Where do you envision yourself in 10 years?

Yep that's me!  Ten-years-ago-me from an extra little section in my senior yearbook.  I was cleaning the bookshelf in my bedroom the other day when I decided to do a little reminiscing and flip through my yearbook.  I totally forgot about this picture and my answer.  Poor past me... she didn't realize how tough it would be to get pregnant.  

I remember telling my friend that was taking this picture that I would probably have more than *just* two kids in 10 years, but she decided to edit me a little.  I also remember people asking about me getting married because I didn't even mention it... I knew that would happen... I guess I just always dreamed about the being a mom part.

Here, I guess I can edit this a little for accuracy's sake.

High-Jacked

So some crazy, negative chick high on Lupron, who complains a lot, high-jacked my blog and changed it to this new darn "enhanced" look with no gadgets on the sidebar. It's too much of a pain to change it back to the way it was, so I'm just going to have to deal with until it improves. She also changed my Facebook over to timeline!

Yeah, well besides having multiple personalities, I'm doing well. I got all of my Christmas shopping basically done this Saturday online and a little in the stores. My credit card got rejected because apparently shopping at two online retailers (Barnes & Noble and Amazon), filling my car with gas, and then going grocery shopping is a sign of fraud. I guess I need to shop more.

I hope this school week goes fast. No one wants to be there (and that includes the teachers). I'm looking forward to sleeping in for several days in a row. After school is out, I have a couple different get-togethers planned with a couple different high school friends. Besides that, I don't really have much planned for my break. Maybe I should start contacting contractors to put the build-in in the front room... Or buy the crown molding for the front two rooms.. Or paint the kitchen and family room... Or...eh, I'll probably do nothing.

Random Mumblings

Recently...

-Doug is traveling. For 6 weeks. I've made it through 3 weeks so far. Reception is spotty so we don't get to talk much. I've been really proud of myself for being disciplined and going to sleep before 10 pm (most of the time). I've woken up EVERY morning at 5 am for work. Every night since he been gone, I've woken up randomly around 2 or 3 am. I just couldn't get to bed again this time. It's lonely.

-School started. 26 kiddos so far. The majority of this group loves to talk. But not about school. I'm working hard to change this into something productive. The beginning of the school year with a new class is like training a puppy, scratch that... litter of puppies. It's going to take time and it's a lot of work. I love them to death, but I miss the familiarity and discipline of my last dog, I mean uh class. Did that make sense?

Of course not. It's now 4 in the morning. I'm pretty sure I have these same feelings every single year.

What else, well...

-The carpet is in and the basement is basically done. It looks really good. The furniture is being delivered next week. For some reason, I haven't been able to get excited about it. It just makes my empty house feel emptier these days.

-I got to go to the temple with my sister Heather and her family this last weekend. Their stake was having a temple day. My parent's stake is having one this weekend. I haven't been to the temple two consecutive times this close together since I got married... over 6 years ago.

-Got the hospital bill or rather "Explanation of Benefits" in the mail yesterday. The whole thing cost over $20,000! I paid $30. Are doctors paid a salary or do they get bonuses for performing expensive surgeries? ...Thankful for good health insurance.

-I'm still on this darn birth control that my doctor prescribed to help with the endo. Having to take this dumb little pill every day is rather disheartening. I keep on telling myself that this is a means to an end and that I should be able to see the end in sight, but when I look at how much longer I have, it seems like an eternity.

-I think it must be messing with my hormones. I feel emotionally dead inside at times and other times I have to hold back sobs after hearing a story on the radio or watching a movie. Seriously, this last weekend I had to hold back tears while watching "The Living Scriptures: Nephi Builds a Boat." I'm not kidding. I feel messed up.

In an attempt to be happy, I've bought the ingredients for monkey bread and I'm taking it to school tomorrow to share with the teachers. Feeding myself and others yummy food will hopefully help me be happy. I'm really trying here.

