, who upsettingly let him now how horrible his action was. The kids were upset, and so was Shelby. The police were called, but of course the neighbor fled before they got here and the sister's baby daddy refused to help - he is now (legally) banned from the apartment. The guy next door eventually came home, and he is in jail. Lesson: killing is killing, and death is death, animal or human, angry or not. The abandoned apartment next to theirs is squatter free, for the most part, except I know that people have been in there, to sleep or hang or whatever. Animal control will be in to gather the cats that are left there (neighbors gave a few of them a home), and hopefully the lock will be changed soon. Also, hopefully, the rest of the people in 2A will leave, also - eviction or otherwise. There is a point where you have to say "enough is enough", and this is it. The line is drawn...either they leave or we do. Either that apartment empties and I spend some time working to cleanup the mess others have left behind (because apparently people think it's ok to leave their trash, unwanted furniture, and nastiness behind when they flee), or we spend that time finding some temporary apartment to live in until other things get rolling. I was going to say "until fate kicks in", but maybe that's what this is. I don't want to move right now, but we will. I can't stand being uncomfortable in our own yard and being afraid to leave our windows open, especially with the beautiful fall weather is here. So that is where we are at. If nothing else, we have plans for the immediate future :)

Now for more positive stuff. I love this time of year! The weather is awesome and there are so many things to do that fit our family. We drove to Kidron, Ohio yesterday, at the crack of dawn, to visit Lehman's sale and festival and to drive through Amish country. We had the six of us packed into our van, enjoying the great weather and beautiful scenery of rural Wayne county. Totally worth the drive, and a great experience for everyone. If I can relate to any religion, it would be the Amish (and Native American, but that's a different story) - so in touch with nature and family. Very simple living and very kind, generous people. Today we are going to the Wool Gathering event at Young's Dairy, to learn about sheep and eat ice cream, of course! I think we will have at least one sheep on our farm, so that we can gather our own wool and make our own yarn. Sounds tedious, but winter can be long and we'll need something to do :) Next weekend is date weekend...well, really a work weekend for Shelby in Pittsburgh, but I'll be going along and Kait took off work to be with the kids, so...date weekend! AND I won tickets to the Mother Earth News Fair very near Pittsburgh, thanks to The Unusually Unusual Farmchick! There will be so many things for us to see and visit to get ready for our farm - we're both SO excited! This week we will narrow down the seminars we want to see, and make a plan for the weekend. I love these kinds of events that keep our dream of farm living alive. I get excited thinking about buying oil lamps, wood stoves, and farm tools. The idea of growing with our family on a farm that sustains us is such a fulfilling and exciting dream that I can't imagine how we went this long without it. I guess that part of the reason that these events are so rewarding is that we get to meet the people who are living our dream. Canning, farming, gardening, raising animals, sewing, some untethered from others' supply of electricity and/or water, and very happily doing so. From these people, along with the blogs, articles, and books that people write, I know that our dream will be a reality someday. That community is now part of our family because they are giving us knowledge, walking the walk, and helping us to get ready to live our dream.

Cora's many hats!

Trash

Unbelievable how some "parents" can behave and treat their kids. The neighbors next door have taken over the bottom floor, using an abandoned apartment across the hall from theirs as a boarding house/party room. There are any number of people staying there or hanging out with them, their sister, their sister's kid and baby daddy, the brother, random drunken strangers. This morning I got to hear them teach a two-year-old to say f@ck you...and it's not the first time that has happened. Feel free to join my 1901 Hazel fb page for more interesting info about the ghetto! Can't wait to get out of here! In the meantime, any ideas or contacts that might be able to resolve this situation will be greatly appreciated!

