Graduation and Other Important Things

 So, my husband graduated with his Masters on May 12th. Sorry I'm just now posting this. It was a pretty big weekend for us. We both took off Thursday and Friday that week to drive up to Memphis. He finished everything up Friday and graduated Saturday. He now has a Masters in Theological History or something like that. See how handsome he is?

Getting hooded

And one with me, of course!

This one I made him do. I teased him that it was better than a batman cape.

I'm so proud of him!

From left to right, his parents, his brother, us, my sis and her husband

Other things have happened since graduation as well. The headmaster at the school here asked Jeremy what it would take to get him to stay. He had mentioned one of the reasons (the main one) he was looking was for more money. We really want to start talking fertility treatments soon and can't do that on what we've been surviving on.
The headmaster talked to the school board who agreed to give him A TWENTY-PERCENT raise! So, we're staying another year at least here. It's not so bad. We have some good friends at church and I feel needed there. It does lead to other questions . . . like what will happen if the place I'm temping at doesn't need me anymore and I have to find something else again. But I'll face that when it happens and can't worry so much about it right now.
At least, that's what I'm telling myself. But we all know I'm a worrier, even when I tell myself not to be.

Decisions

You know how the ask the football players after they win the Super Bowl, "You've just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do now?" They always say, "I'm going to Disney World" or some inane answer like that.
My husband, after nine years of working on it and having it hang over his head, will finish his master's tomorrow. I get to watch him walk across the stage and get his diploma. He started this the year before we got married and it's finally finished. When we get home, he'll take one more test and have his certification. As I boast to everyone about how much my husband has accomplished this year, I continue to get the question, "What now?" They're wondering things like if he wants to go on and get a further degree or if he wants to try and teach at a higher level. The answers are "maybe someday" and "not really." Mostly, we're just going to enjoy being able to live without having those two goals hanging over us anymore. We're hoping to settle somewhere and start working for real on our goal to have kids. I'm not sure how we'll do that, but it's what we want.
The school he was hoping to return to next year has decided to hire a coach. He's disappointed, but I really didn't think it would be in our best interest to move back. It's not that I don't love a LOT of people there and wouldn't love to have a couple of my old jobs back. But it just seemed like we'd be going backwards. We've changed since we moved away from there and our friends and church family have moved on without us. It wouldn't be like returning from being gone a weekend. We'd have to refind a niche and see if we could start over with it not being the same. To me, that doesn't sound like fun.
He's talking to one more school before just deciding to stay where we are another year. It's not going to be a bad thing to stay where we are. I have the possibility of getting a job with the daycare I interviewed with a while back to help with her summer camps. And we'll have over $400 a month more from his paycheck after June when we've got his certification paid off. And I'm not unhappy working this temp job that has stretched from a week to three months. I don't think they want me to leave even though they haven't figured out how to keep me for sure yet. He'd still be teaching and even though he has some things that aren't perfect at the school he's at, he knows that he'd find something he didn't like about any school he worked at.
So, we'll be okay no matter what. And as we start to move on to this next phase in our life, who knows what it will bring our way? But I think we're better prepared for it now that we've gone through the last almost eight years together and faced and learned from all that happened to us this far.
Thank you, God, for preparing us for whatever is ahead, even if we didn't always like the ways you did it.

Holding Back

I sort of feel like I've been holding back on things lately. With Jeremy having his hopes set so high on this school he wants to work at next year even though we haven't heard back from them yet, it's hard to think about our future in terms of any certainty. I have no idea where I'll be living in two months. Will I be moving or signing another year on our lease on this teeny tiny apartment where I can't find anything and don't have my cats? Should I keep booking parties into June and July or should I sort of hold back a bit and see if I'll even be in the area? Should I worry so much about my job situation and the fact that I never seem to get a call back from the various interviews or should I be content with the temporary position God has given me for the last three months that doesn't seem to want to end any time soon? I sort of feel like even though I'm living day-to-day and we have a GREAT church family here where we can serve a lot, everything else in my life is up in the air. I'm so tired of feeling like everything is up in the air. Say a little prayer for us that we can find out SOMETHING soon.
And say another prayer for my Grandpa, too. He's been back in the hospital with breathing problems again this week. He's home now, but they're waiting on test results before the start back with the chemo. Have I said lately that I hate cancer? I do.