Monday, August 17th- New Beginings

Every year you always end up circling the important days of your life on a calendar. Whether it is a holiday, vacation, or important meeting, the date is embedded in your mind. August 17, 2009 was one of those days .

Since the end of the school year August 17 was circled on the calendar as the first day I would report back to work for the much beloved teacher pre-planning. For most jobs there is no pre-planning , you just show back to work with little celebration. Pre-planning for teachers is a necessary evil for anyone who has ever stepped into the classroom. This is a week filled of meetings, (lots of them), getting your room ready, lesson planning, and making copies. It is challenging because you are often pulled in so many directions and time mangement is of the essence. For new teachers it can be an overwhelming period of time where you receive so much paperwork, advice, and information which can me hinderance than help. I actually like the pre-planning time because I tend to decorate my room more than the average high school social studies teacher. I just think if you teach a certain subject visitorss show know immediately what that is. Plus I get to socialize with all the teachers that I didnt get to speak with during the summer. Every teacher is different some come in early to get ready, and some don't. I tend to fall somewhere in between. I don't mind coming in early if I can to get ready, but if it doesn't happen, it's not the end of the world. This year like most years I'm pretty excited to get it started. Don't get me wrong, I love summer it is relaxing, but it is really nice to be on the payroll again. Just ask my wife, she would agree to. I will miss my late nights of playing video games, reading, or playing on the internet.

August 17 also was a special day because we closed on our first house. I really believe the good lord has been watching us and guiding us throughout this journey. I feel so blessed by everything that has happened to me this year, and buying the house was a big reason. When we started to look for a home we knew what we wanted. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, around 2,000 sq feet, decent yard, good neighborhood, etc. We at first really didn't consider a new home not because of cost, but more of lack of knowledge of where the new building was occuring. After going to look at a hand full of foreclosures, we decided that was enough. Seeing the foreclosures just reaffirmed me original belief that some people are disgusting. It was amazing to see the condition of the carpet in some of the homes we visited. After walking around and seeing holes in the wall, missing appliances, and nasty carpet, it was decided upon to start looking for new homes. The day we stumbled upon our new home we actually had gone out with our awesome real estate agent and he recommended a few new developments. So we headed out down the road and found Belmont. We couldn't figure out the theme or our way around. Once we spoke to the sales woman about the availability of inventory homes, we thought about leaving. She wasn't going to win awards for salesperson of the year. However, we decided to go look at this four bedroom, two bath home and what do you know, we liked it. But was it going to work? Living in an apartment would test our availability for this house. This is where I really have to thank the good lord for our wonderful real estate team of Tony and Debbie. You couldn't ask for a better team of trained real estate professionals to work with. They were absolutley wonderful to work with and when they worked out a later closing date, the home in Belmont was ours.

You never know what your experience will be in life whether it is your career or looking for a home. Trust me I have heard enough negative stories from the home buying end. I guess misery loves company. Bad news travels faster than good news. However, I have nothing to report but good stories here. If you think positive, most times you will end up with a positive ending. I wish that energy would carry over to the rest of society.