My · Life · According · To · Jeanne

After all of the hardships of a seemingly wasted summer (teachers only work 10 months my ass) it appears as if we have found a house and will be moving in early August.

I think I was too upset in the past to write about the other houses/options available to us. If we weren't looking at houses in bad neighborhoods, they were either trailers or, trailers in bad neighborhoods. Not to mention the several that were grossly overpriced. And the handful of houses that by the time we got out there was already under contract. One even had asbestos!!! Earlier in the Summer we settled for a house in Hammond, but after putting in an offer, the real estate agent (who was also the owner) counter-offered $4,000 more than ASKING price...it was ridiculous, and at that point I was ready to give up this whole pipe dream of home ownership. And really I did. I shifted my interests in other fields (planning the wedding and setting up my classroom) and stopped looking through the various sites. Our agent still sent us houses, but now if we didn't like what we saw we didn't even bother going to look. Well...

Our house was put on the market this past Monday along with another that honestly we thought we liked more. We went to check both out on Tuesday and instantly fell in love with our second choice. We put in an offer that day. After some mild renegotiation our offer was accepted. I still wouldn't allow myself to jinx the seemingly good find nor get my hopes up. Well, yesterday was our inspection and all is well (excluding a few minor things). This is especially amazing considering our luck and the fact the house is 47 years old. I am now excited and will be getting things ready to move, I plan on packing a few things today. We just have to wait and see what or how the current owners will remedy the problems, and then we are ready. The current owner is a school teacher, so we are trying to rush the closing. If all works out we should be in the house at the tail end of the first week of August.

Oh I forgot to mention, we will be living across the street and 2 houses over from everyone's favorite parents-to-be, Josh and Amber. This is just the icing on the cake.

If you're interested, here is the link to see the slide show of the house...Ha Ha Ha their real estate agent went through all of the trouble to set this up (to music no less) and it was taken off the market less than 2 days later. I'm sure the current owners are laughing harder than me. You may have to just cut and paste the link into your address bar (I'm not fully computer savvy)

www.realestateshows.com/show.php?id=187913&code=ff5e1450&mls=basic

Mic and I put in an offer on a house yesterday. We asked for $70 a square foot rounded off (108,000) instead of $76 ($115,000). We also asked for the usual owner pays closing costs and a 1 year warranty.

We were counter offered $119,000...more than asking price...REALLY?!?!?!

This house has been on the market for 6 months (with likely inspection flaws...it's 40 years old). At that price range in this area you're lucky if they last 2 weeks. This woman has done and lost her mind.

Needless to say we did not accept and are moving right along.

This Saturday Mic and I had an appointment to see a house. My real estate agent called as we were driving down the road to meet her. As we accidentally passed it, she informed us that it was put under contract that morning. This scenario has happened to us so many times now that I have lost count.

The worse one, was this PRECIOUS house on Church Street in Hammond. The day before our appointment to see it (I had already been inside and fallen in love, but Mic needed a tour before we made the inevitable decision to buy it.) it was put under contract. This was on Monday. On Wednesday while looking at other crap-tastic homes (the last one had asbestos siding...I'm NOT kidding) my Real Estate Agent hesitantly informs me that the house on Church may go back on the market. Since then I cannot get that house out of my head. I'm imagining the landscaping I'd do, where furniture would go, what room would be the nursery. It has become an obsession.

I am asking all who read this to keep us in your prayers and/or thoughts and hope along with me that the current contract falls through...I really want that house.

Mic and I have been house hunting all week...what a wonderful way to lower your self esteem/worth/human element!

There have been so many that have been swiped before we could even get our ducks in a row and there are some great houses that are NOT in our price range which is VERY depressing because we're not asking for mansions here.

Most of the ones that are within our price range are roach motels/in the ghetto/funky/too small to fart in/trailers (really?!?!)/or all of the above...this bites.

We found a developing neighborhood that we can afford and now all of our ducks SEEM to be in a row so hopefully we'll get the house of our dreams...keep us in your prayers

So...today was officially the end of this very challenging, border-line horrific school year.

I must say I am so relieved.

The fights with certain co-workers, the man-handling from students at times, the massive loads of paperwork (if they weren't official documents I could wallpaper ALL of your homes), the absolute stress that came with virtually every day, the overload of workshops I seemingly got NO credit for (evidenced by the fact I had to go to an "Oh so inspirational" 6 hour workshop on School shootings and suicide...I considered it Detention for Teachers)...ANYWAY...its all behind me and I have a bright year ahead of me to look forward to.

Though it is a temporary position I'm considering taking the opportunity to go back to school for my Early Childhood certification. We're looking for a house, and I am finally going to book a location and/or buy my wedding dress by July'ish. This means we'll actually have a set date...I figured this way I will be force to just go through the plans regardless of if I don't get to do or have everything I want. Is it considered bad etiquette to just call everyone about when and where to show up?

I must say though that I am VERY shocked...I am surprised to say that I miss some of the students. I was inundated with parental requests of ridiculous shit they could have asked for before...Oh I don't know....the last minute of the last day??? (quite literally the last minute) and I didn't get a real chance to properly say good-bye. I may organize a gathering to do so properly.

I am doing laundry and to be VERY honest I let it get BAD.

Mic has enough dirty clothes that I picked up from his room to last an entire season or two without wearing the same thing twice. And there are 2 nice sized piles of clean clothes he needs to pick up.

