Official Home Owners!

OUR NEW HOME!

(more information pending our soon-to-be-released Aerins Summer newsletter.)

iBook G4 and School

2nd day of new teacher induction workshops...got my laptop today... feel so much more stressed and drained than yesterday...

but, I am resolved to remind myself of the positive rather than the usual negative scroller that plays through my head. because i am such an internet junkie, and because they give us these wonderful laptops, i think i'll just create a separate blog for my daily reflections. speaking of which, i think i'll go do that now.......

School, house, rock

The house hunt progresses slowly (if it progresses at all), and time rushes by as if Kronos himself were being prodded in the tush by Zeus. At least it feels like it when I think about school starting up in less than 3 weeks. Before I whine about that, it seems that negotiations fell through with the house in Collierville that we'd really liked. That and when we learned that a nearby street (that ours feeds into) will soon undergo construction to double it in size... well, what with the unfruitful negotiations and this news, the house has lost that loving feeling (Now it's gone, gone, gone... whoooa). We checked out a few houses this evening and were additionally bummed out when two of the houses that we were really hopefuly about just couldn't live up to expectations. Aaron and I both refuse to spend more on a house than it's worth or settle on a house if we're not completely happy with it... but we're starting to be a little bummed about the whole process. Not pessimistic, but not gung-ho or optimistic, either.

Back to school... now there's a phrase to strike fear into many kids' and teachers' hearts. Tomorrow is the first day I'll be able to take control of my room - finally! What with my few remaining days taken up by Aaron's family visiting, new teacher induction, workshops, etc.... I have no days after tomorrow to sit down and just work on lesson plans. I've got the first week mostly mapped out, although I still have to create two review tests (two full days worth) to give me a sort of preliminary assessment as to what the kids know, etc. So much to do... but the hard part is figuring what to do in the first place! Ugh... wish me luck.

On a sort of not so depressing note, I got a complete listing of all my thousands of mp3s on my old Dell and have no begun downloading those songs to the iMac. Of those thousands, I got 107 downloaded so far. Woo hoo!

Updates

Shame on me, I know, for letting my blog fall so far behind recently. This has been a very busy month for us. As my last few posts made obvious, we began house hunting in earnest n ear the end of June. Although my blogs didn't reflect it, after finding a house in Cordova that we liked, we suddenly shifted gears, dropped the Cordova search, and began looking in Collierville. Our reasoning that this is a much more desirable neighborhood. Since then, we quickly found a house that we loved; however, we are now in the midst of tedious negotiations with the current homeowners who insist on selling their house for more than it is worth. Obviously, Aaron and I have no intention of wasting our money for the sake of their pride. We haven't given up hope on this house, but we've also begun looking at other homes again. However, I'm sure that with as many beautiful homes as we've already found in Collierville, we'll have no trouble moving out of this apartment very soon.


Aaron has also recently goaded me into a stict workout program on the bowflex. He's an excellent coach which is lucky for me, since I refuse to lift a finger unless he's right there by my side forcing me along. Both my parents came down the first week of July, and when my mother put Aaron and I to shame with her walking abilities, we were prompted to walk about 3 miles every other day, and at least around the apartment complex every day in between. We've each set a weight loss goal (mine is 130, or 20 lbs. and his is 210, or 20 lbs.) Proudly, we've both already lost 5 lbs.

Lastly, I'm getting more and more nervous about school starting - just a very short 3 weeks away. I can already tell that I've joined a fantastic team. Everyone is so helpful and has a great personality. If only I could just figure out what on earth I'm going to do in the classroom. I always feel like such an incompetent idiot. But, I just have to suck it up and keep plugging away. I always do better than I give myself credit.

Look, Mom! I'm in print!

Although I'm highly complimented that the columnist used a good-sized chunk of my editorial response - and as her clincher, too! - I can't help but notice that the other people quoted hadn't put much thought into their responses. Oh well, you can still check out the follow-up column where I'm quoted - with compliments!