November synopsis

89% on my Crimes final. I'd be lying if I said I'm not disappointed. But when only 5-6 people got an A, and about 20 people failed, I can't feel too bad about it. I guess.

Thanksgiving was lovely. It was really nice to not have to drive 12 hours on both ends of the break. Getting back into the grind is no fun. At least I got ahead in one class. In Contracts I have my homework done through December 20. Now to study for the mid-term.

I got my Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, first time ever. Haven't decorated it yet though. I love the Christmas tree. It's one of my favorite things. When I saw them for sale for the first time I went and hugged the tallest one I could find.

And a quote for today:
"I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world."
-Walt Whitman

Recommendation

If you have not already, go right now and buy Jill Phillips and Andy Gullahorn's new Christmas CD. It is awesome. Seriously. Go right now. You'll thank me later.

Monthly Update

*95% on my first quiz of law school. You have to get a 95% to get an "A". What is wrong with these people? Shouldn't a 90% be sufficient?
*Took my first final exam of law school in Criminal Law. Won't know the results for probably another week. Hoping for a "B".
*We start right in on the next class, Constitutional Criminal Law. It just seems wrong to just keep going. No break. Just take a final and start the next class. Ugh.
*Had a great time in Atlanta with Justin and Shelli and enjoyed an Andrew Peterson concert together while we were there. We didn't take any pictures to document the weekend.
*Suddenly there is Christmas stuff everywhere. And I haven't even bought any Christmas presents yet. Studying all the time really puts me behind on my holiday shopping.
*Today I bought my first Christmas wrapping paper. I love wrapping paper. I especially like it if it's metallic or sparkly.
*Had a bunch of dead trees cut down in our yard. There is plenty of free firewood out by the curb, if you're interested.
*So far law school is harder than any other level of school I've been a part of. I know this is probably not shocking to most of you, but I kind of thought I would be able to slack off and get good grades like I used to. So far, I just have to study all the time and hope and pray to get good grades. It would be helpful if more of my classes had more than one or two tests to base the whole grade on. Anyway, it's all much more time-consuming than I had imagined, but I guess that's why not everyone is a lawyer.
*That's all I can think of for now.

Oops.

September slipped away without a post. Not sure how that happened. So to update you a little --
*We went to Justin and Shelli's wedding, which was fabulous and exhausting. It was good to be with old friends. And how did we get so old anyway? More people need to get married so that we can all get together more often.
*School has been somewhat all-consuming. I'm sitting in the classroom right now, waiting for class to get started. I briefed my first case, which was terrifying, and last week I had my first quiz. Hoping to get the (cross my fingers) good results back this week. There is a lot of reading and learning going on. And you can ask me all about intent and causation and I'll have some things to tell you. Along with Torts, Contracts and Crimes. Did you know that the burden of proof of "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" is only applicable to criminal cases? I did not. Anyway, I'm working on outlining each class (sounds fun, right?) and keeping up with reading and briefs. And it seems never-ending.
*I went to Women's Retreat with my mom and sister, and was totally blessed.
*I came back home to a husband who loves me and shows it to me in a million ways and realized again how blessed I am to have him as my partner and teammate.
*Fall weather is (finally) here. I'm enjoying cooler temperatures and sweaters.
*And of course, there can't be fall weather without me getting nervous about winter, so that's going on too.
*I'm really enjoying being near my family. It's nice that it doesn't have to be a big deal to go over to my mom's house for supper or anything else, for that matter.
*We love our house. And are learning the joys and trials of homeownership. (Cutting down trees, fixing wet basements, decorating, etc.)
*I wrote two grants for work, and am working on a third.
*Patient numbers are steadily going up!

Those are the highlights I guess. I feel very busy, and ready for a homeleave, unfortunately those don't seem to occur outside of boarding academy. I'm feeling a little under the weather today, but it might just be allergies. I don't have time to be sick, so praying that will just go away. And my teacher is here now, so I'm going to go pay attention to class.

Update:

Update... 6lbs 8oz baby has Thai/Anglo/Karen names. Suwan or Suwat / Orion / Ebayat. Sure gonna have fun picking nicknames!

Big news!

This is only for friends of Leslie:

Leslie had a baby this morning around 7 am central time! Mike says that she and the baby are doing fine.

The old house

This is just me saying goodbye to our Pennsylvania home.

For Leslie

Leslie asked me to post pictures of my new house, so this is for her. One of the best motivations for me to get pictures up is for my best friend, who now lives in Thailand, to ask me for it. So, without further ado:

The front of our house, you can see there's a little porch on the side. I like to read there when it's not too blazing hot out. Which is most of the time this summer.


