Merry Christmas!

Friends & Family,

You may be checking out our blog because you recently got a Christmas card from us with our blog address on it. Feel free to read on but here are the top things for us in 2007:

1. We are having a baby boy! His due date is February 12, 2008. Some blogs refer to him as "Eric Edward" but this is a joke that some of our loving friends started a few posts back. His name is a secret till he gets here.

2. Continuing on with our baby boy story... he has a heart problem and a limb problem. You'll read multiple posts about our doctor updates. We know that he will only have eight fingers total (5 on right & 3 on left). He will probably have a surgery after birth to correct his heart problem.

3. John started a new job on November 27th at Zumbro Valley Mental Health Center in Rochester. He is their Chief Financial Officer. He no longer works every weekend at Christ Community Church.

4. Sarah started a new job in September as a 5th Grade Teacher at Bamber Valley Elementary School in Rochester. After five years in the district, she finally has her own classroom!

5. Our vacation to Cancun in August was cancelled the day we were leaving because of a hurricane. We found a last minute flight instead to Phoenix and found a timeshare resort for $25/night in Scottsdale. It was hot but a great time away anyway.

6. Our vacation to Phoenix in October was cancelled the day we were leaving because of flight delays. It worked out for the best because John got to interview with the Board at Zumbro Valley on the Friday that he would have been in Arizona so who knows if he would have gotten the job if we had gone.

7. John's sister Julie had a baby girl in August. Her name is Nevaeh Marie Carlson so we got to see her during our August Arizona trip.

We look forward to seeing you in 2008.

John & Sarah Carlson

Today's Mayo Appointments

Sarah's pregnancy is now at 32 weeks -- only 8 more to go (if he comes exactly on time)! We met with a neonatologist today who answered procedural questions about how our baby's birth will go at Methodist Hospital and the transition to Saint Mary's Hospital by ambulance. We also met with our pediatric cardiologist to take another look at his heart. Today's report is more of the same -- the right ventricle is enlarged and the left ventricle is a bit small. The aorta is a little small which is suggestive of coarcation of the aorta. If this is indeed the diagnosis, the prognosis may not be too bad. A surgery can help correct this about two to three days after birth by entering just underneath the armpit. This surgery would also not require a bypass machine meaning there would be less risks during surgery. A total hospital stay might only be upwards of 11 days if things went well. However, if this is not the correct diagnosis, there may be more serious problems that might not come with good results.

Next Monday (Christmas Eve day), we will have an eighth ultrasound to take a look at the rest of the baby's development and to tour the birthing center at Methodist Hospital. Our friend Lori Neu is a labor and delivery nurse there so we are hoping that we will run into her on her shift.

Blazer our Cat

We are now officially crazy lonely cat people. Our cat is getting a couple of pictures on our blog because we think he is so cute! Next year we'll be adding our child's pictures so this is the last chance to show off our animal...

Latest Visit at Mayo

We had an OB appointment at Mayo yesterday. It went well; there is no more good news and no more bad news to report. Everything is stable and the baby is growing. The baby was waving all eight fingers at us and making fists during the ultrasound (read other posts below if you are confused why I said all eight fingers.)

We were able to kind of read through some notes in Sarah's electronic medical records. The cardiologist has written notes to the neonatologists about instructions following birth. They involve putting an umbilical IV in and administering a drug that will keep things stable until the baby gets to the NICU for tests.

We have appointments coming up on December 2nd, 17th and 24th. Sarah needs her glucose test and a blood test. We also have appointments with neonatology, cardiology, obstetrics, pediatrics, genetics, and finally a birthing area tour.

Job Change for John

It was told to me at church tonight by a blog reader that I hadn't posted anything about my upcoming job change!

On October 28th I gave Christ Community Church a four-week notice because I accepted a job as Chief Financial Officer at Zumbro Valley Mental Health Center in Rochester. This coming Monday (26th) is my last day at CCC and Tuesday (27th) is my first day at Zumbro.

I am looking forward to having a more "normal" work schedule that is Monday through Friday. Working at the church has definitely been a good experience for me but with the baby on the way we decided that it was in our best interest for me to have a job that wasn't seven days a week with mandatory weekends.

Ironically, I will be helping CCC through their transition by working part-time at an hourly rate for them on the weekends checking in on finances and HR stuff until they have found a replacement. I am expecting this to go on into January as this time of year brings a lot of year-end accounting work.

