Pictures!

Okay so this is our living room, the thrones that are our recliners... our dining room, our kitchen, our new bed! I'll try to put more photos up at some point.

September 14

So I just spent like 30 minutes typing up a new post and it totally just got lost. I hate when technology works against me... anyway, I'll try to retype it as best as I can...

I said that basically it's been a long time since I posted. It was really nice to see that I had a comment from Jen (Skazman's wife)...

Things are going really well here, Artie and I are basically all moved in, we bought new furniture and are absolutely loving it. I am still enjoying my job. I have parent/teacher conferences that start this week. I stay at school tomorrow until 7 pm then Wed until 6:30 then Thurs until 6. And I feel bad because Thursday is Artie's birthday. Hopefully we'll be able to do something fun! I only have to be at school until 1 on Friday though and then we get off Monday!! Kinda nice! Maybe we'll be able to go and get our licenses and license plates. It's the last thing that we need to do. I love the students that I have. They are very low though, so that's a little difficult, but at the same time, it's such a reward when they succeed. I love the people that I work with, so that makes things a lot easier too.

Artie started his job and is really enjoying it. He says that he was a golf professional so that he could become a real estate agent :) He's too funny!

I'm really enjoying being near Scott and Meggan and Niter! She calls me "Ci ci" It's really cool because now she can look at a picture of me and know who I am. She will say, "ci ci, ci ci, ci ci" until you reply "yes that's ci ci". She too cute! She calls Uncle Artie "Un A EEE" She absolutely loves her Uncle Artie though. She will chase him around the house. When he leaves the room she will follow him and then just giggle and giggle and giggle. I absolutely love that she loves him so much! I am amazed at how much I love her though. I never thought that I could love someone else's child so much! And to think that when it's my own I'll love that child even more... That's so crazy! We've been enjoying dinners and fun times with Scott and Meggan and Niter here and at their house. It's nice to have family around!

Well, that's all I have time for right now. I'm going to try to put some pictures of our town house up here. I also will try to put a picture up that is me using our mixer for the first time. I made bran muffin mix, which is really hard to make unless you have the mixer! I found out how much I absolutely love this wedding gift :)

Finally!

ARTIE'S HERE!!!! YIPEEE!!! Our stuff should be here this weekend... yippeee again! My kids are adorable and I already love them!

All alone

So this morning I dropped off my brother and family at the airport to head out to Wulamat! It totally stinks that I have to miss it this year. I'm really sad about it. Wulamat is a camp that I have been going to with my family since I was born... my mother has been going there since she was born... my grandparents honeymooned there. It's on a lake in New Hampshire and I just wish I could spend the quality time with my family. But I'm out here to work and get things done. Well, at least I have Jenna to keep me company.

Lots to do today... going to go look at some furniture :)

Moving to Colorado

So as most of you know Artie and I are moving to Colorado. It was all in God's timing... it was actually really amazing! We came out here at the beginning of July to look for jobs. Artie immediately was offered positions at every real estate office that he visited, and I was busting my butt to get things accomplished: resumes sent, applications filled out, anything I could do. We had planned on leaving around August 1st. My brother and his wife absolutely love the Tour de France and we had all wanted to go camping at some point. Well because of the Tour's schedule my brother suggested we go camping on the weekend of the 1st. I had been offered a job at a day care type place, but I knew it wasn't the right place for me so I declined that position... knowing that would get us out here, even if it wasn't what I was suppose to be doing. So by August 1st I still hadn't gotten a job or even an interview. I was pretty bummed and was ready to pack it all in and head home. Artie wasn't! But that's another story.

So while we were camping (we went to the Sand Dunes - did you know that the largest sand dunes are in Colorado?! Who'd'a thunk?) ... so hen Artie and I arrived at our camp site early Friday I didn't have ANY cell phone reception and Scott and Meggan were meeting us later on that night. We needed to get in touch with them, so Artie and I drove out about 2 miles and got reception enough to call them and let them know where our site was and to check our messages. Well, belive it or not, I had a message from a woman asking me for an interview for that Monday. Crazy! I know! I kept saying to myself, this is our answer to our prayers... This is it...

So we had a great time at the Sand Dunes (including jumping off them at the top and looking like idiots and rolling down and getting so dizzy we couldn't walk back up in a straight line. It was hilarious. Anyway, I went to my interview on Monday and it was HORRIBLE!!! I was basically in a line-up. They had interviews scheduled every 25 minutes and they asked some really hard questions that were difficult for me to answer. (For example: Tell about a time when you and a coworker have disagreed... well let me think about this... in North Carolina I worked with two of my best friends, obviously we didn't have many if any issues there... and then I worked at BCA and of course I didn't have any issues there... so what was I supposed to say?! I replied that I had not ever encountered a situation that I could recall where I had disagreed, at least not a situation that left me feeling upset or anything... hmm, I wonder if that school has a lot of issues with faculty not getting along?) Well, I felt like I had blown my one chance at getting a job. I drove back after the interview (btw it was 2 hours away from my brother - headed east, you couldn't even see the mountains - it was in the middle of fields) so I was driving back and couldn't concentrate... it didn't help that there was tumbleweed flying across the road every few feet. I knew that I had done a bad job at the interview and that I was not going to get the job, but they had told me that they would let me know by that Friday. Well we decided that we would stay and see what came out of it. Artie still had faith in me (oh how I love my husband!). On Tuesday Artie and I had disagreeing thoughts on what we should do if I didn't receive the job. Well, I walked outside and my phone rang. Artie handed me the phone and said, "it's a 303 number and I don't recognize it". I was like oh okay, and when I answered it, it was a woman asking me to come for an interview Wednesday morning at 8 am. Well, I was thrilled. YES! Another chance. This was it! I could feel it!

I went for the interview on Wednesday morning at 8 am and felt like it went really well. Again they asked some really hard questions (the principal asked me if I was teaching a lesson to my students and they were all actively engaged and enjoying what they were doing and their grades went up, and they seemed to really be grasping the ideas and concepts, but she came to me and told me to teach out of the book what would I do... well I said that I would show her the information and how well the students were grapsing the ideas, so she says, and what if I said you had to teach only from the book.... well what are you supposed to say to this? Do you say what the principal wants to hear that you would do exactly what she says because she is ultimately my boss, or do I say that I would go against what she is saying to advocate for the children? Well, that's not an easy question to answer). They told me they would get back to mne that night. So all day Wednesday I was freaking out and panicking. I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't do anything... I mean, it was bad. (I can't believe I'm even going to write this, but Artie beat me at tennis. The first time he has ever beaten me in a match.) Artie and I were supposed to go to a concert that night and I couldn't go. I didn't want to be anywhere in public if I didn't get offered the job. So finally at like 7:30 we decided we probably needed to eat. So Artie came home and still no phone call. He put our food on the table (BDUBBS), opened the container and my phone rang. Well, it was the principal telling me that they were going to offer me the job! It was awesome! Artie, Scott, and Meggan were running around the house opening the windows trying to listen to my conversation. I saw Artie's hand pop up to open the window and then all three of their heads pop up and look out, then I heard Artie say "She saw us" and they all ducked! It was hilarious!!!!

Anyway, to make a long story, well still a long story... I got the job, bought a plane ticket on Thursday night for Friday morning, flew home (got to see my parents), cleaned out my classroom, cleaned out everything I needed from my parents basement, moved as much as I could into our apartment for the movers to pack up and then headed back out here on Sunday. Artie picked me up at the airport, we ate dinner, then I dropped him off at the airport. He flew into New York, packed up everything at his parent's house, and then drove to Rhode Island. The movers came yesterday and we had 160 boxes! That's insane!! What on earth do we have??? haha!

So the movers are on their way across country right now... and hopefully they will come at a convenient time! :) But we are excited about the move and our new townhouse. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a garage, a storage unit, awesome living room, dining room, kitchen, washer/dryer... I'm psyched!!!

Well that's all for now! Just had to put all this up here as a beginning point. I will make sure I post some pictures soon as well as keeping you updated on everything else that comes up. Especially my students.. they are definitely goin gto give me some good laughs!