Moving on Up!

 It's pretty much official now so I can tell everyone our job news. Kelly and I both will have job changes for next year. Mine isn't changing as much has his. For Kelly: You are now looking at the new 6th grade honors math/7th grade honors science teacher! Kelly has really been wanting to leave elementary and pursue middle school. He got on the transfer list and got a job last week! It happens to be at a middle school in Plano that was just ranked the 3rd best in ALL of North Texas. OMG! The kids will be completely different then the kids he is used to. I told him he'd better study this summer, Ha! This does mean though, that we will no longer be at the same school. It will be super weird. Even though we hardly ever do see each other during the day still it's the fact that I know he's there if I need him! We've been carpooling together now for 5 years. Will be so strange. 

So my exciting news is that I'm getting new hours! Back a few years ago I was lucky enough to work part time. Those jobs all got cut but our school has had a few jobs with different hours. A half day position has come up and it was offered to me. I really, really wanted it for the next year when Gracie is in kinder. That way I'd be able to walk her to school in the mornings (across the street) then head to work myself and then I'd be able to pick her up. The job came available for next year so I jumped at it before it was gone! Not sure my exact hours but they will be something like 7:45-12:45. Pretty awesome. I'll still get insurance b/c I'll be considered 63%. No more tutorings, after school meetings, and much more. Yippppeeee! The only downside is that moving to 63% means less pay. Like a lot. Kelly and I are going to have to be really careful and make some sacrifices. It will not be easy but we've got to make it work! Gracie will still be at the preschool down the street from my school next year for one more year. She'll be in pre-k class which will prepare her for Kindergarten the following year! 

There has been some high stress on us lately with the new jobs. Everything sort of fell into place just like we were hoping. Gracie's preschool is even allowing her to attend 1/2 days next year as well. They've never allowed it before but I called her director to explain my situation. She said she really wanted her to still attend so she'd allow it for her and then we get a discount on tuition for her. We were so thankful!

That's our news. We are very excited for the new changes!

Just Saying Hi

 

 Oh this girl! She has us wrapped around her fingers. (and she knows it!) We just love her to pieces. Can I just say I had 2 different people tell me today we needed to have another baby so one would look like me. Thanks a lot, right? I will say they are both sweet subs I haven't seen in years and really hardly know us and what Gracie looks like today. It still sort of irritated me but I won't get on my rant about telling someone they should have another baby b/c that could be a whole separate post. Just FYI, NEVER tell a Mom she should or ask when she is going to have another baby, okay? Because maybe they can't, or maybe she just doesn't want another one. Imagine that!  Okay that's enough...

 I've been playing with one of my lenses that I hardly use. I'm determined to use it more. It takes patience! Jack is doing great by the way too. He sleeps a lot but not much new there. He loves the house and hates the pool cleaner (bently) He tries to attack it every single day! Gets himself sopping wet too. 

We're all doing good just life is keeping us busy so not much time to blog. Life and good tv at night that is keeping us busy :)

By the way, Gracie and I are still Unofficial Block Captain and Co-Captain. We have 8 members on our neighborhood website. We're still trying to get a few more!! Happy only Tuesday..

Almost Done!

 

I'm pretty much spent from this week. We've had Gracie's holiday music program, staff holiday dinner, school holiday parties, making/baking/buying for school functions and I'm exhausted! It's just 7:10 and I really think I could go straight to bed.  But I think I can make it because tomorrow is our last day for 2 whole weeks! It couldn't come fast enough. Only bad thing is we have to start off our fun fall break with a funeral. Not really what we were wanting to do... I'll be back soon to hopefully get caught up. Happy almost Friday!!

Diary of Selling a House/Our Big News

So our ‘big’ news is that we sold our house. Officially. We are still in it just packing and waiting for closing. The date is going to sneak up on us. It’ s just after labor day. So meantime we’ve started back at school and I am just plain exhausted. That’s all I can say. I always forget how exhausted I get at the beginning of the year now add in the fact that we are unpacking boxes at our brand new building at school (still trying to locate some of mine!) 9-10 hours of the day and packing up our house all evening, plus life with our almost 4 year old, plus trying to sleep somewhere in there. Life is just crazy. That’s all I can say.

We are thrilled beyond belief (but still a little skeptical this will all work w/o any hitches) but in the meantime we’re packing and purging at home. I will catch up sometime and I will get you up to date. I’ll probably keep the house pics a secret until we move in. I LOVE It. Kelly really LOVES  it and & everyone that has seen the inside in person has just gone crazy. If all goes well we close on our current house one day and our new house the following day. We’ll rent our house back for a few nights then MOVE (the big move) the Friday of that week. Just keep us your thoughts and prayers please, we are so worried that something might not go through. We’ve heard SO many horror stories lately and we so badly want this to work! For now here’s a little pic of the front of the house…

Isn’t it so cute? Just know that it needs MAJOR landscape work. The previous owners were updating the inside and ignoring the outside. We have a lot of work ahead.