Taylor Swift Concert

Last night, I went to my FIRST concert, Taylor Swift: Speak Now.  A friend from work got some free tickets through her husband's work and was looking for some company.  Both nights were sold out with over 13 thousand fans packed into the Verizon Center in DC.  I have to say it was pretty dang amazing!  I like Taylor Swift's music and I'm familiar with her big hits that are played a lot on the radio, but I'm not like a crazy fan or anything.

The SWEET Suite

The cool thing about the tickets were that they were suite tickets meaning we had a SUITE that we watched the concert from.  Having never been to a concert, I had no clue what to expect, but I'm pretty sure this was NOT your average concert experience.  When we arrived at the suite which fit about 20 people but had about 12 in it, we were welcome by an attendant who checked our tickets and took us on a mini tour of the suite.  Inside, they had tons of food and basically unlimited drinks.  The suite had it's own super nice and CLEAN bathroom which I was pretty thankful for after seeing the long lines on our way up.

The concert started with a young, talented singer named Hunter Hayes and then a really good band called Need to Breathe.  They were both really talented, but their shows dulled in comparison to the performance by Taylor Swift afterward.  She puts on a really good show!  Part of the entertainment value of the concert was seeing all of the crazy fans.  At the Metro on the way there and back, we could easily spot the people going to the concert.  Most of the fans were wearing sundresses with cowboy boots, self-made Taylor Swift t-shirts, the number 13 somewhere, or something sparkly.  It was quite the crowd.  Many of them had lighted signs and glow sticks.

 

I didn't understand a lot of the fan lingo, so I did a little research on her fan website to figure out some of it. Apparently, 13 is Taylor Swift's lucky number and he writes it on her hand before her concerts.  On her left arm, she also writes lyrics from other musicians that inspire her.  I thought it was interesting that she writes all of her own music.  She kind of has some funny mannerisms, but overall she seems like a nice person.  The show was pretty neat.  I was trying to get some close up shots with my camera that seemed pretty good on my little camera screen, but pretty grainy when I looked at them on my computer.  Darn!  I wish I would've taken more far away shots like the one above.  The screen behind the stage had some pretty cool effects going on.

Here's a picture of me with my two teacher friends, Caitlin and Laura.

There were tons of young girls there that seems to ABSOLUTELY adore her.  I think that she does an okay job as a role model to them.  I don't know all of the juicy gossip, but she seemed almost overly cutesy nice at the show AND the kids just ate her up.  Her lyrics seem very personal, real, and seemed to be aimed for a wide age spread of an audience, but mostly for preteen/teen girls.  It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go!

Oh, and a teeny tiny update as far as surgery recovery: I'm completely off pain meds, feeling clear minded, and overall much better.  I'm still waiting for my energy to come back, but for the most part I'm feeling good.

Schedulitis

Define: Schedulitis:

• A disease which primarily affects those on a strict schedule.  It is primarily troublesome for those that were raised in a home setting with no real schedule and have the genetic predisposition to be at least five minutes late to everything.  Positive side effects include having a solid eight hours of sleep a night, getting sick less, and enjoying higher mental functioning.  Negative side effects include waking up before freakin' five o'clock in the morning and not having enough time to fully blow dry hair.

Doug and I started commuting probably about two months ago.  My husband is all about sticking to a schedule.  Something that I never did my whole life before him.  So for all of those that want to know about my extravagantly scheduled life, I will go through my daily schedule because you care...

4:58am - The alarm goes off. (We probably left at 5:32am one day, so it was bumped up.)

5:30am - Pull out of the garage

6:00am - Doug drops me off at my school.  (Only a 30 minute commute!)

...Work for Doug and I...

3:15pm - Doug picks me up. (We're home in 45 minutes to an hour because of traffic.)

4:15pm - Make Dinner/Pack Lunches

5:00pm - Dinner

...Watch a TV show, computer time, reading, or chores...

