Update to previous post...or "ARGGHH!"

No one has even read the post I wrote earlier today, and I already have to amend it. I have been doing a little bit more research and now it looks like I may have to rethink Liberty. Basically, if I want to get certified in GA as a school counselor, I need to go to school in GA at a "recommended" school (pretty much UGA or GA State). These programs are designed for people like me who have never been teachers, but want to counsel in a school. The LU classes, on the other hand, assume that I already have the teaching experience meaning some of the program requirements are WAY above my head. Going to UGA or GSU means taking GRE's, writing application essays, being interviewed by the MEd faculty, etc. just to START classes. So I won't be doing that anytime soon. It also means taking a traditional schedule, not fitting in classes online whenever I can as previously planned, doing many hours of supervision in a school AFTER I finish classes, but BEFORE I can get certified (how can anyone's budget handle that?), and basically not working in a school anytime soon. The other option would be to get an MA in teaching and work in a school as a teacher while I work on my MEd. Or getting my MA in counseling, getting my professional counseling license (600 hours of supervision there), and then taking exams to get school certified. In case you're not following, let me put it simply: I can become a school counselor, it can be done, but I will have to commit to going to school for a long, long time. It's not going to be easy. And it may be a bigger commitment than I'm willing to make.

Hello, Square One.

Happenings...

We've been moved into the new house for a month now. It's starting to look a little more like home, though my decorating skills are seriously lacking. We could use a few pictures on the walls and such. But we'll get there. After we hit the lotto. Adjusting to the new home was a little tougher than expected. I didn't realize how sad I'd be to leave our apartment (our first place together - sniff) and it took a while for the house to feel completely comfortable. I don't think we're quite there yet. But it's feeling more like home every day, and we've adjusted to sleeping there. That took a little while. I think we'll both be happy once we finish the last of the painting! Two more rooms to go...

I think everyone has heard this news, but in case you missed it - I'm going back to school this fall! Jamie and I have been discussing it for a while, and I've finally decided to go for it. So next month I start online classes with Liberty University to earn my Master's of Education in School Counseling. As my mom pointed out, I'll be starting at the same time as Rebecca and finished way before her! Hopefully I'll be done my December 2009, spring of 2010 by the latest. My hope is to become a counselor in a middle school once I'm finished, though I'd be perfectly content with a position in an elementary or high school at first. I'm excited and nervous - more for the job hunt part than the school part. I'm eager to start doing a job I care about and feel invested in. Most of the school work will be reading, online testing/quizzing and discussion boards. I'm sure I'll be spending a lot on books, but a class based almost completely on reading is right up my ally :) My first class - foundations of education something or other - starts September 15th. Jamie's really looking forward to becoming the cook and housekeeper for a year or so while I devote my attention to school work!

Sorry...no pictures this time!

We Moved In!

We are all moved into the new house now. On Saturday, we rented a truck and Jamie's cousins came down from Toccoa to help us move everything. Some friends met us over at the new house to help unload and everything was done by 3:00 Saturday afternoon. It really wasn't too bad (although the guys might disagree with me since I didn't carry a single heavy thing and they carried all of our furniture down a flight of stairs into the truck). Now we have to figure out where to put everything! Jamie of course made sure the tv was set up right away and the living room furniture is pretty much where it should be, but other than that it's a disaster zone. We have SO much space, which is great, but I can't decide what to do with it all. Hopefully over the next week we'll get everything put away.

This morning there is someone coming over to put in our kitchen appliances so we'll be able to cook in the new house. Which is good because I haven't really cooked a real meal in weeks. Now we just have to go get some groceries.

We went out last night to look for blinds for our back windows. They are very sunny and I love how big they are, but it does feel a little conspicuous to sit in our living room at night with a large wall of windows right there. We didn't end up finding what we wanted, but we did get a new comforter and shams for our bedroom. I was VERY excited about that because I wanted something a little prettier. It's still just a khaki color, but it has a bit of a design and the matching shams are nice. I'm hoping to convince Haley to help me make a couple little throw pillows to complete the ensemble.