One little bonus picture…

What is that??!!. Well, it’s what we see when we walk out our front doors. Literally a few steps away. Our house is across the street from a HUGE neighborhood park & school. Isn’t it awesome?

We’ve got much more to share later about the house. We’ve signed our papers and we are still in the 7 day option period with it. We are about to have our inspection but I feel like things will be fine. It was just inspected a few weeks ago so we feel good about it. We’re hoping this is our house soon. Gracie is beyond excited

MOVING on up...

We've got a LOT going on around here... our days at school are filled with teaching & mostly now doing this....

PACKING!

                                                                   

I really feel like doing this...

 

Hiding in a box at school would be great!! So the reason for all of this is that we are getting a BRAND spanking new school next year! It's been in talk for years and finally last year they broke ground and started. Our current school was sitting on a huge field. It was actually going to cost more to rebuild ours so a brand new school it is. It's really about time because we've had remodels and updates but our school is the oldest Elem (and first elementary) school in Plano! It's a big deal so a lot of time and effort has gone into the planning. As teachers, we didn't have any say on things but it's been fun following all the recent updates and seeing the new building come together. I don't have a pic of the new building yet but will have to take one soon. If you are at all interested in watching us grow, click on the following link http://k-12.pisd.edu/schools/mendenhall/WatchUsGrow.htm  I've never been in a brand new building before so it will be so nice :) It is not easy though. This is a lot work!!

I told Kelly that we are going to be VERY good at packing boxes and unpacking because Guess What? Our 'buyer' got a contract this weekend!! Hallelujah!!!!! Seriously. Crazy good news. We are still in shock and like I said, nothing is set in stone but it just makes it all one step closer. We even went out and looked at 5 houses this afternoon. We found 1 we really like but still want to see more before we decide on one. We still have time!!  Keep the good thoughts/prayers coming please for us and our house. The whole experience has been the most stressful thing I've ever had to deal with. Our realtor tonight said "This is nothing. You've been through child birth." I just looked at her and said "Child birth has NOTHING on this!" My stomach has been in knots and I don't even want to tell you all the break downs/major melt downs (poor Kelly!)  I've had wanting to quit!! Too many :) I'm just hoping this goes through and doesn't end badly! I try to keep telling myself that good things come to those that wait!

Wish us luck! That's why I haven't been good about updating our blog because life is moving pretty fast now for us. In just 7 LONG school days I'll have plenty of time to update and get caught up. Yeah right, uhh? I'll try anyways in between packing, g's swimming lessons, moving, house hunting.. it's going to be a crazy busy summer too!

A Few Things...

Something BIG is going on around here and I can sum it up in 2 words....

                                                          UNDER CONTRACT!!!

         It's been a CRAZY last few days around here. I don't know when I'll be able to get caught up but hopefully sometime soon. In the meantime keep your prayers still coming for us that this contract goes through. The buyer can still pull out any time and I will never say it's a done deal until we hand over the keys :) The buyer has been a little sketchy so far so you never ever know. The big "if" is if she sells her house then we'll be good to go.  If all goes well and everything works we should be moving out the end of June.... All emotions have been coming with this: happy, nervous, excited, sad, MAD, hopeful, positive, tired... it could keep going.  Our first big step is the inspection Monday morning. We're trying to remain hopeful about this but not holding our breath. We're just not really sure about this buyer... If it doesn't work hopefully we'll get someone else in here soon. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!!! By the way, I took this picture at 6:45 am today. Doesn't our house look so pretty at 6:45 in the morning??? :)

Lately...

We're still here... barely! Life is has been very busy lately and has had lots of ups and downs. I have a lot to catch up on and sometime I'll get to it but I'm not sure when! We're trying to finish up school and we've had something every single night lately. We've had some good action on our house lately. Nothing is official yet so I'm not going to hold my breath about it right now. Just keep your fingers crossed this 'deal' that is in the process of will WORK :) That's all  I'm going to say about it!

Gracie is doing great. She is having fun wrapping up her school year also! More later so stay tuned!!!

Still Here

 

We're still here! Hanging on by a thread but still here. I've hardly blogged this week and last! Just been busy and not really in a blogging mood. We had open house tonight at school and I'm just exhausted but excited too because tomorrow starts are spring break! Yea! I promise to get caught up on everything we've been doing! Until then, here is one sweet picture from my sweetest girl. I took this last week. I think this is my new favorite. Seriously, so cute if I do say so myself! This is totally a 'just her' picture. Love it. Happy Spring Break to you all that get one and or Happy Friday/weekend! 

