Allen spoke before the church board this past Sunday about his business. It was after an extremely long weekend of remodeling our bathroom but he managed to put his tools down and clean himself up and get to the meeting. Corbin and I met him there though we didn't actually go. We just sat in the car and waited, providing moral support, I suppose.
Allen seems to think the meeting went well. There were a lot of questions about he can make the business Christian based. Hopefully he answered them well.
I hope this works out for Allen. We never got an answer and hopefully we'll find out soon what is going on but Allen left feeling good about things so that was enough for me.
The one thing we've learned with this business venture is that all things happen through God's timing. Allen wanted to do this over a year ago. We started working on it over a year ago but things would never come together. That's when Allen had the idea of making it a Christ-based business. He felt like that is what God was telling him to do. So that's what he did.
Since then, things have moved a lot more smoothly though it has been at a slow pace. But Allen has been more accepting of the slow pace because he believes it will all happen in God's timing.
And so far, it has.
We will hopefully have classes in Nashville starting soon but also Allen has been approached by his nephew, who lives in Williamston about doing classes there. He has a large group that he feels will take the classes so we're working towards that too. It'll be interesting to see where this all leads.
I told Allen that though it's felt like a slow process, once it happens, it'll happen so fast, we'll be about to go crazy!
So in a few more weeks, our lives will change and we are hopeful it'll be changes for the good.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
New bathroom
So, I mentioned earlier that Corbin and I spent the weekend at Mama Ruth's. The reason we did that was twofold. One, we wanted to spend time with Mama Ruth. But two, Allen and his dad made plans to remodel our bathroom.
The bathroom has been in the works for a while. We started tearing down stuff in there, which we are really good at, but we haven't put anything back. But finally, we decided that we just had to do it. Our bathroom was gross. Being an old house, bathrooms are usually the worst room in the house. That was definitely the case in our house.
Initially, we wanted to gut the whole bathroom and completely rearrange the layout of it. But then, we decided to keep it simple and cheap. We were just going to replace the sheetrock on the walls and ceiling, paint it, put in a new toilet and sink, redo the floor and put in a new window and then of course, there was some more odd and end stuff.
So I left Friday and on Saturday, I discovered that Allen had decided, in tearing up stuff, that it wouldn't be that difficult to rearrange stuff the way we originally planned. Then we could have the bathroom we originally wanted. That's the good news. The bad news is I came home Sunday and my bathroom was not finished. In my opinion, it wasn't even CLOSE to being finished. I had to pee outside, if that tells you anything.
So, although I was excited about my new bathroom, I was a little worried that it would not get finished in a timely manner. And, I am still worried.
On Monday night, I came home and I did finally have water again and I could pee inside so that's definitely a plus. But I could not take a shower or bath.
Here's the picture. There is sheetrock covering all the walls and ceiling and this floor stuff covering the floor. But there's no paint on the walls, the walls haven't even been mudded yet and there is no floor down. There's no light. It's just a room with a toilet and a bathtub that can't be used yet.
SO, I'm a little concerned but I have to have a little faith that my husband will do this project much quicker than he does other projects. I can only go so long not taking a shower and peeing in the dark.
The bathroom has been in the works for a while. We started tearing down stuff in there, which we are really good at, but we haven't put anything back. But finally, we decided that we just had to do it. Our bathroom was gross. Being an old house, bathrooms are usually the worst room in the house. That was definitely the case in our house.
Initially, we wanted to gut the whole bathroom and completely rearrange the layout of it. But then, we decided to keep it simple and cheap. We were just going to replace the sheetrock on the walls and ceiling, paint it, put in a new toilet and sink, redo the floor and put in a new window and then of course, there was some more odd and end stuff.
So I left Friday and on Saturday, I discovered that Allen had decided, in tearing up stuff, that it wouldn't be that difficult to rearrange stuff the way we originally planned. Then we could have the bathroom we originally wanted. That's the good news. The bad news is I came home Sunday and my bathroom was not finished. In my opinion, it wasn't even CLOSE to being finished. I had to pee outside, if that tells you anything.
So, although I was excited about my new bathroom, I was a little worried that it would not get finished in a timely manner. And, I am still worried.
On Monday night, I came home and I did finally have water again and I could pee inside so that's definitely a plus. But I could not take a shower or bath.
Here's the picture. There is sheetrock covering all the walls and ceiling and this floor stuff covering the floor. But there's no paint on the walls, the walls haven't even been mudded yet and there is no floor down. There's no light. It's just a room with a toilet and a bathtub that can't be used yet.
