Another Big Change

While Phil was in Denver, we watched the seed harvest from the porch.  They definitely have a whole system down.  

It was a long week with Phil gone and then his flight was delayed because of storms and he ended up getting home a good 4 hours late.

Big stacks of hay (out the living room window on the North side)

We have been watching field burns as well.  I saw smoke one early morning and then heard sirens.  I could tell by the smoke that it wasn't a field burn.  Sadly, an old family farm burned to the ground.  I saw some pictures on social media.  It was owned by an elderly couple and the outside structures and the old homestead were burned, but I think their mobile home survived with perhaps minimum damage.  Quite honestly, it looked like this place before we moved in and a bunch of stuff was hauled off.  I know it must be so traumatic for the couple living there but I wonder perhaps if it was a blessing in disguise to be able to clean up the property.  It was covered with junk and blackberries.

I see tansy wherever I go!

We took the long way home from Stayton through the little town of Sublimity and down Anderson Road which is the gravel road that parallels Sherman.  This is our view but looking down toward our house.

 We stopped by the pioneer cemetery on the hillside.  It is small and rather run down but very peaceful.  Many of the gravestones have unfortunately been broken.  It was founded in 1850 and we found someone who had been born in the late 1700's and had died in 1852.  It is interesting to think of the early settlers moving into this area, clearing out the land, and homesteading some 170+ years ago.

Pants are apparently optional

This is the view from the hilltop.  You can see our house a little off center to the left next to a thick "hedge" of trees.

Summer drives on hot days can be exhausting.

Sunrise...

Sunset...

Watching the evening sky grow darker.

Sunrise...

Just this morning...

Ok, and now for another big change...less than 2 weeks ago, Phil got a phone call from the principal at a high school in the Salem/Keizer school district.  He had heard Phil's name and about his skill set and had turned down 82 applicants for a job that he was wanting to fill at his building and wondered if Phil would be interested in applying for it.  It was very unexpected and completely out of the blue.  The job hadn't even been reposted yet but Phil got his application ready and talked to quite a few people about the job, the building, the school district.  The team he would be working with sounded amazing and included 2 people that he already knows professionally, through coaching, and socially.  The building itself sounded very progressive and under strong leadership.  The principal had only been there a couple of years but had been working on building a powerful team and making a lot of really positive changes in the building.  It would be a huge step up professionally with a large pay increase but the kicker is...Phil would no longer have the long holidays and the flexibility that we have enjoyed as a family.  

He did a phone interview while he was in Denver and then had a second interview at Starbucks on a Saturday evening when he got back home.  He was approved for the job provided one last interview by the superintendent who had the final say so.  Monday, he interviewed a third time with the superintendent, the assistant superintendent, and another district level employee, who happened to have been his boss for two years.  He was offered the job and their human resources department is writing up the contract.  At the moment, he is unofficially the assistant principal in charge of special projects at McNary High School in Keizer.  Once the contract has been signed, we can make an official announcement!  We are excited to get to that point.

He starts August 1st and will be heading out to the coast for an administrative retreat.  He is so excited about this job and it is really "strange" for us to think about all the steps that have led up to this point.  Last year at this time, we were waiting to hear back on his interview for the technology director at Silver Falls.  He did not get the job (though he was one of the top applicants) and we were so disappointed.  I was flat out mad!!  But as the year went on, Phil was actually glad that he didn't get the job.  He was able to flex hours and that allowed us some needed time for all the dyslexia testing, the ADHD testing, the doctor's appointments, the tutoring twice a week in Portland...and then we bought a house!  That really turned things upside down as we boxed up and moved most of our things into storage so we could get our house on the market.  We were in limbo quite awhile waiting for all the payment issues to be worked out but we finally took possession of the house and then moved in.  Phil had so much flex time saved up from the Fall, that he was able to take a full 2 weeks off in addition to Spring break to start the demolition on the house.

Phil's brother and Alec came in March to start working on the house.  Alec stayed on and has been living with us and we have been happy to provide him with some employment and an opportunity to get his life together.  

With the big changes, we have decided that we are going to pay to have the house finished.  We are lining up all the subcontractors that we need.  We are going to go ahead and finish the upstairs bathroom and remodel the kitchen.  Honestly, this is a huge relief for me.  Our plans were to continue working away ourselves, pulling long hours, and working every evening and all weekend until the house was done and hoping we could get it finished by January.  Now, we can move faster, we can finish the things that we couldn't afford to do, and we can concentrate our efforts on the outside (we have a retaining wall to put up, fill dirt that needs to be hauled in, and a lot of fencing that needs to be done.)