8:00pm - Read

8:30pm - Lights Out!

It's actually gotten to the point where I wake up about 2 or so minutes before the alarm goes off.  Sometimes this schedule stuff makes me feel crazy.  Like it's against my nature or something.  I wonder if this will change with time or if it will always make me feel this way.  I'm pretty sure that not having a schedule would be against Doug's nature.

Some great things about commuting:

• Extra talking time in the car
• No waiting for the car to heat up in the winter
• Curbside pick-up
• Gas savings/Car maintenance savings
• I don't have to drive.

Not-so-great things about commuting:

• Doug's road rage toward just about any vehicle in front of him.
• Learning to be on time.

Catch Up

New things since I last blogged that may be subjects of future blog posts...

-I take care of a mission blog not connected with this one for my little brother.
-I have a new phone with internet and such that has changed how I do things pretty significantly.
-There are 28 students in my class this year.  (In case you're wondering, that's A LOT!)
-I am team lead this year for the fourth grade team at my school.
-Doug has a new job that he loves and it is closer to home than the last one.
-Doug's grandma was diagnosed with cancer and is going through chemo right now.
-We carved some pretty cool pumpkins this last Halloween.
-Doug took up the hobby of shooting and I have now fired a real gun.
-We went to Utah over Christmas break.
-My sister Kierstan is pregnant.
-Doug and I started commuting to work together at least three days a week.
-I cook dinner almost every night now.
-We both gained 15 pounds.
-There are vegetables in my refrigerator and a treadmill in the basement now.
-I finally got in and organized Doug's closet!
-I've drawn up plans to finish the basement of our house.
-My sister Kate is finally coming back home from Hawaii.
-I have a new calling at church in the nursery, but for now I'm helping in Sunbeams.

That is all.

Time to Start Blogging Again

I stopped blogging more than four months ago.  Most of it was from the frustration of still not being pregnant.  I couldn't write a sentence without thinking about getting pregnant, wanting to be pregnant, wondering if I could actually be pregnant.  It's a crappy cycle that happens every month...

So, finally the reason for my return.

My grandpa fell off a ladder two weeks ago and suffered a traumatic brain injury.  He probably doesn't remember who I am anymore, but I can't just go to visit him because he lives in Utah.  My cousin's wife who lives nearby and keeps a blog wrote about it here and here.

I never really got to know my grandparents until I was in college because they lived so far way.  They built a house where I went to school my senior year.  I was in my first year of teaching when I started going over every week to do laundry.  I know, I know, GREAT way to get to know your grandparents.  I would unwind and tell stories of my crazy day.  They would listen and tell me how I had to be the greatest teacher ever.  (I'm sure there was absolutely no favoritism.)  Doug would always come over later and we got our only home cooked meal (with REAL ingredients) for the week.  It was during the time that I washed and dried my two or three loads of laundry each week that I got to know my grandparents. 

I learned about my grandpa's days as a high school football player making trouble and almost getting kicked off the team.  I found out that my grandpa always puts cut up hard boiled eggs in his salad each night AND it actually makes the salad good.  He likes to play Solitaire on the computer.  He loves to watch FOX news.  He probably would watch it non-stop if grandma would let him. :) He even vacuums the same weird way I do.

I learned about how my grandma could move her five kids and all of their stuff into a house on a Saturday and have everything unpacked and in place by the next morning with a roast in the slow cooker for Sunday dinner.  I heard stories about how my grandma was the only one to know of a long lost family history portrait hidden behind another in an old frame.  Now I know that my grandma keeps a stash of fruit roll ups in her pantry just for the great grand kids. (and the grand kids too if they want)

I wish I would've listened better.  There are more stories that I haven't heard.  Some that I just don't remember.  I just want him to get back to be the same grandpa he was before.  I miss how he always used to talk about how he loved my smile.  He always said that my smile was one of a kind because of the way my eyes twinkled.

