A River Runs Under It

My life lately: Busy, busy, busy, sick kids, sick kids, sick kids, substitute teaching, planning ordination, buying a house, working with synod on negotiation of salary package, meeting with accountant to make sure we can live on said salary package, weekly trek to LaCrosse for TT, falling down stairs and still hurting from it

The longer version:

What hasn't been going on? That's more the question.

CH, now to be called Sony (pron. as the brand name), has been sick since Thursday night. TT, now to be called Minky, convincingly faked illness on Friday. The 3 of us kicked back in my bed and watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off. CH is still sick. We're heading to the doctor in just a bit.

Minky's vision therapy is going remarkably well. Yesterday as we were waiting for his appointment, I actually spied him reading a book! This is monumental. Then a little girl came into the playroom where he was reading and he struck up a conversation with her:

Minky: Are you here because your eyes work funny too?
Girl: Yep. That's why I come here.
Minky: Me too, but my eyes are getting better. They used to be a lot worse.

He would never admit this progress to me or Rab (aka C). This is a huge breakthrough! We are thrilled.

Salary negotiation has been Midwest interesting. The congregation's exec committee didn't understand how to calculate a bunch of stuff, so their initial offer came in over $10K less than it should have. Luckily, the synod has rectified the situation and has told them to pay me for 6 years of experience, given my previous professional life. This is a great thing. Now we can afford to eat.

I met with our new accountant yesterday. I felt pretty stupid after leaving there. Not because of anything he said - he was totally cool and wonderful. It's just that his ability to crunch numbers in his head and put them down coherently onto paper is mind-blowing. He suggested we set up a special plan for me to pay our taxes because I'm not good at saving up throughout the year nor at staying financially organized. Yeah, that's me...the special pastor.

The house offer will actually go in tomorrow. It's a great house - just right for our family. It will be quite a shift for us - the house is in the country and has a well and a septic system. That's all new to me....The house was foreclosed upon in 2005. The accountant says this gives us tons of wiggle room on our offer....the bank is likely very anxious to get the property sold. I searched the Wisconsin court system online today to find out the judgement amount, because the CPA said that is a good number to know during negotiations. I finally found the case number but now I need to head to the courthouse to look at the documents. Fun. More driving.

Substitute teaching is going great. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my jobs on Friday and today because of Sony's illness. I think everyone in the city's school system is Ferris Bueller sick this week - I had over 20 offers to sub today! Geez.