Hello from the Future

Dusk is approaching on our farm. Cool weather settles in on the clear evening, revealing a bright full moon and, already, the sparkle of many stars. I carry our coffee out onto the deck, where Shelby thanks me with a smile over her laptop. She finishes up her work as I tend to the fire in the pit, and settle into my chair. Blue runs around the yard, dodging chickens, and keeps Drake busy with the ball. Occasionally Drake stops to pick up something off the ground - his discoveries have not lessened since we moved here last year. Cora is tending to her garden and gives Rusty the attention he craves by petting his fat, feline belly. Gage sits under the apple tree, drawing the landscape of the land from his perspective, and Kaitlyn studies for her test by reading to Henrietta, one of our goats. Henrietta listens intently to Kait, making eye contact and occasionally bleating her comments. It's a strange relationship that has developed on the farm. Shelby closes her laptop, places it under her chair, and takes a sip of coffee. We look at each other and smile, as we soak in the cool evening, the smell of soil and plants, and the sounds of our kids and animals. We peck a kiss and admire where we are, grab marshmallows and call for the kids. Light from the fire illuminates the faces of our family, and the smell of toasted marshmallows fills the air. We finish round two of toasty treats, house the animals, and head inside. Showered and ready for bed, the kids say good night and head up the stairs to their rooms. Blue follows Cora into her room, where she'll stay until sometime in the middle of the night, when she makes her security rounds through the house. Shelby and I get our things in order for the morning, give the kids hugs and kisses goodnight, and sit back outside. The sounds of the night are music to our ears: the crackling of the fire, crickets and toads chirping and croaking, the breeze through the trees, and even the coyotes off in the distance. Our talks now include things that we want to add to our lives, canning days, Shelby's program, and my school work. We still plan for the future, but now those plans are more immediate and exist to enhance the life we have here. We made it. We're here, and it feels so right - the past seems so far away. We put out the fire, turn out the lights, and settle into bed, dreaming of new adventures in this place that destiny so perfectly picked for us.

I believe we'll have this weekend to relax and chill. The weather calls for rain later today, hopefully, because the plants need it desperately. Shelby is still feeling bad after a week of this bronchial infection, even with the meds that we got from urgent care last Sunday. Besides the cough, sore throat, exhaustion, and occasional fever, her back ache and sciatic nerve issues have gotten worse. We have a doctor's appointment set up for Tuesday, so hopefully we can get things squared away.

Work-wise, it looks like gears may be turning at Ecos, which will hopefully bring about some changes for us. I feel like a broken record with the "hope something happens soon", and "waiting, waiting, waiting"...but our next steps are so hinged on making home in that new place, away from this apartment and hopefully Dayton. I have ideas in my head about ideal locations for home, but it's really all about the hand of fate. And, as far as locations go, I only know what I know. I'm sure there are some awesome places out there that we just haven't seen or experienced. Destiny is a very narrow road at the moment, very different from when we moved to Florida in 2006. Shelby was looking for a job, and I was preparing to quit mine to become a full-time student. Any place was fair game. We picked the area that we wanted to live in. But ultimately, we ended up in Tampa Bay, which was south of our dream zone. It was an awesome relocation! So, what does it all mean? There's a road that's paved for us, and although we're not afraid to clear our own path, life seems to have us where it wants us, and has given us enough hope that it will lead us to bigger and better things on this road. So we wait, we clean, we prepare for that time when life gives us the opportunity to grow, to farm, to teach, to make a future. In the meantime, the house is getting in shape, the "honey do" list is getting shorter, and we're getting all of our ducks in a row. We're chugging along, making the best of our time here and dreaming a lot of dreams.

Back on Track

Well, I am sitting in the lobby of the dentist office waiting for Shelby to get her teeth filled/refilled by our amazing friends at the Dayton Dental Collaborative. This will wrap up visits from me, Gage, Drake, Cora, Kait, and now Shelby...yay! This office is awesome and has made every experience very pleasant – SO glad we found them :) Anyway, I figure it is a good time to catch up after a brief time away from my blog. School has started for the kids. Today they are ending their second week and I've got to say that they've been doing very well getting up and going in the mornings, and doing their homework at night. So far, so great. Kait starts back to Wright State after Labor Day, and the fall routine will fully kick in at our household. Looking backward, we had an incredible week-long working vacation a few weeks ago in Philadelphia. The kids and I tagged along with Shelby to do many, many store visits, and we somehow managed to fit in visits to Hershey World, Historic Philadelphia, New York City, Atlantic City, and Crate & Barrel! A wonderful last minute vaca for the summer :) Since then, we've been working on getting the house in order (and getting ready for school). Our biggest accomplishment: the kids' room. Twelve hours last Saturday, several hours on Sunday, and tack on the laundry of stripped beds and found dirty clothes! The Goodwill boxes are still waiting in the van for their trip, but the laundry is caught up and beds are remade. The living room will be the task of this weekend, though it should go much smoother and quicker!

