Thoughts on a Friday…and a life update

Happy Friday, friends.

I’d like to thank those of you who commented or emailed me after my last post. Its good to know you are still there. 🙂

Life lately has really been the opposite of how I prefer my summer vacations. There has been a lot less lounging by the pool time than I anticipated and a lot more stress. Things are settling down now (at least until the start of the school year in a couple weeks!) As to where I’ve been…

Four years, four moves, five classrooms, and one little blog ago I sat heartbroken in my townhouse in Greenville, South Carolina because Corey had been offered a really great position in New Jersey. A week before I had been in total bliss. Just weeks away from completing my teaching internship, Corey had recently left a job where he wasn’t happy to take a new position in Charlotte – putting him just a short forty minutes from my parents – and putting all of the people I loved the most in the same place. The icing on the cake was that I’d literally just been offered my first teaching job as a leave replacement for 1st grade starting after the holidays.

Just a few short weeks later, on the weekend of my twenty-third birthday, Corey moved to New Jersey and started an even better job. Somewhere in the nine months of long distance dating, I finished my master’s degree and finished the school year with my sweet firsties, got engaged, and found myself living in Hoboken, New Jersey teaching at an innercity Newark school. A year of prayers later, I moved back to 3rd grade (the grade I student taught) in a fabulous district and found myself super happy. At the time, it was the only move I’d made for my own professional development (not Corey’s) and I could see myself teaching there for the rest of my career…except for the fact that it was 700 miles away from my family.

If you’ve been reading for any length of time, you know what happened next. Corey was offered a new position in Charlotte. We moved back South, I accepted a job teaching 5th grade Gifted and Talented, and we started building our home. Which gets us all caught up until about six weeks ago.

My job here had been pulling at my heartstrings all year. A great position and opportunity but so, so different from my school in New Jersey where I had been so happy. Then, I was called by the district where I did that leave replacement all those years ago and asked if I would be interested in interviewing for a 3rd grade job that had come open unexpectedly. And all of a sudden I found myself coming full circle – back to my favorite grade in the district that believed in me since the beginning of my career.

On the very same day I accepted that position, I kid you not, Corey was told he was being promoted…to the Washington, D.C. territory. So here we were, facing another nine months of long distance (marriage, this time), another move, and another job search for me. Seriously, ladies…you can’t even make something like this up.

More than once I was overcome with a sense of de-ja-vu. Knowing I would only have my job for one short year (and hence totally regretting my job change), that I would be seeing my husband only on weekends, and that I would be leaving good friends for the third time. Then, many sleepless nights and many prayers and exactly three weeks later, the local territory opened unexpectedly. And Corey was asked if he would be willing to take it instead since he already had relationships with many of those clients from his current position. To which, of course, he said yes.

So here we are, both with new jobs, but in the same city. And we are thankful. So, ladies, this is what I’ve been up to lately. Thanks a ton for your patience and support!