I tried to do a blog last fall but never really figured it out. So, I am trying again.
So much has happened this year!! Late last December, Chris and I went to Hawaii where we spent a wonderful but somewhat eventful week. During the time that we were there, besides doing all the neat touristy things and actually seeing whales jumping out of the ocean from our hotel room, we managed to have a car accident, a boogie boarding accident (resulting in a severe contusion of my shoulder, resulting in 2 months of physical therapy!!), and a child meltdown, necessitating us coming home 5 days early so that we could be proper parents.
After we got home, basically, I prepared the house to put on the market, in antipation of our upcoming move to Manhattan. We were in for some sad surprises in terms of the market having downturned significantly. In any cases, between physical therapy, being Relief Society President, and getting the house ready, life was quite busy. Among other things, Valerie got her driver's license and bought my Volkswagen Passat from me.
After 39 days we had a serious offer on our house. The short story is that we ended up taken a large financial hit on the house prior to closing due to a very questionable and ridiculous appraisal issue, but we have to move on from there. During the month of March, Chris and I also went to NYC to look for an apartment. That was a very intense 10 days!!!!! We finally found a beautiful place on Roosevelt Island, which is one subway stop off the main part of Manhattan. Anyone wanting to see where we are going to be living can see our complex at octagonnyc.com While in NYC I interviewed for a job at the Stephen Gaynor School, a private elementary school serving learning disabled children. It was a very positive and wonderful experience and I was asked to return in a few weeks to interview again.
On the way home from the trip, we picked up Chris's brother Greg and his family in anticipation of a family gathering at Williamsburg for the next several days. My sister Diane and her daughter, Kimberley came into town, also. Chris had to go to Baltimore that week and the kids (Jonathan and Valerie) were both working and could not get away, so I went as the representative of our family. Mom was there as well as Debbie and her family. We really had a very wonderful time and were able to wrap up the week at the Washington DC temple doing temple work for and in behalf of Grandmother Shearer. It was a beautiful, wonderful experience. During the reunion, an offer was made by our former stake president for Jonathan to go on a mission but Jonathan declined the offer. He has a new girlfriend now, Lauren, who has been meeting with the missionaries for the past few weeks and seems quite interested in the church.
On the way out of town to travel to NYC to start his job, Chris found out that a dear and close friend of his (and ours) passed away after a terrible bout with cancer. So, he ended up turning around and staying so that he could speak at Bill Well's funeral. It was probably the best, most moving funeral I have ever been to. We miss Bill but are so glad his suffering is now over. After the funeral, Chris left for NYC and I had the family over to the house for dinner. I was told to expect 16 but ended up with 28. In my usual fashion, I had prepared too much food but it worked out just right.
I went up to NYC later that week to interview again with the Stephen Gaynor School and also another private school, York Prep, which is "learning disabled" friendly and a high school. Once again, two extremely positive experiences. I left both interviews with a promise from each to call with an offer early the next week. Those calls never came, nor did any explanation come. This has been a difficult experience for me. I have not had to interview much for jobs before and have almost always gotten whatever job I interviewed for when I really wanted it.
Upon arriving home, I continued to prep everything for the move, sorting items for Valerie, Jonathan, storage, and Manhattan. Jonathan and Valerie also started moving their stuff out to a storage basement with our back door neighbor. We went through a bit of a challenge with the government changing its mind back and forth about what they would and would not do for the move up until just a few days prior to our move. That finally got straighted out after much discussion, being upset, and losing a lot of sleep. The packers came on April 19 and 20th and we actually moved out of the house on the 24th. Chris had to go to Phoenix on the 24th so he missed the actual move. We had a good set of packers and movers and it was generally a positive experience. One of the packers broke a monkey that Chris hates so he was quite happy with the move.
The Sunday before the movers came to move our stuff, we had a flood in our basement. Valerie had broken the toilet the night before, but was afraid to come tell us and so made a variety of calls to Jonathan, etc to try to figure out how to turn off the water in the basement bathroom. After 15 minutes of frantically trying to figure things out, she finally figured it out but not before $1700+ worth of damage had been done. Thanks to a fast response from a plumber and water restoration specialist, we were actually able to close on the house with dry carpet just 3 days later.
We closed on the house on April 26th after I spent 18 hours cleaning the house. Any of you who know what our house usually looks like may find that amazing, but it is crazy how much dust and stuff can accumulate in the cracks, crevices, and cabinets of a 5200 square foot house. When I vacuumed the garage out, I knew it was time to stop because I had seriously crossed a line that was supposed to have delineated sanity from insanity.
The next few days, I hardly knew what to do with myself with no house and no yard to deal with. So, I visited a lot with friends and started back on my scrapbooking stuff.
Last week, my sister Sherry came up from Texas to visit Diane (my other sister who is in Virginia as a visiting nurse for 13 weeks) and me. We had a great time just roaming around old Alexandria and visiting our old neighborhood together and our old church, Plymouth Haven Baptist church. The next day we did some more running around and then drove down to Fredericksburg to see it and pick up Chris who was coming home from a 2 week trip to Phoenix. After a nice dinner together they went back to Alexandria and Chris and I spent the weekend with the kids before leaving for NYC on Sunday, the 7th of May.
Yesterday, I had a job interview with The Child School, and LD school on Roosevelt Island near our apartment. It was again, a very positive interview, and I left with a promise that I would called today with a salary offer. It is 3 p.m. and I have not yet heard anything, so I am hoping they were just caught up with school today and will get to it soon. I'll let everyone know as soon as I can.
This has been a very, very challenging year for me personally with the intensely painful injury, the move, the leaving of the kids, the challenges some of the other kids have had to face and deal with, and the prospect of leaving that which is familiar and dear to me (my friends!!). I have been trying not to become catatonically depressed at times, but sometimes I do get quite discouraged. I know that these job interview promises to call and offer a job and then they don't, are not really personal, but it feels personal and it feels awful to be waiting and wondering what happened. I am trying to have a positive attitude but am not always very successful. I know there is a plan here but I wish a little more of its purpose would unfold so I can know what I am doing!!!
Be back later to let you know what happened with this latest job interview promise.........
