No speeches. 

The Republican’s stance may also put him in line with President-elect Barack Obama, who said yesterday that “we’ve got to start helping homeowners in a serious way.†“More needs to be done,†Bernanke said in a speech to a Fed research conference on housing and mortgage markets in Washington today. “Policy initiatives to reduce the number of preventable foreclosures should be high on the agenda.†The government could buy “delinquent or at-risk mortgages in bulk,†then refinance them through the federal Hope for Homeowners program, Bernanke said.

I didn't even stay to hear Trump because I was so exhausted from all the other seminars and didn't feel I'd get much out of his speech.

I am posting a link to a great motivational speech.

I believe we will still move to the Ft Worth area eventually, but now I have another ~9 months to keep searching (9 months because her job offer is only that duration as she just received her Masters in Speech Pathology and has to work this supervised position before she can move on to other SLP jobs).Given this extension of time, what would you advise someone in my position to do over the next 9 or so months to set myself up for success when the time is up?

If you have to tear off shingles, repair sheathing and perhaps rotted trusses/rafters, a simple re-shingle job could be thousands more.You mentioned slab work.

Real estate, bonds, job, business, speeches.....all are different income streams. 

//www.fdic.gov/news/news/speeches/archives/2009/spdec0809.html

Replacing roof trusses and studs can become particularly expensive. - A medium sized leak will cause water stains in the ceiling or slow drips and just make your place look cheap.  

There are some good ones that will charge 500 to 750 in application fees and they do close but I wouldn't risk it.These guys have their speeches down pretty good.