blogging can be difficult

when you only have one hand! andrew and i have had our share of injuries and tetanus shots this week.

after andrew punctured his elbow with a rusty nail a week ago, we returned to the house monday to ensure that everything would remain on schedule. we finished tiling the kitchen (for the most part): in preparation for the delivery of our fridge... that was unloaded from the truck, brought up our stairs and into our dining room, and then rolled back out of our dining room, down our stairs, and back onto the truck. though we bought the floor-model of the fridge, we had expected it to be wiped down, wrapped in plastic, and cared for while it awaited delivery, as the salesman told us it would be. however, when it appeared, it was never actually wrapped up (even for transit), and it was completely banged up and dented. for a purchase that expensive, we're not into dents and scratches, and we sent it back. but we did stay at the house to be able to ensure that the dog fence would be finished. aside from a few areas where we'll have to stake down the chain-link into the ground, the fence looks great! and the black vinyl makes it kind of camouflage-y.

so the week progressed, and andrew got his new job!!! and i continued working at oberlin. on wednesday though, when andrew called to tell me the job news, he instead found out that i was at rex hospital being taken care of for a dog bite.

the dog bite wasn't what you'd think though, the dog was going into surgery, had been intubated, and began waking up. he chewed through the intubation tube, and i (not extremely intelligently) tried to grab the rest of the tube before it went down his throat. of course, his chomping, flailing teeth connected with my hand in a less than pleasant way. after dr. wages stabbed me and injected me with lidocaine - which hurt more than the dog bite - and scrubbed, wrapped, and put ice on my hand, crystal drove me to rex. once there, everyone i came in contact with proceeded to tell me about their animals and ask me training advice... seriously people, i just got bit, maybe you could just take care of my hand real quick and we can discuss your cute, furry, "muffin" some other time?! without going into detail, i'd like just say that my emergency room experiences in the past few years have not increased my confidence in our local hospitals. after sitting and waiting for my discharge papers for over an hour, i began making shadow puppets with my splinted hand:

i went back to work and continued to work as well as i could one-handed. my co-workers did a great job of picking on and laughing at my "lobster claw", and after a few days, it looks as good as new (almost):

on an unrelated note, i had an enlightening conversation with a few people at jessi's birthday cookout about the best places to buy certain things... and all i have to say is thank you nordstrom... 32F.

Yay for new jobs

So to fill in the readers who do not know, dormia filed bankruptcy under chapter 11 a week or so ago. They did this so that they can restructure and renegotiate leases at some of their stores. Supposedly they are staying open and operating at normal but that isn't how it seems. Things since then have been interesting at work. We aren't sure whether or not the delivery company is delivering people their beds. We had reports of them telling the customers that they no longer do business with dormia. Lets see, what else. Oh yeah the pay, it's a week late and I'm not hanging around to see if I get my next paycheck. Friday is going to be my last day. The two weeks notice thing goes out the window when I don't know if I'm going to get paid. Corporate is no longer sending inventory to the stores so that's not a good sign. 2 out of the 3 people in customer service have been laid off or quit.
So now for the good news. I was blessed with finding, interviewing, and getting offered my new job all within 4 days. Thanks to everyone who prayed or otherwise helped me in the job search. It is a display builder position with point concepts. They build stuff for trade shows, museums and who ever else wants fancy stuff. You can see some cool projects in the portfolio section of their website. I met the guy I'll be working with, Johan or Yohan (not sure which), and he is pretty cool. The owner, Dan, is also really nice and laid back. He is a state grad which is cool too. So here is to a long fruitful career doing something I love.

dangerous!

so we went out to the house to work today and came across this behind one of the mattresses that was leaned up against the house...

yes, it is, in fact, a black widow

of the female persuasion

protecting her egg-sack

which is apparently the scariest time to be around them, as that is when they are most likely to strike. YAY! we squished her and her nasty little offspring cocoon.

then a few minutes later, andrew impaled himself with a rusty nail. DOUBLE YAY!

so that was the end of our home-improvement afternoon. we've spent the rest of the night laying on couches and watching the animals in our zoo.

the oberlin cult

i swear, working at oberlin is like joining a cult. i have only worked there 4 days, and i have managed to totally abandon everything i was working on before. i have not worked on the house, planned for school, hung out with my husband, or spent time with the "kids" since tuesday morning, when i started back at the vet. instantaneously, my family became dr. wages, dr. gordon, and all of the techs (many of them new, that i met for the first time this week) who work at oberlin. they are the ones i've spent groggy mornings, rushed lunches, stressful surgeries, neverending evenings, and even after work de-stressing with. and yet, i'm not completely miserable because i really like stabbing animals!! ok not stabbing per se, but drawing blood, placing catheters, caring for hospitalized patients, running appointments, working with doctors, helping other techs, and figuring out how to make sick animals better! i just wish that working there didn't mean doing nothing else at all.