SO, I'm a little concerned but I have to have a little faith that my husband will do this project much quicker than he does other projects. I can only go so long not taking a shower and peeing in the dark.
Mama Ruth visit
This past weekend, Corbin and I made the 45-mile or so trek to Pitt County. The trek itself is not that big of a deal because we make the trek quite often and over the past month, we've made it at least once a week. The big deal is that I had Corbin all to myself for a whole weekend. Normally, this wouldn't freak me out. But on the day before we left, Corbin began crawling and crawling means a lot of things. It means never being able to keep my eyes of off the boy and it means lots of boo-boos.
I enjoyed the weekend but it was stressful! Corbin was all over the place and everytime I told him "no" he would scream and it would break my heart.
But the bigger picture here is we got to spend the whole weekend with my grandma.
Mama Ruth has been having some troubles lately. Her mental health has not been too good the last few weeks. Since my uncle died, Mama Ruth has been experiencing what the doctors call delirium without demensia. The condition is brought on by stress or anxiety. Obviously, losing two brothers and a sister-in-law within a year or so of one another can be stressful. But the losses have scared her because she knows that one day, she too, will die. So anyway, Mama Ruth began talking to people that weren't there and doing strange things. It freaked us out and she saw a doctor and that's when we found out about everything.
Mama Ruth seems to thrive with people around, especially children. She seems more like herself. I have noticed that when Corbin is around, she is so happy. She gets on the floor and crawls around with him and she just seems happy. When we're not around, or when she is alone, she stays in bed all day long. That is obviously not good for her. So the family is trying hard to keep her surrounded by people, especially kids, as often as possible.
We had a good visit. Mama Ruth seemed to enjoy herself and Corbin seemed to enjoy climbing all over everything and trying to mess with everything but his toys. I, on the other hand, about went crazy. This crawling thing is no fun! But I suppose it'll just take some getting used to.
I enjoyed the weekend but it was stressful! Corbin was all over the place and everytime I told him "no" he would scream and it would break my heart.
But the bigger picture here is we got to spend the whole weekend with my grandma.
Mama Ruth has been having some troubles lately. Her mental health has not been too good the last few weeks. Since my uncle died, Mama Ruth has been experiencing what the doctors call delirium without demensia. The condition is brought on by stress or anxiety. Obviously, losing two brothers and a sister-in-law within a year or so of one another can be stressful. But the losses have scared her because she knows that one day, she too, will die. So anyway, Mama Ruth began talking to people that weren't there and doing strange things. It freaked us out and she saw a doctor and that's when we found out about everything.
Mama Ruth seems to thrive with people around, especially children. She seems more like herself. I have noticed that when Corbin is around, she is so happy. She gets on the floor and crawls around with him and she just seems happy. When we're not around, or when she is alone, she stays in bed all day long. That is obviously not good for her. So the family is trying hard to keep her surrounded by people, especially kids, as often as possible.
We had a good visit. Mama Ruth seemed to enjoy herself and Corbin seemed to enjoy climbing all over everything and trying to mess with everything but his toys. I, on the other hand, about went crazy. This crawling thing is no fun! But I suppose it'll just take some getting used to.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Master's Degree or bust
So, I've always had this dream/goal of going as far as I can in education. I wanted to be Dr. Clark just because I thought that would be pretty cool.
I went to UNC-CH and did get a certificate in Technology and Communication in the graduate program. At that time, that was the only thing offered online in the Master's program. But when I started, there were plans to begin an online Master's Degree program. I had every intention of being one of the first classes to graduate from that program. It never happened.
There are many reasons it didn't. The main one was money. It's super expensive to go back to school. I paid for the certificate program out of my own pocket. And if I were to go back to school for a Master's Degree, I would hope to not have to get any more loans to do it. I have enough school loans at the moment and I'm barely able to pay them back! So obviously, with Allen out of work for so many years, it was just unreasonable for us to do.
Another reason was fear. I don't want to fail. Things have changed a lot since I was in college. I struggled a lot with the certificate program and I was scared I'd not be able to get through the Master's program.
Then, of course, it was time. My job keeps me pretty busy. I work at night, on weekends, and sometimes at the last minute so going back to school, even online would be a challenge.
Time definitely continues to be an issue. I have a little one now and he takes up a lot of time. If I'm not working, I'm with Corbin, trying to play with him and spend as much time with him as possible. I don't want school to interfere with that too much.