I had clean clothes in my room that I never bothered picking up fully that could have possibly reached the ceiling...bad I know, but still not as bad as Mic's pile.

There were also my dirty clothes on the floor.

In total I have 4 LARGE tubs of dirty laundry, 3 small ones...some are past the point of overflowing...not to mention the ones that are in or have just been taken out of the wash.

I need to remember this when I complain I don't have enough things to wear...by the way you should see the cute outfit I bought yesterday. :)

I got a job!!! The phone call came in a little over an hour ago...which is on the last minute of the countdown; we were told that all calls for offered positions would have been made by the end of today. You may say that was hectic, but really I had pushed aside any hope of getting a phone call this early...and I had that theory by the time I was sitting through my 7th 15 minute interview. I was really anticipating getting an offer a few days before school, much like how I got my current job. Also, considering the fact that I was offered 2 others jobs days after school had started only solidified the notion that I would have to grit my teeth until August.

I will be teaching 4th grade...REGULAR ED no less!!!! at Mandeville Middle (the school I was hoping to get). The only problem is, this too is a temporary position. Meaning this time next year I will be anticipating a phone call AGAIN.

To make lemonade from lemons, I decided this time around that I will go back to school and get certified in Pre-K. I felt that if I would have done so this year when I was supposed to be taking classes for certification in Special Ed. it would have been frowned upon...not to mention I have no idea HOW I would have been able to pull off college courses on top of all the HOOP-LA this year came with. I was driven to make this decision by these 3 facts.

1.) The 2 years I taught Pre-K were the happiest years I have had in the field.

2.) I can only assume that "Pre-K teacher" is written on my forehead. I cannot go through a Job/Transfer Fair without the interviewers who have Pre-K positions open asking, "Are you certified in Pre-K?!?!"..."Are you sure you're not certified in Pre-K????" (with quite the disappointed look on their face if I do say so). This has also been told to me by employers. I figured next time I can say..."Yes!!!" Though I will want to say, "You bet your sweet ass I do!!!"

3.) Aside from Special Ed positions, no other positions are more readily available than Pre-K and Kindergarten...though I should ask myself why. A few years back when I went to Job Fair, EVERYONE with Special Ed. certification was guaranteed a job. This is because there were more open positions than applicants. In reference to Transfer Fair (the creme-de-la-creme of the Fairs) the same can be said to those individuals with certification in Early Education. And I have 2 years experience to boot!!! Not to mention that Pre-K teacher look about me.

In other good news that this job offer has afforded me. Before I started typing this message I got off the phone with a Real Estate Agent!!! We didn't want to get a house because the market was so wrong for us at the time and because the instability of work for this coming school year. I'm going all in and we will soon start looking at homes, which to say the least is VERY exciting!!!

I LOVE it when everything seems to fall into place!!!

I contemplated not saying anything, but I'm frustrated, so maybe this will help.

Yesterday was Transfer Fair, and seemingly it was a crock of shit.

First of all, No Child Left Behind, once again has SCREWED me over. Initially when I went to Job Fair a few years back I found out that though I went to college, and received my certification to teach grades 1st - 8th I am only Highly Qualified to teach 1st - 5th. Really it wasn't a big deal, I wasn't interested in teaching any grades higher than that...it just seemed like I had wasted a lot of time and money. Yesterday I found out that I needed to pass Praxis code number 0014 to be Highly Qualified to teach 1st - 5th. I have passed Praxis code number 0012, and 0013...and about 4 others...none the less I do not have the ONE specific code mentioned. Making me INELIGIBLE to teach at all. What infuriates me is that if I was made aware that I needed this test a few months ago I could have taken the damn thing and would have been A.O.K. In means of graduating college and receiving my certification, I did my part. I feel the school board could have put forth the effort to inform us of what I can only assume are changes made to the guidelines.

Second of all I found out that there are teachers that can look for a better option without putting their job on the line. Needless to say, for multiple reasons I don't feel that is fair.

I also found out that Title One funds were cut. SO not only were some positions given out to the choice of teachers that lost their position (which is COMPLETELY fair and for once the right thing to do) BUT it now works against you to have experience, a Masters, and a family (due to an increased drain on Insurance). This actually...works a bit in my favor, however, I do have 4 years of experience...it would be better to have 0.

Finally I found out that there are a lot of positions in which people were applying for that were already filled, and that the interviews were nothing more than a informality to some and to me and others, it was no different than dangling a steak at the nose of a starving dog to weak to move.

I had one GREAT interview with the school I hope to get a job with. I interviewed with the principal, some lady, and the parent of one of my students (a parents who luckily LIKES me)!!! I shined, and they were really impressed that I had experience in 4th grade. However, I later ran into the parent in the hall and she said something along the lines of "Keep your head up, something will happen." She had that face that told me try as she might, she could do nothing for me...I can only assume that because I don't have a Master's and/or because the positions were already filled there was nothing ANYONE could have done for me. There were many of the 12 interviews that I went to that had that same face, if not blatant unconcern with who I was and what I had to say.

I will say this. I am a GREAT teacher. There are very few things that I can say I am good at, but this is one. I have the option to go to Job Fair pending I do not hear from the assistant superintendent of the Parish by the 28th which means I did NOT get a job. Job Fair can be compared to 3 days of herding animals; a further waste of time. I have some thinking to do now because I doubt I can go through the rejection again. I may go and look towards a different field entirely. If I do so, it will be the loss of the schools, not my own.