Past Two Weeks

We put our house... no, not just our house, our first home... on the market Friday, May 17.  I felt like our house was nice and that it had the potential to sell quickly.  However, I didn't think we'd get any interest in the house for a few days.  Ha!  Well, God definitely had different plans, and His plans were much quicker than ours.

We had two showings within 36 hours of putting it on the market, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  We had an offer for house by Monday.  WOW!  It was a cash offer, full asking price.  I mean, seriously?  How much more blessed can we be?  The offer was contigent on them selling their house, which they are set to close on May 31st.  If everything goes according to plan, we close on our house June 21st.  A week later, and I'm still in shock.  I was really not expecting to sell it that quickly.

Here are a few pictures from the listing.  I really love our house...

 

 

Meanwhile, we turned in our resignation letters on Monday, May 20.  It was sadder than I thought it was going to be.  Not that we have done anything wrong, but it made me nervous to be submitting my resignation to my first "real" job.  Andy told his athletes that same day.  I did not tell my students until this past Friday, May 24th.  They handled it like pros.  Of course some could care less and then others were rather upset that I was leaving.  Most of them seemed to be excited that they could actually add me as a friend on Facebook and that I might just accept it.  Oh, the simple life of being a teenager again.

Since our house was off the market so fast, we decided we should probably start seriously shopping for houses in Katy.  Andy had already been in contact with a real estate agent in Katy, but she wasn't very interested in helping us find a house now.  She wanted to wait until June 3rd.  Thankfully, some friends of ours who moved to Katy last year recommended the guy that helped them.  Much better response from him.  He wanted us to look at houses immediately.  Despite it being a holiday weekend, we headed to Katy on Sunday morning to look at houses.  Our realtor is awesome!!  He and Andy have so much in common - hunting, fishing, etc.  He's definitely kind of country like we are.  Anyway, we looked at 8 houses in the span of about three and a half hours.  We didn't just oh-my-gosh-absolutely-fall-in-love with any of the houses, but we did find one that we really liked.  It has a large, extremely large, backyard for Maddie to play in.  It has three bedrooms, two baths, a game/media room, and formal dining.  We put an offer in...actually two of them so far... and the seller hasn't been pleased with either.  Unfortunately for the seller, their house has been on the market for over 20 days with no offers but ours.  In Katy, it's extremely rare for your house to be on the market for more than five days without any offers much less a contract.  So we'll see what happens.  Once we have a place to live, things will get a little less stressful around here.

Saturday evening was the Athletics Banquet at Tarkington.  It was bittersweet.  It felt really weird because Andy couldn't comment on how he expected his teams to do next year.  Everyone kept coming up to us asking if the rumors about us moving were true.  It was just not as enjoyable as I would have liked it to be.  Not to mention two hours of handing out awards and listening to coaches talk about their seasons - boring!  I really think they should do a winter banquet with the fall and winter sports and a spring banquet with the spring sports, but no one asks for my opinion (haha!).

Monday evening we celebrated Memorial Day with Andy's family.  We grilled burgers at his Aunt and Uncle's house.  You can never beat spending time with family.  :)

 

Andy and I with his grandmother Mimi

I started packing up my classroom today.  Yikes, I have a lot of stuff!  I think it's going to take several more boxes, unless I can convince myself to start trashing some things.

This is only about a third of it...

Welcome to KISD!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

It's official.

We are employees of Katy Independent School District.

Oh.
My.
Gosh.

This is so crazy!  I cannot believe this is really happening to us.  Monday night was the school board meeting for KISD, and we both received our contracts via email today.  We have signed them and emailed them back.  It's done.

We have met with Wendy, our realtor.  We went through all the necessary paperwork and took all of the pictures.  Now, it's a matter of writing the listing for our house and officially putting it on the market.  Now, it's time to pray.  I really hope that our house sells quickly, so we can begin house shopping in Katy.  We have found or looked at several homes online, and they are posted and pending very quickly.  We are thinking a two-story house will be better because we'll get a bigger backyard.  We are also thinking more square footage so that once we have children we won't have to upgrade to a bigger house.  Besides, extra space is always nice.