And now, my life is focused on Corbin and giving him the best education I can. So every extra dime we have is going into a savings for him to go to school, whether it's a super expensive private school (which I wrote about a few blogs ago) or college. I want to make sure he can do whatever and go wherever he wants. So, I suppose I feel like at this point, I have to sacrifice my own wants and desires for my family.
But lately, I've been thinking hard about it. I don't know why. It's not like getting a Master's Degree is going to allow me to make more money in the newspaper business. It won't. But my initial plans were to get my Master's Degree so maybe I could teach journalism at the college level on a part-time basis to supplement my newspaper salary with potential plans to leave the newspaper business once I had a family and teach full-time. But teaching? YUCK. Some people were meant to teach. I don't believe I am one of those people. But could I be?
A part of me feels like if I'm going to preach to my kid about how important a good, quality education is, then maybe I should have one myself.
I don't know what I'll end up doing. I'm 31 years old now. That's like a 100. If I keep thinking about it, I'm scared I'll lose my chance forever.
I went to UNC-CH and did get a certificate in Technology and Communication in the graduate program. At that time, that was the only thing offered online in the Master's program. But when I started, there were plans to begin an online Master's Degree program. I had every intention of being one of the first classes to graduate from that program. It never happened.
There are many reasons it didn't. The main one was money. It's super expensive to go back to school. I paid for the certificate program out of my own pocket. And if I were to go back to school for a Master's Degree, I would hope to not have to get any more loans to do it. I have enough school loans at the moment and I'm barely able to pay them back! So obviously, with Allen out of work for so many years, it was just unreasonable for us to do.
Another reason was fear. I don't want to fail. Things have changed a lot since I was in college. I struggled a lot with the certificate program and I was scared I'd not be able to get through the Master's program.
Then, of course, it was time. My job keeps me pretty busy. I work at night, on weekends, and sometimes at the last minute so going back to school, even online would be a challenge.
Time definitely continues to be an issue. I have a little one now and he takes up a lot of time. If I'm not working, I'm with Corbin, trying to play with him and spend as much time with him as possible. I don't want school to interfere with that too much.
And now, my life is focused on Corbin and giving him the best education I can. So every extra dime we have is going into a savings for him to go to school, whether it's a super expensive private school (which I wrote about a few blogs ago) or college. I want to make sure he can do whatever and go wherever he wants. So, I suppose I feel like at this point, I have to sacrifice my own wants and desires for my family.
But lately, I've been thinking hard about it. I don't know why. It's not like getting a Master's Degree is going to allow me to make more money in the newspaper business. It won't. But my initial plans were to get my Master's Degree so maybe I could teach journalism at the college level on a part-time basis to supplement my newspaper salary with potential plans to leave the newspaper business once I had a family and teach full-time. But teaching? YUCK. Some people were meant to teach. I don't believe I am one of those people. But could I be?
A part of me feels like if I'm going to preach to my kid about how important a good, quality education is, then maybe I should have one myself.
I don't know what I'll end up doing. I'm 31 years old now. That's like a 100. If I keep thinking about it, I'm scared I'll lose my chance forever.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Nashville Academy of Martial Arts
I'm on a roll today. I just remembered all this stuff I have to write about.
Things have been moving, slowly but surely, with Allen's martial arts stuff. We have been working with a church here in Nashville to start classes, hopefully in March.
Around 2 weeks ago, Allen started back taking classes in Greenville at Charles June Karate Institute. He wanted to get back into classes himself to get refreshed on things but to also move forward with advancing in his belt ranks. He is currently a black belt. In order to give others black belts, I believe you have to be a second degree black belt. So Allen will have until next April to work towards that goal. Even if he started his own classes now, it would be years before a student is ready for a black belt so his timing will be perfect.
I have loved to see how happy getting back into martial arts has made him. It is something he truly loved and I hate that he stopped doing it. I'm not even sure why he stopped. I've been able to go with him to 2 classes and though he's not been to a class in like 12 years, you cannot tell. He can keep up with the best of them.
Allen has to go before the church board on Sunday evening to discuss his plans. A final vote should be taken then so hopefully we'll know what's going on and can move forward. If they approve it, we start classes after Upward Basketball, which should be in March. If they don't approve it, well I guess we have to start over in looking for locations.
Each week, Allen meets with the preacher of the church to do prayer meetings and to discuss things. I think it has helped him having support and prayers from others. This thing is not something we have a lot of support for. It's something that is certainly risky but it's something we both believe in. My job is to support my husband. That's what I am doing. I feel that God is leading him to the path He wants him to take. This is where that path has led and so this is what we are doing. If we fail, then we can say we tried. If we never try, we will never know.
