Home Maintenance

 We spent a week painting the largest room in our house--- baseboards, walls, doors and crown molding. WHAT A JOB! Every time I start to paint, I remember how much I hated it the last time!  After a week of painting and touch-up, we tackled the outside of the house--- siding and patio. We're getting used to this home owner thing!

We cleaned all of our siding!

We pressure washed all the siding... and then decided to try it on the blackened patio! Voila! It's like new!

Dad's Birthday

Back in June, we had a 60th birthday party for my dad. We started planning in March and wanted it to be a surprise. We were sneaky about getting invitations passed out and everyone notified, had a game plan to get him there, etc.....    My brother lives out west and my sister on a 6-week travel adventure for work and they had both arranged to be here without my dad knowing.....and two days before the party, a ding-dong that he works with actually came up and told him, "Hey...I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to make it to your surprise birthday party on Saturday." Yes, he actually used the word SURPRISE! Well, this may not have been a surprise, but at least the fact that my brother and sister came in for his birthday was. They surprised him the night before. 

The party was a lot of fun! We had a 1950s theme with diner food, records, trivia, correct era candy, and 1950s music playing throughout the whole party.

 Here are some of the pictures:

We found out during the party that my dad had never even had a

birthday party as a kid, so this was his FIRST birthday party ever.

Gatlinburg

Cameron and I took our first road trip together this summer. A bunch of my family gets a huge cabin in Tennessee and we spend an extended weekend together.

Leaving at 6AM

Car is packed!

Cam's first trip to Waffle House

Great Aspirations

Kart playing with arcade prizes! haha

I have a bar and grill in TN

Gotta love Santa

Driving through Cade's Cove

A walk in downtown Gatlinburg

He's short compared to this guy!

Top of the sky lift

Going back down

His reaction to the smell at the Moonshine Distillery

HillBilly Golf

Heading home

Our View

Things we learned on this trip:
We can survive a road trip together---no fights!
Sweet Tea is awful in the south--- even McD's tasted bad!
Cam LOVES Waffle House, and realized that eggs aren't as bad as he thought
Moonshine is HORRIBLE! (Not sure why we even tried it?!?!)
Ghost Chili Peppers make you feel like your mouth is exploding, but ice cream cures it.....
For some reason, the gift shops in Pigeon Forge are identical to those in Florida's panhandle---complete with shark mouth entrances?!?

No job....

The reality of not having a job lately is really starting to sink in.....and bother me. I've been out of school a year and a half and have applied and interviewed with still no full-time job yet. I am so grateful for the maternity leaves that I've been privileged to have, but my spirits are starting to get dampered. Besides the fact that we have a mortgage to pay, hospital/doctor bills needing paid, two cars that aren't going to last forever, maintenance fees around the house, and how many other bills that come in each month.... we are wanting to start a family in the near future, but are putting it off until I get a full time job.

The word 'depression' actually came out of my mouth the other day to describe the situation. I had never really thought about it, let alone 'admitted to it', but when a friend and I were talking about neither of us having teaching jobs and feeling the pressure of life weighing down on us, as well as a time crunch..... it actually clicked in my head that I currently hide from people so that I don't have to answer questions about my job status...... Do I think I am clinically depressed?? No...   Do I think I need therapy or medicine??? absolutely not.... but do I think my emotional state is crazier than it should be??? definitely!

If you follow me on Facebook, then you might have read my rather lengthy and much-commented on status about wishing people understood the impact of being asked constantly if I have a teaching job yet.... and its connection to the impact of infertility for some couples....  It got rather complicated....... but I think I made some great points....

Anyway.... Most people have no idea what it's like to know since you were 7 years old that you wanted to be a teacher....and to now be 23 and basically getting told that that might never happen. I hate being asked so badly that I dread trips to the grocery store, gas station or pizza place, and moving back home to an even smaller town has made it much worse. I honestly postpone trips and wait as long as I can before I have to go somewhere in this town just so that I might be able to avoid the question and answer process....and speaking of avoid--- yes, sometimes I even avoid people that I know in a store because I don't want to go through it all.... It has nothing to do with the person, I just don't want to have to put up with the conversation.....

People who aren't in this situation probably have no idea why it's such a blow to my spirits...well, every time I have to say "no, still no job yet" or "well, I'm teaching a maternity leave this fall, but don't have anything lined up after that yet" or "no, no babies yet. I need a full-time job first"....my heart breaks just a little bit more. As the aforementioned friend added in our conversation, you feel like the other person in the conversation assumes that you aren't 'good enough' to get hired, and after this long,  I can't help but wonder if that might be a little bit true......with each...time... I'm....asked.

The idea of going back to school has popped into my head more than once, trust me, but on top of not being able to afford it right now, I can't seem to come up with what major I would want. I even went to the university's website and scrolled through the list of degrees and majors and couldn't find a single one that interested me, not a single one. I don't want a desk job, an office job, a business job, a marketing job, a cooking job, a teller job...the list could go on and on... I want a job where I get to influence the lives of children every day. When I decided to be a teacher, I knew it was a lifestyle for me. I won't go into detail, but I try to live a life that would be an inspiration for young children. It is my life. A simple trip to the store involves seeing something on the shelf that I realize would be a great manipulative for students, or an exciting addition for a lesson.... teaching is my life.

Couch For Sale!

We have this couch that is in EXCELLENT CONDITION....... we just don't have any room in our house for it (trust me... we just spent an HOUR trying to get it to fit into our spare room--- trying everything short of cutting a hole in the wall... and it just doesn't fit!).... We are asking $40 but it must be picked up in Loogootee. It folds out and includes the mattress. The upholstery in in great condition and all the wood is great! This would be a great buy for a basement, college apartment, man cave, garage, or even your living room if it matches :)   PLEASE get this out of our house---- we don't have room for it!