A Rough Week

I have been debating whether or not to even post this but my blog is my on line journal. I do it to have as a memory for us in the future. I think it's important to be honest and not hide or pretend this didn't happen.  This week was rough. Really, really bad.

Up until Wednesday, I was pregnant. I found out in late January and we were shocked but immediately excited and thinking of the future. I had all the pregnancy symptoms (except no morning sickness) and had excruciating headaches. Of coarse I couldn't take any pills and I even had a headache that lasted 5 days off and on.

Tuesday the 22nd was my very first apt. I had to wait a few weeks because I didn't want to take any days off for the apt. I went in after school for my very 1st sonogram and to my shock, nothing was there. Nothing. Just the sack. The technician didn't say anything to me and I wasn't really sure what was going on even though I should have. I waited for what seemed forever and finally saw my Dr. I could tell by her tone and demeanor that something was wrong. She explained to me the heart wrenching news. She was under the impression that something had happened and I was going to miscarry. She of coarse, helped answer my silly questions and helped to dry my tears. I was in complete shock but still was trying to have some hope. Inside I had a bad, bad feeling and my heart heart. We did blood work and they nicely let me go out a side door so I wouldn't have to go up front and see all the pregnant women waiting! The drive home was long and I didn't dare call Kelly yet. We hadn't told ANYONE I was pregnant so I couldn't call anyone. I just tried to cling to some hope remembering that when I was pregnant with Gracie my Dr. didn't think I was and I really was because it was early. I just tried to have hope. The worst part was on my way a realtor called and asked to see our house. I ha 10 min. to get home and we loaded Gracie and Jack in the car to get out. We had another showing on our house that night too so it was a hectic night. Sadly it was hard for me to keep it together. It was a long night and hard to get up and face the day at work.

At school I tried to put it out of my mind. Around 8:30 I got a call from my Dr. My levels were very low she said and she told me to be prepared. Shortly after it was like something switched in my body and everything started to fall apart. And to my worst nightmare ever I started miscarrying at school. It started getting really bad. I thought I could fight through but there's not stopping it. I made the quick decision to run and tell my principal. She was devastated with me and sat with me while I cried. One nice thing about working with your husband is that she went and got Kelly real quick and told him to take me home. I was in such a daze and things were spinning. I really don't remember much about our drive home except we were both very quiet and cried together. Kelly got me a heating pad and I was left with the most severe pain and discomfort I have ever felt in my entire life. I was not expecting or prepared for the pain that followed.

Wednesday afternoon and night were a blur. I stayed home Thursday and Friday to rest and recover. We told family and friends and it was hard. At first I wanted to just pretend it didn't happen but that's not good. I don't want the sympathy looks that I knew I'd get. I get tired of people saying "It wasn't meant to be." I know that but it still stings when I hear that. Or when people say "You'll have another baby some day" I'm sure (and hopeful that someday we will) but right now I don't want another one.

The 3 weeks I thought I was pregnant it was fun to walk around with my little secret. Even though I wasn't always feeling the best I still smiled knowing what was happening. Now I just feel almost dead inside. It's hard to describe. I know that in the grand scheme of things this is nothing. I know that there are so many bad things happening and I hear stories of people losing their children and it it breaks my heart. But I still feel sadness. Every minute gets a little better. I'm glad I'm telling people but we are ready to move on from this. I don't want to dwell on the past but I know this is something that I'll think about for the rest of my life. Only because I know how wonderful a little baby can be. I am so thankful I have my Gracie. She has been my shining star in this. There is no time for sadness or mourning around her! I am very thankful for my parents for taking Gracie for a day and night so I could be by myself and not worry about her. Kelly is doing good now too and we are both ready to put this behind us. So that's my story. One that I know so many friends can relate to and one I don't want to ever relive again. I am thankful for our family and friends for their love and support!

Update

My poor baby is sick, sick, sick. She started a new antibiotic last Sat. but she just hasn't gotten much better. She's been pale all week and whinny. My mom was taking her to school and she kept saying her ear hurt. You never know with kids though... after school my mom said she didn't look right and wasn't herself. I took her in to the Dr. and it was 60 minutes of not fun. They were crowded and we had to wait, wait, wait. It turns out she does have a very bad ear infection. Her one little ear is all swollen and filled with fluid. She got a big shot in her leg. She keeps saying "It hurts... it hurts." She got an RSV test just to check but luckily that was negative. I feel so bad for her. Her little leg is so sore! I stopped and got her a strawberry milkshake and that seems to have helped her a little. I'm hoping with some rest she'll be better soon... so much for our fun weekend!