I need to start recording my memories again.

Stuck at Home

Last week, Doug was in Vegas for a conference for work and I was stuck at home.

They DO have slot machines at the airport!

He was staying in the Bellagio and I was stuck at home.

 The famous Bellagio Hotel in Vegas.

The view from Doug's hotel room.

Some pictures from the inside of his room... *sniffle*

 He got his picture taken with one of the top 5 famous hackers, Kevin Mitnik and I was stuck at home.

The guy NEVER takes pictures with people, but the way Doug was able to get a picture with him is a funny story.  Kevin Mitnik had just finished a presentation in which he gave tips on social engineering.  One being, "If you want something from someone, start with something really BIG and then ask for something smaller."  Doug approached him afterward and asked, "Will you be the father of my first-born son?!" in which he responded, "Uh, No." Then Doug asked, "Well, can I get a picture with you?"  He laughed and said, "Sure!"  No one else got pictures with him. :)

He was watching awesome presenters on social engineering, hacking ATM machines, and cyber warfare and I was... well you get the picture.  (Those are linked to some awesome articles that were written about the convention.)

I was a little bitter that I didn't get to go to Vegas with Doug, (Can you tell?) but I'm happy that he's home now and I'm not stuck at home alone anymore

Snowmageddon 1.0

The snow storm the area received on February 5th resulted in Doug and I being off work for 7 days + 2 weekends for a total of 11 days! We didn't return to work/school until February 16th... just in time for my birthday! I was pretty ready to come back anyway. We stayed snowed in our house until February 9th when we decided to venture out for burgers at Red Robin. The roads were awful... in hindsight we shouldn't have been driving, but we really just needed to get out of the house.

About halfway there, Doug's car ran out of wiper fluid and we could barely see out of the windshield so we stopped by the new Wegmans to get wiper fluid and some other essentials.


You can barely see because the windshield was all gunked up, but the roads were BAD! This is a pretty major road that we're on in this picture.


This is Doug walking by a huge pile of snow in the parking lot. He's 6'2 and it towered over him.


We finally made it... the burgers were excellent as usual!

Workaholic

Dear 3 Blog Readers,

I have not blogged in a week because I've been busy, but not really. My life consists of waking up every morning at 5am, driving to work, working in my classroom until 7:30pm, driving home, feeding fish and cats, eating Ramen noodles and/or cereal for dinner, and then curling up with a good book to go to bed by 10pm. This has been my exact schedule for 2 weeks. The sad thing is, it doesn't bother me. Doug isn't home and I like to be productive. The only unfortunate thing is that I feel like a loser.

Sincerely,

Loser Teacher in need of a reason to come home at night

Squircle

The town that I live in was planned by a bunch of nincompoops who really like stop signs and wasting time. In the very center of town, we have what the townspeople “affectionately” call the squircle. The squircle is a big intersection thingy that functions like a round-a-bout, but its a... square. This last week, Doug’s grandma was dropping off the girls at the house and was unable to get to our place because of this confusing squircle. I remember the first few times we drove through it to come watch the house being built and I had no clue where we were going. I’m just now starting to understand how it works and we’ve lived in our house now for well over a year and I drive through it every day.

Anyways, this squircle has really been annoying me lately. I’m taking a slightly different route to school in the morning that takes me the annoying way through the squircle. I took a screen shot of the squircle in Google Maps and showed the route that I have been taking. Taking this route involves going through 3 stop signs in under a minute and you only end up about 100 feet front where you started.


I know this is a lame post, but I using up all of my brain power to set up my classroom. Unfortunately I lost the motivation today to actually get any real work done, so now I'm blogging.

New Phone ...and it's PINK!

I got a new phone! It is replacing the expensive phone my dad got for me a while back that supposedly broke. I went to two different Sprint Stores and had two different guys look at it and they both told me that my phone was a lost cause. I finally was able to head up to my parents' house (after I bought a new phone in desperation) and my dad was able to fix it...