Andy's Final Interview

Wednesday, May 1

Andy drove back to Katy today for his final interviews.  He met Blair, the head coach at Katy Taylor, at 12:45.  (I figured I better start using names because this could get confusing.)  They went to one of the feeder middle schools so that Andy could meet his potential incoming freshman.  They worked through a few drills, and of course Andy picked them quickly and jumped right into coaching mode.  Blair was impressed and relieved that she didn't have to hold Andy's hand throughout the practice.  She will learn that Andy is quite capable of accomplishing things and doing things on his own.

After the middle school practice, Andy met with the Athletic Coordinator (Coach Risien) which was simply a formality.  He told Andy that he came highly recommended and welcomed him onto the staff.

After that interview, Andy drove to the Merrill Center which is where Katy's Athletic Office is.  This interview was slightly more formal than the previous one, but it was still simply a formality in the hiring process of a coach.  This interview consisted of someone telling Andy that Katy ISD is very proud of its athletics and is an athletic-focused school district.  He informed Andy that everything was good and Coach Risien would submit Andy's name to the HR Department.  Woohoo!!  This is the news we were waiting for because if he's going to the HR dept. then he is on his way to getting a contract.

Blair wanted Andy to meet some of the current girls on the basketball team and stay for open gym.  He ended up getting a lot free coaching shirts, and I even got one too.  Andy said that it feels like he's been coaching there with Blair for years.  I told him that's how you know it's the right place to be.  Blair believes that her girls need to have a good weight program, and she is going to let Andy kinda head that up.  He's pretty pumped up about that.  Something he can claim and take control of.  It's so amazing how much his attitude has changed.  It makes such a difference when he is accepted, treated equally, and cared for as a basketball coach.  He isn't even officially hired and has received more support as a coach than he's ever received before.  As his wife, it's so nice to see him happy and excited about his job.

All of Andy's goodies :)

HR Department

Tuesday, April 30

Monday I had a missed call from a phone number I didn't recognize.  Thankfully, they left a message, and it was a representative from the HR Department for Katy ISD.  Yikes!!  Is this really happening?  Is this the next step?  Am I officially getting a job offer?

I played phone tag with the representative, and finally he was able to get ahold of me Tuesday evening.  Basically, Mr. Crews (the principal at my potential new school) submitted my name to the HR dept. and it was time to accept, decline or think about the job offer to be a math teacher at Morton Ranch HS.  Of course I said I would accept!!!  Wow - did I really say that I would accept it?  So crazy to think this is all actually working.  Mr. Rhodes is who I spoke to about the job offer, and he explained to me that I would receive a letter of intent via email and once I accepted the offer that my name would be put on the new hire list for the next school board meeting.  After the school board approves me as a new hire, then I will receive a contract in my email.  Contract is the word that Andy and I have been searching for over the past several days.  As teachers, we operate off of a contract, and if you have a contract, then you have a job.

After I submit my letter of intent, I have to begin all of the new hire paperwork.  And supposedly at the 5A level, there is more paperwork than you could ever imagine.  I still can't believe that this happening.  Andy has two more interviews tomorrow, one with the Athletic Coordinator at Katy Taylor and the other with the Athletics Office for Katy ISD.  Hopefully after that they will submit his name to the HR department, and we can both be on our way to getting a contract.

Other news... We did talk to Wendy, our friend who is going to list/sell our house.  She said our house will get the most hits the first two weeks it's on the market.  So, we are currently in the process of de-cluttering, cleaning, re-arranging, and re-organizing everything so that we can stage it to sell it.  Our goal is to have everything cleaned up by Monday so Wendy can take pictures and put it on the market.  Not to mention, it's Andy's 30th birthday this weekend.  Seriously, when we're busy, we really are swamped.  AGH!!  We'll make it though!

Andy's Interview at Katy HS

Monday, April 29

Andy was contacted last week by the Head Girls coach at Katy HS and was asked to come in for an interview.  I did not take off of work this time because my kiddos really need me especially since the EOC testing is right around the corner.  So, Andy had to make this trip to Katy by himself.  I wish they would reimburse us for gas - hahahaha! 

This past weekend we did a ton of research on the best neighborhoods to live in, tax rates, etc.  We have narrowed down the area and quite possibly the subdivision we want to live in, assuming we get hired and can sell our house here in Tarkington.  There are so many houses on the market and most of them are "pending" which worries me that there won't be a house available when it's our turn to buy one.  But I know that God has everything under control.

