Super-long catch-up-on-my-life post…

Whew! Where do I start? There are several topics to cover here, so I’ll just divide them into sections.

House
Sheldon and I recently moved into our new house last week. Yay! After battling with a title company for five days to get stuff done they should have had done several weeks prior to closing, we finally got the keys to our home on August 22 at 4:30 p.m. The original closing date was set for August 17, which is the day we had to move from our old house.

Luckily, we have great friends that opened their houses to us. We weren’t homeless for five days – that was a blessing. During the first two of the five days, we had our stuff still in the old house with plastic over it because painters were re-painting the entire house. Our dogs were at a friend’s house, and our poor cat was at the old house wondering why we had abandoned her. By the third day, we were able to move our stuff into a moving truck and park it in front of our new house. We had expected to move in the following day; however, the title company didn’t get their information straight yet again. So, our stuff sat in front of our new house for two days.

The afternoon of Wednesday, August 22, the title company received several very mean phone calls from my realtor, the seller’s agent, my husband, me and my “attorney.” Forty-five minutes after my “attorney” called, we had the keys in our hand. Heehee! “Attorney” = brother-in-law who is a partner in a real estate company. He’s talented in professional BS.

After an exhausting weekend, we have about half of our stuff organized. Boxes still litter the living room and kitchen, but we’re making progress. I love our house! I can’t wait to get everything in its place. Until then, Tigger will have fun scampering through all the newspaper and boxes scattered on the floor.

Baby
We were almost 10 weeks pregnant when I miscarried on August 10. I had to have a D & C on the same day that I found out we lost the baby. The surgery went well and I recovered pretty quickly. I’m lucky to have a great doctor.

The most frustrating part of the whole thing is that no one can tell me what went wrong. My blood work was fine and all the other tests the hospital did came back as normal. The doctor told us that there was nothing we could have done to change anything and that the baby was probably not developing correctly.

Sheldon and I have finally come to terms with it. We’re told we will be clear to start trying again in three months if we want to. We’ve had many conversations about when to start trying again. First Sheldon wanted to wait about a year because he wasn’t sure how I was handling it. After assuring him I was fine and I’d like to try again as soon as we could, we decided to start in exactly three months. Then after several conversations on the long drive to San Angelo this weekend to pick up our new refrigerator, we decided we’ll let nature take its course. No ovulation tracking or obsessing over getting pregnant. When it happens, it happens.

I’ll be less likely to freak out if it doesn’t happen on the first month again and I won’t stress about it so much. To comfort myself I have to believe that the miscarriage occurred for a reason. I don’t know that reason, and I may never know it, but I know that God is taking care of us.

One odd comment to add – the night that I knew I was probably miscarrying, Sheldon and I watched Bruce Almighty on TV. It’s a goofy movie, but it has a good point. It might seem like God is picking on you, but we don’t see the big picture like God does. I know he’s always taking care of us even though it doesn’t feel like it at times.

Career
It’s been crazy as usual at work. The more I dive into my work, the more I want out of this line of work. It’s all politics and paperwork. So, I decided to go through an Alternative Teaching program at a local community college.

Teaching has been in the back of my mind since sixth grade. I even majored in the elementary teaching for two years in college. Somehow I would always talk myself out of it. But after working for the government for so many years, I’m ready for something more creative and fun.

I have to take one class this fall and I can start looking for jobs in the spring. I’m nervous and excited. I currently teach 2-year-olds in Sunday school and they’re a handful. I was a TA for my sister’s fifth grade class and I taught sixth grade AWANAS one year. Each time I’ve had an opportunity to teach I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it’ll be fun to have my own classroom. Plus the big bonus of having summer off!

That’s about it for now. Hopefully my life has settled down a little bit and I’ll have more time to write blogs!