Baby Update

Today we were seen by another cardiologist at Mayo Clinic. There is not any new bad news nor good news to report. Our baby boy has something wrong with his heart and it is still stumping the doctors. The opinion today from cardiology is to wait four more weeks and look again. They (cardiology) would like to see him stay in the womb as long as possible and would prefer to do any necessary surgeries after he is born. We have our next OB appointment (with ultrasound) on Monday to look more at the overall growth and the left hand.

We are in the middle of taking our childbirth series classes at Olmsted Medical Center Hospital even though Sarah will give birth at Methodist Hospital and then the baby will likely be transferred to Saint Mary's Hospital.

Bella

I wanted to take a minute to tell you all that Bella is a great movie! It's not playing in every theater, and The Chateau in Rochester is the only one playing it, but only for a limited time. It was only supposed to play through yesterday, but I just checked out their website and they currently have it scheduled for another week. Anyhow, this movie is a great film with an excellent message. Apparently the people behind making it are involved in a grassroots effort to promote good cinema. I really don't know much about the background, but I do know the theater was packed, and it was excellent! If you have some time and it's playing nearby, I highly recommend it. :)

Sarah's Favorite Things...

I've been thinking that I want to share my favorite things, so here goes. Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens... :)

• I love singing and being a part of the worship team at church. I was able to do that this weekend again, and it was such a joy! It was a choir weekend, which is even more spectacular and fun, and I just kept thinking that it felt like worship the way it was meant to be-- a total PARTY!
• I love my cat. This has come as such an unexpected surprise. I never cared that much for animals, but getting Blazer has been so entertaining, and he really is a sweetie!
• I love Sunday afternoon naps! John and I will often fall asleep on Sunday afternoons with the football game on, and there just is nothing more relaxing and comforting. (We did get a short one in this past Sunday- yeah!)
• I love reading! Students in my class will occassionally be rewarded with "Read and Relax" times. It's kind of a sneaky way to get kids to read and be excited about it, but it is so fun. I've planned one for tomorrow. I tell them the key word of the day is "Read," but to feel free to bring a pillow, blanket, slippers, snack, and/or beverage to help them relax. They really get excited about it- and it's not even a true "party." They just come and read for a straight 45 min. to an hour! It's fabulous. As an aside, my favorite way to read is of course on a beach or curled up by the fireplace on a snowy day.
• I love laughing! John and I totally got the giggles tonight while at our birthing class. It was completely embarrassing because it was while we were supposed to be quiet and practicing breathing, but just when one of us would calm down the other would start up again. I was crying I was laughing so hard!
• I love Thanksgiving! It is one of my favorite holidays- all of the food and family time is fabulous. Plus my birthday is always nearby, which is an added bonus. This year it is on Friday, and I get a real kick out of telling my students that we get that day off especially for me. I tell them that I arrange it every year with the Superintendent. It's pretty funny because they're not quite sure what to think.
• I love dates with my husband. This weekend I got 2! First, we went to a local "Ice Hawks" hockey game on Saturday night after church. We met up with the Jones' from church, and had a great time. Then on Sunday we saw the movie Bella, which I highly recommend, by the way. This Friday for my Birthday we are going to a MN Wild hockey game. I am pretty pumped about that, too. This week should be a blast.

Okay, I suppose that's enough favorite things for now! I'm sure I'll think of more later, and I can have a "Part 2" post sometime. :)

Picture of our Boy

Here is a picture of our boy!

Baby Update

Today's baby appointment raised more questions than answers and we request your continued prayers.

First, the condition with the heart... the baby's right ventricle is twice the normal size it should be. This could be a condition called premature ductal constriction which means the vessel that is used for blood bypass during pregnancy has been either cut-off or narrowed somehow. This duct normally closes within two days following birth once the baby is breathing on its own through its own lungs. It's not normal for this to happen in the womb. A follow-up appointment with the cardiologist has been scheduled for November 21st where they will be doing an echocardiogram (again). The good news here is that most parts of the heart are good -- blood flow, all the parts are there, etc. We have not been given any information about how the enlarged ventricle will affect the baby throughout the rest of the pregnancy and beyond.

Second, there appears (again) to only be three fingers on the left hand. While there is a slim chance that the other two are just "hiding", that is not as likely now that only three have been seen two times in a row. A third ultrasound with Mayo has been scheduled for November 26th.