Anyway, back to the interview... This interview for Andy was completely different from the last one.  He ended up hanging out in the gym for about 30 minutes before the actual interview started.  This coach is a male and much older than the last head coach.  Very different vibe.  Andy and this coach had a lot in common as far their philosophy, strategies, schematics, playing style, etc. go.  When Andy called me after the interview, I could tell he was not as happy or excited about this job.  Andy then proceded to tell me that he would not be the first assistant but he would be in charge of the freshman program.  However, freshman practice and varsity practice were at the same time which meant that Andy would have pretty much no association with the varsity team.  Huge negative.  Also, he would have to coach two sports.  The job was not advertised as two sports, but they were going to try to sneak it around Andy.  I was actually very proud of Andy because he told the coach that he was not going to coach two sports.  Another negative.  And lastly, he would probably two classroom preps.  Once again, not a big problem, but it's definitely not ideal.  Third negative.

Bottom line, the job itself was much more appealing at Katy Taylor.  The coaching staff was younger as well.  He went to the interview for the sake of experience.  The Katy head coach was impressed by Andy's knowledge of the game and said that he would love to "pick" Andy's brain.  That definitely boosted his confidence that he must really know the game of basketball.  It's one thing when family and friends tell you you're good at something, but it's much more validating and reassuring when someone in the same profession with more experience and expertise tells you that you're good at it.

After the interview, Andy drove to the subdivision that we had researched.  It was perfect!!  Andy said the feel of it reminded him of College Station, and we both love College Station of course.  We have easy access to both of our schools.  Lots of shopping and grocery stores close by.  Overall, great potential for a future home!!

Until next time...

KISD Job Fair

Saturday, April 27

Saturday I went to the Katy ISD Job Fair.  I don't know the correct words to describe how I felt about this whole ordeal.  I had never truly interviewed for a teaching job before.  The school district I am teaching at, I did my student teaching at as well.  So there really wasn't an actual interview process.  They had nine weeks during my student teaching to determine if I was "good enough."  Plus, several people we talked to said Katy was a tough school district to get into.  I printed out several interview questions because I tend to freeze up when I'm put on the spot.  I figured if I could at least get my mind thinking on the line of interview questions then maybe I would have answers to their questions.

After crying most the evening/night before, I really didn't think I was going to get much sleep.  Ha, I slept like a baby!  I woke up that morning and decided I needed to run on the elliptical to help me loosen up a little.  I watched my trash TV episode of the Real Housewives of Orange County.  I thought maybe that would get the "stupid" out of me.  Lol.  I ate some breakfast and looked over more interview questions and talked through them with Andy.  We left the house around noon and arrived at the Merrill Center in Katy around 1:20ish.

There were TONS of people.  I knew there would be a lot of people, but there were more than I had imagined.  Both junior high and high school campuses were present at this job fair, but still it was a lot of people.  Andy dropped me off, and I headed to the door knowing that the fate of our future rested on my shoulders.  Well, not really... I was being a little over-dramatic, but it was all up to God.  I must admit though, my faith was lacking at that moment.  Thankfully, the competitive side of me kicked in, and it was all business once I walked into the building.

The first high school I saw when I walked in was Morton Ranch, and they had several open positions.  Math being one of them.  I stood in line for probably 30 minutes to simply fill out a personnel info sheet just to wait in line again for an interview.  At this point, I was irritated that I was having to wait in so many lines so I didn't really get nervous for an interview.  When they asked if there were any math applicants, I raised my hand and was taken to a side area that had several tables set up with several people being interviewed.  It was a bit overwhelming because I was hoping for something more one-on-one and private.  I sat down with the Math Dept. Head which I thought was a good sign!  We talked for probably 20 minutes.  She really didn't ask me any difficult questions, and when we got done she made a comment that she really liked me.  I knew that had to be a good sign!  Definitely gained some self-confidence after that.

I walked around the arena some more looking for the other high schools.  There were only two other high schools that had math positions available.  One was Cinco Ranch HS, which is apparently the premier school of the district.  I talked to two teachers/staff from Cinco Ranch for about 5-10 minutes, and they said they would be in touch.  I really didn't get as good of a vibe from the them.  The staff seemed a little older, which is fine.  They just weren't as welcoming as Morton Ranch.  I stopped by the Katy HS table even though their math position was tied to a coaching job.  I figured it wouldn't hurt.  I talked with one guy, not sure exactly who he was, but he called over the Math Dept. Head to talk to me as well.  As I was shaking her hand to leave, she made the comment that Katy ISD would greatly benefit from having some like me work in their district.  And she said that she hoped no one else picked me up because she wanted me.  At this point, I was ready to leave.  No other schools had math positions available.