Closer up, you can see Shelby in the door, anxiously waiting for me to come back in so she can follow me around.


Living room, from the front door. We're not done yet. We want to hang a big mirror over the couch and buy a couple of accent chairs, but you get the idea.


Living room from the opposite corner, you can see the pretty front door.


Looking at the kitchen from the dining room.


Looking at the dining room from the kitchen.


This is a closer up of the kitchen. Here you can kind of see my stove top that's set into the counter. This is one of the cool things about the house.


Right now this is the room that holds all the unpacked boxen.


This is the big bathroom.


The extra bedroom.


Two shots of our bedroom.



The tiny master bathroom, hey, I'm just happy to have two bathrooms.


A couple shots of the basement. This was before we added the foosball table. It's the game room, rec room, fun times room.



So that's the basics. I didn't take pictures of the garage. It just has our cars in there and a bunch of empty boxen. We're loving our house, and so happy to be moved in. Also, did I mention that my sister lives seven houses down? It's awesome. After many years of living too far apart, we live five minutes away, walking time. It rawks. So now we're ready for visitors!

Goings on

Michael is back from his two week class at Southern.
I went to a free Sara Groves concert with Tim and Carissa.
I registered for law school on Monday.
Thursday is the last walk through on the house.
Friday we're supposed to close on the house.
Sunday we're supposed to move in.
I created a website for the clinic. It's www.mcmclinic.webs.com. I think it's pretty good for a free, click and build template. If you want to browse through and let me know how it looks, or any mistakes I made, I would appreciate the insight. Don't get to crazy with me though, because after all, I am no computer wizard, and I am not in to changing the html code or anything like that.

Work is going well for the most part. I'm working on getting some grants, and I have new volunteers to train in. It is SO much less stressful than working at a boarding academy. I think that's what I like the most about it. Sometimes it's boring. That's what I don't like about it. But I can handle that. I'm sure I'll be less bored once I start school and have all that studying to do. Which, by the way, I start school in two and a half weeks. (!!!) So those are the highlights. So far, even though it's beastly hot, I love living in Nashville. I'm really happy that we're here. At first I had a lot of mixed emotions about it, and missed PA and our students and friends there. But I love being close to my family, and I already know so many people here. It's nice. Definitely feels like coming home.

So those are the highlights of the last month and a half. Time flies...

Housing Update

We were proceeding with trying to close on the house, and went by to show my aunt and uncle, who were in town. Dino was along, and he always tries all the doors, and lo and behold the back door was unlocked. So we went in and took a little look around. The men went downstairs and came back with reports of mold growing up the walls. I was definitely frustrated by this because the owners were supposed to have taken care of all the mold and even cut out all the affected dry wall, but there was mold in all the rooms in the basement. About four feet high.

Our realtor was out of town until Tuesday so we waited to call her until then. We decided that we didn't want a house that is full of mold. So we told her we didn't want to proceed with closing on this house. So Wednesday we went by the house with our agent and she was appalled by how much mold was in the basement, and was happy to help us get out of our contract. We also went and looked at four more houses, found one we loved, and the next day we made an offer on it. Friday, on the way to Gatlinburg for the weekend, we got the call for the counteroffer, which we re-countered. Then they accepted. So we're very excited about the new house. It's in the same neighborhood as my sister's. Actually, seven houses down, but on a different street.

The housing inspection is on Wednesday, so we'll be able to go for that and hear what needs to be heard. From what we could see, everything looks really good. Everything is clean and nice. Nothing that needs to be fixed. The only thing the house doesn't have that we wanted was a dishwasher. Which we can live without, at least for a while. So we're mildly excited, trying to keep it reined in, because as we have learned before, things can go wrong. I think this might be easier because it's not a foreclosure, unlike the last one. So we're hopeful, and still praying.

We feel like maybe God left the door open of the house, so that we would see the mold and get out of it. You never know. In any case, we are hugely blessed.

Update

Yesterday evening Michael has his interview at MCE, and he felt like it went really well. He was told he would get a call at 9:00 last night, and 9:00 came and went. At 9:30 the superintendent called and said that they were having another three interviews (for a different position, which Michael also applied for) today, and that he would let Michael know after that. So basically, Michael thought he had no chance, they had hired someone else, and he didn't have much hope for the second position. We were very disappointed. I had a crying session by myself last night. I picked him up from the airport today and he was feeling pretty low. I made a last supper in our house, (from now on it's eating out or at the cafeteria) we took a walk and packed up some more of our belongings.