I, too, have concerns. We have and will invest a lot of money, and time, into this business venture. If it fails, it will break both of our hearts but it will truly devastate Allen.
There's a lot that goes into a business. There's the name, the logo, the business plan. We've done all that, though we still are working towards registering the name. But then there's the other "stuff," the businessy stuff, like taxes and legal mess.
Allen did a great job with his logo. It's something he designed and got done on his own. I think he has a pretty good business plan too. That's something that was all his ideas but that I put together in a manageable, understandable format. So, basically I wrote the plan based on Allen's thoughts and ideas. I think we did a good job for our first one.
I pray that this business will succeed and be everything Allen wants it to be. I hope that it will give him the life he's always wanted. But more importantly, I hope this business is everything God wants it to be, so that we may lives the way He wants us to.
Education
So, before Corbin was even born, I started thinking about his education.
Education is important to me. I want him to have the very best education for several reasons but the top two are: 1) I want Corbin to be able to do and be anything he wants to be in life and I don't want his education to hinder that. And 2) Corbin will be the one to pick my nursing home and take care of me so I need him to have a good education so that he can pick the best nursing home and take proper care of his old mother.
I went to public schools. I have no qualms about it. I am properly educated...well sort of.
I went to rural public schools. Rural as in, out in the middle of nowhere, or in really tiny towns. I felt like I received a good education, until I went off to college and got into some of my classes and went "huh?" That's when I realized I missed out on some things. I'm not downing rural public schools. They did a good job with what they had. But I want more for Corbin.
I also have concerns about my job. I know I'm being slightly paranoid but I write about the local school board. And though the school board is not one I cover on a regular basis, that could change. And what we write about is not always happy stuff. I don't want there to ever be a chance where school folks could take out my articles on Corbin.
So I began to look at private schools. I know nothing about private schools. My cousin went to one and I knew they were expensive but that's it. I didn't, however, realize how expensive. But, in my tiny little brain, I became determined to find out about private schools.
I started researching them and found one that I really liked. I had visited it before, in my role as a reporter and I was impressed then. We get press releases all the time from this school. But when I went to their website I couldn't find tuition rates. I needed to know the cost so I could sit down and get a realistic idea of whether or not this could even happen.
I found tuition rates of other schools, however, and thought this particular school couldn't be much different.
I was wrong.
I finally got my hands on the rates and discovered why there tuitions rates are so hard to come by. They are super expensive.
I mean the rates are comparable to some colleges.
But I was still determined. Can you really put a pricetag on your child's education? Well, yes, you can actually.
I discussed it with Allen and I fully expected him to, after he passed out from learning the rates, to say heck no, we aren't spending that kind of money on a private school. But, instead, he was silent for a moment and then said, well I think it would be one of the best investments we could make.
Of course, this made the wheels start turning in my head. How in heck are we going to afford private school? And, this is where we are now. I'm going over the numbers, going over our paychecks and the only solution I can come up with is that I need to become a prostitute or drug dealer.
I've gotten Corbin's piggy bank out and started putting money in it like crazy. A dollar here, a dollar there. I put a bunch of change in there (but only the silver stuff). At last count, I had around $65 in there. So that should cover about 5 minutes of Corbin's private school career.
I have a long ways to go. But I've got tons of ideas to make this happen and they don't require me doing illegal stuff. But they do require me never eating out, buying clothes, renting movies or doing anything remotely fun ever again.
Education is important to me. I want him to have the very best education for several reasons but the top two are: 1) I want Corbin to be able to do and be anything he wants to be in life and I don't want his education to hinder that. And 2) Corbin will be the one to pick my nursing home and take care of me so I need him to have a good education so that he can pick the best nursing home and take proper care of his old mother.
I went to public schools. I have no qualms about it. I am properly educated...well sort of.
I went to rural public schools. Rural as in, out in the middle of nowhere, or in really tiny towns. I felt like I received a good education, until I went off to college and got into some of my classes and went "huh?" That's when I realized I missed out on some things. I'm not downing rural public schools. They did a good job with what they had. But I want more for Corbin.
I also have concerns about my job. I know I'm being slightly paranoid but I write about the local school board. And though the school board is not one I cover on a regular basis, that could change. And what we write about is not always happy stuff. I don't want there to ever be a chance where school folks could take out my articles on Corbin.
So I began to look at private schools. I know nothing about private schools. My cousin went to one and I knew they were expensive but that's it. I didn't, however, realize how expensive. But, in my tiny little brain, I became determined to find out about private schools.
I started researching them and found one that I really liked. I had visited it before, in my role as a reporter and I was impressed then. We get press releases all the time from this school. But when I went to their website I couldn't find tuition rates. I needed to know the cost so I could sit down and get a realistic idea of whether or not this could even happen.
I found tuition rates of other schools, however, and thought this particular school couldn't be much different.
I was wrong.
I finally got my hands on the rates and discovered why there tuitions rates are so hard to come by. They are super expensive.
I mean the rates are comparable to some colleges.
But I was still determined. Can you really put a pricetag on your child's education? Well, yes, you can actually.
I discussed it with Allen and I fully expected him to, after he passed out from learning the rates, to say heck no, we aren't spending that kind of money on a private school. But, instead, he was silent for a moment and then said, well I think it would be one of the best investments we could make.
Of course, this made the wheels start turning in my head. How in heck are we going to afford private school? And, this is where we are now. I'm going over the numbers, going over our paychecks and the only solution I can come up with is that I need to become a prostitute or drug dealer.
I've gotten Corbin's piggy bank out and started putting money in it like crazy. A dollar here, a dollar there. I put a bunch of change in there (but only the silver stuff). At last count, I had around $65 in there. So that should cover about 5 minutes of Corbin's private school career.
I have a long ways to go. But I've got tons of ideas to make this happen and they don't require me doing illegal stuff. But they do require me never eating out, buying clothes, renting movies or doing anything remotely fun ever again.
Baby personalities
So, I'm starting to see Corbin's personality come out a bit. For the most part,I think my little boy will be pretty awesome. But I'm his mom and I'm supposed to think that.
He seems to have a sense of humor. I can't imagine where he got that from? But he loves to laugh and smile. And he laughs at the strangest things but that doesn't really bother me because I love, love, love it when he laughs.
I think he may also be a daredevil like his crazy father. He is now pulling himself up in his crib and standing. He'll hold on to the crib and just bounce up and down, up and down. He also tries to eat the railing of his crib. I hope that's normal and that he's not part goat because he puts anything in his mouth. Last week, I had him at work and he kept trying to lick my desk.
But anyway, back to his daredevil antics. He recently started to stand up in his crib, bounce up and down, up and down and then let go of his crib. Since he can't really stand up by himself for too long without holding on to something, he eventually falls. So he'll fall backwards and scare the crap out of me. And each time, he laughs hysterically, rolls over, climbs back up the crib and does it again.
Everything that has happened to him that scares the crap out of me, he finds ridiculously funny. I'm a little worried about this.
Allen plays too rough with him, in my opinion. When I fuss at him about it, he insists that Corbin is a little boy and needs to be tough so he's helping toughen him up. Well I certainly don't want my little boy to be a sissy but still, I can't help it if I want to pick him up and hold him every time he falls down and cries.
I think Corbin is gonna be a fun, little boy. I think he is also going to drive me crazy, much like his father. But at least I'll have plenty to write about.
He seems to have a sense of humor. I can't imagine where he got that from? But he loves to laugh and smile. And he laughs at the strangest things but that doesn't really bother me because I love, love, love it when he laughs.
I think he may also be a daredevil like his crazy father. He is now pulling himself up in his crib and standing. He'll hold on to the crib and just bounce up and down, up and down. He also tries to eat the railing of his crib. I hope that's normal and that he's not part goat because he puts anything in his mouth. Last week, I had him at work and he kept trying to lick my desk.
But anyway, back to his daredevil antics. He recently started to stand up in his crib, bounce up and down, up and down and then let go of his crib. Since he can't really stand up by himself for too long without holding on to something, he eventually falls. So he'll fall backwards and scare the crap out of me. And each time, he laughs hysterically, rolls over, climbs back up the crib and does it again.
Everything that has happened to him that scares the crap out of me, he finds ridiculously funny. I'm a little worried about this.
Allen plays too rough with him, in my opinion. When I fuss at him about it, he insists that Corbin is a little boy and needs to be tough so he's helping toughen him up. Well I certainly don't want my little boy to be a sissy but still, I can't help it if I want to pick him up and hold him every time he falls down and cries.
I think Corbin is gonna be a fun, little boy. I think he is also going to drive me crazy, much like his father. But at least I'll have plenty to write about.
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