A challenge plays!

of summer vacation.  I feel like a kid, I swear.  It’s my last week of summer vacation and I better make it good.   No seriously though, I do have some stuff to get done this week.  I want to get my desk/room organized.  I have to make sure everything is ready for the start of school.  I would like to outline the year in chemistry since I didn’t get as much lesson planning done as I had hoped.  I also need to get all my clothes ready.  I want to make sure that everything is ironed and ready to go. The last thing I want to do in the mornings is figure out what to wear.  I also have to go get some laser surgery on my gums – that will be fun.  I have no doubt the week will just fly by.   A very important thing I want to do is get my blogs fixed up.  I have put little time and effort into their upkeep in about a year and I need to remedy that.  I have some stuff that is no longer valid on some.  On others I don’t have much of anything.  Time to get organized, clean up the blogs, maybe some new templates, who knows, but that is on my organizational list this week. So I’m off to start the organization process.

As I wrote over on my other blog, I’m giving up my nearly 30 year quest for the perfect body.  I haven’t attained it yet and I doubt at this late point I’m going to.  I plan on staying healthy and active, but I’m going to do it in order to stay healthy and active, not to get skinny or get to some magical size that I think will make me happy.

That’s part of it really, I (actually many people) think that some outside thing is going to make them happy.  Some possession, some job, some man, some mythical number on a scale.  It’s not.  Happiness, true happiness, comes from within.  It comes from being satisfied with what you have, who you are and your place in the world.  I think many people come to that realization much earlier then I did, but I also think others never come to that realization.

I can’t get over how happy I am now.  I have a house that I absolutely love.  I love this place so much I find myself constantly cleaning up and doing things.  Hello!!! Me?????  It’s awesome.  I want to keep it looking as nice as possible because I love it so much.  I have a job that is just awesome.  I really love teaching and I’m sooooo looking forward to starting my second year.  I just know it’s going to be so much better than the first one.  I love my dogs.  We took in two scraggly looking dogs with lots of issues and they have turned into two of the best dogs ever.  Having a chance to spend the last 7 weeks with them has really helped them and me.  They have calmed down and really settled in and know what is expected of them.  While I have really gotten to know them.  I no longer try to put expectations on them based on previous dogs.  I know exactly who they are and I absolutely adore them for it.  I love my birds.  I have the privilege of caring for 10 birds, each with it’s own unique personality and quirks.  It’s a joy to have them around, listen to them talk and know they are happy and healthy. I love my husband.  I know he has a lot of faults but so do I.  We get along really well – most of the time – and are generally insync about things.  He is awesome about working his butt off to make sure we have money and can live in this awesome house.

Some people might say my life is perfect.  It’s not.  We have some financial problems, but nothing major.  We have our disagreements and issues, but nothing major.  I am incredibly blessed and need to remember that all the time.  So from now on I focus on the awesome things in my life and not the one thing that’s not perfect – my body.  I am done fighting with myself.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Coldwell Banker. All opinions are 100% mine.

As you may know, we recently purchased our first home. Now homeownership has a lot of drawbacks, the main one being that you can not just pick up the phone and call the landlord when something goes wrong. You have to take care of it yourself. However, the good far outweighs the bad and just knowing this house is mine makes me feel warm and fuzzy every single day.

I am one of those strange people that never wanted to own a house. I was a real estate appraiser for 10 years and still never wanted to own a house. But we were getting killed by taxes every year. Killed!!! But I honestly did not know if we would ever be able to afford to buy a house. We worked hard, payed a boatload of taxes and never seemed able to get ahead. How could we possibly come up with $40,000 for a down payment? It just did not seem likely.

Then two things happened. The sub-prime real estate market collapsed which caused the highly inflated prices to drop rapidly which means we were not priced out of the home market anymore. Also, the government put in the 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits. This tax credit allowed first time homebuyers, or those who have not owned a home in three years, to claim a credit of $8,000 off their taxes. It also allowed current homeowners who have lived in their homes 5 of the last 8 years a $6,500 tax credit if they bought a new home. The income limits were very generous too; $125,000 for singles and $225,000 for couples. This was an opportunity we could just not pass up.