At 9:20, the superintendent called and said that they had filled the second position. This was no surprise. We didn't think he had much of a shot at this anyway. Then he said that they would like to offer him the 8th grade position. Michael was stunned. You could have knocked him over with a feather. He started laughing (a little hysterically), and accepted immediately. So we're super excited about this. It means a lot of things, including some security with salary and benefits. Also, that God has once again seen fit to keep Michael in teaching, at least for the time being. I think Michael is a phenomenal teacher, but it's nice to see God's hand in it all, and know that I'm not the only one.

House-wise, we're now hoping to close by the end of the month and still get the tax break, but no guarantees. So far, the seller is still willing to hang with us to close on this house. We think we'll get it still, but we're just hoping they'll be patient with us. In the meantime, we'll stay with my parents for a couple of weeks, at least. So that's the update. Thanks for your love and prayers.

Another one bites the dust

We got back from a largely successful class trip this morning. Many of the students told us how much they enjoyed it, how much fun they had, etc. and there were no major issues, so I count that as success. It was exhausting though, and then for the whole afternoon we had graduation practices, and then a pizza party with the students left on campus while I tried to grade the finals I missed while I was gone. I'm actually getting pretty close.

Our closing date was moved to tomorrow, but because of a little glitch we may not be able to close and/or get financed. See, there's this little thing where they want you to have jobs where you'll be buying the house, and of course we're still working here, even though I have a job, they want to see pay stubs. Which I cannot provide from a job that I haven't started yet. Even though I'm still working here. Anyway, when we heard all this today I collapsed a little. I've told a couple people, so if you're one of them, forgive the redundancy, but these last two weeks have been the most stressful of my life. I think if it were just my job, or just trying to get the house stuff finished long distance, or just packing and moving, or maybe two of those things I would be okay, but it's just so much. I feel overwhelmed and I was a puddle for a few minutes today. I tear up thinking about it now. Anyway, we've been praying about this house for more than a month now, and I keep saying to God, "If it's not your will, let it fall through." So maybe that's all this is, it would just be nice for it to have fallen through a little sooner is all, so that it's not all compounded right now. But maybe I'm learning something, or supposed to be learning something from this. Like, try not to overbook yourself so much.

Okay, I'm going to bed now. If you think of it, send up a prayer for us and the house. At this point I just want it to be over, one way or the other.

What's happening

One more A day, one more B day.
One senior class trip (4 1/2 days).
One graduation (6 services).
Getting the power of attorney transferred to my mother so that she can do the closing on our house next Wednesday (while we're on the previously mentioned class trip.)
A million papers to sign to buy a house.
That house also had to have the carpeting and some dry wall taken out of the basement after the flooding in Nashville.
Michael has a phone interview with Nashville Public Schools tonight.
He also has an interview at Madison Campus Elementary the day after graduation.
Packing the house.
Getting my wisdom teeth removed the Wednesday after graduation (two weeks from today).
We hope to leave here with all our stuff on June 6th.

That's about it for now.

Under Contract

Wednesday we got locked in for our interest rate, and officially got under contract. So if everything goes according to plan we'll be closing at the end of May or beginning of June. And we'll get the tax credit, which is a great feeling, gotta say. I think our house inspection will be next Tuesday, and I think that's the last big hurdle before closing. It's kind of crazy to do all (or most) of this long distance, but somehow it's working out, and our realtor has been awesome. If you're moving to the Nashville area I would definitely recommend her.