As far as life goes: Adam (Shelby's boss) had his interview in Portland on Tuesday, so we're waiting on word from that, and the resulting movement created by the outcome. Shelby had a meeting at DP&L yesterday, and may be getting office space there to spend a day each week to work. The apartment building is the same, about. Paul and Crazy Beautiful are leaving 4D after an eviction; Shawn/Sean(?) and Shannon are in the middle of a bad relationship, which is effecting their kids; Midnight is staying at David's apartment(?) while David and Chelsea are working from his sister's house (fishy); Perry is home for a couple weeks; and we're FB friends with our neighbor in building one, who happens to have been one of Tiff's friends :) I'm losing faith in the building, but will continue to do my part to try and keep it nice, AFTER making our apartment nice (priority). We want the sanctuary that we need, and want to be prepared for the winter. If nothing else transpires, our plan is to move at the end of the school year...some way, somehow. I believe that I will not offer to show any apartments unless they are in showable shape – fix-me-up offers brings in the less desirable crowd, for the most part, and repairs do not get done properly anyways, which continues the ghetto. Whatever. Either the people who own the place fix it up, or the ghetto will get too bad to do anything about. One example: our door frame is shifting daily so that the doorknob and deadbolt lose alignment, which can't be a good sign!

On a more positive note, we were able to get a new car on Shelby's credit! Our new red Yaris is awesome, and I can't wait to road trip in it when Shelby and I go to Pittsburgh later this month (weekend work trip). So, 1) New Car! and 2)Better Credit towards our dream of getting our farm :) We are giving Kait the Accord, if the repairs don't outweigh the value of the car. The Accord (brown car) is at Muffler Brother's awaiting its destiny. So there's that.

It is definitely fall, and we've shifted our expectations to remain here for the remainder of the school year, unless something happens to change that. I still have expectations and that feeling that we're on the brink of something, on the doorstep of our next chapter, feeling the breath of destiny on our necks. But we're placing our expectations to June, and our preparations to now, just in case :) The house is getting back on track and downsized, our family affairs are getting in order, and I will focus on more educator training after that. We are working on credit, finances, and savings. We have also declared North Carolina as our dream state, if we find out in the end that we need to take matters into our own hands, with Tennessee and Florida following closely. This makes waiting easier to bear :) I believe I'm mostly up to date now, although I'm sure I've left out something(s). But I should be back on track :) Until next time...

Hershey World!

Shelby and I at the Liberty Bell

Historic Philly

Central Park

Times Square

Atlantic City - Taj Mahal

Our new Ruby

First Day of School

Diploma!

I received my diploma today, safe and sound, and put it in my new frame that Rue got me for my graduation. It looks awesome! I am very happy to have the official piece of paper to document the past six years of my academic life to earn this degree :)

I've been a bit grumpy lately despite everything. I have been working on catching up with household chores and packing/storing/reorganizing. We finally got one of the bookcases out of the bedroom, which will go to Bess or Goodwill. We took four dining table chairs, a stool, curtain rods, and boxes (inherited books from Bess and Eve, Shelby's pitcher and bowl find, and other odds and ends) to storage - probably about the end of downsizing. We all have dental and doctor appointments set up, so all I need to do now is set up eye exams for Shelby and me. I've sorted through the storage totes and all the other stuff on our bedroom shelves, kinda, just to make more sense of it all. I feel comfortable with what's been done, and comfortable that we can keep it up easier now until we're able to escape. I can't help but feel closed up in our apartment, holed up away from the rest of the neighborhood but not away from the negative energy of this place. I don't like being grumpy, and I know that positive actions work better than wallowing in my own darkness...but I think sometimes you just gotta let yourself be pissy. But...Gage's birthday is this weekend, and Shelby got a gig in Philadelphia next week which has evolved into a getaway for us and the three little kids. Kait will have the home to herself to study in peace and quiet. We leave Saturday and come back Friday. Another "vacation", though Shelby's gotta work, for this summer! I will also be working on finishing my Consortium application, and maybe even get some writing, or other application stuff done for Teachers-Teachers. Baby steps forward, setting ourselves up...right?

School starts for the kids on the 24th...just a few weeks away. It's been a busy summer, and definitely transitional. I guess we should appreciate that we're all at home at the moment, before the rest of our life starts and we're all working and going to school. Looking forward to the future, and trying to make the present work for us :)

Apartment Smoke and Mirrors

July 22
Well, today I got "the letter" to post to the tenants, basically saying "pick up your trash, leash your dog, and pick up your crap", padded with "we want the place to look pretty and we'll be making improvements". We'll see how persuasive it is...