Third, we have been advised to see a genetics counselor on December 3rd. The purpose is to trace back family history for three generations and to also start Mayo's researchers looking at a possible "why this happened" and "what should be done" for the rest of the pregnancy and following.

All in all, this has led to many more questions than answers and we believe that we will now be transferring our care from Olmsted Medical Center to Mayo Clinic since this isn't considered a "routine" pregnancy anymore.

Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement and prayers offered on our part. More are definitely needed.

The Latest

Well, I'm not really sure where to start tonight. I guess I should begin by saying that we had our ultrasound at Mayo on Friday afternoon. This baby wasn't being terribly cooperative, so now we have some areas that require further examination. Namely, his left hand and his heart. He wasn't positioned well, and he also kept wiggling around so much they couldn't tell for sure that everything is as it should be with his heart, and they never caught sight of all five fingers on his left hand, so that is a bit of a question mark as well. So, all of this to say that we've been referred to a Mayo cardiologist now, and we will be going in for another (that's 6, if you're keeping score) ultrasound to see if they can't rule some potential problems out. This, of course, was not quite what we had anticipated prior to our visit. However, we know that this is not out of God's hands or plan, so we're feeling pretty peaceful about the whole thing. Our next visit at Mayo will happen a week from Monday on 11/5. We'd appreciate any prayers for our developing little guy, as well as that he would cooperate and be positioned well for the next ultrasound. Thanks! Oh! And Ebby- there's still only ONE in there!

An unexpected weekend!

OK- so the weekend itself was expected, but how it turned out was unexpected. We had planned to be in AZ over the "MEA" weekend, but as seems standard for us now, it didn't quite work out. Our flight got delayed, which would have resulted in us missing our connection in Denver. John figured all of this out before we even left the house (but not before we packed and loaded the car). John spoke with the airline, and there was literally no way of getting there on Wednesday anymore, and we wouldn't have been able to get to AZ until about 11am Thursday. We talked it over and decided it was a bust, so we opted for a refund.

We ended up going to dinner at the Macaroni Grill (YUM!), and just spending some good quality time together. It was wonderful! We both got some work done around the house, slept in, and we even got to go up to visit my sister Kristi and her husband Chris north of the Cities on Saturday/ Sunday! What fun! By the way, for the Carlsons who read this-- we did miss you! It was just great to take advantage of some time off. Oh! And my key to the school wouldn't work this weekend, so I literally couldn't do schoolwork- fabulous! :)

In other news... we had another Dr.'s appt. this morning. It was great to hear the little guy's heartbeat. We did get referred to Mayo for a level 2 ultrasound, though, which was unexpected. Apparently because they were unable to clearly see the heart and because they noticed there is only one artery in the umbilical cord (or something like that) they want us to get a closer check on how baby looks and is developing. I don't think it's anything to worry about-- I'm thinking it's more like a precaution. As our friend Jennifer J. said- they refer us there because they CAN. ;)

We ARE having one BOY!

That's right! The verdict is in!
Today was our "last chance" ultrasound, courtesy of Maureen J. out of the goodness of her heart! I had been advised by various people to drink sugary or caffeinated drinks to get this baby moving this time around, so after school got out I ate a bag of skittles and stopped by Dunn Bros. to get a nice BIG coffee! Yum! Anyhow, Maureen put the wand down and immediately (like in a millisecond) saw the goods. Her exact words: "Oh! You ARE having a boy!" No question this time, folks! It's time to start buying blue...

Parties, Colds, and a Visitor!

OK, so I've been told that I need to post again (just for you, Ebby!). It's been a while again-- it just seems like sometimes our life is too boring to post about. Since last posting I took my students on a neat field trip to the Olmsted County Historical Society- but who really wants to hear about that?

Then I had a combined Tupperware and Tastefully Simple party at my house, which was fun and tasty- but a post?

And then, this past week I was sick with a cold. Boo hoo! :( So let me just say that having a cold when you are pregnant is no fun at all! I wasn't able to take any of my favorite cold meds, so I ended up staying home sick 2 days in a row! I suppose that's why they give teachers sick days, but it was still pretty nasty (and sub plans are downright annoying to make). The good thing about being out of my classroom, however, is that I was able to do a little test run with the sub I might use for my maternity leave. :) Oh, and my kids were awesome for the sub, so that made my day!

OK, so now-- we have a visitor staying at our house. It is our good friend Ron Ray who is here to play drums on the worship team at our church. He's just staying tonight, but we are super excited to have him. Yeah for Ron, but "boo" for not having his wife Ebby here with him! We'll be super happy to hear his amazing drumming abilities at church again, and then we are going out to Famous Dave's for some good eats! Yum- the baby's eating good tonight!

