one year at WKU

Yesterday marked one year of working for my alma mater. It's been a good year, and I've learned a lot about marketing and web. I hope the year to come is just as exciting and enjoyable!

car issues

The last couple of days have been kind of rough. Both of our cars had something break on them at just about the same time. The first emergency was my radiator the Sunday before last. It cracked all the way down. It was so busted that it had to be replaced. What should I expect of a 93' Camry? Stuff is going to break after so long. It's bound to happen on a car that age. Lucky for us, radiators aren't terribly expensive. A couple hundred dollars later, I was back on the road.  It was only out of commission until last Monday afternoon.

Then, Chris' clutch started getting really bad on the Jetta. It hadn't been working properly for three or four weeks, but he noticed it was getting worse. We were hoping it would just need an adjustment and not a total replacement. However, the mechanic says it's totally out, so it's being replaced hopefully today. We dropped it off last Thursday night for them to look over it Friday and hopefully get it back as soon as possible. We had hoped that if it just needed an adjustment that we would get it back Saturday afternoon since they're open half a day on Saturday. Of course, with it being a total replacement, they had to order several parts, and it's going to be expensive to fix, but thankfully not quite as much as we had anticipated. I am thankful for a solid emergency fund and Chris' new job. The mechanic said we'd get it back by today at the latest. They had kind of hoped that they might it get back to us yesterday, but that didn't happen.

We're hoping this is the last major repair for a while. We've had some work done on Chris' car since he's had it the last three years, but most of it has always been voluntary maintenance type work. I guess that's kind of like preventative care. I don't recall many repairs being done on it because something was totally broken. Maybe my memory isn't the best when it comes to this stuff. He says it will drive like a dream when we get it back. I hope he's right!  

Sooo...I've been coming in to work at around 6:45 a.m. the last few days, and I've had to stay a little later than normal. Chris is dropping me off on his way out of town and rushing to get back to pick me up in the evenings. It's been rough. I am kind of exhausted, but we're making it work. I guess I didn't realize how big of an inconvenience it is to have car repairs done when one spouse has to be at work early in another county. It's not much fun. I am thankful it's only temporary and that even though both cars acted up in the same week, at least one has been in working order the entire time. When things like this happen it really makes you realize how dependent we all are on things to work correctly. God is teaching me patience and total dependence on him through this mini-trial. Maybe next week I can get some more sleep.

my husband, mr. carter

My husband was offered a teaching job at Ohio County High School! Praise the Lord! This is a huge blessing from the Lord and an answer to many prayers!

It all happened kind of fast. He had interviewed with this school at the beginning of June, but within a couple of weeks he found out that he didn't get the job. We noticed shortly after that they had posted another Biology teaching position for that county. Thinking it was a mistake since they had already hired their new Biology teacher, Chris went on and applied again "just in case." Then, about two weeks ago- three or so weeks after he had applied the second time, he got a call from the assistant principal asking if he was still interested in teaching Biology at their school. The assistant principal said that they had a new principal (and apparently another open position) and asked Chris to come meet him the next morning! By the end of the weekend, they offered the job! He had to be there to start planning for the school year the morning after he accepted the offer. After all, they only had one more week before school was to start. We're so thankful!

This offer had come at a time that was late enough in the summer that we had, for the most part, already resigned to the idea of him subbing again this year. I don't think it was because I didn't think God could do this. It was just that I didn't know if it was his timing yet. It hadn't been for the last two years.

Right now his commute is an hour from where we live. That's kind of a bummer, but we're planning to move across town in December or January (when our lease is up) so that his commute can be condensed to 45 minutes.  I know from experience that commuting out of town for work isn't easy, but it's better than not having full-time employment with employee benefits.

I am so proud of him and thankful for his sacrifice to provide for our family. I am proud to be married to a man who is willing to drive an hour to work, get up extra early every day to call the lady that calls substitute teachers in Warren County to ensure he could work, or go to work as a cashier at a grocery store for the summer to help make ends meet.

I got to go to his school on Sunday to help him get his classroom ready for his classes that started this week. Even though he and the rest of the teachers worked most of last week preparing for the school year (and new teachers worked all week since they had additional new teacher trainings), Sunday was the first day he could actually get into his classroom due to construction. I took a few pictures. On Monday he took a few pictures of his double-headed pig friend.

The first couple of days of school have worn him out, but he says things are going good. He's teaching Biology to over 90 sophomores and Anatomy & Physiology to over 40 juniors and seniors.