Finally, Some Good News

Well, the past two days have been quite eventful and a little challenging. Thursday afternoon, we got a call from the owner of the house that we want to move into saying that someone else has filled out an application for the upper unit and had been approved. The good news was that they hadn't been returning her phone calls about signing a lease, so we had to make some decisions about what we wanted to do. We decided it was worth it to fill out an application, to see if we got approved (which we figured we would), and go from there. Tim and I both submitted our applications late afternoon yesterday, and just had to wait. This morning we both got calls from the realtor saying that we'd been approved and that we can come sign the lease anytime because there were several people interested.
We both shot out of bed and got ready pretty quick so that we could sign the lease before anyone else got it. At first we wanted to start the lease on May 1st so that we'd be saving one month's rent, but the owner of the house really wanted us to have the lease start on April 1st. It really wasn't going to make that much of a difference, and I want to be out of this place as soon as possible, so we agreed and signed our lease and we'll be getting our keys a week from today, April 1st!
We haven't been able to sublease our place yet, but we'll keep trying. We are more focused on getting out of this place soon, and if someone subleases, then that's just an added bonus for us.
I'm so excited that we're going to be able to move to a healthy apartment (house), with a full basement for storage, our own washer and dryer -not coin operated!- and a backyard! So if you're interested in helping us move, we'll be moving in probably Saturday and Sunday, maybe even a little Friday night if we're feeling motivated. We'd love the help! :-)

Suggestions Welcome!

I'm sure you've heard the saying "No news is good news"...well in regards to our apartment situation, no news is not good news. We've been getting calls and emails in response to our ads and we've had three people come and look at the apartment (one other scheduled and didn't show up), but nothing is sounding too promising right now. The first person who came to look at the place never filled out an application, the second people got denied because they had bad credit, and the third person just came today. She took an application with her, but didn't fill it out and turn it into the office, at least not yet. 

We're debating on what to do now. Really, all we can do is wait, but that's so hard. I hate just waiting, in our awful smelling apartment, for someone to come and decide to sublease. I just want to get out of here! Over the past week, we've packed about half of the apartment up, leaving only kitchen necessities and closet items. Tim also closed all of the vents and covered them with packing tape and cardboard to keep the smoke out, so it doesn't smell as bad, but it's still soaked into the carpet, couches and all of our clothes (pretty much everything). We're trying to figure out how long we should stay before just signing our other lease and moving into the other place, but we don't want to have to make two rent payments for a few months. If we waited until July to move, then we wouldn't be losing any money because we pre-paid our last month's rent when we first signed the lease last year. But I really don't want to be in this apartment until July, especially because we're packed and about ready to go (not to mention the health issue). If we sublease later in April or May, we would still lose 1/2 of our security deposit and have to pay the fees of removing our names off the lease and adding the new person, which is about the amount of a month's rent.  

Part of me just wants to sign the new lease, move into the new place, and pay our last few months rent (April, May, and June) even if we're not living in it just to get out of here. We would be losing the amount of three month's rent, but I kind of think it's worth it to move into a healthier place. 

We're open to suggestions, ideas, comments, or advice on our lovely situation. I adjusted the settings of my blog so that you should be able to make comments without entering all of your information, so please feel free.  We just don't know what to do at this point. I guess I can just keep asking you to keep your fingers crossed that someone will sublease soon or that our neighbors aren't chimneys over the next few weeks until we figure out what to do. Thanks, in advance, for your help.

Progress?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :) Just wanted to fill all of you in with a quick update on our apartment shenanigans. We're still in our stinky place, but slowly but surely I think we're making progress. We found a place to move into as soon as we sublease our current place. It's an upper apartment of a house on the other side of town. We've had a few people call and show interest in our current apartment, and actually just had our first person view it about a half an hour ago. It wasn't too promising, but it wasn't bad either. The person turned in their application and still needs to go through a few more steps, but in the meantime, we have two more viewing scheduled within the next week. 
We're trying to get out of here ASAP because it's such a terrible heath issue for me. The landlord won't let us get out of our lease early (unless we sublease), but they did offer another apartment in a different building for us to move into. We're hoping that someone will sublease within the next week or two so that we don't have to move to a different building for two or three months, then when our lease is officially up August 1st, we'd have to move again. I have also contacted my doctor and nurse practitioner who were kind enough to write a letter to the landlord expressing how much of a health concern it is for me to be living in this situation. I'm sure they're not too happy about the news I've been telling them recently, but hopefully by my next doctor's visit we'll be out of here. 


Other than all of this apartment drama, there's not too much that's been going on. I'm officially on Spring Break now, and have the next week off work! Yay for having a job in the education field! This weekend I'll be spending a lot of time with Tim's family, finally getting to see our nephew Cole (haven't seen him since Christmas), who's now 9 months old! We'll probably be doing more packing and cleaning all of next week, but that's alright with me as long as we can get out of here soon. That's about all I've got planned, but it'll be nice to just hang out for a week. 
Don't forget, Great Strides in DeKalb is coming up very quickly -- Saturday, April 9th! We're definitely making progress and recruiting a lot more people than I thought we'd get, so I can't wait to see the turn out. 
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather for Great Strides and that we'll sublease our apartment very soon so we can be in a healthy living environment! 