Anyways, looking at the situation positively... I got a new/USED phone and I will be able to transfer everything off of my phone onto this one easily. It's a Palm Centro and it's PINK! I'm not completely in love with the color pink, but for some reason I like having a pink phone. The price was right and it was only a tiny bit scratched up from the previous owner. I now have a back up as well if this situation ever occurs again. I love eBay!

My Phone!

Don't Count Your Blessings Before They Hatch?

I just came back from the Sprint Store tonight without a way to call anyone. My phone is too old to get back onto the Sprint Network.

If you have no clue what I'm talking about, you might want to try to read or briefly scan the super long post after this.

I guess I'll figure something out.

DAY 2: No Cell... I'm going through some serious withdrawal.

Count Your Blessings

Tuesday night my cell phone decided to die on me. This was an extra stress to me because (1) Doug is gone and I'm stuck at home alone and (2) we do not have a land line, so I really had NO way to contact the outside world. Not even to dial 911 if I needed to. It was freaking me out.

Yesterday after school, I drove over to the Sprint Store in Dulles Town Center to see if they could fix my phone. The guy really tried, but couldn't fix it. I started looking at the phones in the store and the absolute cheapest phone in the store without rebate was like $200. I wasn't going to spend that much on a phone that I didn't actually like.

I was losing it emotionally at this point, so I went outside the store to calm myself down. I sat at a table next to wall and tried desperately to get my phone to work. The phone finally got a signal and I IMMEDIATELY called Doug to update him on my situation. The phone lost the signal about 30 seconds into the conversation. I started balling. I am really not a cryer unless I'm watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on TV. I can't remember the last time that I actually cried.

I sat there trying to look as invisible as possible so no one would notice me and pull it back together long enough to make it out to my car. The second I stepped into the parking lot, I lost it again, but luckily I got a close spot and was in the car in no time. I cried the whole 45 minutes trip home, not really because my phone was broken, but that it would be atleast ANOTHER day and night before I would get to talk to Doug. When I got home, I got online and was fortunately able to IM Doug through Gmail.

He gave me tons of solutions (like most guys do) and listened (if you can listen on messenger) to my complaining. I really just wanted to complain... not hear solutions! :P Anyways, he mentioned that I try to find an old phone I had sitting around the house until I could buy a cheaper one off Ebay. The only problem was that I did know where the phone was.

The Next Day:

This morning before leaving for work I figured that I would go look for the phone and if I found it quickly, I would activate it on my way home from work. I checked in the basement and quickly found the cell phone box. I opened it up real quick before I was heading out the door, just to check, and there was NO PHONE and NO POWERCORD in it...

I just about broke down at this point. I had been praying through this whole ordeal... "Please let my phone be fixable." and then it changed to "Please let me find an inexpensive phone.", then to "Please let me just find my old phone!"

As I stood there wanting to give up, a picture appeared in my mind where the phone was. (in quite a random location actually) I immediately checked and the phone was right where I had pictured it. There was no powercord with it, so I tried random cords in the house to see if one would fit and work (probably not the smartest idea).

We happened to have lots of random cords in the house because my husband collects junk with cords. See past posting Divert Your Eyes! Check out the picture on that posting. He has ALOT of techno junk.

This is where my SECOND miracle comes in. I picked one big box that looked like it had lots of cords and reached down inside to grab one. The FIRST cord that I pulled out happened to be the charger cord for my phone! NO WAY! There were like 20 cords in just that box and probably 5 more boxes in the house just like it.

Sorry to bore you with this long post. I decided I needed to write this one down because we are quick to remember our problems and not so quick to remember our blessings. Well, me atleast.