It was about 3:30 when I left, and we headed off to another subdivision to look at a house Andy saw online.  My phone rang around 3:50, and it was a number that I didn't recognize.  I answered it which I rarely do for unknown numbers, and it was the lady from Morton Ranch asking me if I was still at the Merrill Center because she wanted me to meet the principal.  I told her that I had already left but could be back there in ten minutes.  I knew that this could only mean one thing.  They liked me and wanted another interview.  We rushed back, and I got back just in time before they left.  I sat down with the principal, who happened to be an Aggie (whoop!), and the same lady from earlier.  She told me that I was the one person she had remembered all day and that she really wanted me on their staff.  And that's it, they offered me a job.  The principal said he was going to recommend me to the HR Department, which I have no clue what that means.  Is it official?  Are there still more steps I need to take?  It all happened so quickly that I'm not quite sure what to think.

Until tomorrow...

Andy's Job Interview at Katy Taylor

So, I didn't realize this series of blogs would be delayed as long as it has been.  If you haven't read my blog titled "Change is on the horizon, maybe?" then I suggest you do that so you can get an idea of what has happened in our life up until this current blog. 

Bottom line, Andy and I have some HUGE changes in our life to share with you.  I will piece it together one day at a time, so bear with me.  We are very excited and look forward to the new journey that God is taking us on.

Here it goes...

Friday, April 26

We headed to Katy Friday morning so that we could look at a few subdivisions I had found on the internet.  The subdivision we visited was called Waterstone, and it had KB Homes in it.  It was very nice, but we soon realized that we could not afford a brand new home in Katy, Texas which is totally okay.  We drove around a few more areas just see what houses looked like, and what the area looked like.  We were actually a little disappointed in the area, but we were north of I-10 which we have recently learned is not where you want live.

Andy's interview started at 2:45, and we pulled into a church parking lot across the street around 2:00 for Andy to change clothes.  I must admit - he's a pretty handsome guy!  Totally has that coach thing going for him.

He walked into the school around 2:15, and he probably didn't come out until about 4:45.  I sat in the car and read on my Nook.  I honestly wasn't nervous about his interview, but I did get impatient because I really wanted to know how it was going.  The head coach and freshman B coach wanted to come out to the car to meet me.  They told me that there was nothing they could do to help get me a job, which really stunk.  They told me that Katy ISD was having a job fair the next day at 1:30 at the Merrill Center and that would be my best bet for a job opportunity.  More details on that in a little bit...

Back to Andy's interview...  Andy said his interview with the assistant principal was a tough one.  She was the one that had the tough questions to ask.  However, she used to be a coach so she completely understood that Andy was being hired as a basketball coach, but she had to make sure that he could hold his own in the classroom.  All went well with the asst. principal.  After that interview, he met with the Girls Coordinator.  That interview went well also.  Then the good stuff started, and Andy finally got to talk with the head basketball coach alone.  Of course they got out the marker board and discussed everything and anything basketball.  It was so nice to hear the excitement in Andy's voice when he was telling me about it!!  At the end of all that, the head coach looked at him and told him that unofficially she was offering him the job.  Unofficially because she had to talk with the assistant principal to make sure everything was good on the academic side and he would still have to meet with the athletic director and someone on the athletics committee (whoever that is).  She did say that if he was her recommendation then he was going to get the job, and everything else is just a formality of working for a big school.  It was awesome fantastic wonderful news for Andy!!

Then I ruined all of the excitement.  At this point, everything depended on me getting a job.  Talk about stress overload.  I truly lack self-confidence in my ability as a teacher.  Everyone says that I'm a great, even fantastic, teacher but the school district I have been working at doesn't support that.  They give none of their teachers the support and encouragement needed to feel successful and be successful.  I cried for most of our drive home.  I had some nasty self-doubts that I really had to come to terms with.  Thankfully, Andy is a patient man and really loves me because I am sure it was scary and frustrating talking to me on the way home.  Bottom line, I had to put on my big girl pants and nail an interview at the job fair the next day.

Until tomorrow...

