Friday, December 28, 2007
settling
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. My mom came out to help us unpack, and worked so hard. We were so impressed. If it weren't for her, I think we'd still be sleeping under piles of newspapers or something with all our stuff still in boxes.
We spent 3 nights in Las Vegas seeing shows and eating and drinking too much. It was a super good time but I'm not sure I ever need to go to Vegas again. What a strange place.
After coming home briefly, we drove out to eastern Washington to spend Christmas with my parents. It was a really, really nice visit. We exchanged gifts and cooked meals and played cards and just relaxed a lot. R* and I really needed that kind of downtime. The fact that my parents gave us nice presents was just icing on the cake!
Now we're back at the new house and working on getting settled in. I've got just over a week before I have to go back to school. I'm hoping to go back with a clean house, at least.
We spent 3 nights in Las Vegas seeing shows and eating and drinking too much. It was a super good time but I'm not sure I ever need to go to Vegas again. What a strange place.
After coming home briefly, we drove out to eastern Washington to spend Christmas with my parents. It was a really, really nice visit. We exchanged gifts and cooked meals and played cards and just relaxed a lot. R* and I really needed that kind of downtime. The fact that my parents gave us nice presents was just icing on the cake!
Now we're back at the new house and working on getting settled in. I've got just over a week before I have to go back to school. I'm hoping to go back with a clean house, at least.
Labels: moving
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
packed
My feet hurt.
I can't concentrate long enough to write whole paragraphs.
The movers came to the apartment today and packed everything. We helped. They were done before 1:00.
We moved a few things into the house and bought some rugs and talked about where to put stuff.
One of my friends from school called me and we talked for a few minutes. Then a short time later another classmate called and asked if I needed any help moving or use of her truck. When I said no, she asked what else she could do, and I asked her to make sure me & R* get fed tomorrow night. She said, "I'm on it! I'll call you tomorrow afternoon." These two phone calls were not unrelated.
I am so lucky to have such good friends.
Crate and Barrel has really nice stuff for not as much money as I expected.
You should never, ever go shopping at University Village during the lead-up to Christmas. Fortunately no lives were lost during our shopping expedition.
Movers come tomorrow to get everything out of the Sh*tland apartment and move it into the new house.
My mom is flying in on Thursday to help us unpack. I am so grateful that we will have her help!
My feet hurt.
I can't concentrate long enough to write whole paragraphs.
The movers came to the apartment today and packed everything. We helped. They were done before 1:00.
We moved a few things into the house and bought some rugs and talked about where to put stuff.
One of my friends from school called me and we talked for a few minutes. Then a short time later another classmate called and asked if I needed any help moving or use of her truck. When I said no, she asked what else she could do, and I asked her to make sure me & R* get fed tomorrow night. She said, "I'm on it! I'll call you tomorrow afternoon." These two phone calls were not unrelated.
I am so lucky to have such good friends.
Crate and Barrel has really nice stuff for not as much money as I expected.
You should never, ever go shopping at University Village during the lead-up to Christmas. Fortunately no lives were lost during our shopping expedition.
Movers come tomorrow to get everything out of the Sh*tland apartment and move it into the new house.
My mom is flying in on Thursday to help us unpack. I am so grateful that we will have her help!
My feet hurt.
Labels: moving
Sunday, December 09, 2007
for your information
If you own an apartment where a recent sewage incident occurred, and you are currently avoiding your tenants who are trying to politely dissolve the lease secondary to said sewage incident, I recommend against posting an ad for the apartment that advertises the rent as being $100 more per month, presumably to attempt to recoup costs related to all the major appliances that have broken down in the last few months. Dumbass.
Labels: moving
Friday, December 07, 2007
three keys
I currently have keys to three different living places.
1. The apartment of poo, where most of our stuff is waiting for the movers to come pack on Tuesday and move on Wednesday.
2. The weekly rental condo near downtown where we are staying in a studio apartment until the move, complete with Kismet kitty and our groceries.
