yea, it's a bad idea, i know. i mean, generally speaking, plans for us are like rules - made to be broken. but these days we have hope and hope makes it possible to make plans and reach for goals and dreams. we actually feel like we can dream a little and have some chance of reaching them.

we've also learned, however, not to hold our breath.

anyway, making plans . . .

i'm just about ready to take the praxis I. i've just got to figure out how to prep for the essay. my initial thought was to list a few points for each topic - not whole paragraphs, but key points that could guide me through the actual essay. the problem is that there are 71 possible topics! and the 71 listed are sample topics at that! there's just something in me that says, whoa, that's a bit much to work on a "study guide" for! okay, yes, i've studied more stuff for "harder" tests in the past - 4 years past, i might remind you. none of them, however, had an essay that counted as half my score. still, i might do it that way, mostly because i can't really think of any other way to prep for it.

the plan right now is to take the praxis I via computer as soon as possible and to aim for the next to last or last praxis II date to get both out of the way before 1) the test costs go up and 2) school starts next year. i keep being told that they aren't that hard, so i should be able to pass. then all i have to worry about is actually being hired, and, hopefully, having subbed for most of this year will help in that regard.

once i get hired, we want to use a major portion of the first check or two towards a second vehicle - probably a truck for saxy. even with saxy's flexible schedule, 2 people working and only one vehicle between them is tough, mostly because we also have to keep in mind the a.m. bus schedule for the kids. take today, for example. i didn't need to be in until late, so saxy had to drive taz to school. doing this eats even further into his limited work hours and into our gas. with the second vehicle, saxy could have stayed home, put taz on his bus, and gone off to work while i drove myself in to my job.

now add to this 2 job, 1 car family a third person going to school and work when kitten gets here, and the whole transportation thing gets waaaay out of hand. heck, even without kitten, a second car would be most helpful despite the added cost. i just need the job to support it.

so first check or two ~> a second car.

after the car, the plan is to finally take care of the overdue, we're calling you every damn day about it, bills, working from the least to the greatest. we also plan to get saxy back in school, beginning with his g.e.'s at a smaller community college and working his way up to either culinary school itself or a culinary or hotel and restaurant management degree. culinary school really is too expensive. it would probably take a damn good book advance to pay for it. a really, really good book advance. the '"i'm probably not in that league" good.

but the big dream for us both is a house. houses out here aren't even that bad in terms of buying. you can find really nice 3-4 bedrooms with decent yards for about $60k. quite a shock to us when we saw that. and, from what we've heard and seen, buying isn't as hard out here as it is in cali. there's a lot of rent to own deals - a dying breed in cali.

and we've actually seen some houses we like too - right in the development across from ours. there are some beautiful 2-story homes with decent yards. while they are all based on the same set of 6 or so designs, most of them also have features that make them unique - little embellishments combined differently for each home. some have stone or brick fronts, octagon or other decorative windows, porches constructed a little differently, and so on. we've seen a few that we really wouldn't mind owning, at least based on what they look like from the outside. and they are right across the way, so hopefully there would be no changes in schools for the kids and we'd still be in this nice location with all the stuff nearby that we've come to like about living in this area. the neighborhood appears to be pretty quiet too. the only downside is that i'd have to figure out how to get in and out of the place - the streets aren't as straight forward as where we're at now.

heck, get a big enough novel advance and we could buy one of these places outright!

but we won't plan on that. ;)