One month to go...

One month from today is the first day of school for students in my new district. Still lots to do before then, including three days of training in the new curriculum and a week of other stuff with just the faculty. Plus finalize all of the paperwork, buy the new house, move in, and start setting things up there.

A Jolt of Excitement

As a new hire in a new district, they have to do a criminal background check. This involves taking fingerprints. No problem, I've had it done before. But when I went in a few weeks ago to the local (to my new district) ESD office to get prints, they had a fancy digital fingerprint machine that kept getting smudgy images. The technician did what he could, but it clearly wasn't enough, as the state patrol rejected them. Now what? The district sent the prints back to me, they arrived yesterday, and I called the state office for advice. "Well, you could go to the state patrol office in the state capital and get them redone there." I was out the door within fifteen minutes. To be sure, it's not a short trip, but it beats heading to the other side of the state to try it again on a malfunctioning digital machine. I got there in a little over an hour, got a nice set of clean, crisp prints (done with old fashioned ink), and was back before the evening rush hour even got bad. Since I had no other big plans for the day, it all worked out well.

In the meantime, we're still trying to buy a new house and get this old place cleaned and pressed to show other potential buyers. We're going to have to bite the bullet and pay someone to clear out the jungle back yard, it appears, as that's already scared off some potential buyers. Yeah, like we can afford that, too...

The waiting is the hardest part

Not much to report right now, other than that we're waiting for a lot of stuff. I'm waiting for some paperwork so that I can complete my hiring file in the new district. Meanwhile, we're both waiting for some other information so that we can buy a house in our new neighborhood. Everything is just about packed and ready to go, all we need now is a place to take it to. If we can get the house we're looking at, great. If not, we may have to rent a place until we can find a house. And we are not looking forward to having to move twice. But there's also still time, so perhaps we should just get a rein on our impatience and enjoy the down time while we have it. But I want to know what's happening soon!

The countdown continues...

I just realized that my new job officially starts one month from TODAY! Also, I interviewed for it a whole four weeks ago today. Where did the time go? Into packing and cleaning, mostly, as we're trying to sell this house and buy a new one in the neighborhood of the new school. So far it's going well, but slow enough to make Laura and me both nervous. The packing is going well, however, and I suspect we won't have a lot of trouble getting out of here once we know where we're sending everything. The training for my new curriculum starts as early as a week and a half from now, too. I'm just waiting to see when and where that will be. Yeek! This is really happening!

Still going...

Things are still moving forward. I took a bunch of paperwork to my new district office, and got fingerprints, the other day, so that's well underway. We also did a little house hunting, and may have found a place. Now all we need to do is sell our old house and find out what my new salary will be before we can get it. And in today's market, selling our old house may be tough. At least we've made some big improvements, and it's in a terrific location.

Some good news is that my new district is going to count my time as a sub when placing me on the district pay scale! That will give me a nice little boost in salary.

Er, not much else to say right now, really. I just want to get moved over there so that I can get ready to actually teach something soon!

Now it's REALLY official!

It took a week and a half, but Mr. Postman delivered a nice large package from my new employers. There's lots and lots of paperwork in it for me to deal with. So now I have that to deal with as well as packing up to get the house on the market next week. But we should be able to head out there soon, drop off the paperwork, get a storage unit (yes, we're starting as soon as possible), and start looking for a new home there.

Wow, this is really happening!

And it just keeps going on...

Man, we have a lot of stuff! It's slowly making its way into boxes and out into the garage so that we can start showing the house to potential customers starting next week, but it is slow going, despite the whirlwind of activity around here the past week. What's really scary is we don't even know where we're going to live yet. I'm waiting for the contract and other paperwork first so that I can take it all over there, get a self-storage locker, then start house hunting. With the speed this is progressing, we're probably going to rent a small house for a year, which should give us more time and a bigger financial cushion to find a house to buy next summer.

But meanwhile, we have the packing and prepping the house. Both of our families have been a big help so far, and more is coming. My mother brought a bunch of boxes and pulled a lot of weeds in the front yard, and my dad is bringing his truck to haul lots of stuff to the dump—after bringing a lot more boxes from my sister. With my parents having my grandparents, themselves, and them my sister and her family in the last few years, they're getting very good at this. But the best part is, after we move, they likely won't have to help anyone again for a while! (My in-laws, who are also helping, have a lot more kids, however, so they may be just warming up.)

One bunch of stuff I'm making sure to keep track of is stuff for my classroom. They're being packed separately, and we're planning on taking them with us in one of the cars, not trusting them to get lost among everything else. Then I can make sure they get in my room and spend some of my prep time before the students come sorting through it all—at least, that's the plan. I'm not so inexperienced that I think I'll have all the time in the world to do it!

One little bit of surrealism today: I actually got a call to sub! A math teacher at the summer institute needs someone to take over for a few days later this month, and I believe I was one of the first she called. But between the move and another event going on at the same time, I had to turn it down. At least she was happy about the reason.

Okay, back to packing boxes and putting them in the garage...