You mean it's only been a week?

It feels like it was a month ago that my parents visited.



Of course I didn't have time to blog about it last week since I started my new job and we moved.



We also managed to go to a wedding last weekend. Congratulation to Kristin and Andy!



Rachel went with us and was quite a hit.



I'll catch you all up on the rest of the week a little later. We're still unpacking, and painting. It's going to take a while.

Back in touch with the real world...

We have been without Internet for just about 36 hours. The cable guy came last night and hooked us up, but I just hadn't gotten around to plugging in the wireless router. Too much other stuff to do, you know.

I find it hard to believe that by the end of the day today, we will be completely moved out of our old house. We're mostly done, but there are still some things in the garage and shed that need to be moved. We've got some people coming over today to help us out for a bit.

On Thursday night, Monica's brother Pete came over and helped us load the big moving truck. Yesterday, my friend Ed came to help us unpack it. Without the help of these two guys, we never would have gotten moved. I can't thank you enough.

The roof on the new house is in the process of being replaced, and hopefully it will be finished today so that tomorrow, we can unpack and get organized in peace and quiet.

I'll write more later about the crap we've been going through this past week with closing and loans and such. Right now, I need to get over to our old house so that we can be done with it.

Snow birds

My parents arrive today, and it's not supposed to be 100 at any point during the weekend. In fact, it was downright chilly this morning, as is evident by this really cute hat that one of Monica's co-workers made for Rachel.

I don't know if Mom and Dad will know what to do with themselves.

I'm also going to post another video here today. Hopefully, those of you who haven't been able to view the previous ones will be able to see this one. It's an AVI file, so it should open up with your video player of choice. As for the other videos, you'll probably have to go to the Quicktime website to download the latest version.

This one was shot with my little Canon Powershot yesterday. Rachel has started reaching out to grab things on her own now instead of waiting for them to be brought to her hands.


Click here to see the video

Uno mas

Tomorrow will be my last day of employment with North East ISD.

On Monday, I start my new job with Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD.

I haven't said very much at all about this transition because I wanted to tell the people I work with about me leaving before I told the Internet about it.

I have spent two years and ten weeks working for NEISD. They gave Monica and I a reason to come back to San Antonio, and for that I will be forever grateful. I will truly miss the people that I have worked with over the past two years. The Educational Techology department at NEISD has some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet, and some of the most dedicated in the district. I have also met some amazing teachers at the four campuses I've worked at...you know who you are.

When I interviewed with NEISD, one of the questions I was asked was how I would handle having multiple campuses to take care of, since I was coming from a single-school district. I answered that since I would be mainly responsible for curriculum, planning and staff development, I should be able to handle it just fine. I think over the past couple of years, I've handled my duties very well. There were plenty of areas I could have improved upon, and I never felt as though I was doing a perfect job, but hopefully the teachers at my campuses felt like I gave them the assistance they needed when they needed it.

So with such great people to work with, why did I leave?

There are a number of reasons, actually, some of which I don't want to get into, but for me personally, I felt that the job in Schertz was a step toward where I want to eventually end up, and that's in charge of a tech department somewhere. Maybe it will be in Schertz some years down the road, and maybe it will be somewhere else, but my goal is to get back to the point of making decisions and being able to be influential in how technology is used in education.

While I was able to directly influence how technology was used in classrooms in NEISD, I felt like there were certain aspects of the job that were out of my control. After being the decision maker on things like purchases, curriculum, network, and policy decisions in Chicago, it was quite an adjustment for me to not have those responsibilities.

I feel as though I'll have some of those opportunities again in Schertz. It is a relatively small district that is growing like crazy. The student population is projected to double in the next five years. Their technology department is small, which means I'm getting in on the ground floor of an organization that is going to continue to grow, and I'll be part of the team that directly influences the vision for the use of techology.

Working for a large school district has been an amazing experience for me, and I've certainly learned a lot at NEISD. However, now I'm looking forward--to a new beginning for me, a new beginning for our family as we move to a new house, and a new opportunity for me to share what I know about technology with teachers in a new place.

Farewell, NEISD...it has been my pleasure to work for you.

SCUCISD, bring it on.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

This child is doing it all backwards. If we could just get her to roll the other way, we'll be set.


Click here to see the movie

Month Four

Dear Rachel,

Today you turn four months old. I can't believe how quickly the last month flew by. I just got used to saying that you were three months! We have been really busy as a family, and there are a lot of exciting changes that will be happening this month.


