Thursday, December 30, 2010

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!


Tuesday, December 28, 2010

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 :)

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Joy!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Walking Bare-Socked

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

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!

Monday, December 20, 2010

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!