I am having a thoroughly enjoyable weekend of not painting. Brad and I ran a bunch of errands this morning and spent the afternoon plotting where we're going to hang things. We haven't wielded a hammer yet, but everything's in position to go for tomorrow.

I've also been working on my Korea blog. I hope to have it up and running by next weekend. I'll let you know when it's ready. Happy weekend!

Home decor crisis!!! I have painted a room each weekend for the last three weekends. It's been a struggle, but it's fun to have it done. This past weekend, though, was a bit too trying...

I painted the first coat Saturday afternoon in a warm beige-y color. Looked great, but it didn't cover very well. I went back to the store to get a second gallon and gave the guy the exact "recipe" sticker off the old can. Got it home, spent Sunday putting on the second coat and to my horror, it wasn't the same color! I didn't notice right away because I think paint always looks different when it's going on, but when the color didn't change much after it dried, I knew I had a problem. It was still beige, but it had a purple/pink undertone instead of a brown one, so the walls looked lavender in the light. Argh!

Went back to the store and fortunately, they were horrified at what the guy had done. They couldn't give me my Sunday back, but at least I got a complimentary can of the right colored paint. I put it on today and all is well. My goodness, though! I'm definitely taking a breather from the painting thing. Gotta find something else to do this weekend. Actually, I think we're going to take the time to finally hang pictures on our lovely painted walls.

I have furniture!!! I'm so excited! The furniture we ordered Labor Day weekend arrived this morning and it looks great in our new house. We got a living room set - a brand new couch, loveseat and tables to boot. I love how the room looks - the only thing left is to get curtains. Had to take down the ugly ones the previous owners left behind. I was very grateful they left them for us - I wasn't ready to buy curtains right away - but now I'm ready to replace them.

I also have to take in a couple of the pictures we want to hang in there for repair. The glass broke on one and the backing is coming off of another - what a mess! When the room is finally done, I'll post a picture.

Not much else going on. Spending ungodly amounts of time planning house projects and putting together this big trip we're trying to take in December. Nothing to report just yet, but I'll keep y'all posted.

Got another crazy Shadow story for ya..... When I was painting last weekend, I (naturally) took off the outlet covers and air conditioning vent grates on the walls. Well, this particular grate opening leads into a utility closet where you would find the air conditioning unit, hot water heater, etc. There is also a hole in the back of the closet, left by the builders, that opens into the basement below. Maybe you can see where this is going....

So my curious but not-very-bright kitty apparently snuck inside the wall just before I screwed the grate back in place. I didn't even notice him going inside! Mind you, this was about 9 am. I got so busy Friday that I didn't even notice him not being around the house. When I finally noticed he was gone, I figured he was off snoozing somewhere. By about 5pm, I started getting nervous because I couldn't find him anywhere. Yeah, it finally occurred to me what had happened and I found the poor guy in the basement. He looked really relieved to be rescued! Silly kitty.

I love Kansas. The full measure of this hit me today in my western civ class. We were talking about governments falling apart and a student made reference to our nation's Civil War. He finished his statement by saying that "thankfully, it all worked out okay and the union was preserved." It took a moment to sink in and then I just went nuts on this kid. The rebel-flag wearing, gun-toating redneck who believes the South will rise again is a minority in Virginia, but I've never had a student there (or in Tx) say "thankfully" the union was saved. Most of what I get is a genuine, "yup, it's too bad we lost". Not that any of them want slavery to come back, but I guess when the war was fought in your backyard, when parts of your town were burned down by Union troops, you feel a bit passionate about the cause. Hard to blame them. I just find it hard to swallow. I don't know if this makes sense to any of you, but my heart leaped for joy today. Yes, I am a nerd...

Classes are going well, but keeping up with three different classes is kicking my butt. Plus, I haven't taught US history in a while, so I'm trying to refresh my memory on some of this....

The house is FINALLY starting to come together. I was stagnated a bit - getting bogged down in indecision - but I made some progress this weekend. I painted in my family room and I think I like it. I'm planning to put a faux finish on top of what I've done, but I'm nervous about screwing it up. We also bought some furniture at an awesome labor day sale. I'm really excited about getting it in our big empty living room. It's going to look great!

Oh - here's a crazy bit: before we left for the furniture store, Brad used scissors to cut some string in the garage. He placed the scissors on his back bumper (it's an SUV so it has a bit of a ledge) and forgot about them. When we got out of the car at the store (25 miles down the road), we discovered the scissors still sitting on the bumper! The road we took was a back-road that was fairly curvy - can't believe they didn't fall off!

Yesterday was my first day of class. I love my job! The first day is always a little weird - you stand there and give a bunch of rules to a room full of people who aren't sure if they're going to love you or hate you. They laughed in all the right places and many of them seem pretty interested in the class. It's a good sign. Tomorrow the real work begins - the first lecture... My office is a tiny cubicle I share with two other teachers (we're in there on different days). It's never been decorated and is, in general, filthy. I got the official sanctioning from my (male) office-mates that I could pretty up the room and I've been working hard to do so. It's starting to look habitable and I'm thrilled! Other people keep walking by and remarking that they'd never noticed how barren that room was until I started putting up stuff. Now if I could just make that kind of progress on my house....

