BIG News!!

Oh where to begin!? So much has happened in the past few weeks it's hard to keep up! Most importantly, Rusty has a new job!! He has been searching hard for the past few months and had a bite with Disney a few weeks back but no positions were available. Finally, he has found something! His last day at Greenway Ford will be Friday. He starts with a company called Cubic on Monday morning!

Cubic is a company that takes weapons, guns, etc. and disassembles them and converts them into simulator training weapons for use in the military, police academies, ect. The starting pay isn't bad and there are opportunities to advance, good retirement, great benefits and once an employee for some time they will reimburse 90% of the cost of tuition to the school of his choice! The hours are 6am-3:30pm 4 days one week and 5 the next week to make his 80 hour paycheck. He doesn't have to work weekends or holidays (where can I sign up??)! Keep him in your thoughts as he starts his new job AND his first day in school both start Monday!!

Next, I spent a few days traveling to Pensacola to see my sister at the University of West Florida. Who knew you could drive for 8 hours and STILL be in the state of Florida? I was lucky enough to stay with her and her roommate in the dorms, helping her get settled in and checking out the town! Her major is Exercise Science and she started classes Monday. From what I hear she has also joined the swim team! Never and idle moment... Makes me think back to my time in college and hard to believe that ended 2 years ago!

...Now I'm grown up, own my own home and am dealing with the disaster that is our home right now! After paying to have the leaks diagnosed on our back door and window, we spent hours caulking and hoping that they were fixed. Although, after a hard rain we were STILL leaking! Yesterday, they came back out and found still more leaks and potential future leaks. Looks like there is still a lot more work to be done : (

While we await the drying and testing of the new caulk, we have started work on the tile. We decided since the house is already a disaster, why not tear up some more while we're at it? The kitchen is the next on the list. Dannis so nicely came over and showed us how to tile the foyer area. As of this morning it's DONE!!!! We have successfully completed one of our many projects! Next week we will tile the kitchen and hopefully the week after the leaks will be fixed and the laminate will finally be laid in the main living area. Keep checking back for updates on the madness!

In the midst of all this, my bum knee that has been a bother for the past year and a half, is finally going to the OR. After another visit to the doctor, my knee has continued to crack and grind, and hurt! We decided surgery is the best option. It is a simple outpatient procedure that will happen on October 5th. I will be taking a week and a half off from work to recover. Keep me in your thoughts and hope that this fixes the problem!!

Our next trip will be the end of September up to Tennessee to visit our friend Kara. Looking forward to some hiking (gotta get that in before surgery...haha) and catching up with my friend!

Demolition...

First, we have come and gone to the Bahamas on the Royal Caribbean cruise with Rusty's parents. We really enjoyed ourselves and got in some much needed sleep and relaxation (and tons of delicious food)!



Second, I have, once again gotten a wild hair and decided that now is the time to replace our carpet with laminate. It is such a good thing that Rusty understands my madness....or puts up with the insanity is more like it. In any case, the carpet is gone...yay! I spent the last 2 days tearing up carpet, pad, tack strips and baseboards from our main living area and entry way. It was strangely therapeutic...somehow I don't think the install will be as easy! Besides 2 huge piles of dirt and sunflower seeds behind the walls, I also discovered 3 areas of rotted tack strips from water leaks. We think some of these were repaired from painting the house and re-caulking the windows but didn't really expect to find all that : ( Good thing we started early.



Our 50 boxes of laminate have arrived and install should start next Sunday. In the meantime we are touching up our paint job (finally) from when we moved in last year, cutting back the drywall and trying to repair the areas that might leak and ruin our new floors! Keep checking back for updates : )