Hey - Where'd I go?

So, I realized that it has been nearly two months since my last written post, which is not what I wanted from this blog. I get busy, or frustrated, or blah, and the blog settles to the bottom of my list. So here I am to bring things back up to speed and to catch up. First of all, we're still here. So there's that. We remain a family of seven, dreaming and creating our life together, and supporting each other through the frustrating times. We are all lucky in that respect.

Shelby has finally received her promotion and is getting paid the appropriate salary for that jump! She is so awesome and has deserved the title and paycheck for so long - we're all so proud of her, especially me! It looks like Annie will be her Field Coordinator once she gets through the admin process, which will be a great help. So we pretty much have the green light for the Dayton area (unless fate changes that), and also Indiana, which Shelby will also allegedly have both hands in. We're looking at homes in Preble County and areas surrounding that county. On weekends, we go for drives checking out homes, going to open houses, and dreaming of our home. We're ready. SO ready. But, alas, our credit score is not. We have been working to catch up on bills, both present and (most) past, worked on our savings, and we do what our lender instructs. Our score has improved a lot...but we still have nine points to hit our mark. SO close. I'm excited. We're excited! But, at the same time, it is a bit frustrating. Every day that we are in our apartment is a day that we feel failed. The trees are beginning to bud, the days are getting warmer, and we wish that we were experiencing these days on our farm. We feel trapped here in the clutches of this dismal apartment, and long to start our garden, plant our trees, and raise our chickens. I know that the opportunity will come, and we try to remain positive, but some days we just feel beat. Since the day we decided to move back to Ohio, we have felt such a strong presence of fate/destiny guiding us towards wherever we are going. We trust that hand - I know that it is guiding us somewhere important, but it is hard to have the drive and to be working so diligently to race through the dark toward a door that hasn't opened yet. We will get there, I'm sure. In the meantime, though, we get through, day by day, enjoying our successes and dreaming of the future.

I am subbing for Kettering schools now, and will be teaching my third class on Friday. There are many substitute teachers in Kettering schools, so the jobs are few and far between. I am lucky enough to know a wonderful principal who believes in me and has created opportunities for me to not only sub in her school, but to grow with her teachers during professional development. For that, I am also grateful. I have visited Kemp School, and will be attending a field trip to Aullwood with my previous CT and friend. In addition to all that, I have been talking to my Aullwood people and have confirmation that I will be working my same two camps this summer, and possibly a toddler program. Yay! I worked and attended the WSU Education Fair recently, handed out a couple handfuls of resumes, and was able to participate in a couple interviews. The teacher market is not good right now, which is the opposite of predictions when I started my degree program to become a teacher. I trudge through and hope for the best. I am hunting harder now, but will save my hard-core job searching for after we get our house and know where we land. There are places I would love to work and definitely be willing to travel further for, such as Kettering, Aullwood, and Kemp. And there are places that I think that we will end up near. But it is hard to know just what is in store for us. Hurry up and wait.

So, that's where we're at. So much further but still not quite there. Window shopping for houses and a teaching career, just waiting for the right doors to open. Full speed forward, but not sure what, or where, the destination is. That's life, right? Hopefully we'll be blogging about bigger and better things soon. In the meantime, I'll try to keep things going and post them more regularly :)