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day is always kind of a crazy day for us.  We are usually in Shiner because of the family reunion on Saturday.  Sunday morning we go to church with my mom and then usually have breakfast afterward.  Around noon we head back home and spend the evening with Andy's mom.  This year seemed to be such a great weekend, reunion and Mother's Day.

The cards I made...

I made everyone take pictures after church in their church clothes.

Kevin and Blair

 

My mom and step-dad

We got my mom two watches from Sam Moon.  A purple one so she can wear it to all of the Shiner Comanche sporting events, and silver one for everyday wear.  She has already worn them to work and gotten several compliments.

My mom with her children. :)

Andy's dad bought Andy's mom an iPad for Mother's Day.  We decided to get her a Vera Bradley tablet sleeve for it.  If you know me, you know I love Vera Bradley so this gift should not have surprised you.

Notice the look on Andy's mom's face in the first picture on the second row... Yep, there's a story behind that look.  Andy's parents had discussed her NOT getting an iPad.  I assume she told Andy's dad that she did not need one.  So, that look started out as a look of "you're in trouble mister for buying this expensive gift," but now she absolutely loves her iPad.

Andy with his mom

Valis Family Reunion

Every year on Mother's Day weekend, my family on my mom's side gets together for a family reunion.  We have been doing this for as long as I can remember.  Most people groan at attending their family reunions, but not my family.  Most of my cousins are about the same age as me, give or take five years, and we have a blast!  We always have BBQ for dinner, and we always play a softball game.  When we were much younger and all of our parents were younger, we (mostly our parents) played volleyball until all hours of the night. 

This year I didn't play in the softball game because I rarely get to see my own immediate family (mom, step-dad, brother, brother's girlfriend) so I played several games of washers with them instead.  We had such a great time, and we always look forward to this reunion!

As you get older, you really begin to understand and realize what's important in life.  Family is one of those things.  I don't think most young people truly appreciate their family.  I know I took my family for granted when I was younger.  Now, I don't know what I would do without them.

I can get really photo crazy, especially with family...  Here are some pics before the reunion.

Kevin and his girlfriend Blair

Blair and I

my mom and I

We did not purposely try to match...

Pics from the reunion... Lots of washer playing!

Love my little brother, who's not so little anymore!

Mom really had to concentrate - LOL!

He's seriously like a pro at this game.

Natural!

Good form! I actually played quite well, surprisingly.

Of course the little cousins had to play!

Andy and Kevin looking over the
fence at the softball game.

Andy's 30th Birthday!

Today was Andy's 30th birthday!  It's so weird because I don't feel like we're that old... probably because we are always around high school kids.

We were up Friday night pretty late, like past midnight which is very late for me.  So I walked into the living room at 12:15am and asked Andy if he wanted to open his birthday present.  He only got two presents from me because one of them took up most of my budget.  Unfortunately, one of the presents I ordered online hasn't come in yet so I figured why not do something different and open his presents just after midnight.  I know, I'm crazy!

I got him a Birdieball Indoor Putting Green.  We practiced putting for about an hour at one o'clock in the morning.  Crazy, I know!  Who cares, we had a fun time.

 

He figured out what it was!

 

 

I missed my putt!

After Molly's birthday party, we headed over to Andy's parents' house to open his birthday presents there.  We also decided to take some "cute" pictures outside in the backyard.

Ready to open his presents!

 

At 6:00 we headed to Pueblo for our small birthday party with family and friends.  We had a great time hanging out and celebrating Andy's birthday!!  It was exactly how I had it planned in my mind.  Andy's dad even came to celebrate with us even though he wasn't feeling well.  It was just perfect!

Typical self-portrait while we were waiting on everyone to arrive!

Some of the group

Spencer (cousin) and Kari (family friend)

Andy, me, and Mimi (his grandmother)

 

Pueblo birthday!!

Whipped cream...

Topped with a cherry!  He was such a good sport. lol

Happy Birthday!

Molly Turns One!

Today our friends Doug and Wendy had a birthday party for their one-year old daughter Molly.  We had a great time catching up with friends and eating cake.  Molly is one happy little girl!  And of course we think we had the best gift there.  It was a little car that you sit on, and when you pull the gear shift, a ball shoots out from the engine.  Then you put the ball back into the engine through the steering wheel.  Way too cool!  Andy definitely picked it out.  I will try to get a picture of her playing with it.

There's always cake on the face at the 1st birthday party!

She did such a good job digging out of the bags.

She looked at every single present she got!  She did so awesome!