July 30
I started the beginning of this post before we went camping with Pat and Dan and our tent and their RV. I had to stop short so we could get ready, but rather than scrap that post, I'd like to continue on with it now. Camping was great, and so was my week teaching four and five-year-olds at nature camp this week. More on that later. In our business, I have not been picking up everyone else's garbage, because family comes first, then work, then the ghetto. I'll just say that the letter mentioned earlier has had minimum impact. Some, but minimal. From both sides. People should be evicted, repairs should be done, people should be responsible. But I know that my next trash cleanup will take a loooong time, and the lobby cleanups will be an obstacle course, and the cops will probably be called, sooner or later, for a drunkfest or some random neighbor(s) peeing somewhere other than in their home. We're pretty done. Done enough to think about a plan B.Like when do we decide to not worry about our next location and decide to make our farm here. I really, really want Shelby to get her manager position soon. She deserves it and it will be a catalyst for everything else. But, if it takes too long and we just can't deal with "here" anymore, and we have the money to do something about it, and I get a job in the area that we want to be...I'm just sayin'. In the meantime: cleaning, sorting, trips to Goodwill, trips to storage, prettifying the neighborhood, and supporting our dreams, egos, and sanity the best that we can. We remain optimistic, regardless of the current state of suckness, and we do so with a smile on our faces!  :S

Monday

Monday - a new week, a new chance for opportunities! We finished packing a few boxes and pictures this weekend, while helping Bess UNpack. Saturday night brought the ghetto to a new low, and also brought the police...three times. Once during the day to door 4 for some unknown reason, once at night when we got home for a blasting front yard drink fest, and once later that night for drunken stupidness and our door 2 neighbor peeing in the street. Classy. Which in turn fueled our packing, which is our only outlet for getting out of here right now. On the bright side, we found awesome deals at Target for Acer notebooks and a portable digital tv, which will come in quite handy. And the kids got a bunch of stuff from Eve and their unpacking marathon. Come on, week of July 19, baby needs a new place to live (casino reference for Shelby)!

Their Big Move

Yesterday we helped friends move into their new apartment. It is a big deal, and we're so excited for her and her daughter because this is the first place of their own since about nine years. She got married, they lived with his parents temporarily... which ended up being years, until they got divorced. Then they moved in with a friend, then they moved in with her parents, and here we are. Very long story short. Anyways, we helped her move her stuff out of storage units into their apartment. The larger storage unit was filled with boxes, bags, and furniture from nine years ago - a mini time capsule, if you will. The other storage unit had been used for about a year. Now it is all piled in the apartment, their new home, and the unpacking can begin.

What this has to do with us, my wife reminds me, is that we have boxes and boxes of stuff in our own storage (Grandma's attic) that have followed us around from apartment to apartment (and a small house). They have stayed packed for most of our life together. Lack of space has always been an issue. We have six people in our home now, and have had as many as seven. Add a few animals, and we barely fit in our home ourselves! It will be so nice to get our place, go through our boxes, and actually use, display, or repack all of the things we've collected and not had space for. Still not sure when that time will be, but we're taking it day by day, week by week. Any day now, right? And when it happens, we'll all be in motion, preparing for the that big step in our lives where we're both working and all of us are building our dreams together in our new home. I'll be packing some stuff today (started already) and we need to get some of Shelby's work stuff shipped out. A quick trip to Time Warner will get rid of a converter box and replace a broke one. We should release our tadpoles and let them become frogs in the wild, since they don't seem to want to cooperate in their tank here. Either way, today we'll work on the house, maybe go to Bess's and help them unpack, maybe chill a little. Gotta love summer :) This summer, especially! Exciting times...

Happy Birthday, Shelby!

