the time has arrived

After speaking with our contractor today the major part of the renovations will be beginning Wednesday. This is exciting for two reasons: one, I will be home to make sure things move along well and two, we have been waiting FOREVER for this process to begin (we have been in the house for two months now).

As our house is about to change quite a bit I wanted to document what we were beginning with. Below are current pictures of the house. As each stage unfolds, I will certainly photograph and update here for you all to see.
Front view
Left side of the house.

Right side of the house.
Back wall that has to be completely removed.
Back part of the left side of the house.

time for a break

As fall semester is now over I am super excited for a two week break from school. Very few people understand the intenseness of the job of a teacher, but those who do understand know why this two week break is so important. Plans for these two weeks include a number of things - continuing to get the house in order, continuing the renovations, and some much needed rest and relaxation.

An exciting about this two week break is that we will be at home for the first time since we have been married. In years past we planned a Christmas trip for ourselves and overlaped spending time with friends and family into those plans, but this year we are spending the holidays at home.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!
The Hawks

new beginnings

I cannot believe that it has been a month and a half since I updated the blog - amazing how time passes you by.

First things first - we closed on the house October 20 and moved in shortly thereafter. Now that we have been in the house for a month, we are beginning to get settled and figure out what we want to do to bring the house back to its original 1902 glory.

First on the agenda is a full renovation of the exterior. The house has clapboard siding which after years of neglect is rotting away. The window frames are in the same condition as is the railing that once graced the front porch. Additionally, a paint job is in order and the front door is being refinished. The most intense exterior project is the removal of a wall (again due to neglect and major rot) which will be replaced and have have added a window seat and built in bookshelves.

Second on the agenda is the moving in of our new dining room table. Robert and I have an appreciation of a very simple style of furniture. As such, a local furniture maker is currently working on our new dining room table.

Third on the agenda is a total renovation of the kitchen. The house had some interior work done a few years ago, but the kitchen was not a priority. As you can see it needs to be updated. This is currently planned as our first 2011 project. New floors, cabinets, and countertops will be the focus.

Fourth, fifth, sixth, etc on the agenda are a number of smaller projects including refinishing the hardwood floors, painting, and builing a new closet in the master bedroom.

As this is to be our family home we realize that the work will take time and we are very excited about being able to bring a 108 year old home back to life.

As the exterior renovations begin soon, I will be sure to keep posted pictures of the process.

Thanks for checking in and hope all is well with you and yours!

The Hawks

good times

Fall is my FAVORITE time of year. Living in southern Alabama anything is better than the blazing heat of August, but this time every year the temperatures begin to dip, the pumpkin patches start to pop up, sweaters are the appropriate attire and a hearty soup with a hot grilled cheese sandwich is the perfect meal.

Some of the recent picks from our garden - sweet potatoes, peppers, okra, oregano and rosemary.

Life is consistent for us right now - Robert is beginning his work as an attorney, I am continuing to focus on my new teaching position and the house buying process is coming to a close...hopefully.

Pictures of Mobile from one of our recent walks.

the next step

Well, again it has been a while since I updated. As with many of you life has kept us extrememly busy these past few weeks. Here are a few of the highlights...

My life has revolved around lesson plans - still - since school started at the beginning of August. Having never taught the three subjects I am currently teaching, I am starting from square one and square one requires a great deal of planning.

We are still in the process of purchasing our dream home. The loan process has been much more detailed and included a number of more hurdles compared to the last house we bought, so we are crossing our fingers that the hurdles will begin to diminish and we can set a closing date.

In absolutely positive news - Mr. Hawk's hard work has paid off - he officially passed the Alabama Bar exam and is now officially an attorney.

While we are still in a transition period, things are becoming much clearer and are moving in the right direction for us.

Hope all is well with you and yours!
The Hawks

It's been a while...

since I have posted anything here - not because I have forgotten but because life has been THAT busy.

While we were in Montgomery for the bar exam, Robert and I made an offer on our dream home in midtown Mobile. Since our offer was accepted Robert has been searching for a contractor to complete the needed renovations - a process that has been far from delightful (as those of you who are friends with him on Facebook have read, I am sure).

My time has been occupied with lesson planning, grading, organizing and a multitude of other tasks that go along with the teaching profession. As this is my first year teaching high school and being a floating teacher (I have no classroom, I move around campus for each class period - not ideal, but making it work) there have been many adjustments to my process, although many things, regardless of the grade level, remain the same.

