Blogging Intervention?

This one's for you, Maria... =)

Hee hee hee....

Window shopping for houses...

So Steve and I decided not to continue pursuing the house we'd been trying to buy. We got the inspection done, and there were just too many things that would need to be fixed very soon (and we aren't going to have a whole lot of cash on hand after the closing costs). The furnace and air conditioner were both about 30 years old, the water heater was all messed up (and moderately hazardous), there was a small gas leak in the crawl space, a thin spot in the roof, and the radon levels were something like 7 times what is normally called safe. But it was mostly all stuff we couldn't see on our own (thank goodness we have a good housing inspector!). I was a bit bummed out by it all, but it definitely was better to know now than to find out the day after we bought it, because all told, we may have been looking at an extra $10k or so in repairs in the first year.

So we're on to a new house now... one with brand new heating and cooling, a recent water heater and a newer roof. Hopefully that will alleviate some of the possibilities for repairs. It's quite a bit smaller than the first house, but the first house was probably a lot more space than we needed. I'm pretty antsy about getting out of our teensy apartment, so keep your fingers crossed. =)

Other than that... this semester is shaping up to be pretty ridiculous. I'm taking the hardest 3 classes I've ever had (plus tennis... but I'm just auditing that for fun) and then teaching Calc III recitation. YIKES! I'm actually just blogging to kill time until some of my profs come in to give me some hints on the homework that is due tomorrow. But I suppose it's still more fun than having a real grownup job... I mean, I do get a month off for Christmas and three for summer break! =)

I guess that's about it for me, but Steve is liking his job a whole lot better now. He got transferred to a group working on a new construction crane, so he actually gets to design stuff now instead of just fixing old helicopter drawings. He also decided (rather wisely, I think) not to pursue his MBA right now. He was just far too busy, and not interested in the material at all, to keep it up for the next 3-4 years.

As for Katie, she still nuts, but we love her. People and their pets... enough said... hee hee.

So I guess that's about it for now. I'm going to go try and find some profs, and keep hiding from the weather (it SNOWED here last night... my plans of moving south seem to have been foiled! Drat!). Stay warm out there.

It's been awhile...

So, it's been pointed out to me that I'm pretty delinquent in my blogging. I didn't realize, but it has been awhile. It's strange that when there's so much going on that I could be writing about, there's so much going on that I don't have time to write. So excuses aside, here is the much anticipated update:

I successfully finished my first semester of grad school (with a lot less freaking out than I usually do). I managed to get all A's, but before you all start with the "see, I told you so" business, you should know that these were not your average A's. First off, I worked my tail off for them. Those of you who know me, know that I'm the queen of procrastination, and not a big fan of spending lots of time on homework. Here, neither of those things will fly. The second thing you should know is that grading here is freaking voodoo. As an undergrad, I used to figure out exactly what I would need on the final to get each grade... here, as an example, I didn't get more than a 50% on the first 3/4 of the assignments in my algebra class, but I still got an A in the class. CRAZY!

Kate and I made it up to Muskegon for Christmas. Katie actually did really well on the car ride, and she had a blast in the snow. I also took her to DogStar Ranch. She LOVED it!


It was really great to get to see my friends and family - and I had a great Christmas. But I had to come home a bit early, because:

WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!

We've been working on it for a little while now. We found a house that we like:

And we even agreed to terms with the sellers. But since it's a pre-forclosure sale, we need to have their lenders agree to the terms too. And they agreed to all the terms except they want us to close on the house in 14 days! We tried to to get them to agree to at least 3 weeks, but they wouldn't. So now, we're going to try to close on the house, beginning to end, in 2 weeks! Hang on to your hats, everyone!!! Hopefully it'll work, because I REALLY like this house, and it's got a great backyard for Katie (once we fence it).

And that brings us to today... the first day of the new semester. I think my classes are going to be even tougher this semester than they were the last time around, but I'm sure I'll get through them just the same. And it helps that I'm not worried about getting B's anymore, because I know that even if I get a B, I'll have kicked butt to earn it! And there's no shame in that... I am a little nervous about teaching this semester, because I'm TA-ing Calc III, which I don't remember all that well. But on the bright side, we're using the Stewart Calculus book, which is the same book (although about 100 editions later) that I used when I learned Calc. I'm sure it will work out fine, and it'll look darn good on a resume someday.

So that's what's been going on. I hope you've all enjoyed the update. =)