Happy Birthday, Shelby! Today is my wife's birthday - a day to celebrate the creation of my best friend, my partner, my love. Shelby is definitely a people person, unlike me, and a water person, like me. We're an odd combination, but somehow we work. We've been nearly inseparable for the last fifteen years (this month is our anniversary, also) and our togetherness has sped up the wheels of time. Shelby has a glow that attracts all others. She is warm and positive and funny. She loves Wonder Woman and she is on a mission to save the world. We are fortunate to have Shelby in our lives as a friend or a mother or a wife or a daughter or even an acquaintance. You have done so much in your life so far, Shelby - you should be so proud of your mark on the world. And the future is going to be an incredible journey. Happy birthday, Shelby - thanks for making the world a brighter place for us to be in :)

Unemployed

Yesterday I took a trip to Kemp School, the school that I spent last year student teaching, to pick up a letter of reference and drop off a few school books that I inadvertently left in my bookcase past the end of the school year. I saw the secretary, the principal and a few teachers, including my CT, who just happened to be there for a data meeting (school = data...lots and lots of data). Suddenly I feel very unemployed. Not loser unemployed, just unattached unemployed. I guess it started with the trickling of back-to-school displays and sales that are appearing, but the trip to school did the trick. I know we have a plan - I/we still feel the plan. Shelby was nominated for outstanding employee, which she deserves so much because she is awesome. This nomination includes her efforts to grow as an employee towards a role of Program Manager and her capability to fill this role. We're on the right track. In the meantime, we're staying so busy with the day to day things that keep popping up. Life is not slow - life is busy. I am enjoying being able to help take care of home and things that always seem to slip to the bottom of the list. I just need to have faith in destiny as I see my teacher friends get ready for the new school year, and hear about my fellow graduates becoming new teachers. We're on the right track, we feel it, we're just ready for the next stop...

Sunday, Sunday

It's Sunday. The end to a week that's seemed to have lasted forever. Hard to believe that we were in New York less than a week ago, and we were sitting on Oneida Lake having coffee. We're back, settled in, and more determined now that ever to get out of here. I completed my college exit interview (for loans) so I should be getting my diploma soon, and resolved a W-4 issue for my camp teaching, so I should get my paycheck soon. I have to do a background check for my teaching license, which I'll do tomorrow, and then I should get my Early Childhood teaching license...soon. We packed up a few boxes of stuff that is currently crowding our living room, but should make room once they make their way to storage. We have boxes to ship out Shelby's business packages, which will make more room. And we'll go from there...the more we can live without and temporarily relocate, the less claustrophobic we'll be and the more prepared we'll be for whatever move we are preparing to embark upon. We need to make a run to Goodwill, but we have to go through clothes and toys before we do that - maybe next week? More room. Breathe. Prepare.

Today we are going to clean up our garden, which is our solitude here. We are also going to pot the half-price peach trees that we scored at Home Depot, and drop off the storage boxes. The city offers free compost, so we'll see what is left there, and then buy our Ace dirt to make up the difference. After our dirty work, we're cooking out the New York coneys, dogs, and salt potatoes at the in-laws who also returned from vacation - a several week (7?) RV trip looping out west! I'm looking forward to chilling out at the cookout there - so much more of a relaxing atmosphere...hopefully.

Next week: Background check, start preparing for my next camp class, stop by Kemp School to check on the garden and pick up my letter, take a test ride on the motorcycle (first of the year!), help friends move into their new place, and celebrate Shelby's birthday! Hoot! Busy week...time to get rolling :)

Aggravation Station

Yesterday was a bit of a hissy...for a little bit, anyway. I received mail from the Office of Licensure - yay! But no, it was not my license, it was a notice of a hold on my license until I update my background check. It is a check that school says has a five year life, but the Office requires an update within one year in order to obtain an initial license. Grr. Not awful - just $30 and a trip to school to get it done - but it was the straw that made me snap. I haven't been paid for the week that I worked my part-time camp job (first check, so sure, it may take time...but I live in the ghetto, so you never know), I haven't received my diploma yet (I did have to complete an exit seminar first, so I'm trying to be patient), I live in a ghetto with a bunch of people who refuse to grow up and who trash the place with...well, trash, and we so desperately want to start our farm, wherever that may be.