We are hopeful that this week will hold the good news we want to hear about a contractor for the house, finishing the THIRD week of school and making a trip to Perry and Albany to honor Robert Alan, once again, for his great achievement of graduating from law school.

Thanks for checking in - hope all is well for you and yours!
Heather and Robert

THE Week

Well, THE week came and went. There were moments of complete breakdown and moments of complete peace, but at last it is OVER.

I am of course speaking about the Alabama Bar Exam. As if three tortuous years of law school is not enough to be a member of this profession, JUST graduated law school students must further continue their stress by preparing for and taking the Bar Exam. THE week began last Sunday (July 25)...here is a short version of what the week entailed.

Sunday, July 25 - Drive to Montgomery. After a run-around dealing with broken room key making machines and the realization that I had left all of our credit cards in Mobile, we finally get settled and Mr. Hawk is able to get in the zone for tomorrow - Day One of THE test.

Monday, July 26 - Short day of testing - only four hours. I spent the day in the hotel room (pictures looking out over downtown Montgomery as well as sunrise - yes we were up that early - and sunset are below) and we put in an official counter-offer on the home with which we have fallen in love.

Tuesday, July 27 - Long day of testing - eight hours. Again, I spent the day in the hotel room working on ideas and plans for the upcoming school year.

Wednesday, July 28 - Another long day of testing - eight hours, after which we drove home.

I will say that I felt honored for Robert to have wanted me to accompany him to Montgomery for these three days. I assumed that the stress level would be unbearable and he would want absolutely no distractions, thus I would stay at home in Mobile. But I walked him down to the testing room before each session and was waiting for him at the end of each session. I am glad that I had the oppotunity to be supportive of my wonderful husband.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday have been super busy as I have been working, trying to understand all the legal mumbo-jumbo involved in buying our home (I feel like I know more about buying and selling a house now that we are buying our second one - I've done this once before, but I am still quite confused most of the time) and missing my dogs - they have been at Grandma and Grandpa's since July 18th.

Robert has one last portion (the professional ethics section) of the Bar Exam to take next Friday, August 6th and then we will be able to focus our attention on the other important events of our lives.

With our lives whirling around us at the speed of light, I am continuing to focus on keeping a positive attitude and a peaceful state of mind - long deep breaths have been helping too. :-)

Sunset, Sunrise and A Beautiful Clear Day in Montgomery, AL

Patience

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a planner. It is in my nature. I do not like being faced with last minute situations where I have to make a quick decision as I want to have time to contemplate all of my options before making a choice. Now, don't get me wrong, I am fine with spur of the moment outings and such when I have no schedule or list of things to get done. I just prefer to know if there are things that I HAVE to get done and what my time frame is.

Well all that to say that the good Lord is teaching me patience this summer. I began the interviewing process for teaching jobs here in Mobile last October. At that time, both schools I interviewed with indicated that they would have openings.

Fast forward to early/mid May. Both schools then began to waver -they might have a job for me, they might not. GREAT - the planner in me began the job search very early and now I am having to look at other options in case these two jobs fall through.

Fast forward to early July - both schools told me there was a slim chance of a job opening. GREAT again.

Continue on to this past week - both schools submitted my name to the Board of Education for hire.

This rollercoaster has had me physically sick for the last few weeks and I am just now beginning to understand that throughout the whole process, there was a lesson to be learned. It took me completely releasing my control and realizing that what is meant to be, is meant to be.

Additionally, with less than 72 hours to go before Robert takes the bar exam, stress still has its ugly grip on our household, but reminding myself that a positive attitude can go a long way is key.

My hope is that this next week will provide a sense of calm and that the world will return to a normal pace instead of the whirlwind speed of these last few months.

Summer in Mobile

So far this summer, we have been quite reclusive. Robert is busy all day every day studying for the bar (he takes it July 26-28) and I have been working (back at Ware Jewelers) to keep myself busy. The dogs are enjoying being in the air conditioning as it is consistently 95+ degrees with 100% humidity and we are beginning our house hunt.

Three things have been keeping me busy in my spare time - JAG, the TV show, reading and cooking.

I have become addicted to JAG. Robert and I have been NCIS fans since the first season. Since NCIS is a spin-off of sorts from JAG we decided to give it a go and I now finding myself watching two or three episodes at a time.