Sublease

Tim and I have decided it's time to move...now! Originally, I told you that our lease is up August 1st, and it still is, but we're trying to find someone to sublease the apartment from us. That's where you come in....if you know anyone who wants to move to the DeKalb area now, please contact me. We think we found our new place yesterday, but we're going to check out a couple more places today, just to be sure. We'd  be ready to move probably within the next week or two, so we really hope we can find someone to move in here as soon as possible.
Here's some information we've placed on a couple websites and used to created a few ads:

Large, quiet one bedroom for sublease through August first. Will not be returning, so continued renting may be an option. Renter pays last months rent and half of the security deposit up front. $585 + $291. Tenant pays electric only. Located on Buena Vista golf course, large kitchen, abundant closet space, balcony, garbage disposal, updated bathroom. Short drive to NIU.
To see a layout: http://www.masonproperties.com/james.html

If you could please pass this information along to anyone you may know who is going to NIU or wants to move in the DeKalb area. Thanks so much! Keep your fingers crossed that we can move out soon! :-)

I Told You I Like "Quotes"

I found the following quote on someone's Facebook page and decided I had to share it with you, along with some others. I thought it went along nicely with my previous post. 


"You Might be a Teacher If...
You have no time for a life from August to June, you want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work from 8-3 and have summers off" , you refer to adults as boys and girls, meeting a child's parents instantly answers the questions "Why is this kid like this?" , you believe extremely annoying should have its own box on report cards, when in public you feel the urge to correct a strange childrens' behavior, you encourage your friends by telling them they are a "good helper", and you never want kids of your own because there isn't a name you can hear that wouldn't elevate your blood pressure." 


"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents" - Emilie Buchwald


"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job."  ~Donald D. Quinn

"We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family.  Then we expect them to educate our children."  ~John Sculley

"The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book."

"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher."  ~Elbert Hubbard

"The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."

And some other quotes that aren't necessarily about teaching, but some of my favorites.

"You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it."

"Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished." - Og Mandino

"Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality." -Viktor Frankl (author of Mans Search for Meaning)

"Those who have a reason 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'." -Viktor Frankl

“True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.” -Charles Caleb Colton

"...I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. It's perfectly normal." ~True Believer~ Nicholas Sparks

"May you never steal, lie, or cheat, but if you must steal, then steal away my sorrows, and if you must lie, lie with me all the nights of my life, and if you must cheat, then please cheat death because I couldn't live a day without you." -Leap Year

'Tis the Season...

...to start applying for teaching jobs for the 2011-2012 school year, yuck. As everyone knows, thanks to the wonderful economy, there are very few teaching positions open each school year. Applying for jobs is like a job in itself. There are several hundred, maybe even a thousand applicants for each position, so it's a pretty tough time right now. And among those hundreds of applicants, I have to make myself stand out when we all pretty much have the same qualifications. As much as I say that I want to apply "everywhere" there are several factors that I have to keep in mind.

1) Tim and his job. Right now Tim's working about 5 minutes from where we live and also taking a class at the local community college. It's not too easy for us to just pick up and move anywhere right now. Also, our apartment lease isn't up until August 1st, so we won't be able to move until the end of summer. So, if I were to get a job later in the summer that's far away, that limits the amount of time we have to find a place to live.

2) Commute. Gas prices are sky-rocketing lately, and I really don't want to have a huge commute to and from work. I love living close to where I work, it makes everything so much easier.

3) Distance from family. If that one day finally comes where a little Veitengruber enters our life, I would love to live close to family to have their help and support--especially because Tim and I are going to need to keep working.

4) Staying in Illinois? Last year when I was looking for a job, Tim suggested that I look outside of Illinois, but I really don't think I could do that. Going along with 'distance from family', I don't want to be too far from my friends and my comfort either. I'm not a huge fan of moving out of my comfort zone, but Illinois is not doing the best financially...but, then again, I don't know many states that are. Another thing is if I wanted to teach out of state, I am certified in Illinois, so it would cost money to take a test, or possibly more classes, to be qualified in a different state.

5) Connections. Right now, I feel like the only way I can get a job right now is through my connections in the school districts because there are so many applicants for one position. And as of right now, I really only have connections in one district. I would love to keep working in that district, but it doesn't look too promising for next year (teaching-wise, there's a possibility for assistant, maybe). It would also be nice to get into another district to build up those connections, so I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

6) A place to live. This one kind of goes along with all of the above. I feel like if I were to get a teaching job for the fall, I wouldn't find out until late in the summer, if not a couple weeks before the school year starts. This makes things pretty difficult for Tim and I right now because we're trying to look for a new place to live, but if I don't know where I'm going to be working, it's tough to settle on a place--especially if I get a job over an hour away from where we are currently living.

7) Staying an assistant? There's probably a greater possibility of me getting another assistant job for the next school year than a teaching job, but I'd much rather have my own classroom. I do love the current position I am in; I work with great staff and great students, but sometimes it's hard just being the assistant and not the teacher. Another problem is the pay. Being an assistant is full-time, but I am getting paid about half as much as I would if I was a teacher. It kills me because I'm certified and I'm not using that degree to it's fullest, and I could be making so much more. Getting that teaching job would help us save that extra money to hopefully by a house in the near future. Being an assistant this year though has given me an extra year of experience with so many different staff members and situations to help me become a better teacher, so an extra year of that experience would be good for me, but I don't want to get stuck as an assistant year after year.

So, that's my/our current situation right now. There are just so many important decisions, it's tough. I'm really determined to get a teaching job next year, so I hope that my efforts are enough. I'll keep you updated on the hunt. Wish me luck! :-)

I really dislike the unknown!