I am better now. I did get past it. I paid for my check online and will go to WSU in the next day or so to get it done. I informed my advisors that the background checks must be within one year, not five, to get a license. I spent some time in the heat cleaning up the yard and building lobbies. I taped a box to get ready to pack. We went to my in-laws to welcome them home, and I had a beer. I'm more stable today, thank you very much. I'll still be happy to get my diploma, my paycheck, my license, or our new place to live because, frankly, the limbo is getting ANNOYING. But we're ok. We'll laugh when we look back at this...right?? And we will eventually be sitting on our own deck, watching the kids and our dog play in our yard, talking about our chickens and how awesome our life is :)

Chittenango Vacation

We just returned to Ohio (last night) from a relaxing, fun week in Chittenango, NY. We stayed at Shelby's aunt's house on the lake, Oneida Lake to be more specific, and it was gorgeous! Chittenango was home to L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, so the town is full of Oz references, including its own yellow brick road. We woke up each morning to coffee on the deck overlooking the lake and ended the evenings with a campfire and marshmallows, or a drink on the deck, again overlooking the lake. Since this is Shelby's hometown, we visited all the things that make hometown memories, including Eddie's (mmm!), Sylvan Beach and amusement park, New York Pizzeria, Chittenango Falls, Jreck Subs, Gulf Road (scary!) to the top of the world, old home and school drive-bys, and, of course, visiting with family. I dare say that it was one of our best visits to Chittenango, since the kids are not babies any more and were able to brave the attractions we brought to them. Our days were relaxing, yet we did the things that we wanted to do and saw the things that we wanted to see. It was a relaxing vacation, it was an eventful vacation, it was a long and overdue vacation!

Upstate New York is beautiful this time of year. So green and rural - farms and forests that calm the soul and feed the mind. We started playing the "what if" game about living in this area. Mind you, the winters are hellacious, from what I hear - the lake pictured in this post has a winter scene that resembles a blank sheet of paper. But the other parts of the year are very beautiful, and the land is perfect for starting our family farm. Of course, vacation is vacation - it would not be a life of long mornings on the deck or late evenings by a campfire...but that could be a very real part of it. Which leads me to think...if we are ok with moving to Florida, and if we are ok with living in New York, then isn't everything else in between these extremes?? I mean, we should be able to make any place a home, as long a we have a rural place to start our farm.

"Everything happens for a reason." This is our religion. I believe that this vacation served its purpose as a breather and a refresher to family in those parts, but I also think that this was part of our journey - a prerequisite to our next destination. We are back in our apartment now. One of the neighborhood kids smashed our potato plants and someone drew on our car with nail polish. But our berries are well, the rest of the garden is flourishing, and our dreams of a new life are stronger now because of our Chittenango visit. We have a better vision of our dream, a greater thirst for change, and a better understanding of what we are looking for. We enjoyed our vacation tremendously, but are not as upset to be back as I thought we would be. On the contrary - we are excited to work on what we can to move forward and prepare for the future. It's good to be back :)

Antsy

It's Sunday. We've worked the past couple days at outdoor festivals, so maybe it's the heat talking, but...we are SO done here! Our apartment is so small. So small that there's not enough room to change our minds. But seriously, folks, we've outgrown the space, and the neighborhood (of this sixteen unit building) is going downhill. Beer is a staple and it's an expectation to smell weed if you take a walk outside at night...sometimes during the day. I'm not against hanging out with a few friends, or partying, even. It just shouldn't be your everyday goal in life. And these people are not college kids - they're semi-employed adults with kids. Some days I pick up the trash on the grounds because I want the place where we live to look nice, at least. Some days I pass by and refuse to pick up the trash that these people so disrespectfully leave in the yard (and are teaching their kids, by the way, that this is ok). A lot of them hang out together, so they feed each others habits and validate their lifestyles together. Time to move on. The BIG question is: Where???

I am now a graduate and ready to work. Shelby has an awesome (let me repeat: AWESOME!) job that has great benefits while she saves the planet. There's chance of relocation and, even if she doesn't move to a different territory/position, her territory is big enough for us to move around in. We want a farm. A yard. Chickens. A BIG garden. Space. Goats. Land. We want to be able to drink coffee on the porch in the morning and have drinks on the deck, with friends, by a fire at night. We want to live in a barn and have room to run around...inside. So ready. SO ready! We feel it - we've had this feeling before. We're on the brink of something big. We're starting to pack because, no matter what, we're moving somewhere. But it's more than that. We feel we're being prepped for the next big stage in our lives.We're in motion, we're getting ready, and we're antsy. It's frustrating to not know where we're going, but we know that we're going somewhere, and we trust the winds of destiny. I feel better writing about it. I'll feel better once we clear some stuff out to storage and have a little more room to move, which seems a little overwhelming at the moment.

