New House!

So John and I have been talking about buying a house for a long time and we finally did it! We decided to take advantage of the housing market and go for it. We also had a realtor come out and look at our current condo and since the housing market just isn't where it needs to be, we will also be keeping the condo for awhile. We will be tight, but we will manage.



The house is a 4 bdrm, 2.5 bath 2800 sq. foot home. It has never been lived in and was a model home, so it has everyting we could want for an upgrade. My commute will go from 3 hours/day to less than an hour. Unfortunely, John's increases a little bit, but he will be traveling a lot and has the luxury to work from home.



We close on 4/15/09, so the next few weeks are going to fly by.....

March Madness

Well, the last 6 weeks or so have completely been a whirlwind. John got a promotion in late Feb and is much happier with his new boss and position. He is still working with the IRS but will now be traveling quite a bit more-- typically to D.C and Utah.

I have been crazy busy with work. Every March/April, we have to completely re-assess our students and write new educational plans for the following year. Since I changed positions for this year, this is a lot more labor intensive then it has been in the past since I have children moving on to genral edu. Kindergarten. We also implement a new computer program that was supposed to make our lives easier, but it is so full of issues, that it is basically one big headache.

Our other big news is that we will be placing our condo on the market in April. We have decided to take advantage of the crappy housing market and buy our long term house now while the prices are down. However, this also means we need to SELL in the crappy housing market. So cross your fingers for a quick sale. I have been busy trying to figure out what to pack away for the next several months. It is quite the guessing game.

We joined the gym!

Well, today, we bit the bullet and signed up for a gym membership. I am very excited to be back in the gym and working toward getting in better shape and making my clothes fit a little better. Part of my New Year's resolution was to finish what I start and this is definetly something that I have never finished. I am even more excited because the location closest to our house now has ZUMBA classes 2 nights a week. For those of you who havent heard of ZUMBA, it is basically cardio salsa/hip hop...Aka SO MUCH FUN! John seems to be looking forward to it as well, he is going to a doc to get his knee looked at so he can start running again.

Tonight, we are going to Nate and Danielles for games. As always, it should be a great time. Their baby is due in 4 weeks. I am SO excited to meet the baby.

The weather is finally starting to look up. School was cancelled on Thursday and Friday due to the extreme cold temps. That makes for a long 5 day weekend. Good, but bad that we not dont get out of school until June 3rd (3 snow days)...so far.

Winter, winter, where for art thou winter....

Well, winter is upon us and Chicago hasn't let us down. Over the past few days, we have accumulated approx. 12 inches of snow. The weather man is reporting a few more inches tomorrow. It cames at a good time since tomorrow at the preschool is "SNOW DAY" and we are playing in the snow all day, watching a movie, and drinking hot cocoa. Now...if I could only find a pair of snowpants and John some snow boots. :)

Things around our place have been pretty quiet and status quo. John began another grad class this week and he is excited about it and thinks it will be a good class. He is also volunteering on Saturdays for an organization that prepare tax returns for those who fall below the povery line. It should be a great experience.

Happy New Year!!!

Wow, it is finally 2009 and we couldn't be more excited about it. Jenna and I are glad 2008 is over and are looking forward to some exciting changes in the new year. We spent New Year's eve with some friends. We had a wonderfully relaxing evening of great food and games.

Congratulations to Cy. Today he was named the winner of the Capital One mascot challenge. Cy really is the best college mascot.

Finally, we would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009.

- John

Christmas

So, it has been a long time since we updated out blog. I guess we have been kinda busy. Last week we were in Missouri to celebrate Christmas with Jenna's family. We had a great time seeing everybody including our nieces.

While we were there we visited several wineries in the area. We drank some good wine and brought several bottles home with us. We are looking forward to the new year and would like to wish all our friends and families a happy and healthy New Year!

End of Summer Update

Well, summer if about over and it's almost time to head back to school. I have to say, I am looking forward to it. I miss the kiddos and all my fun co-workers.

My grad classes have begun and are actually about half over for the summer. It is unreal how fast summer classes go by. I really didn;t expect grad school to be so hard, but I guess that is the nature of the program. I have been busy reading chapter upon chapter and writing paper after paper. I will be glad when it is over and I will have my 8 credits to get the next pay raise. (p.s. John's class is over and he got an A)

I worked at Old Navy for a whooping 3 weeks. I couldnt take it, when I was 16, it was one thing, but now I just want to say "Fold your own dang shirt!" haha, oh well, at least I got a few extra hundred bucks.

I am also volunteering at the Anti-Crulty society. I love being able to help all the animals. Everyone should totally adobt their pets from there. Its a great cause.

In just a few weeks, work will begin on our kitchen remodel. We are excited to finally have a better arranged kitchen that will hopefully have more potential to bring in buyers when we list the house on the market. Cross your fingers!