Well there's a brief update. I know you probably want more pictures, but I got nothing for ya right now. If I did take pictures of the house right now, it would just be of the piles and piles of our stuff everywhere - not too exciting. But hopefully we'll finish up the painting and make it look all pretty soon and I'll have more pictures to share!

Progress Photos

Well, a TON has gotten done around our house, but nothing is quite finished. So here is a VERY short slideshow just to show you some of what's been done. Mostly it's painting and the colors are a little hard to see online - with the exception of the kitchen. Still, I hope you enjoy them and I promise there will be a complete before-and-after slideshow once there's some afters. So for those of you who've been harassing me to keep putting new pictures up, here you go! (note: if you put your mouse over the slideshow, a few buttons will appear along the bottom. If you press pause and use the right arrow to advance the pictures, you'll have more time to look and read. They move kind of fast).

New House Updates

Well, Shane and Dad Hotalen have been working their little hearts out on our new home! They have been here since Monday night and as of last night, they had spackled and painted the entire kitchen, hooked up the new fridge (all the appliances were delivered Tuesday except the washer/dryer which we'll get on Saturday), spackled and painted two of the living room walls, removed the bars from the windows (yayy!!), took out some bad outside wiring, got us into the bonus room (it had been locked from the inside by someone since we first looked at the house. They had to take it off the hinges to get in), got the water going, and I'm sure other things that are currently escaping me. It's AMAZING how much a little paint will do! I think once the cabinets get a good scrubbing and the new appliances are in, our kitchen will look great! I was nervous about the green color, but now that it's done I really like it and so does Jamie. The rest of the main living area will be tan and brown, so the green really adds a bit of sunny color to the room. The bars being removed makes a HUGE difference in the living room. The windows aren't in terrific shape, but they look so much better now that they're not framed by prison bars.

Last night Jamie and I finally got some time to go over and help (I am so grateful for Shane and Jamie's dad! All that they have done would have taken us weeks just working in the evenings). I caulked holes left in the siding by the window bars and Jamie and Shane removed nails and such from the master bedroom/nursery walls, spackled the holes and started priming so we can get those rooms painted.

Jamie set up an appointment to get the carpets deep-cleaned on Friday afternoon. I'm very happy about that for two reasons: first, they could really use it and second, I will be much more comfortable living there after the previous owners' cooties have been cleaned out of our carpet! We were considering getting all new flooring, but we all the expenses of buying and fixing up the house, we've decided that can wait. It will most likely get done next spring/summer when we get our tax refund (welcome to adult life - where you have your tax refund spent 9 months before you even file).

Last night we bought new locks for all the doors. Jamie took off work today to help his dad and brother so the three of them should be getting the new locks in and finishing the paint in the master bedroom/nursery today. We had hoped to move on Saturday, but that doesn't look like it will be possible. We could probably have enough done to the new house to live there, but we definitely won't have any of the apartment packed up yet! And we'll need to get the bathrooms painted soon in order to give them a lot of time to dry before we start taking hot showers in there.

Well, there's our latest updates! I'm sure I'm missing something but the guys have done so much it's hard to keep up!

Here's a picture I created to be included in the slideshow but had a hard time getting to work. It's a VERY rough, not at all to scale outline of the house. I just wanted to give everyone and idea of how the house is laid out.
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I'll post pictures of some of the rooms once they are finished! There has been a lot of progress, but there is still a lot to do. And though I definitely could take pictures of everything that's getting done, that would be a lot of pictures. So I thought I'd wait until there was a lot done and post new pictures all at once. Sorry, Mom!

New House Pictures!

Tip: if you place your mouse over the person icon in the bottom left corner, a box will appear with a link to Picasa. If you click this link, it will open up Picasa where I created the slideshow. Then you can click on "slideshow" above the pictures and see a fullscreen version of this show.

Enjoy!!

Offical Closing Date

Monday, July 14th (Happy anniversary, Shannon and George!) at 11:00 am!