Annual Update

I keep saying blogging is going to become a part of my life... but obviously that hasn't happened yet. The last update to this blog was not quite a year ago, at the end of September 2008. A LOT has happened since then. Basically...

• Andrew applied and was accepted to Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University for a Masters of Theological Studies, starting in Fall 2009... more on that later.
• I finished out another great year at my middle school choir directing job - and decided to make a move to a new position for 2009-2010... more on that later too!
• We continued to work our financial plan with great success - allowing us to save upwards of $500 out of each of my monthly paychecks, as well as 90% (post church giving) of Andrew's paychecks from his work at The Handsome Hound.
• Andrew received $21,000 in scholarship money from SMU and the United Methodist Church, which when combined with our savings, allows us to pay for his education in cash. No loans!!!
• My new job is what I in some ways consider to be missionary work: two schools in the district have very small choir programs - so small that there is one director spilt between these two schools: three daily classes at a middle school and three daily classes at a 9th-10th grade only high school. I am the lucky teacher split between the two schools. This is a position that I essentially volunteered for, and so far so good.
• Andrew quit his job at Handsome Hound just before he had to go back to school, so at the moment he's not working outside of school, which is probably a very good thing - school is pretty intense so far.
• On the home-sale front - the original listing of our home expired near the end of May. We then spent a month or so looking for a new realtor and preparing to try again in a summer market. We found a new realtor and were waiting to list the house on July 1st, based on the fact that stats about the listing's Days On The Market would reset after 30 days off the market. On July 1st, before actually listing the house, we got an offer, countered, and our counter was accepted. To make a very long, stressful, and semi-expensive story short - the month of July basically consisted of home repairs, cleaning, packing, and of course moving.
• In the midst of that process in July, I took a three-week Kodaly course at the University of North Texas in Denton.
• Also, Andrew's grandmother's illness progressed and she elected to stop dialysis. She passed on July 28th and we traveled to Joplin Missouri to pay our respects. This was also the week that we moved to our apartment.
• Thankfully my parents came down to assist with the packing, moving, cleaning and closing process - we truly could not have done it without them and were happy to have them here at that time.

That's most of our recent history. I'll try to post again sometime soon to give a glimpse of our present and what we know of our future. Promise!