Tomorrow Is Another Day...

November

This month has certainly been... eventful.  First, we buy a house.  Second, I actually start hearing something that *may* just be the ticking of a biological clock.  Third, we celebrate another anniversary.  Fourth, I experience my very first Black Friday at the stores.  We've already discussed point one and point two, so let's discuss anniversaries and shopping a little more in depth.

Indeed, just three days ago I celebrated our second anniversary with a full day of work, a glass of wine and So You Think You Can Dance while Colby flitted about the Middle East.  Our first anniversary I spent throwing up and sleeping off a rotavirus.  I'm honestly not sure which anniversary was more disappointing.  There is no lack of mushy gushy writing on this website about how darn great I think that guy is, and suffice it to say, he started to look even cuter when he was holding babies.  Just saying.  So, I'm pinning all of my hopes on our third anniversary.  Flowers are nice, but actually getting to spend time with your spouse is even better.

Thanksgiving was a quiet but highly enjoyable day.  I whipped up Paula Deen's recipe for loaded mashed potatoes (oh my God, amazing) and bought my little can of Ocean Spray cranberry jelly and headed over to a friend's house where we watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, the Purina One dog show, the Raiders vs. Oakland game and the Peanuts Thanksgiving and Christmas specials with multiple eating and drinking breaks.  I felt so lucky to have such great friends that were willing to welcome me into their family for the day, but I still missed Colby who was spending Thanksgiving in Germany.

This morning, after a fitful night of sleep in which I dreamed about waking up at the crack of dawn for the Black Friday sales only to find that entire stores were sold out, I woke up at the crack of dawn and hauled my weary body to Best Buy where I found that not only was the store not sold out, but in fact very willing to sell me many things.  The key to skipping the Black Friday lines at the store?  Purchase major appliances.  I came away with a Samsung front loader washer and dryer to take with us and a refrigerator to leave at the house for the renters all for just a little over $2000.  It was... not as much fun as I'd imagine spending that amount on clothes and shoes would be.

BUT, I'm incredibly excited about our washer and dryer (oh my God, how lame have I become??).  Our current washer seems to mostly just get clothes wet and put tiny little holes in all of my favorite shirts, so I'm really looking forward to a washing machine that allegedly washes and hopefully will not destroy all of our clothing in the process.  Plus they're pretty.  I just got the white ones because shelling out another few hundred for a "designer" color seemed silly, but they're such a shiny, lovely white!

Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's house to watch the Tigers dominate the Arkansas Razorbacks (please, God, please?) and the rest of the weekend will be spent preparing the house for the movers to come on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then on Thursday, we will officially become the homeless owners of two homes.  Time sure does fly when you're stressed to the max!

Tormented by Timing

Timing is everything these days.  Two weeks left in our house.  Less than a month left in Washington.  One month until we visit our families for the holidays.  A month and a half until we close on our new house.  And that's just the moving related timing.

Lately I've been starting to think very hard about the future.  As my life is currently scheduled out, I will take the next term off of school to deal with the move.  I was hoping to return to class in January, but because I get a reduced military tuition, I have to take off the entire term, meaning I won't return until March.  That will put me finishing classes at the end of August, and *hopefully* beginning my 16-week student teaching period from September through December of next year.

At which point I will begin looking for an actual teaching job.  In a county that just laid off all of its first-year teachers and is now hiring back RIF-ed teachers and those laid off first year teachers before even looking at any outside applicants.  In a county that is not even currently in need of substitute teachers.

If I am *lucky* I'll be able to find a teaching job for the 2011/2012 school year.  At which point I will be just months away from turning twenty-nine.

And let me let you in on a little secret.  I've been thinking a lot about babies lately.  And I don't think I'm the only one in my household whose mind has edged a little closer to that track.  Am I ready to start popping out infants the moment we get to Charleston?  No.  But am I thinking it's a little unlikely that I'll actually want to hold out another 4 years or so until we're settled into our next assignment?  Yes.

Another factoid that is less than a secret is that I have no desire to be a working mother.  I place absolutely no judgment on those who ARE working mothers, and in fact I appreciate their decision at least in part for the fact that it's currently keeping me in a job.  But I've worked in daycares off and on for my whole life.  They can be really wonderful environments for a child, but that's just not how I want my child raised.  We're lucky enough that Colby's job could support a family independently, so it is my hope that I can be home with our children.

