just pretend

like nothing happened.

It has been a very rough few months.

First Dustin lost his job. Then got it back.

When he went back to work they gave him an hours-long dress-down.

Then told him, "You're our guy. You're the one we count on." And handed him his raise.

And people wonder why I won't work in corporate America?

The house is still on the market and I continue to obsess over it. I just don't know how someone hasn't fallen in love with it like we did and pay asking price.

More projects have happened. Projects I couldn't do myself. (Drat!) I've learned that I hate working with contractors.

A window was rotting out of it's sill. Mind you, this house is 15 years old. (don't get me started on the "craftsmanship" that went into my beloved home.) When the window came out the entire bottom of the window crumbled, sill and all. I've heard it said about other things, and never believed it, but paint was literally the only thing holding it together.

However, like in the movie "Money Pit" every contractor said "Two weeks!"

Actual time until work was completed:
Window- 7 weeks
Mudjacking- 6 weeks
Chimney repair- 6 weeks

Well, the chimney is still not fixed. The guy pointed out that it had been leaking from the top for some time and the entire thing needed to be replaced. New estimate on completion- 3 weeks.

I wish I could do all that myself, but I don't do siding. Yet.

But I did replace the vanity in the master bedroom. I had tried to get around replacing the scratched, dull and yellowed double sink vanity by spray painting it.

Yes. I know it sounds a bit white-trash. But the stuff was supposed to end up with a factory finish.

The first coat looked like spray paint. I held the can too far away and it ended up with a rough finish. Not smooth. So I removed the paint, but in the process removed some of the vanity's top. And the second coat of white paint just made it look like a topographical map of a frozen tundra. So a new, custom ordered, vanity had to go in. Apparently the one thing that WAS custom in our contractor-standard house was the one thing I didn't want to replace. It was one inch shy of a standard size. I thought about buying the one inch longer piece and cutting it down. But I really couldn't afford to replace a replacement.

Augh.

However, I learned from that mistake and did the hall-way bathroom vanity correctly. And, no, you can't tell it's spray paint.

Then, right at the end of school, Dustin was having some major health issues. We thought it was cancer. And I was fretting the entire last week of school.

Oh, and applying for a new job while packing up my entire classroom because new carpet was going in the room the day after school was out while trying to plan and rehearse for a last-day-of-school concert with the 6th graders while finishing up grade cards and writing assessments (read- standardized tests) for next school year.

When the last day of school rolled around I was burned out. Physically, mentally, emotionally *done*. And don't think my principal didn't mention it to me. I didn't make excuses. I apologized but pointed out that there's still music in "musical chairs."

Turns out he has a bone-marrow disorder similar to cancer but not cancer. It's not curable but with treatment it's not fatal. He'll have to be on medication the rest of his life for it, though. Edit: This turned out to be a lie. 

[side bar: I'm about to be vague with some of my terminology. All I can say is that kids are very internet savvy these days. A few well-placed key words into google and this blog would pop up. And I don't need kids, especially twelve to fourteen year-olds, reading this stuff. So I'm avoiding certain "key words" here.]

I applied for a new job teaching a level higher than I am now in the same district I teach in now (read- no pay raise). I've actually said that I'd never teach adolescents. Too many hormones. And this school, in particular, is over half economically-disadvantaged kids. (new term for "poor.") It's considered a "rough" school by this town's standards. Teachers either stay for a year or stay for a lifetime.

The program has been decimated by a series of three bad choral directors in a row. Each staying 1-2 years at the school. While the other three mid-level schools in town averaged 50-60 kids in their ensembles, this school had 28. And they stunk to high heaven. It was PAINFUL watching them perform.

Seriously, I had to keep from cringing. I felt like I was watching their adolescent pain being played out in front of me.

But I was approached by two of the other mid-level baton-wavers and one of the high school baton-wavers and asked if I would apply.

I turned them down flat.

And then thought about it.

1. There's no better program to walk into than the decimated one. It's better than building a program from scratch because at least there's SOME infrastructure and it's better than following 'god' because they'd hate me for not being 'god.'

2. I'd really like to have my own ch*r*l program again.

3. I'd like to teach a higher level ensemble some day. And they don't usually hand out those positions to low-level teachers.

4. I don't know if I'd ever have this kind of support from my peers again.

I had to go for it.

I applied. And got it.

Starting June 1st, I'm officially a teacher at a higher grade level. (did you get all that??)

Some bonuses:

I have a HUGE brand-new room with a 7-foot grand. They carved the room out of the old gymnasium. There's still holes in the floor for volley ball nets.

Plus it's in a very cool historic building. Built in 1923 as a high school to honor the local men who died in WWI.


AND I have a huge, beautifully restored 1923 auditorium. (sorry, no good picture yet) It was to be the centerpiece of the High School (my, how times have changed) so great care was taken in decorating it. When it was built it was the largest auditorium in Kansas. The windows in the auditorium have stained glass from Belgium. The same sculpture who did the plaster reliefs in the state capitol designed the plaster adornments for this auditorium. Very cool stuff.

In other good news...

I re-relandscaped the front yard. I dug up everything I'd planted, scraped away the mulch, strung a level line and discovered I'd accidentally sloped it towards the house.

My bad.

So I got out the shovel and regraded the whole mess AWAY from the house. And redid the contraption I'd put on the gutters so now it actually takes the water away from the house.

5+ inches of rain later and the basement is dry.

Tomorrow I risk my life on the roof trying to paint the new window.

It's been quite a month.