Bob the Beta

It was late and we were sitting at home watching TV the other night when we heard the doorbell ring. (Our doorbell never rings...) Doug went to go answer it cautiously. It was our 6 year old next door neighbor Gustavo. His family is going on vacation to Puerto Rico over Spring Break and he wanted to know if we could take care of his fish. Doug agreed and Gustavo ran back to his house.

His older sister came back a few minutes later carrying a tank and Gustavo had the food. We were given feeding instructions, but no name... so he is Bob the Beta to us. We took pictures and took careful note of the coloring of the fish because you know how fish are... If we are successful in this, who knows what will be next, parenthood?

Bob the Beta

Bob's Home

I'm Still Alive...

I know I haven't posted in a while. Life is busy, blah blah blah...

First off, Doug is enjoying his new job and I am enjoying his newfound satifaction with work. The commute isn't too bad. Traffic is nonexistant and the speed limit is actually higher so it doesn't take too much longer, timewise, than his previous commute. The major negative aspect is the sheer length that he needs to drive. It may last about the same time but he is going much much further, so it's more gasoline and such. It frustrates him sometimes.

My work, well... I continue to love teaching. The other stuff is pretty yuck. I'm coming up on my yearly evaluation with the principal, so hopefully that goes well. I feel like I'm doing everything I should be so I shouldn't have anything to worry about, right?

I am asking if it would be possible next year to NOT be an inclusion teacher. The last two years I have been an inclusion teacher have been full of DRAMA and there's really nothing that I hate more. Inclusion is a classroom where some students that recieve special education services are included with regular education students. I don't mind the students with IEP's at all, it's the extra stuff. Like the fact that people are constantly in your classroom while you're teaching and scheduling is a nightmare. Also, there are all kind of legal accommodations in IEP's (Individualized Education Plans) and you can get in serious trouble for not following them. Anyways, I won't bore you with more teacher talk...

Spring break is coming up! I'm getting in the doctor's appointment I need, meeting with drywall people to fix nail pops, and finally painting some of the white walls in my house. I'm having a rather difficult time picking colors because I'm artistically challenged and well Doug is colorblind with an opinion. (The opinion being the problematic part!) I found out that the art teacher in my school just built a house right down the street. I'm hoping to enlist her expertise, but I haven't told her that yet. I might post some pictures of rooms sometime if I get the chance because I seriously need help and I don't want it to be ugly.

Empty House = Loneliness

So Doug and his dad are gone this weekend spending time at grandma's house while his dad is in town. I'm sad I can't be there and I'm even sadder that I'm stuck home alone. Well, actually I haven't really gone home much. I worked until late last night and came right home to go to bed.

Doug will be moving into his place in Annapolis starting the weekend of March 14th. I will miss him terribly, but at least I will see him on the weekends and we can talk on the phone every night. A luxury my navy wife sister was not allowed while her husband was out to sea and she was at home pregnant.

With Doug gone, it will be different at home. Coming from such a large family, I'm uncomfortable with silence. Maybe I'll have time to try to do that list of things that I have always said I would do. On that list is sewing, cooking extravagant meals, digital scrapbooking, taking beautiful pictures, and decorating the bare white walls of my house. I have quite a few roadblocks before I actually can start doing these things. I don't have a sewing machine yet because I'm not ready to make an investment on something that I don't actually do yet. I like to cook, but I have no one to cook for. I need a better computer to do my scrapbooking and actual scrapbooking doesn't have a Ctrl Z(undo). I'm working on the taking pictures thing, but it's a little frustrating right now because I don't have anyone to photograph. I'm not sure if I should decorate my house right now if we are potentially moving. It's just extra stuff to pack up and nail holes to fill in when we leave. All excuses, I know! Maybe I should just make my goal to ramble on my blog. I'm good at that!

I keep on thinking that I need to make some more friends. All of the women at church close to my age have kids and I don't fit into that group right now. My visiting teaching companion is great, but once again I think we are at different stages in our lives. I am friends with the teachers at school, but it's kind of awkward going to hang out with them at bars when I don't actually drink. Doug is my best friend and I love hanging out with my family, but I'd still like to branch out some. I worry some days that I have forgotten how to make lasting friendships with how often I have moved lately.

