Why, Hello There!

I've been hibernating. It's winter, what can I say?

First off, we've moved. When we decided BW and I weren't going to Texas, we looked into renewing our lease at our old place. We were told that because we were renewing, and not new to the apartments, our rent was going to go up nearly $100 a month. Really? In this economy? I'm surprised, but, I guess I shouldn't be.

We found a new place for the cost of what we had been paying. A bigger place, closer to our old neighborhood, where we could FINALLY have both our cats, and one of our large-ish dogs. We moved in four days, from start to finish. Well, MM moved. I worked.

We came up with an agreement with the friend who had been fostering our two dogs (remember Eva?). He had fallen in love with Eva, and since we had found her as a stray on Christmas eve, and then moved her into his place the following February . . . Yeah, he'd had her longer than we ever did, and he was smitten. But, Daisy is back home with us.* We're almost a complete family unit again. But more on that further down.

We've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to have to stay at my current job. My schedule is changing in a few months, so no more Saturdays, no more late nights. And, I'm going to part-time. My wonderful company will still give me full benefits and pay for my school.** I just can't walk away. MM's job is still up in the air, but, we have hope. It looks promising. We're going to leap and hope the net appears.

I can live with this newly proposed arrangement. I'll find out what my part-time schedule will be next month, and the plan is for BW to finish third grade, and then go back to homeschooling. We miss it, him and I. He's doing well, his grades are all good - which, at the very least, is validation that I'm teaching him at the public school level - and he really does like it. But, he also really likes homeschooling. We told him he could choose, so I expect we'll see how the summer goes and make a final decision in early August.

I'm sure my mother-in-law will be so pleased.

Our family friend is going to be moving back to AZ. I'm not sure I talked much about him before. He and MM used to work together, back before we were married. He lived around the corner from us, and has been a part of our life off and on for years. He'd fallen on some hard times a few years ago, and moved to Texas and lived with us. He worked nights and helped us out with BW when we needed him, and it just worked. I'm not sure how else to put it. He gave us enough space that we didn't feel over crowded, paid a little rent, and helped out when we needed him to. He became a part of our family.

He doesn't have any "real" family he's close to, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to do when we decided to move back to AZ. He stuck it out in Texas, but now that we're gone, he really has no ties to the area. He's decided he'd like to come back, and we told him our door was always open to him. He'll be back in March.

We're currently thinking if this job - hell, any job - ever picks up for MM, we'll buy a little land outside of town and, I don't know, do something with it. I can't really think past that. Or rather I can, but everything changes so I'm trying not to think too far ahead. In the meantime, things are starting to head back in a direction I'm content with.

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*My preferred method of dog poop care is to let it harden and then mow it over. Because I'm lazy like that. It seems they frown on that at apartments. I'll just say that there's a lot of "I took her last time, it's your turn!" and "Don't forget the bag!" and a little score keeping. So far, MM's winning. It's similar to having a baby again and arguing over dirty diaper changing.

**I'm taking a few history classes this semester. So far, they're really fun. I'm floundering school-wise, I can never pick a direction without changing my mind, so maybe having limited choices will do me some good. At any rate, at some point, I will graduate. :)