7-21-2007

July 21st, 2007 changed our lives greatly. it was innocent enough but set our family off into two incredibly stressful and busy months. Fortunately, we all feel it was for the best and I figured it was an important time in our family history so I want to recap.

July 21st was registration day at Redeemer Lutheran School. Luke and Sabrina had been attending there for three years and it was time to register Luke for Pre-K4 and Sabrina for first grade. Luke is old enough for Kindergarten, but we decided two years ago that since he is a July birthday and has developed slower emotionally that we would hold him back a year. That decision came after a lot of deliberation and talking with parents who have held their boys back a year.

I showed up at the school knowing exactly what to expect due to registration from previous years. I filled out forms, handed in copies of vaccinations and the like. Then I went and drew Luke's folder. I opened it up and to my shock, they put Luke in the ONE class I specifically asked them not to put him. The teacher was Mrs. Githa. Now, we love Mrs. Githa to death and she loves Luke like a son. But that was exactly the reason we pulled him from school. She was the assistant teacher when Luke was in PreK-3 the first time around and she coddled him and Luke would know how to manipulate the situation. I asked that he be in another class before the school year even started. Then when I approached the director, Amber, about it I was told both his prek-3 teachers recommended her because she was most familiar with Luke's "tendencies". I requested a change of class and she said we would have to wait until the school year starts and people drop out. So it is over a month until school starts and they put him in the one class we didn't want him to be in and act like the class lineup is set in stone.

Miki and I both felt Luke was unfairly branded a problem kid. And as tough as Luke can be sometimes, he is an incredibly sweet, social and bright kid. He is a joy to be around and I feel he was very unfairly pegged as a difficult kid by teachers who I began questioning their competency after a few months. He is far from perfect, but nowhere near a major problem.

Well, by this time if we want to put Luke into another Pre-K, we would have a really tough time. We threw out the idea of sending him to public school Kindergarten. The school near our house, Wells Branch Elementary, has really deteriorated in the years we have been there. Probably due in large part to the massive apartment complexes built next to our home over the years. We did, though, think the kids could go there for a year while we looked for a house with better schools. This was a hard idea to swallow this late in the game. The idea of Luke jumping to Kindergarten was scary. We had not prepared for that.

So when I took Luke to his next speech therapy appointment, I asked his doctor, Mrs. Mary Lovey Wood, rather hesitantly about Luke going to public Kindergarten. After she heard about my experience at Redeemer, I was sort of shocked to hear that she was not surprised in the least bit about Redeemer treated Luke's case. She said he has seen it before. They basically shrug the kids off and just "deal with them" instead of really working with them. For Miki and me, this was the final confirmation we needed that we needed to move sooner than later.

We researched schools in the area like crazy. We knew a lot of the good ones, but we had never been this intense in finding the right spot because we planned to be in our house for a number of more years.

We looked very aggressively for a home in the arboretum area. Particularly, we targeted three elementary schools. Spicewood Elementary, Laurel Mountain Elementary and Kathy Caraway Elementary. Three outstanding elementary schools and a great middle and high school as well. On top of that, the location is idea for both of our jobs. Houses are quite a bit more expensive even though we would say that the quality of home in general was not as good as the Mallard Green house. We did, though, find one surprisingly enough that looked perfect. It was expensive at $530K but it was a large, beautiful home with fantastic landscaping and an incredible finish-out. We thought this was our new home. Our offer was accepted contingent on the sale of our house and we had an inspection on the new home. The inspection raised some serious flags. My dad reviewed the inspection as well and we decided it was too risky at that price point. We pulled out during the option period. In retrospect, this was a wise move. We did, however, go forward with plans to sell our house and keep looking in the area.

The idea of selling our house was a sad one. We got it ready and put it on the market quickly. We had done so many upgrades and had taken such good care of our house that it was basically ready for showing to prospective buyers once we simply removed some clutter. We have so many wonderful memories in that house. We have spent a lot of money making into our own little paradise. The pool was fantastic with great complimentary landscaping. We spent a lot refinishing the inside as well. Even all of our family would agree the house had a great feel to it. It was very emotional when we sold it.

It sold after about 17 days on the market for $290K. The most a home has ever sold in the neighborhood and since it house only had three beds and two and a half baths, that was good for us. A single man bought it. We included some TV equipment in the deal. Right now is not an easy time to sell. Over the past 5 or 6 years, house prices have skyrocketed out of control largely because banks made it super easy for people to get sub prime loans without much background checking. It really got out of control. A lot of people made money flipping houses during that time. But now I think, even in a strong market like Austin, prices will be going down significantly. All of the people who got caught in sub prime loans are now feeling a lot of pain as they readjust the rates. We actually feel lucky right now to be renting and see how things shake out.

We are renting in the Riata apartments and the kids are going to Caraway Elementary school. They love it and we love it. It is a great school. We feel lucky to be renting right now while the whole sub prime problem works itself out.

But most importantly, we have each other. Luke, Sabrina, Miki and I just enjoy doing things together as a family and that is what counts. We are actually enjoying the apartment quite a bit right now but that will fade. We will want that house. After the school year ends we will look again.