With the decrease in home prices, interest rates at the lowest they’ve been in years, and the $8,000 tax credit we literally could not afford not to buy. Also, the federal government allowed you to take the credit on 2009 taxes if you closed in 2010. We just got our taxes done and we applied the $8,000 credit to the 2009 taxes. This worked out fabulously for us because in order to afford the down we had to cash in a couple of 401ks. Cashing those in early generally come with hefty penalties, but because we had the $8,000 credit it offset the penalties. We are getting a huge – HUGE – chunk of change back. This is the first time we are getting a refund in easily 10 years. You have no idea how excited I am about it.

I believe that this tax credit expired already. I think you had to close by June 30, 2010 so that may not be around anymore – unless home sales plummet and the government brings it back which is always possible. But, we still have some of the greatest buying conditions in history. Prices are still relatively low, interest rates are down, and the regular tax benefits from owning a house are just too good to pass up. Next year, right off the top, we have about $12,000 in deductions so far – and there will be more before the year is up. So seriously, if you are even slightly considering buying a house, now is the time to jump on it. We did not think it was possible, we also did not think we’d find a house we liked! But after almost 2 years of looking on and off again we found the absolutely perfect house for us. I love this house and I say so every single day. So check it out. Start a search, see what’s out there, I think you will be surprised at what is possible.

Doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.  I can be like that sometimes.  Especially if a habit or action worked for me at some point but has stopped working, I will continue to do it expecting it to work again even though it’s not working and I know it’s never going to work again.  I keep doing it until something hits me in the face – hey!! it’s not working….

Anyway, I’m feeling that way about a couple of things in my life.  There is one particular item that is controlled by others and I just participate in.  The powers that be keep bringing things up – different things, yet nothing ever seems to change.  I’m beginning to wonder if it’s time to let it go.  Also, with this group, there’s a lot of talk but seemingly little action and that irritates the hell out of me.  Don’t tell me what you’re going to do and never do it…. just do something and surprise me….I know people are busy, with the economy the way it is everyone is busy watching their money and trying to make a buck.  Even more reason to just put up and shut up….don’t get people’s hopes up then nothing happens…..seriously.

In other news, one more week and then school starts again.  Yikes!! I can’t believe summer vacation passed by so quickly.  I did get a lot done but I wish I’d gotten more…. Oh well, water – bridge, etc….. Okay, I’m off to do something constructive and stop all the bitching

Okay, I have a confession.  I have this terrible habit and it just drives me absolutely bat sh*t crazy.  I use any excuse under the sun to not do something.  It can be the most lame, stupid excuse in the history of the world but I will use it.  For example, I have been working to get my lessons ready for school – which starts in 2 weeks.  I have got the pre-algebra going great, notebook ready, lessons getting organized, tests written – it’s awesome.  Today I have 20 days worth of lessons ready to go, so the first month is handled.  However, the chemistry side is not going so well.  I only have like 3 days ready for that.  My reason??  I don’t know when the labs will be.  Huh?!?!  How lame is that?  Seriously, I don’t know when the labs will be so how can I plan my lessons.   I kid you not, I am insane sometimes.  The labs kind of tie into what we are learning but they can stand independently too.  For example, the first lab is a measurement lab.  There will be a bunch of different things to measure and different measuring devices to use. We will then compare the entire class to see how accurate and precise they were.  We do cover this in class but it can just as easily be covered in lab.  I haven’t written the lessons because I think to  myself I don’t know if I’ll deliver it in class or in lab. Really, what does it matter? If I deliver it in class great.  If I deliver it in lab – that will work too.  I am a complete crazy person sometimes, I swear….