3. The rental house we are going to move into on Wednesday. It has 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom downstairs and lots of storage.
I am so, so tired.
1. The apartment of poo, where most of our stuff is waiting for the movers to come pack on Tuesday and move on Wednesday.
2. The weekly rental condo near downtown where we are staying in a studio apartment until the move, complete with Kismet kitty and our groceries.
3. The rental house we are going to move into on Wednesday. It has 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom downstairs and lots of storage.
I am so, so tired.
Labels: moving
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
multiplication
[previous equation]
TIMES
landlord tries to do laundry even though drainage is obviously compromised
EQUALS
raw sewage all over our bathroom and kitchen floors and another night in a hotel.
We think we've found a place to move to.
Cotinue to stay tuned.
TIMES
landlord tries to do laundry even though drainage is obviously compromised
EQUALS
raw sewage all over our bathroom and kitchen floors and another night in a hotel.
We think we've found a place to move to.
Cotinue to stay tuned.
Labels: moving
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
equation
broken furnace
PLUS
broken space heater
PLUS
new furnace that is stupidly loud
PLUS
dryer that doesn't dry
PLUS
toilet won't flush
PLUS
sewage backup in bathtub
EQUALS
we're looking for a new place pronto.
Stay tuned.
PLUS
broken space heater
PLUS
new furnace that is stupidly loud
PLUS
dryer that doesn't dry
PLUS
toilet won't flush
PLUS
sewage backup in bathtub
EQUALS
we're looking for a new place pronto.
Stay tuned.
Labels: moving
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
unpacked
I finished unpacking the last of the boxes yesterday. We are quite crammed into this apartment, but we are making it work. I have 5 plastic totes under the bed that are making it all possible. Without a linen closet, all the blankets/sheets/towels/bedspreads/etc. are under the bed. Also my sweaters, hats & gloves, and so forth.
Now that the kitchen is all cleaned up, it is pretty inviting. I actually have more counter space here than I did at the house. And there is plenty of cabinet space for everything I brought here instead of putting in storage. I am not in love with the old crappy electric stove, but oh well. And I am really not in love with the apartment size fridge, especially after having the privilege of picking out my own fridge at the house, which was a thing of beauty and efficiency.
But we're here, and our stuff all fits, and our Kismet cat seems happy, and it's all going to be fine.
Now we just need the darn house to sell so we can commence with the rolling around on piles of money, er, I mean the responsible paying off of debts and banking of profit for a future down payment.
Now that the kitchen is all cleaned up, it is pretty inviting. I actually have more counter space here than I did at the house. And there is plenty of cabinet space for everything I brought here instead of putting in storage. I am not in love with the old crappy electric stove, but oh well. And I am really not in love with the apartment size fridge, especially after having the privilege of picking out my own fridge at the house, which was a thing of beauty and efficiency.
But we're here, and our stuff all fits, and our Kismet cat seems happy, and it's all going to be fine.
Now we just need the darn house to sell so we can commence with the rolling around on piles of money, er, I mean the responsible paying off of debts and banking of profit for a future down payment.
Labels: apartment, house, moving
Friday, July 27, 2007
it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have been extremely busy, however. Since I last posted, I have:
1. Moved to the apartment that I described previously.
2. Unpacked some of our stuff, although we still have a lot of boxes.
3. Cleaned our entire old house top to bottom, including painting two rooms.
4. Cleaned out the gardens and patio at the old house ALL IN ONE DAY. I don't recommend this method. Especially when it means toting 10 bags of bark mulch around the yard. I am only 5 feet tall and those bags come up to my waist, so even though I can carry that much weight, it's like wrestling a bear for me to pick up the bag.
5. Worked 4 days/week at the hospital in a team nursing setting - I'm paired with an RN and we take 6 or 7 patients... I provide primary care for half of them, ask the nurse for help with the things I can't do (hang IV meds and give narcotics, mostly), and act as the nurse's aide when s/he needs an extra pair of hands. It's hard work but it's going well. I'm getting mostly positive feedback from my nurses, and the non-positive feedback has all been constructive criticism which I welcome, because it helps me learn.
