I'm Not Lost ...

Autumnal Goodness

I hope I'm not lost anyway, though there are days when I'm sure plenty of people would disagree with that statement. Time is flying by as usual, it seems like Summer disappeared and I didn't even have a chance to enjoy it. We were busy trying to get our home ready to list and sell, which meant that we spent just about every day cleaning, sorting, packing, throwing away and all around de-cluttering. What a task when you consider we live in a home that has 10 rooms, and enough stuff in it to fill 20 rooms, I guess that's what happens when you combine two households into one and then never get rid of anything. We did finally manage however to dump quite a bit of stuff, some went to the trash heap, some to Goodwill, and some was sold at our big tag sale, which brought in a nice little chunk of change. But, was it enough? Not really ... we still have a lot more to get rid of and go through, however you can now see the floor in the two spare rooms which were packed to the gills with boxes of things we hadn't looked at in years. As for selling the house, well we're back on hold with that for a bit, a few things popped up and have put us back into a holding pattern, but soon we hope we'll be able to plop that "For Sale" sign in front of the house and move on to newer and better things.

Morgan in Newport, RI 8/2011

Good news finally came this summer as well. Morgan took and passed the Praxis 2 exam which is a specialized test for educators which focuses on their field of expertise in teaching. In our state you must pass this test in order to become a certified teacher. We are so very proud of her, as this is not an easy test to pass. She's now on the hunt for a full time teaching position, no luck yet, but she is now listed on several subbing lists in the area and has begun to teach in that capacity. She also still works her job at the grocery store where she is a head cashier. She's busy, tired and even grumpy sometimes, but thrilled to be earning more money which she is saving for braces.

Brian is back to teaching this year as well. He is still with 4th graders, and has a great class. He's very busy however with much more paperwork added to their already very full schedules. It means that he spends not only his normal day at school teaching, but many more hours in the evenings and on the weekends keeping up with all the new guidelines, programs and specifics required for all teachers. We can't wait for his retirement to finally come, it's about 5 years away, but the way time is flying lately, it'll be here before we know it.

As for me, nothing new, just continuing on the weight loss journey, I've lost about 60 pounds over the last year and a half. It's not easy, but it will be worth it, now I just need to add more exercise to my day. I'm still scrap booking as well, not as much as I used to, but I'm trying to get back on track in mentioning it here.

So moving forward with Fall, I'm hoping that the time will slow down a bit, and that I'll be able to get that area as well. There's plenty to keep me busy, but it's all boring stuff, so I won't even bother more done on my to do list. I hope to make more time for a bit of fun, try a few new things and enjoy the days and nights with my wonderful family. How about you, what will you do to enjoy this gorgeous time of the year.