Where is live is a private street, driveway really, with just three houses on it.  We are the middle house.   We have the largest lot and really, the best location.  We have a carport, a space next to the carport where my husband parks, and space in front to park.  The neighbor to one side is at the end of the drive so she has lots of places to park.  The neighbor on the other side, not so much.  They have very limited room for parking because they are at the bottom of the driveway.  They also went and fenced in their yard completely for the dogs and now have even less room to park.  When they were moving in and working on the house we let them park in front of our house because a lot of people where in and out.  Now they seem to think they can park their any time they want to.  It’s kind of pissing me off.  I think it’s very rude and inconsiderate to park in someone else’s place without asking – which they repeatedly do.  They really should have considered the parking situation before they bought the place.

When I originally started blogging I did it for me.  I did not care if I got comments or not.  I did not care if anyone read my blog. I did it for me and me alone.  Then I gradually started  infiltrating the blogging community and leaving comments on other blogs and eventually people began leaving comments on mine.  That was great!!!!  I loved getting comments.  Then came all sorts of social networks like Entrecard and Adgitize…These were great ways to get people to come to your blog, read it and probably comment.  It was great fun.  Then I found things changing.  When crafting a post I began to think about what other people would consider interesting.  What they would want to read and comment on.  That began to change the way I wrote.  I found myself not posting about things I found interesting because I thought other people wouldn’t like it.  I’ve let that kind of thinking control my blogging for a while now.  Well, today I’ve decided to change things up.  I’ve stopped taking Entrecard adverts and I’m pulling the widget as soon as all adverts are run.  I’m going to remove myself from the Adgitize network.  If people like my blog they will keep coming regardless.  If they only came because of those things I don’t really care if they come back.  So that’s it.  No more censoring what I write. I write for me and that’s the only person I need to please now….. And I like that….

I’m not sure why I haven’t updated over here recently…nothing much to say I guess….  I have been doing things.  Working on my lesson plans for next years classes – this is going to be great.  Working on my thesis – though not nearly as much as I’d wanted to.  Working on my running – I’m almost done with a 3 week program, woo hoo!!!  So I’ve been doing things.  We’ve also been doing things around the house.  We painted the hallway and yesterday we started constructing the fence.  When we moved in here no one but us had dogs and the fences were ancient chain link all rusted and ugly.  We put up some hog wire over the chain link because little Lols could jump the 3′ chain link.  That was good for the 3 months we’ve been here.  Now the other house has been sold and they have dogs.  Then, the neighbor on the other side is bringing over the boyfriends 2 dogs.  Yikes.  We are going to be surrounded by dogs.  So we decided to put up a wood fence.  This will keep the dogs from seeing each other all the time. They will still know the other is there by the smell but at least they won’t see them every time they walk across the yard or something.   So we put up one side yesterday, 21′ of fencing.  OMG!!  It was hard work and I was exhausted after.  It took us about 3 hours, which isn’t bad considering.  I was so hungry and tired last night.  This weekend we are going to put up 37′ on the other side.  Then there is just some small patches across the front.  I should be exhausted by the time Monday comes.

I’m on summer break and I decided to really make it a summer break. I have things to do, write a thesis – write new lesson plans,  but I also decided to have some fun.  I have never, in my adult life, had the summer off.  I have never had a large block of time off and got paid for it.  I want to enjoy it so I’m refreshed  when I go back to school.  So yesterday I headed out to the beach.  My intention was to go for a swim to get some exercise. I did swim and it was awesome. After I swam I sat there and was just enjoying the view.  At that moment I decided that I would spend more time at the beach this summer.  I would get a sand chair and bring my book and just relax.  So I did that today.  It was a glorious day.  The sand was glinting gold.  The ocean was various shades of blue.  The sky was blue with big white puffy clouds.  Absolutely gorgeous.  And I could not relax.  I read for a few minutes but quickly grew bored.  I watched the scenery but found my mind thinking of things I needed to do when I got home.  It was crazy.  I just could not really relax and enjoy the moment.  I used to be able to do that.  I used to be able to shake everything off and just enjoy.  I realize that I may have been a little too good at it and shook off things I shouldn’t have, but I knew how to have fun.  I seem to have lost that ability.  Somehow,in my recent entry into grown-up activities ,  I lost the ability to really relax.  Wow!!!  That is so not good.