the girls and i went out last night, and all of them were lamenting spending their whole existence working. now, they all LOVE working there, or they'd have quit already, but it seems ludicrous that it would have to be their whole lives. when i was there full-time, i felt the same way. last night we went to the two-year anniversary of the opening of la riviera because dr. george owns it (dr. george is also the newest hire at oberlin/glenwood). we thought it was going to be like any other night, but special because it was their anniversary, but it ended up being a "red carpet event" - literally. we had our picture taken like 20 times by different people. the night was not just the restaurant's two year anniversary, but it was also the kickoff to the loft upstairs, an spca fundraiser, a big boss (brewery) promotion, and a zspotlight event. i went to the website to look for our pics (i didn't take any because i thought they'd be posted), but i can't find any. perhaps they'll update soon. we had a blast laughing about the ridiculous things that happened this week at work. andrew joined us later, and we all took a trip to visit brian and shannon at their house in garner.

today, i have enjoyed sitting at a coffee shop and doing nothing, sitting at home and doing nothing... and soon i'll have to go back to reality and pick andrew up from work, so we can go finish working on the house. yippee... or something :-P

renovations one-MILLION-and-five

i feel like all i've been doing since before school ended is house stuff, house stuff, house stuff! we went house hunting, house offering, house contracting, house inspecting, house closing, house re-closing, house renovating, house renovating, house renovating... wait, did i say that one already?

holy cow, we've done a lot. i have now experienced my one week of "vacation" at home... and i have no idea how it passed so quickly! we now have brand new carpet (sorry, no pics yet) and beautiful hardwood floors:

new toilets (still in boxes), many new fixtures, doorknobs, etc. and the most recent addition we're working on is tiling our kitchen. here's the layout roughly planned out:

me working... the thinset makes the whole layout thing a lot harder. i am good at spacing the tiles from top to bottom and side to side, but getting them level is another story.

we should be done with the tiles in the next few days, and that leaves painting (for andrew to do!!!)... and moving - ugh! i hate moving!

honestly, in this whole process, the worst part of renovating hasn't been stressing about spending all this money, living and working out of two homes at once, or the backbreaking labor; the worst part has been when we've contracted work out to other people - having to sit in the house ALL DAY LONG and wait for them to do a somewhat mediocre job that andrew and i have to then follow up and actually finish for it to be up to par. i guess it just goes to the old adage that if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself! which we don't really mind, cause it saves us money and gives us fun stuff to do together. i'm so glad we're both into being active, creative, and resourceful together!

on a totally unrelated note, we had a great time at church this weekend, and i'm hoping to get to blog about all the cool biblestudy/church stuff i've been doing lately. oh yeah! and the 5k my mom, dad, and i did this weekend for the race for the cure! i guess i have a lot to blog about...

Renovations #4 complete with frustration

So even though we don't have a 2 and 3 this is technically 4 based on what Emily has already posted. I figured I'd blog about the most recent things we've gotten done since it's right up my ally. Yesterday Emily and I spent the day at the house finishing up the sub floor. This is a necessary step b/c the previous top layer of sub floor was particle board which is not an acceptable underlayment for hardwoods. We had to measure, cut, and screw down 10 more pieces to complete the project. Despite what she thinks, Emily was a big help in measuring everything and getting it all laid out. She was also great and generally watching me and stopping me from making stupid mistakes. I knew it was going to be a big project and it sure was. Poor Emily kept hurting herself wether it was banging her elblows or cutting a gash in her hand she just couldn't catch a break.
I'll sum up the day from start to finish. We got up and went to the Home Depot in Knightdale which is a full store unlike the one in Garner which carries limited stock(who knew?) They have such a better selection of everything. We found the 97cents/sqft laminae floor we will probably end up putting in the office upstairs. After buying the thin set to put down the kitchen tile we went to pick up the tile saw and various other tools from Jerry. He has the saw from a previous tile project he had done. From there we went to the house to finish the sub floor(see above.) We had to break for dinner which was Mellow Mushroom and a quick run to the Cupcake ShoppE right before they closed. After we digested we went back to the house and stayed until 11ish to finish the sub floor. Emily cleaned the place up so it doesn't quite feel like as much of a construction site now. There are still 14 boxes of tile and 19 cases of hardwood sitting around though.
Tomorrow the hardwoods will get installed and then the carpet on Thursday. After those two things occur it will start feeling like a new house and we can start moving things in. Yay no more skanky floors!
I'm sure I've left some stuff out but that is the general progression of things yesterday. (I'll let Emily post the pictures since they are on her camera.)

i am taking a day off

of renovating.

that is all!