Oh! And speaking of baby... I've been feeling the little one more and more, which has been totally great. It's pretty funny because I couldn't tell whether or not I was actually feeling the baby move until John felt it and asked if that was baby. After paying a little more attention I finally figured out that I was feeling the little one. Very cool feeling to have, and I'm looking forward to some good kicks (remind me later that I was looking forward to this).

Well, that's all for now. This is getting to be a trademark-long-Sarah-post. Hope everyone is doing well!

Update: We are having ONE baby BOY

Ok, so it appears that the ultrasound two weeks ago was not conclusive. Today we heard, "you are having a boy". I am more sure today that they are correct (you wouldn't think you could call it a boy by accident). We'll be sure to pick out two names by February!

Busy buying green and yellow things for the baby,

John & Sarah

Where have I been?

Well, I just read the Ray's blog, and I was reminded that I hadn't posted in a long time again. I think that's my problem. I don't post for a week or two, so when I do I have LOTS to say- hence the enormous posts! I actually was purposely waiting this time around because I was hoping that John would post for a change. He's been so excited about the baby, but then doesn't post- silly! OK, so enough with the blabber- on with the updates!

• School's been mostly good. Being in 5th grade this year has been quite the adjustment! It seems that EVERYTHING is different! There have been some things that I love, and other things I really miss about Middle School, so I'm keeping an open mind about the whole experience.
• We get to have another ultrasound tomorrow (yeah!). Maureen, our friend from church, did the last one for us, and the baby was a little too young, so she said we should come back. It was incredible to SEE the baby! She said if she had to guess it was a girl. Hopefully we'll find out even more convincingly tomorrow.
• My favorite excuse for not having homework done so far happened last week. It went like this. Me: "Why don't you have your homework done?" Student: "Well, I don't really know why, but I've been worrying about my Birthday." Me: "Uh... Really? So, when is your Birthday?" Student: "September 17th." Me: "That's next week. Is there any reason you should be worried?" Student: "No. I don't know why I am." Me: "Hmmm... I'd suggest you worry less about your birthday, and more about getting your job done." OK- seriously?! Worried about your Birthday?! That's definitely a first. I had a hard time keeping a straight face on that one! Imagine when the kid turns 30! Ha!
• Blazer, our lovely cat, was naughty today! I bought a fresh loaf of bread last night at the grocery store and left it on the counter. When I got home tonight I found that he had ripped into the bag and loaf, and eaten several pieces. There were little bits of bread all over the counter, and one big piece on the floor! That darn cat! What cat eats bread?! You'd think we never feed him or something. Oh, well. We love him.

-Sarah :)

We are having ONE baby GIRL

If you have read on Ron & Ebby Ray's blog that we are having twins, we just want to make sure that you know that at the last ultrasound it was confirmed that there is ONE baby GIRL inside of Sarah. Ebby, sorry, no twins this time! Perhaps if we can figure out how to scan a picture and post it, we will do that later this week. Sarah is scheduled for another ultrasound on Thursday.

Hooray for Saturday!

OK, so I brought up the last post I made, and HOLY COW! I write the world's longest posts! Ooops! I guess I just have a lot of details to get out. What's funny to me is I know as I was typing I was leaving some things out so it wouldn't get too long! HA!

Today is Saturday, and I got to sleep in! Yes! After this week that kicked my butt, I really needed some extra sleep. I have to say that after Monday at my new school, every day did get progressively better. Tuesday was perhaps a slight digression in some areas, but that's another story (that I won't tell or this post will be ENORMOUS!). By Friday I was feeling pretty good, and now I am only debating whether or not I should stop back into my classroom over the weekend. I'm mostly ready and could make things work, but maybe I want to be SUPER ready! :)

Well, that's all. I know. It's shocking. This is short. :) More later...

Back to "Real Life" and other news...

