Mr. Roop

It's been a week now since I found out I was no longer employed with HSBC/Beneficial. I worked my butt off there for almost 3 years and it just ended. I'm not bitter, infact I am a little relieved. The long hours and stress was starting to play a toll on me. My doctor told me months ago that I needed to find a new profession because my blood pressure was way too high.

My job search has kind of stalled. I interviewed with Chase last week and I haven't heard anything yet. The recruiter told me that it would probably be a week before I heard anything, but I tend to believe that the wait is like a jury deliberating; the longer the wait means it's usually not very good news. I have faith that something will come along though.

I've looked into a couple different routes to becoming a teacher. As I have mentioned before, that's what I've really always wanted to be, but I never pursued it for some reason. This would be the best possible time for me to get started because I have absolutely nothing else to do. Amanda is starting to call my Mr. Mom because I clean up the house and have dinner ready when she gets home. I have to do something because the adult ADHD is really kicking in.

The WV Dept of Education has a transition to teaching program that will allow me to go straight to teaching next year if there is an available Special Education position. They will then pay for me to get my certifications. I'll have to teach Special Education for three years, but they will also pay for me to continue school and get certifications in other areas if I need to. I plan to do this if I can get accepted into the program, but if I do not it's back to school to finish up my teaching. I would love to see how high of a GPA I will be able to get since I want to be in college now instead of just trying to get by when I was in the first time.

It's time to get dinner ready. Amanda gets home around 5:00 and I am supposed to have had this slide show finished for my mom and dad's anniversary before Wednesday, but it's painstakingly slow. Hopefully, she will help me tonight. She is so much better than me at doing this kind of thing.

40th Anniversary

My mom and dad will be married 40 years on March 15.  It's astonishing to me that two people can be married for that long.  I think it is fantastic and I absolutely love that God chose me to be the son of these two amazing parents. I sometimes wonder why I deserved to grow up in such a loving and God fearing family when so many people out there aren't so blessed.  My mom dropped out of high school at 15 to get married to my dad.  Dad, of course, was 18.  They waited until March 15 because my mom turned 16 on March 11.  Mom did go back to get her G.E.D. several years later. Dad was almost immediately drafted to Vietnam and while he was away at war my mom gave birth to my brother.  My dad didn't get to see him for the first year of his life.  I didn't come around for close to ten years later.  Dad went into the coal mines a couple years after coming home from Vietnam and by God's grace has been working in the same location for the last 36 years.  He will retire from there soon.

I know that God played the most crucial role in keeping my mom and dad together all those years.  My dad has always told me that if you keep God in the center of your life, He will take care of the rest.  Mom and dad were dragging me to church before I was old enough to know what was going on and continued dragging me throughout my youth.  There were many times when I would have rather done anything than go to church, but now (as they said I would someday) I am thankful for all those Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night services.  

Amanda and I are having a surprise 40th anniversary party for them on March 13.  I am still in the process of making a slide show (on the new Imac i should add) and Amanda has put together the most amazing invitations and decorations.  I hope to have 40 to 50 friends and family to be there.  I hope they enjoy it!  I guess this is my way of trying to thank them for the countless things they have done for me over the years without hesitation.  I'll never be able to repay them, but I hope I can be the man that they will always be proud of.

I miss being in shape!

Amanda, Carlie, Katie, and I have been playing Wii Fit this evening. It's definitely strange that Nintendo can actually get those of us that loathe excercising to actually enjoy it. The Wii Fit can actually get me sweating in about 15 minutes. My girls are all downstairs doing the balance games as i type this and it's almost my turn. I going to win at every game. Actually, I won't win at all. I find it hard to beat my wife at many of those crazy games. I think she takes losing even harder than I do.

On other news, I am planning on having my parents a 40th anniversary party in March. We are in the early stages of planning so if anyone has any ideas let me know. Oh, and if anyone reads this that knows my parents or my loud mouth brother don't tell them. I hope all goes well and we are able to get everything we want ready for the big day. My parents have done so much for me over the years it makes me excited to be able to surprise them with something.

I guess I'll go back and play some more Wii before we watch Narnia: Prince Caspian. I've never seen Prince Caspian and am extremely excited about it. We all watched the first Narnia in the theater when it first came out and it was awesome. I am pretty pumped to see it tonight. It's nice that there are still great family movies out there. I am about sick of the filthy comedy movies that come out every other week.

Until next time.......