I've been gone a long time, I know. Very little to report on. However, this weekend was awesome! Brad took me to see Rent (which I've been dying to see!) at an outdoor theater downtown. Despite the sound difficulties, it was fabulous. I loved getting to finally see this on stage and I've been singing along to my soundtrack ever since. We spent the rest of the weekend working on the house and planning this big vacation we're putting together for December. We're trying to get either South Africa or Australia. Either way would be awesome. We're waiting to hear what the time-share folks say (a friend gave us a week's stay in theirs). I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow is my first day of class, so I've spent the whole day making sure I've got everything put together. Ugh. I'm sure I'm forgetting something....

Just thought I'd check in and say hello. Absolutely nothing of interest is going on here. We're just busily trying to get the house set up. It's fully functional at this point - all we have to do is decorate. So, I'm spending a lot of time with paint swatches and mulling ideas and such. I'm also working on putting together my three classes that start soon, which is fun but exhausting. Brad's graduation ceremony is going on as I type this, but we couldn't make it - he's too busy with his orientation for his new job. It's too bad because it's kind of a big deal. He's officially Dr. Brad today. Very cool. That's really it, though. You can rest assured that my life will go back to its usual craziness very soon.

I'm employed! I had a phone interview with a community college while I was in Korea and it went well enough that I was pretty sure I had the job, but it wasn't a lock until Wednesday when I went in in person. I'm all squared away as an adjunct assistant professor (what Brad was at VMI) with three classes. I have the first half of western civilization and both halves of US history. Three different classes will be a lot to prepare for, but it'll be a lot less taxing than teaching full time in a high school. I'm really excited to give this a try. I think I'll like it - the colleagues I've met seem really nice and it's a nice campus. I'll miss working with teenagers and I may go back to that someday, but this seems like a good idea for now. Another bonus: since I have to drive about 45 minutes to get there, they scheduled all my classes for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Awesome!

The unpacking is going really well and it's starting to look like a real house. Brad starts his job Monday, so we're trying to get as much done as we can now since the pace of unpacking will slow with him working for a living. The majority of the boxes are unpacked, but the decorating will take a long, long time to finish... I'll post pictures when I can.

We're here! After a long, long drive, we got in about 1am Monday morning. The movers came around 8am and we got everything in the house within 2 hours! Obviously, the computer is now up and functioning, but we're still working on everything else. Our bedroom furniture arrived this morning and we mostly have our bedroom put together. Everything looks so great! I think we'll have the place put together in another couple of days. The decorating will take weeks or months, but at least we'll get the boxes out of here!

Got a crazy story for ya: Shadow almost didn't make the trip with us. He and Stitch were freaking out as we packed everything up and didn't like the total lack of furniture in the house once we'd loaded the truck. Stitch rode with Brad in the UHaul and made it to the truck just fine. Shadow was going to ride with me, but flipped out and wriggled out of my arms (leaving me with a couple of nasty scratches on my neck) and ran away. The only reason he didn't get totally away from us was that he's not used to being outside and so even though he runs really fast, he kept stopping to figure out where to go. He bolted down the alley-way and across Main St. (yikes!!), winding up behind the courthouse under a dumpster and wouldn't come out. After 20 mintues of trying everything we could think of, we called animal control to help us coax him out. Another 20 minutes and we finally grabbed him and put him in a kitty carrier. He was not a happy camper. Neither were we, now that we were running so far behind schedule! He rode quietly in his crate for the first few hours of the trip and once I let him out, he hid underneath the driver's seat for the remainder of the drive. He's finally calming down and getting used to the new surroundings. I knew it was going to be interesting travelling with cats, but this was crazy!!!

Here we go.... I'm shutting down my computer in about an hour to pack it up. We load the truck tomorrow and leave first thing Sunday morning. Once we get there and get a little settled in, I'll be back online. 15 hours in the car with cats.... It's going to be epic.

This time next week we'll be in our new house! Ohmigosh! The packing is going very well so far, even though I took a little break. We had a yard sale on Saturday that got rid of a lot of our junk, although not all of it. Got to make a run to Goodwill here soon. Then my friend, Jennie, from Texas came to visit for a few days. She'd never been up here before and wanted to see our little town before we left. It was fun because I got to see some stuff that I haven't had the chance to see even though we've been here for 3.5 years. We spent a morning at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house, and walked around the very hip Charlottesville. We also drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway and visited the Natural Bridge - it's really impressive! We went to my favorite Shakepeare theatre for a performance of MacBeth. It was okay, but I was disappointed because I've seen them do SO much better.