Hello again!
So, I suppose I should go in the order that things have happened, which means I should explain what happened with our vacation first. We ended up picking Phoenix as our alternate vacation destination, and left within hours of my last post. It was a bit crazy getting that all set up last minute, but it turned out okay. We stayed at a timeshare not part of the system we use, but we got a great deal on it, so it worked out great. We did get to see some family and friends while we were down there, making it less like our "normal" vacation experience, but it was great! In fact, we got to meet our new niece Nevaeh just a little earlier than we'd planned. She was an absolute sweetie! Arizona was PIPING HOT while we were there, which was okay. We were able to stay indoors for most of the worst heat (even saw 2 movies!!!), and also sat by the pool 3 mornings. I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo (EXCELLENT book!), read a young adult chapter book called Ida B., and also starting reading a Jodi Picoult book. I think John finished a book, too, so that means vacation was exactly what we like. :)

Now, upon return we had a very relaxed Sunday night, but then life got VERY crazy/busy for me. I went back to school for Workshop Week early Monday morning. It's been a tough week for me-- moving to 5th grade from Middle School has been a tough transition. I really thought it would be easier than it has been. I'm really not complaining, I'm just surprised by it all, I think. My school and team seems nice enough, even though not everything has gone how I thought it would. It's amazing how even basic things that I've been doing for years (such as ordering copies) are done completely different at the Elementary level! How could I have anticipated that??? I think I also really miss knowing what I'm doing and being a bit of an expert. I feel like I'm starting from scratch, and it certainly has me out of my comfort zone. I'm convinced that if this doesn't kill me (and it probably won't), it will make me stronger. I'll be better off having experienced this than not. Oh, and might I add that all Elementary level meetings are run quite differently from Middle School meetings. It seems like no matter what the meeting is about there is usually someone there who feels strongly about the topic (usually against), and chooses that moment to bring it up and debate it. As far as I can tell this is actually normal, and not an anomaly. I'm sorry if I've offended someone out there, but this is my observation!!!

One last comment before I go... I got to read up on our good friends the Ray's through their blog this week! This was very fun, and I wish I was writing more in their silly style than my own, but oh well. One thing I read that I identified with is how come no one comments on our blog?! Ebby pointed out that it was lonely, and I agree. So, if you're reading this, please post a comment so we feel that there's a point to this! We like comments. :) OK-- that's all for now. I'm glad I had a minute to get this thing caught up!

Busy Week!

Hello Everyone! If you missed our news, check out the article below this one. :)

Julie had her baby girl on August 9th- two weeks early! So, we are an uncle and aunt again! Her name is Nevaeh Marie, and we can't wait to meet her in October. She managed to get a major eye infection this week, though, so that was pretty scary. Julie says things are looking better after 3 medications and antibiotics. We're praying that the infection doesn't cause any long-term damage.

This past weekend I got to go visit my dear college friends Kirsten and Karen. We stayed at Kirsten's place in Uptown Mpls, and we just had some good girl fun. We watched movies, talked, and also went shopping at MOA! Both Friday and Saturday night there were some pretty hefty thunderstorms, so that made for some interesting sleeping. We also got caught walking in the thunderstorm when we went to go get dinner Saturday night. We walked about 8 blocks to get to Chipotle (yum!), got our take out, and headed back. Right as we left it started raining, so it was a soggy walk back. It was an adventure nonetheless.

Monday to Thursday I worked for the school district writing Communications 6 curriculum. It was good to wrap up what we had started in June! I also was able to get going on putting together my school website at Bamber Valley Elementary for this coming year. I'm pretty excited about it. If you want to check it out, just go to: www.rochester.k12.mn.us/school88/carlson. Also this past week I was able to track down the 25 boxes I sent over to Bamber from my 2 schools back in June. I was concerned because they were nowhere to be seen, but it turns out they were being stored in the classroom next door to the one I will have this fall.

This morning our new kitchen table arrived! We looked at IKEA tables, but ended up going with one from Trademart furniture in Rochester. It is an AAmerica brand table, and has one leaf. We are excited to have something that should last a long time and that fits our space a little better.

On to vacation news... We were supposed to leave for Cancun tomorrow, but Hurricane Dean has affected our plans. Even last night we thought we'd still go because it was only a Category 2 storm. However, by this morning it had been upgraded to Cat. 4, and they expect it to get up to 5 in no time. We figured we'd be idiots to still go to Cancun, so John just cancelled our flights. The good news is we won't lose our money or our timeshare week. Now we are currently considering our options for the next week. We'll see what kind of vacation we take. This should be interesting!

We're having a BABY!!!