So I'll tell you more of the house story. Back in March we put a bid on a house that was in foreclosure. It didn't have an agent at the time, and hadn't had one since last December. About a week after we made the bid they finally found an agent for the house, so we were asked to sign an agreement that we knew there were multiple offers on the house (more than ten!), and to make our best and highest offer. We raised our offer significantly and hoped for the best. A month later we still hadn't heard anything. I went back to Nashville specifically to see Leslie before she headed to Thailand, but managed a little house hunting without Michael while I was there. We'd been doing our homework and keeping track of our favorite houses online (try mlsfinder if you're a control freak like me). I told my agent which houses I wanted to see, and she set it all up. In the week before I went to Nashville three of our favorite houses were put under contract. This was really discouraging and enough to make me think this would never work out. The day of house hunting my dad went with me and we saw about seven houses. Which was exhausting. Only three of them seemed like viable options. I talked to Michael on the phone and we decided to put an offer on one that he liked a lot, but I felt really weird about. We offered $5,000 less than the asking price. Everyone said we would get it. Who won't come down $5,000? I was still feeling uncomfortable about it and prayed about it alot. He came back with a counteroffer, asking us to pay closing costs. We didn't feel comfortable giving up that much more cash, when we're already putting 20% down (and moving, probably buying a car, etc.) so we said no. He refused to come down! I felt huge relief. We immediately moved on to our next favorite house (and actually the one I preferred). We made an offer, then had to sign an acknowledgment that it had multiple offers on it. This felt eerily similar to the last time, and we were preparing ourselves not to get any house at all and to move in with my parents for a while. But last Thursday my realtor called and said they had accepted our offer. And since then it's just signing papers and getting interest rates locked in and setting up inspectors. I forgot to mention that I found a four leaf clover in the back yard of this house, and I also found a four leaf clover the day before I was offered the job. It just felt like a little promise from God. Of course, if all of this falls through, I'll have to rethink what kind of promise it was, but all the same, it's awesome to feel God moving in our lives and in our plans. So that's mostly the whole story of the house hunt. Or at least the highlights.

We're very busy. Four weeks until graduation weekend. I'm busy finalizing details of class trip. We're packing. There's a lot going on. My sleep patters tell me I'm stressed. You could probably have told me that just by reading this post. But God is good, and I'm trying to remember His promises to take care of me. Also, keep Michael in your prayers too, he hasn't found a job yet, but I know that God hasn't forgotten about him. It is frustrating though, because it seems like everything else has fallen into place, and being the planners that we are, we like to know what to expect. Still, it's feeling right, and being right with God is a very good place to be.

God is in the miracle business

I just got a call from my realtor saying that the house we made an offer on accepted our offer. It was a multi-offer situation, so we're super stoked to get it. As long as nothing falls through we should have a home to move into when we move in June. I said all along it would take a miracle to be able to get a house before the April 30 first-time home buyer's tax credit cut-off date, and everything fell into place, thank you Jesus. As soon as I saw this house I had a really good feeling about it. I thought maybe Jesus was just saving it for me, and maybe that was the case. If everything comes through I'll show some pictures.

It really does feel like everything has fallen into place this year, when we've tried before it was never right. So I don't know what the lesson I needed to learn was, but I'm happy to feel God's blessing in all of this. And so excited!

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

-Walt Whitman

The menu

Supper tonight:

An all white cheese macaroni
Brussels sprouts, sauted in olive oil with craisins
Strawberry shortcake

Yum.

Well...

I was offered the job last Friday. I'm hesitant to say much before I sign the contract, but I'm really excited about it. It's going to be a big challenge, but I feel like I'm ready for a new challenge. Teaching has certainly been difficult and rewarding in many ways, but I certainly don't feel like it's my passion. So here's to change and to all the pieces falling into place.

A couple of things...

I got my acceptance letter from law school on Saturday. I wasn't totally surprised, but it was still a good feeling to have that piece of paper in my hands.

I had a second interview at a health clinic in Nashville. I haven't talked much about it, so as not to jinx it. If I get it I'll talk more about it. If not, this may be all you ever know about it. I should hear one way or the other in a week or so.

Michael had an interview at a private non-Christian school in Nashville. It was a little odd. Not sure he would take it even if they offered, unless they offer pretty good money.

We made an offer on a house. This would be contingent on my getting the job. It's in foreclosure and has a couple other offers on it, so we're trying not to get our hopes up about it since there are so many ifs. If it doesn't work out you probably won't hear much about this either.

Feelin' groovy

So far nine law schools have emailed me and asked me to apply to their programs, including the University of Notre Dame School of Law, which is a top 25 law school, and Charlotte School of Law, who offered me a $15,000 scholarship for each year. I must admit that I'm tempted, but not tempted enough not to move to Nashville. Still, it's nice to be wanted.

Yesterday we made the announcement to the student body that we're leaving. It was not the most fun moment. And some students came to beg us to stay and offer all kinds of "incentives" for us to stay. Kind of awkward, but, once again, nice to be wanted. We had originally hoped to keep it a secret and just slip away at the end of the school year, but alas, that was not to be. The rumor got out, and then we just had to address it.

In other news: Michael and I both have interviews when we're in Nashville during spring break, which is way ahead of where we were last year at this time when we wanted to move. It kind of feels like everything is falling into place for us to leave for real this year, which is good, since we've already told everyone that we're leaving. I don't know what God was waiting for, maybe to teach me patience, or for me to rediscover some passion in my life, or for some unknown reason, but I do have hope that it will really all work out this time.