Blogging makes me feel connected to people even though in reality I'm not sure if that's really accurate. (One reason being that only like 3 people read my blog!) Hopefully this will keep me from burning out while I work like a crazy woman for the next 5 months to fill the void.

I'll stop complaining now and get to work! :)

Apartment Hunting

This weekend, Doug and I went to go check out a prospective apartment for him to stay at during his training. He had posted a want ad on craigslist saying that he was looking for temporary housing for the next 5 months. Over 100 people responded offering places in the area. (One of which was from a Dawn. When he responded to her, he accidentally typed her name as Damn. OOPS! He didn't get that apartment...)

We picked the one that looked the nicest and visited it first. The lady renting the apartment wanted to meet both Doug and I. She actually didn't post the apartment, she was just looking for people that she might want to have stay there. She asked for a picture, so Doug sent her one of our wedding photos.

It's a 2 bedroom 1 bath furnished apartment that he would have completely to himself above a detached garage for $500 a month. We've never paid less than $800 for 1 bedroom apartments in the area, so this is a SUPER deal. So, being in Annapolis, we were a little worried about the neighborhood that he would be living in. Well, this apartment is actually detached from a 1.9 million dollar home! They already have 2 garages on the other side of the house, so they barely even use the one he'll be staying above. Just about everyone in the neighborhood owns a boat and has private docks. It's less than a mile away from private beaches that he will have access to all summer.

When we arrived at the house, we hadn't even had the chance to get out of the car when she was on the front porch excitedly greeting us in an apron with a White House Seal. She is super nice and animated. She chatted with is for a little while and introduced us to her husband. Her husband has worked with the last 3 Republican presidents in the White House (explains the apron). She took us on a tour of the apartment that Doug will be staying in and even invited us to go boating with them this summer. The apartment is not incredibly fancy like the house, but for $500 it is excellent. It also just so happens that her next door neighbors are high up in the company where Doug just got his new job. She told us that she's SO excited to introduce us to them.

This place is kind of unbelievably good for the price so I'm actually a little hesitant. The whole time we were there, I was looking around trying to figure out if these people were some kind of ax murderers luring us into a trap, but I found no reason to actually be suspicious. We haven't figured out any reason that he shouldn't stay there. It's super close to where he'll be getting trained and she isn't even requiring a deposit.

So I guess it's meant to be?

2 Weeks Notice

Yesterday at work Doug gave his 2 weeks notice. He gave notice to his boss and luckily it went pretty smoothly. He went to his desk to sit down and get back to work. Within minutes he gets a call from the VP. Apparently his boss had called the director who called the VP who called the CIO. The CIO is some guy who heads all of information technology for his company (his boss's boss like 5 times over). Before the end of the day, Doug had a meeting scheduled with some pretty high up people. They gave him some counter offers to try to keep him. I'm pretty sure that he's made up his mind already about what he'll do.

So long for trying to make a quiet exit...

Location, Location, Location

So, I've been doing a lot of research on the housing market in the DC Metro Area lately looking for a place to relocate for Doug's work. It's crazy how just 15 minutes in a commute can make a HUGE difference in the price and quality of a home. These two homes are priced within $1,000 of each other. Crime rates and taxes increase as you get closer and the quality of schools decreases. We can't really afford anything closer than 30 minutes!

30 minute commute

60 minute commute

Update: Doug has some training that he needs to complete at the beginning of his employment out in Annapolis, MD. He thought that since it was 2 hours away from our house, his new employer might give him a stipend for gas money or housing. NO, that would be too convenient. So, we are on our own for this as well as selling our house... He still unsure some days whether or not he should take this job.

If you know anyone in the Annapolis area that would like to rent out a room Monday through Thursday cheap, let me know!