By the end of your fifth month of life, you will be living in a new house, and your Daddy will have a new job. These things aren't a big deal to you, but they are a huge deal for your parents.

Watching you this past month has been amazing for us, as always. Now, instead of reaching out tenatively, you will grab at anything that comes within an arm's length of you. Rattles, your bottle, daddy's face...anything that's close to you, you'll grab, and usually try to put in your mouth. You've also started grabbing your feet, but thankfully, you're not trying to eat those, yet.


In addition to grabbing, you're also holding on to stuff a lot longer to explore it. You will even hold onto your bottle from time to time, which makes it much easier for me to change the channel on the TV and have a beer while you're eating.

You've refined your digit sucking over the past four weeks. At the end of last month, you were shoving your whole fist in your mouth. Over the course of this month, you picked out two fingers you liked, and in the past week, you've decided (much to my dismay) that your thumb is what you really want to suck on.


You've also become very vocal this month, regularly holding conversations with whoever will listen, and you will go on for minutes on end. Especially when your mother and I are trying to listen to something on TV. There are certain words or sounds that you will respond to with a laugh, like the dog's bark, or the word "poop." It still makes us laugh every time you laugh.

Your are getting used to spending time on your tummy and don't cry or fuss as much as you used to. Earlier in the week, you picked your head up, turned and looked right at my while you were on your tummy, which you hadn't ever done before. Usually, I have to get down to floor level to get you to turn and look at me.


You're still not turning over, but when you're on your back, you will turn onto your side to look at something that interests you. Hopefully, this month, we'll get you to turn completely over.

Bathtime has become a real trip. Instead of washing you in your plastic tub over the sink, you've started taking a bath with Mommy. You love being in the tub and having room to kick around. You kick so much, that you get me wet sitting outside of the tub. You really love the water, and I can't wait to take you swimming.

You've started recognizing that the dog is a living thing, and he is becoming more daring around you. You will follow him when he walks by, and you love watching his tail wag. He, in turn, shows you a lot of love, usually by licking your feet, but he also sniffs around your face a lot.


We bought you a jumper this month, which you love to spend time in. You bounce around a lot, and are starting to figure out that the toys on it are there for you to play with. We love it because it wears you out, which means you fall asleep quickly after you've been in it.


Speaking of falling asleep, you're starting to become quite the little stinker when it's bed time. You will play in your bed for a while, but once you realize that there's nobody around, you start to cry. Loudly. Very loudly. We know that babies form habits around three months, so we're trying to get you to fall asleep without us holding you or standing over you, but sometimes you just need a loving face to stare at. One night, you were wailing like someone had dropped you, and when I walked in, you were just laying in the middle of your bed, pitching a fit. As soon as you saw me, you stopped crying and calmed down. I guess you are just a social butterfly, and want people around.

We took you to your first high school football game last week, and you didn't seem to mind all of the noise. In fact, you even fell asleep during part of the game! Mommy's team got obliterated by Grandpa Martinez's team, but we won't talk about that.

Grandma Connie and Grandpa Rick will be here in a few weeks for a weekend visit. We can't wait to see them, and show them how much you've learned!

Love,
Daddy

This one's for you, sis...

I don't know how you did it, Sarah, but somehow, this little girl is taking after you.

In which it all hits the fan...

Isn't it weird how everything happens all at once?

In case you couldn't tell by the new banner, we have accepted an offer on our house. I hesitate to say it's sold because the deal isn't done until the ink is dry on the papers.

A lot of other things fell into place last week, too.

Over the course of the past year, I had applied for 6 different jobs and only got one interview. Trust me, I'm not applying for stuff I'm not qualified for, so it's been really frustrating.

Over the past month, I've applied for two jobs and got interviewed for both of them. Also over the past month, we've had several showings on our house but no bites.

My whole world flipped upside down last week.

Over the course of 7 days, we accepted an offer on our house, looked at about 15 houses, placed an offer on one, and I accepted a new job.

All in one week.

And the fallout from all of this is going to happen all in the same week, too. I start my new job, and we close on both houses in the same week.

Maybe.

The house we put an offer on needs a new roof, and I have a really bad feeling that it's going to be a sticking point on both ends. It's a deal breaker for us if the sellers don't want to fix it, which means we start all over again looking for houses.

October is shaping up to be a very busy month around here.