That's right! The rumor is true- we have a little one on the way! As I am writing this I am 13 weeks pregnant, and the due date is February 12th, 2008. We are SUPER excited! We found out while we were in Vegas in June, and have managed to keep it a secret for quite a while (it was really hard). I haven't had any morning sickness (praise the Lord!), but we did have one scare at week 9. We got to hear the heartbeat just last week, though, and all seems to be progressing normally. I'm not really showing yet, but John seems to think I am. As the weeks and months pass we will try to post some pictures for those of you who don't see us regularly. Oh! And I've already painted the baby's room! It is a fun shade of light green- which should go well with boy or girl things. We hope to find out if it will be a boy or a girl in September.

Computer

My computer's hard drive had some problems last week. Thankfully, I was able to save all my files to Sarah's computer and work on her computer until my was repaired yesterday. My father-in-law Rich spent a lot of time helping me diagnose my computer. Thank you, Rich, for the new hard drive and the new case. I'm back up and running without any problems today!

Since Vacation

Since our Vegas vacation I've been busy. As a teacher I get my summers off... YEAH RIGHT! The first week back I worked on curriculum writing for the district, and the following week I was involved in an "Educators in the Workplace Seminar." Later that week we visited Uncle Dick and Aunt Donna in Sartell. The week of the 4th of July I had some free time, so I painted the main-level bathroom. We also went up to Apple Valley for the Carlson 4th of July get-together. And this week I began teaching 5th grade Summer School. It is 4 days a week for 4 weeks, and I am determined that we are going to have (educational) FUN! I guess I find a way to stay busy! :)

Vegas Vacation...

Our vacation to Vegas was fantastic and a much-needed break! It was a great idea to get out of town right after school got out to force me to clean up my classrooms and wrap up loose ends right away. Vegas was hot the week we were there (in the 100's), but that dry desert heat is a little different than the heavy humid heat of MN, so it was very tolerable.

Getting back home was a bit of an adventure... John got the good idea to go home 12 hours earlier in the day so that he could get back for a good night's sleep before going back to work on a Saturday. Unfortunately, he could only get himself confirmed on a flight, so I was on standby. This seemed like a sure thing, that is until a Detroit flight got delayed and then cancelled... That caused a bunch of people to re-route through Minneapolis, which meant I didn't make it on the flight. 12 hours later (and several delayed and cancelled flights later) I finally got on the plane that brought me back. It was a l-o-n-g day. No hard feelings, though! It certainly did not ruin my trip!

Vacation!

Yeah! I am getting one full week off -- yes, seven days straight in a row! The last time that happened was July 2006 when we went to Joe and Ange's wedding in Hawaii. I am really looking forward to unwinding and not working. There will be no computer, no email, no voicemail, and no cell phone calls taken during the next week!

In case you are wondering, we are going to Las Vegas and staying in a time share. We reserved this place on May 1, 2006, and it's finally time to go now over a year later. We cashed in some points and miles to get free flights. Unfortunately, we are not flying on the same plane there but we will be on the same one coming home. Sarah needs to finish cleaning up her classroom at school anyway so she can use the extra 12 hours without me around.

See you later.

Irrigation System

We had an irrigation system put in our yard on Wednesday this week. Prior to this we have barely had any rain this spring and I was getting tired of moving hoses around my yard. Since putting it in, it has rained every day. The ground is so wet that I probably won't even get to see the system in action until next week. I guess I shouldn't complain; the free water is nice and my water bill won't be so high this month.

New Vehicle Update

Well, I went through with leasing the 2007 Ford Edge. I was able to get $300 off by complaining to the General Manager of the dealership about the lease acquisition fee. My new strategy is to buy/lease cars on the last day of the month. They were not going to let the deal go because the salesman wanted his commission and the dealership wanted to retain their ranking in the region.

Sarah's 2007-2008 Job

I am making a big job change for this next school year. After teaching for 5 years at the middle school level, I was offered a 5th grade teaching position at Bamber Valley Elementary in Rochester, and I decided to take it. It should be an interesting new adventure and challenge for me! I am hoping the job will give me a fresh perspective about teaching in the middle school, as well as open up some new opportunities for me. So, don't bug me this summer! I'm figuring out a whole new curriculum! :) J/k. I'm sure I can use all of the distractions I can get!

New Vehicle

Sarah and I are getting a 2007 Ford Edge SEL on Thursday. I've been working on this deal for over a month now. I'm trying to get Ford Credit to waive the lease acquisition fee. This is annoying to me that I'm being charged $595 extra. They state that it is a standard fee that never gets waived. I guess I've made enough progress in the other negotiations that I will let it go now and pay it.