Rollercoaster

Things are cruising right along with the house. The new roof is on and it looks good. I'd been stressing because I did not just choose to replace the roof with the same color that was there. Sure, there were sample boards, but those are only so big and any color en masse is different. But it came out great. The FHA appraisal happened yesterday and so far we have not been contacted about any red flags, so we are taking the stance: no news is good news. We are scheduled to close on June 9th. So that's all good and we are looking forward to moving to the new house. It's tough waiting though.

We wondered if we should really invest in staying in Michigan though, but finally decided we should do it. Now we are on the hook with the house. So of course the other shoe drops. (I wonder where that expression even comes from? Anyways.) The state has decided to slash education to make up for its budget woes. I still can't understand why this is always an acceptable option to legislators. So they want to immediate cut salaries by 5% and then freeze salaries for three years for all teachers Kindergarten through college. To do this they actually have to amend the constitution and they know it won't be popular so they just made it public yesterday and they are pushing to vote by Friday.

So, we are kind of screwed if this goes through. We've notified our senator about our position, the teacher's unions are fighting, but the way politics roll nowadays, I have no confidence. For our kids, it means they are going to drive good teachers away from the state thereby hurting education. For Matt, well, it's going to hurt. It means all the plans we've laid our for the next five years are scraped and that I can't go back to school. Chi was going to start part-time day care so that I can work on my portfolio and get back to painting in general. That won't happen. I'm sad right now because it should be a happy time for us to have our own house, but now it feels more like an albatross.