Reading has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while, but since I got a new library card (the public library is 2 blocks from our apartment) I have been keeping myself busy reading. First I stumbled across Tori Spelling's book Mommywood. Definitely not a book I thought I would even consider reading, but as I read I saw some parallels between her life and mine - not the rich, famous celebrity part, but more the rocky relationship with her mom and the heart felt desire to have babies and raise them to be intelligent, well-rounded people - a desire I am sure most moms and dads have. Then I picked up the 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time. This one again was quite odd for me, but I read it more from the perspective of how relationships have changed (yet stayed the same) over the 100s of years that some of the letters were written. I am currently reading The History of Barton Academy. Barton Academy is the oldest public school it the state of Alabama and is currently in desperate need of repair as it is literally crumbling away. Next up on my reading list is Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea - an AMAZING book) and Back Home: Journeys through Mobile - a collection of different perspectives on the things that make the city of Mobile so unique and the events in the history of the city that have defined those of us who call it home.

Cooking. Ok, those who know me, know that I try - I really do and I am ok at it, I am just not great at it. First up was two pies - chocolate chip cookie pie and peanut butter pie. Both turned out really good. Then it was time to try my hand at sausage balls - again, turned out great. Today was homemade potato salad - which I am sure is hard to mess up, but as the other attempts, turned out well. Next up is chicken and dumplings...as this is the first major entree that I am trying my hand at doing 100% from scratch, we will have to keep our fingers crossed.

Noise

When Robert and I moved in together in August of 2005, we lived in an apartment that was above a bar in downtown Mobile. Needless to say, it got loud sometimes. In September of 2005 we moved into another apartment - an old, historic home that was built in 1901 and had been converted into two apartments - one upstairs and one downstairs. We were literally within spitting distance of Government Street - the main street through downtown Mobile, so needless to say we got used to hearing noise - cars, sirens, homeless people walking down the street with their grocery carts full of finds and mumbling to themselves - I think you get the picture. For two years this noise was constant and became somewhat of a white noise for us and the dogs.

Fastforward to July 2007, when we moved to Athens. While we only lived four miles from the University of Georgia, you would have thought we lived OUT IN THE COUNTRY. I remember our very first night in our new home when Robert and I both commented on the stillness, the quiet, the noises that we did hear were naturistic - crickets, birds, occasionally a neighbor dog barking. That quiet was so calm, so peaceful, so relaxing.

Fastforward to the present. We are living back in the exact same apartment we lived in for two years prior to moving to Athens. The noises are still here - the cars, the sirens and the unique Mobile homeless folks. It is almost like deja vu. Oddly enough, the noises are comforting. They give me a sense of the past, of where we began.

With Robert and the dogs sound asleep, I am awake. I hear the noises, but they do not bother me - they make me remember.

Home

After being landlocked for three years, it is nice to return to the water. Below are some shots I took this past week. Peaceful...

Green Thumb

After times of stress, my huband chooses to de-stress by completing projects he WANTS to do, instead of those he HAS to do. After moving us 400 miles, unpacking a moving truck and walking everything we own up a flight of stairs, he definitely deserved some time to himself. Thus I give you...drumroll please...our vegetable and herb garden.

Mr. Hawk has planted...

ROSEMARY

OREGANO

BASIL

TOMATOES

GREEN OKRA

SWEET BANANA PEPPERS

EGGPLANT

GREEN BELL PEPPERS

SQUASH

SWEET POTATOES

Words to live by...

I took it upon myself today to organize my photos. Being the daughter of two photograpers, photographs are quite abundant in our family. As I was organizing, I ran across these four photos that I took at dinner one night last summer here in Mobile at Joe Cain Cafe. Simple, to the point and meaningful - I like it.

It's the little things in life...

Our move to Mobile has been a drastic one for us, but especially for our dogs. They grew very accustomed to going outside whenever they pleased, staying out for as long as they wanted, and running and playing until their hearts were content. Living in an apartment is not as conducive to their former lifestyle as we want, but all in all they are adjusting fairly well.

About four blocks from our apartment (still getting settled in - pictures soon) is a dog park - British Park. Every few days we take the dogs here, remove their leashes and watch them go. They enjoy it a great deal - so much so that they usually sleep for the remainder of the day - and we relish in knowing that we have a place to take them that is a little closer to the environment they were used to in Athens.

The Ides of May

May 15, 2010 Robert Alan graduated from UGA Law School. With our family and friends in town to share in the occasion and great weather, we could not have asked for a more perfect day.