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