Happy Halloween!

So after living here for two years we had only one tricker-treater...and there couldn't be a better one! Meet Dora (a.k.a. Hayden) who came in quickly took off that itchy wig and wanted to "pay" with "Kourk and Inn."

My Last Day!

Today is my last day of work for The Care Group. It has been a great job and I'll miss the people that I worked with, but I am definitely excited about doing something different. It hasn't hit me yet that I don't have to show up on Wednesday. I feel a bit free but can't wait to sleep in a bit more (of course my internal clock will only let me sleep until 7a.m.)! So I thought that this picture captured the feeling of joy very well.

Image from Flickr.

Our Last Game!

And after some concern...the Boilers pulled out a Homecoming win!

Wow, Monday was a BIG night!

So, reading below you see that we found out about a new addition to the family tonight, and now we know where he will be running around. We have a house! We found out at about 10pm that we got our first choice rental house! We were competing with two other couples, so we had no clue what to expect, but it all worked out. Lynne was so excited she was jumping up and down in the dining room. So here are some pics of our new place. It is a three bedroom and the third bedroom will be my office since I may be working from home a little bit early on. The office has the most amazing built-in bookshelves (yes, for which to place the spoils of my booksale addiction). There is a year-round sunroom, an amazing spacious kitchen with gas stove, a beautifully manicured and landscaped lawn, a two-car garage (hooray!), perfect hardwoods throughout, a fireplace, and a clean, coated, painted, and well-lit basement with an amazing washer and dryer room. Also, Lynne likes to remind me that the stone and brick in front look like a mini-ATO. :)

We were looking in the Broad Ripple area, and this house is on Capitol near 54th about 2 miles southeast of the ripple, and it was so much nicer than what we could find just south of the park. Also, it's near Meridian which is nice for Kirk since he may be working downtown once they secure him some office space. The neighborhood is VERY nice, but we are sad that we won't be there in time for trick-or-treaters this year. Tons of thanks goes to Sara, Jerry, Kevin, and Tammy for finding this place on their long "house-hunting" bike ride. This place was the best rental house they found, and we couldn't have agreed more!
Description: Nicely finished brick ranch in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood. 3 nicely sized bedrooms, a sunroom, & a basement. Newer stainless steel appliances & hardwoods through-out. 1414 sq. ft. / 2828 sq. ft. with basement

Meet the Newest Addition to the Family!

We have a new puppy! Well not quite yet. We will be getting our new family member around November 6th. He is eight weeks old but does not yet have a name, since Kirk's favorite one has been vetoed by me...Falkor is just not something I want to yell in public! He is a Havanese, the National dog of Cuba & its only native breed. We are excited and can't wait to meet him!Here he is with his black & white brother.

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has
to choose a relative."
-Mordecai Siegal

The New Job

People have been asking for me to tell more about my new job, so here goes. I will be the Associate Director, Indiana for a wonderful nonprofit called DonorsChoose.org (please check them out! They are a 4-star top-rated nonprofit by CharityNavigator.org too). In a nutshell, the organization allows public school teachers (K-12) to post proposals online for units, learning modules, activities, fields trips, etc. that they would like to do with their students but do not have the funds to accomplish (usually because the school and students are low income). Individual donors ("citizen philanthropists") can sponsor the projects (or any small portion, literally you can just give $20 if you want to help fund a project), and then you get thank you notes from the kids and pictures of them using the materials. It's an excellent model since donors know exactly where their money is going, and you can search for specific projects on the website by school, state, subject area, amount of need, % low income students, and many more. The organization was started by a public school teacher in New York City in 2000, and it is expanding throughout the US. I will be in charge, basically, of the entire state of Indiana including developing the strategy for statewide expansion. Currently, the organization has a decent presence in Indianapolis, but their is still a lot of work to be done there to recruit more teachers to post projects (especially in the STEM disciplines). Statewide, I will be working to get the organization known in larger cities like Fort Wayne, Gary, and Evansville, but also throughout the state, including rural areas. This includes teacher recruitment, general PR and marketing, "citizen philanthropist" recruitment, donor engagement, and coporate paternerships. Also, I am hoping to partner much more with the universities in Indiana and especially their education departments and the future teachers in the state. I will be the only one "on the ground" in Indiana and will be up to the Chicago regional office frequently (if you're in that area and want to visit) to work with their wonderful staff. If you have any contacts for me, be sure to let me know. I will start the position in about two weeks, and I am hoping to have a DonorsChoose Indiana blog that I will post to throughout the year.

Who has two thumbs and got a job?

THIS GUY!

E-mail or call for more info (or check out the blog in the coming days)! :)

Books, Books, and MORE Books!

So if you know us at all, you know we LOVE books! There is no better Friday then a book sale Friday, which only comes four times a year! Did we happen to mention that we live right across the street (literally 20 steps) from our county library?!!!! Pictured below is about an average weekend haul for us (we go back Saturday and Sunday too, and Sunday is half price)! Yes, we own way too many books! So, tonight at 7:10 (that is when we get in line as long as it isn't too cold) we will be unavailable to answer our phone. We hope you all have a great weekend as well and enjoy the fall football weather!

(subsitute Cubs hats on this confused couple from jcrew)

So Sad...

Yes, it was a very bad sports weekend (although at least the Bears beat the hated Packers last night). Purdue can still pull out a great season, but for my boys in blue, as usual, we'll be waiting 'til next year. While I don't agree with these posters, they sum up the experience to date. But won't it be great when the Cubs win it all next year on the centennial of their last championship? Keep hope alive.

FEVER

Yes, I'm going crazy. "Guarded optimism" are the words I'm choosing to use, but inside I'm a mess. I can't stop thinking about them, can't stop worrying, can't stop imagining/hoping/dreaming. It's going to be a long night. It's going to be a long week. I hope it's going to be a long month. I've read every article, visited every blog, analyzed every match up, scrutinized every stat. No calls, no parties, no get-togethers, no distractions. It's time to play ball. Indeed, it's time.

Go Cubs!

This is what I want to see: