First House!!!

We looked, offered, and bought a house this past weekend. It was a crazy weekend as you can imagine. We went out on Saturday looking at houses after getting approved for a home loan. We signed about 3,000 different documents and I think I may have signed over my first born as well...there were so many different documents, I'm not entirely sure. Regardless, we are now the proud owners of a house in the town where I work and where Andrea got a job to begin teaching this next August. There were only like 4 houses that were in our price range, and 2 of them were dumps, and the other one was WAY out in the middle of nowhere....so this one was meant for us I suppose. Our friend and realtor pitched them our price on Sunday morning and we got a call that they accepted it around noon today. It's a nice little house and we will have a good time fixing up stuff and changing stuff around so if and when we sell it, we will be able to get our $$$ back and then some.

It has:

-1,448 square feet
-new siding
-new windows
-1 and 3/4 bath
-full basement (which will be renovated and finished)
-2 bedroom (also a 2nd story large room which could be made into more bedrooms)
-new refridgerator (wheee)
-2 year old furnace and central air
-and a bunch of other things...

Needless to say, we're excited. We take possession of the house on April 28th. After this weekend of craziness, I need some sleep.

-Dan out-

JOBS RULE!

And in other news, Andrea got a job teaching grade school at the same school I'm teaching at. WHEEEE!!!! Here comes the double paychecks baby...well, not till September, but still, things are finally starting to come together. Next week, when my Jr. High track season begins, aka, busy as heck for 6 months, we are going to start looking for a house. There are a couple that we've been looking at online, but now we actually get to do the loan thing, do the looking thing, and then do the buying thing.
We're pretty excited!

Something cool is going to be coming out in World of Warcraft. The next update will include the elements...rain and snow! It is pretty darn cool looking. HERE is the snow video, and HERE is the rain video. They are also available on their website HERE which is where I got them from. Very cool...very cool indeed!

OTher than that....I just have to do some crazy grading this weekend. 3rd Quarter has come to a close, and the procrastination has come to an end.

-Dan out-

Not Very Photogenic

currently reading: The Sword of Shannara Trilogy - Terry Brooks

Well, we went to the ultra-sound on Friday. It was very cool to actually see our baby and watch it move around. The heart beating was probably the coolest part but all in all, just the fact that you could see the baby was very cool. Here are some pictures from the ultra-sound...although, they looked a TON better on the monitor at the doctor's office. But, you can see a few things.

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6

I'm even more excited now that I have seen this little kid moving around and what not.

In other news, I designed the backdrop for my school play. I had to draw it all out first, print it out on transparency paper, project it on the backdrop which was hung on my wall, trace it out, then do the other side of it, (it's in 2 different sections), and then bring it down to the gymnasium where myself, Andrea, another teacher at my school, and three freshmen girls all painted for 6 hours. We FINALLY finished about 4pm....and got the heck out of there. It turned out pretty well, and if I remember, I will post some pics of it after I take some.

This week is standardized testing for 3rd thru Jr. Highschool....which means, I lose my room to the 2nd grade classes through Wednesday. Otherwise, the classes will be disturbed. Sooooo, I get to do art on a cart...aka, we're going to be doing a lot of drawing ladies and gentlemen!

Also this week, is my first art show over at a local high school. I am bringing some students with me and 30 pieces of art work to display. I am a little nervous about how this whole thing will work out, but I know that even if something goes wrong, no one will be angry at me or anything...since I'm new to the whole art show thing. Now NEXT year...there will be no excuse...haha.

Tomorrow I get to finish matting the rest of the student's artwork and then just kind of hang out. Hopefully we find out if Andrea got the job or not this week, and can stop stressing out about that. JUST GIVE IT TO HER ALREADY!!!

-Dan out-

SPORE

This game could quite possibly change the way all games are seen from now on.  Will Wright, best known for his Sim City and Sims series, has a new game coming out called Spore.  This game is quite amazing.  There sheer size of this game is mind boggling.  HERE is a video of his presentation of the game to some of his peers I’m suspecting, but it shows pretty much all the aspects of the game.  It basically starts out at a cellular level and you slowly evolve from a one celled organism all the way up to a highly advanced race of people that live on a planet and wage wars against other races or species of animals or creatures that live in other cities that they have evolved into.  Once you get the entire planet working together, through advancing technologies, creating a Sim City like civilization, then a Civ like civilization, you jump into a planetary exploration and terra-forming game.  You can travel to other planets in your solar system, by way of a space-ship that you have finally invented by working your technology up to that level, and you can start life on other planets.  Now…the other planets in your solar system or nearby solar systems also are working towards that goal.  You can run across alien races and all kinds of other “players” who have been doing the exact same thing you did with your solar system.  There are literally THOUSANDS of different outcomes.  Needless to say, I am VERY excited about this game….and can see playing it for years and years….hmm, kinda like some of his other games.  Funny how that works.

Three Day Weekend

Well, another week is almost over, and I’m one step closer to the end of the year.  Not that I’m wishing my life away, but there are quite a few things that will be happening over this next year that I’m kind of excited about.  First off, the baby…..come July, stuff is going to be a whole lot different around our lives.  We’ll know if Andrea has her job as well, which hopefully will turn up to be here at my school, ::crosses fingers:: .  Also, we will hopefully have a house, albeit a small one maybe, but a house none the less, which is WAY better than an apartment.  

In other news, X-Files is a great show.  I made it through seasons 1, 2, and am now working on season 3.  Good times are being had.  Tonight I think that myself and Jarod will be playing some Battlefield 2: Modern Combat on LIVE.  Let me just say, I’m glad someone else got that game so I have someone with which to play.  We’ve rocked out that game a few times, and tonite I believe will be another night.  There is just something about playing with a TON of other people that makes you feel like you’re actually there.  I know, I know, living in a dream right?  So what……, dreams rule!

My brother in law wants me to play in this poker tournament that if you win, will give you a free shot at the World Poker Championship Tourny…..buuuuut, I don’t really want to do it.  Why, oh why you might ask….well, it’s to much pressure.  When I play poker, I play for fun, to have a good time, and maybe win some money.  The second that there is someone who is to obsessed with winning, the fun is ruined….and I know that I would be to serious about the whole thing.  I’ll stick with my little games, and have fun doing it.

Three Day Weekend coming up here, which puts me in a good mood!  Hope it’s a fun weekend of justice!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE