So, at the start of this year Jasmine and I set some goals. These goals revolved around our lives professionally, financially, and relationally. I don't mind telling you what some of those goals are.

Financially, we simply wanted to pay off some debts that have been lingering in our lives, pay for the course that I needed to take this year, and come home next summer with a nice cushion in the bank for us to play with. In order to do this, I needed to take on some extra work. I set a goal to have eight hours of tutoring a week, which was a lofty goal. Just this week I have secured my seventh hour, and I have a couple of people who want to take guitar, so I am pretty much there. Woo-Hoo.....this is going to be a great year financially I think.

Professionally, I am taking a course this year through Nottingham University in the UK. It is basically the start of a masters degree, but with its completion will allow me to be a full time teacher in this school, should we decide to stay, and should the school decide to hire me. In order to do this, I have to be accepted (in process) in the school program, Regents has to endorse me for this (which they have done in full and already assigned me to a classroom for the first nine weeks of the fifteen I need to complete), and I have to come up with the funds (the course in total costs about $5000 Canadian). All of these things are in full motion already, and I will begin this course in the third week of October. Jasmine has made a full transition from the music program to her own classroom. She is teaching Yr. 5 and is the literacy co-ordinator for upper keystage 2, so she is quite busy as well. She is enjoying her class, and has a great group of kids. I think its going to be a great year professionally for us as well.

Relationally, we want to change a few things. I have already posted a few weeks ago about our desire to "get our hands dirty" this year and spend more time helping those in need. We have been doing a little research but thus far have not had time for this. We also wanted to carve out specific times for just the two of us to be together. One such time is our saturday mornings, where we have planned to play tennis every saturday, then go for a nice English breakfast, (preferably on the ocean) and talk about our week past and our week ahead. It is amazing how fast time can fly out here, and when you are running in nine different directions in the day it seems like you only get to see each other as you say goodnight and fall asleep. I guess this is normal, but I don't want it to be. I would rather know that there is a time in the week when it will be just us. So far, saturday mornings. It looks like thursday night suppers might be in the works as well. And if we can add to this some work in the community that we do together, I think it will be a very good for us relationally.

All this to say, I am "glass half full" about this year. The eternal optimist strikes again. I literally cannnot wait to start my course, and with the tutoring that has come online already, we are in great shape. I feel very blessed to be in this spot, and with a few tweeks here and there, this year will have great significance towards our future. Plus, it would be capped off with us BOTH returning to Canada next summer to see all of our families and friends. I haven't felt this excited about life in a long time.

It's going to be a very good year.