But are we seeing how the time lines are starting to get a little mangled at this point?  If I finish school and start teaching in the fall of 2011, that's right around the time that I'm starting to think I may want to get pregnant.  And so I sit here wondering, have I just thrown away all of this money on my education?  Is it the right thing to continue spending thousands of dollars on a Masters degree that, it is beginning to look highly likely at this point, I'll never get to use?

I honestly don't know what to do.  There's a big part of me that feels completely disappointed in myself.  Why did I wait so long to pursue my teaching dreams?  Why can't I be a more modern gal and be okay with the idea of working and raising a family?  If I don't stay in school, what the hell am I going to do with myself for the next few years until I actually manufacture a child?  Am I just being a giant quitter?  I have no idea.

I've got just over three months to figure this out, and if the speed at which the past three months have flown by is any indication, that is no time at all.  Maybe it's time to pull out that Magic 8 Ball?

Home Sweet Home Times Three

It's starting to become very confusing when, in conversation, Colby or I allude to the place of "home".  Responses generally go something like "Which home?", "Louisiana?", "You mean in Washington or South Carolina?" etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.  As we are learning, home is where the heart is and also where the majority of your stuff resides.

After three days spent touring approximately thirty homes just outside of Charleston, we were able to find a great house that will pretty perfectly fit our needs and has just enough room for improvement that we may be able to actually recoup our money and then some when it comes time to sell.  I'm loathe to place too much hope upon that thought, but let's just say that the prospects for the South Carolina house are much better than the Washington house.

I wanted to use the idea suggested by a couple of you and sort of "live blog" the house hunting experience, but we had very spotty internet at the friend's house where we were staying, and honestly, by the end of the days we were so worn down from crunching numbers and imagining furniture placement and thinking about mortgage payments that I just couldn't bring myself to write about the process.

I could go on and on about how stressful the experience was, but honestly anyone who has been through it will know the toll that house hunting takes on your entire being, so instead, let's just get to the good part:  the house!  The new place has about 300 more square feet than our current house, the yard is substantially larger, we have a great pond view, and the neighborhood is my favorite of the entire town.  It's an interesting twist on a neighborhood in that it's more of a living community--restaurants, shops, a grocery store, a gas station, pre-K through middle school, a pool, a gym, doctors offices and more are all located within the neighborhood, mere minutes from our house.  Coming from a neighborhood where it takes at least fifteen minutes to get pretty much anywhere, this is absolutely miraculous to me.

On top of that, we're about 15 minutes from the gorgeous Isle of Palms beach and 20 minutes from downtown Charleston--that's driveway to parking lot.  And oh, how I LOVE Charleston!  It feels so much like New Orleans, but with a slightly less gritty and substantially less abandoned feel.  The architecture is beautiful, the live oaks are plentiful, the sweetgrass sways in the breeze, and you can't swing a cat without hitting a charming little shop.  I cannot wait to call it home for a few years!

And now, for optimum stalking ability, here are some photos of our soon-to-be home (as always, just click to enbiggen!):

 

I love the brick in the entry of the house and would love to find a way to face the steps in brick as well.  There's also a great screen porch in the back and we're thinking of switching the steps to the other side and adding a patio where the dead hydrangeas are now.

Two story foyer with the formal living and dining rooms to the right when you're walking in and the powder room, garage, and laundry room off of a hallway to the left.  I LOVE this entryway and can't wait to see it with some color on the walls.

The living room is currently set up as a bar and right next to it is the formal dining room.  We're talking about keeping the living room as a more informal sitting area with a hutch, maybe a tall bistro table and of course, some paint on the walls.  We love the burgundy in the living room as well as the wainscoting, so probably won't change too much except for the 80's-ish brass chandelier.

As you continue through the foyer, you end up with the kitchen on your right and the open great room on the left.  I've got big ideas for the kitchen, including a warm goldenrod yellow on the walls, Silestone counter tops and a tiled back splash.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms and two baths.  This is a photo of the master taken from a sort of sitting-alcove.  We'll have the other bedrooms set up as a dedicated guestroom, an office, and then a sort of miscellaneous craftroom/excercise/bonus room that can be used as a second guestroom.

And finally, the screened-in porch with pond view.  We spent some time sitting on the porch the evening of the house inspection, and watched as a grey heron swooped his way around the pond.  It really started to feel like home in that moment.

We still have a long road ahead of us before we're there, but I can't wait to make another part of the country "home".