Jennie just left a little while ago to fly home and now it's time to face the reality of getting this house packed up. Ugh. We've got most of the easy stuff done - now it's time to pack up the little stuff and the stuff we use on a fairly regular basis. We pack the truck Saturday and leave Sunday, so it's going to happen whether we're ready or not!

I'm home! I got back from Korea yesterday afternoon and I'm happy to sleep in my bed and eat pizza. I had a wonderful time there and was sorry to leave. I'm going to try to do a travel log attached to this blog, but it will probably have to wait until after the move.

I got to speak a little Korean, saw beautiful palaces and temples, ate interesting food (octopus, squid, eel and even a silkworm!!!), and met fabulous people. We were treated so well over there! It's a little hard going back to being a peon, but at least I'm a pizza-eating peon. No more kimchi for me! Probably ever.

We spent most of our time in Seoul, splitting our days into lectures at Yonsei University and afternoon sightseeing. We spent 4 days in Kyeongju, in the southeast part of the country, simply exploring. We pulled taffy by hand and learned how to make prints of Korean roof tiles. Lots of cool experiences! I'll get pictures up soon.

The picture below is of me at the garden pond in one of the palaces in Seoul.

Happy July 4th everyone! Hope you all have a fun and safe holiday.

The house is almost packed - I'm really impressed with the progress we've made. I'll be able to relax and not worry about the house while I'm in Korea. Speaking of...... I leave first thing tomorrow morning! I'm really excited about the trip now that I've had time to process the fact that I'm actually going! I haven't finished packing yet, but I'm mostly there. I'm running out of time, since we have friends coming over for holiday fun in just a couple of hours. Yikes!!! I'll have email access while I'm gone, so definitely stay in touch. I'm sure I'll have lots of cool stories when I get back. 'Til then, take care everybody!

I'm so excited! I got my itinerary and details for my trip to Korea next week (!!!!!). I leave a week from tomorrow! I fly non-stop from DC to Seoul, which is 14 and a half hours. Ugh... The longest I've ever been on a plane is 8. This is almost double. There had better be some kickass movies is all I have to say... :) But, the trip looks fantastic and I can't wait to see everything and learn as much as I possibly can.

In other news, we had the new house inspected and all went well, so we're on our way! We haven't set an exact closing date yet, but almost everything else is done. Yipppeeee!

Sorry for the long absence in postings, but I've been gone awhile. It's been a fantastic week of exciting things! First --- we found a house! Our offer was accepted and we move in 5 weeks. It's really great - big, only 5 years old and really well maintained. It's a beautiful area - we were thrilled to discover elevation in Kansas and we have a nice bluff covered with trees right at the end of our street. The town is small and quiet, but we're so close to Kansas City with all its cool stuff to do and see. We really liked it there and I think once we get settled in, we're going to love it!

The rest of the trip was fun, too. I stopped to see MB in Kentucky on my way and we had a blast. We toured the Wild Turkey distillery (I don't like Bourbon, but it was a cool process to see) and a local vineyard (I do like wine...). Once I got to Kansas, I was happy to finally meet up with Brad, who's been at a conference for the last month. It's nice having him around again.

Anywho, that's the condensed version of events here. I'll keep y'all posted as the news comes in.

It's official. Totally done. My room is depressingly empty and I nearly cried when I walked out of the building yesterday. However, I came home to a nasty email from a parent which totally took the emotion out of leaving. Just a lady frustrated with her kid and lashing out at anyone she can. I didn't take it personally, but it did sort of make me feel like it would be okay if I took a break from teaching. :)

I'm gathering all my crapola to get on the road tomorrow to head west. I'll stop at Mary Beth's and spend the weekend before finishing up the drive to Kansas. I'm so excited! I had a nice chat with my realtor this afternoon and I'm pumped about our options. I'll have to let y'all know when I find THE house.

It's really summertime. It's always a bit strange to come back to work the Monday after graduation and the school is without kids. It feels official. It'll feel even better on Wednesday when I turn in my keys and be done for good. When I say better, I mean more like summer. I will really miss everyone. My department threw a nice lunch for me today and gave me some nice parting gifts - they are so sweet.

Very exciting news! Amanda got my job!!! I've been lobbying so hard for so many years to have her work at the high school - too bad I had to leave in order for her to get a job. I would have liked seeing her every day. I'm going over to her house for dinner tonight and there will be much rejoicing! Yay!!!!

Well, poop. I don't get to go to New York City this summer. I was signed up to go on this history teacher week in the city for free as part of a grant. I was going to room with Amanda and we were set to paint the town red, but the lady in charge decided that since I'm not coming back into the school system next year I'm not eligible. What a bummer.... I understand completely, though, and now Amanda's husband Tony will go in my place and that should be fun for them. And actually, I really could use the week to pack. It will make my summer a lot less intense, which is good, and I should be able to spend more time with Jennie when she comes out in July.

Today was the official last day of school and thus this is the first summer evening. Graduation is tomorrow and just three days of inservice next week (which I desperately need in order to get my room packed up!). Then, I am finished at RCHS. How surreal... How exciting!