We're going to visit Chittenango, NY next week. It will be the first time in several years that we've been to Shelby's hometown, and we're all very excited about it. Upstate New York is beautiful, especially at this time of the year, and we'll also be visiting friends and family that we haven't seen for awhile. We'll definitely stop by Eddie's Restaurant and Chittenango Falls, and probably Turning Stone Casino (right, Shelby?). It will be a fun vacation and a nice distraction from our here life for a moment. I doubt I'll be writing before then unless there's breaking news, so I will update this blog after our NY vaca :)

Back to the apartment...

This is the first morning since before Memorial Day that we've woken up at the apartment. It's amazing how much stuff we accumulated at the in-laws house since we began our stay there! So, over Monday and Tuesday (yesterday), we brought back our stuff and de-Roberts their house :) Two busy days of packing, cleaning, and moving. It was an awesome stay, and made us realize how much we really, really want our own home...more specifically, our mini-farm barn home. The apartment is a harder place for us to be now, as more people move in - the type of people who want to party and leave the remains of their party in the front yard. The type of people who seem to have low expectations of themselves and their lives. Our apartment is even more temporary now, and we are more anxious to move on now than ever before. Destiny is pushing us into the ready position, against a door that has yet to be opened, making us claustrophobic and restless. We are hoping for an upgrade in Shelby's job that will promote her or put us in a more thriving area, and give us the "go" to settle into our new home and my new job. We talk about it, we dream about it, and we even prepare for it. We have several potted berries: raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries. We also have our potted trees: apple, pear, and even nectarine. We are ready. SO ready! In the meantime, we will stay busy with summer, I will continue to work on my job search, and we will pack what we can to prepare for a move because, no matter what, we will not be staying here for much longer. Many thanks to Mimi and Papa for loaning us their haven and letting us live the life that we're shooting for, at least for a little bit!

Summer Stay-cation

Busy, busy, busy! Well, a relaxed kind of busy - no alarm clock and the days have lost their names, but not their purpose. We are on holiday at Shelby's parents' house, which is a wonderful break from not-so-homey apartment. We love drinking our coffee on the patio in the mornings, grilling out in the evenings, and not having to deal with the drama of our neighbors...for the time being. I am in the middle of getting my motorcycle on the road again, finally. I renewed my insurance and tags after letting them lapse over the winter (my bad), and my battery is getting tested and charged as I speak :)We're getting ready for my graduation on Saturday (Hoot!), and the picnic celebration on Sunday, which will both be awesome events marking this transition in our family's life! This is as much of a celebration for my family, the support and sacrifices that they have made, as it is about my accomplishments in obtaining my degree. Next week will be my first week teaching a camp program at Aullwood - kinda nervous, but excited to be in a smaller classroom teaching about nature stuff! I need to get my regular job search rolling faster - I updated my Teacher to Teacher website, but need to beef it, and the consortium, applications up a bit. We're hoping the near future brings relocates us to a new place, so it's hard to be sure where to dedicate the search. It's an exciting transition, but we're not very patient about the whole thing :P Things we've done since school ended a week ago: motorcycle, Kait's scooter, store visits with Shelby which included a visit to one of our favorite eating places: The Spot!, stopped by to clean our apartment )along with dropping off and picking up "stuff"), and spent a good part of yesterday cleaning up the apartment complex yard and lobbies. Like I said, so far it has been a relaxingly busy week!

The Beginning

I've always wanted to try the blog thing, so I guess now is as good of a time as any...
Today is my last day of student teaching in my third-grade classroom. I am very excited - the excitement has been building over these last few weeks - but I am also a little sad. I've spent the entire school year with this class, learning more about teaching and more about kids than I ever could have in a college classroom. It has been an awesome experience, both professionally and personally, and now I feel that I'm really ready to try it on my own. I've made friends that I hope will be around after today, and I've built relationships with so many kids who will be moving on - hopefully smarter and more prepared for the lives ahead of them. I will miss them all. I graduate from Wright State in ten days - wow! ten days - after six years of my mid-life college experience. I am forty-six years and old earning my bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education, Summa Cum Laude, thanks to the support and sacrifice of my family. SO excited! This is a new beginning for us, a new dawn on our life together after so much preparation to get to where we are now. So, as destiny sits in our doorway, I start this blog. I and we feel that our future is big, and I hope that I can look back on these thoughts in a year with satisfaction from that new place, and smile about this new beginning!