We moved on Monday and I worked Tuesday-Thursday. Today is my first day off at the apartment and I am unpacking the kitchen (among other things). This morning R* and I went over to a bakery/cafe in the new neighborhood and had a lovely coffee & pastry & fruit salad breakfast before he went to work. I walked back to the apartment and man, this is a nice neighborhoood. Beautiful houses and gardens and so many trees. I even paused and watched a hummingbird in someone's garden for a few minutes. I think once we get settled in the apartment, we're going to really like living here.
1. Moved to the apartment that I described previously.
2. Unpacked some of our stuff, although we still have a lot of boxes.
3. Cleaned our entire old house top to bottom, including painting two rooms.
4. Cleaned out the gardens and patio at the old house ALL IN ONE DAY. I don't recommend this method. Especially when it means toting 10 bags of bark mulch around the yard. I am only 5 feet tall and those bags come up to my waist, so even though I can carry that much weight, it's like wrestling a bear for me to pick up the bag.
5. Worked 4 days/week at the hospital in a team nursing setting - I'm paired with an RN and we take 6 or 7 patients... I provide primary care for half of them, ask the nurse for help with the things I can't do (hang IV meds and give narcotics, mostly), and act as the nurse's aide when s/he needs an extra pair of hands. It's hard work but it's going well. I'm getting mostly positive feedback from my nurses, and the non-positive feedback has all been constructive criticism which I welcome, because it helps me learn.
We moved on Monday and I worked Tuesday-Thursday. Today is my first day off at the apartment and I am unpacking the kitchen (among other things). This morning R* and I went over to a bakery/cafe in the new neighborhood and had a lovely coffee & pastry & fruit salad breakfast before he went to work. I walked back to the apartment and man, this is a nice neighborhoood. Beautiful houses and gardens and so many trees. I even paused and watched a hummingbird in someone's garden for a few minutes. I think once we get settled in the apartment, we're going to really like living here.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
onward!
Okay! I finished 4th quarter on Wednesday. Final grades haven't come out yet, but I believe I'm going to get a 3.5 in both classes.
We signed a lease on the apartment I mentioned previously. Now we are in the middle of packing up and getting rid of stuff, putting other stuff into storage, and generally trying to make our house look beautiful and uncluttered so people will want to buy it. My parents are going to come help us do some of the last repairs and painting and stuff, which will be excellent.
I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get rid of extraneous stuff. It feels good to simplify a bit. But it sure is a lot of work to go through everything we own and make decisions about whether we're going to take it with us, throw it away, Freecycle it, give it to someone specific, or put it in storage.
New job starts on Monday. I talked to my new boss this week and she told me she's going to have me orient with the RNs, so I don't know if I'm going to be a "junior nurse" and have my own patient load or what! Regardless, I'm looking forward to it and I'm sure it will go fine. This first week is going to be all classroom orientation, anyway, which will be snoresville. I've done clinicals at this hospital before so I already know how their documentation works, how to use the Pyxis, which brand of blood glucose monitor they use, blah blah blah. I think I'll take a book and read under the table like I did in 5th grade social studies class. Haha.
We signed a lease on the apartment I mentioned previously. Now we are in the middle of packing up and getting rid of stuff, putting other stuff into storage, and generally trying to make our house look beautiful and uncluttered so people will want to buy it. My parents are going to come help us do some of the last repairs and painting and stuff, which will be excellent.
I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get rid of extraneous stuff. It feels good to simplify a bit. But it sure is a lot of work to go through everything we own and make decisions about whether we're going to take it with us, throw it away, Freecycle it, give it to someone specific, or put it in storage.
New job starts on Monday. I talked to my new boss this week and she told me she's going to have me orient with the RNs, so I don't know if I'm going to be a "junior nurse" and have my own patient load or what! Regardless, I'm looking forward to it and I'm sure it will go fine. This first week is going to be all classroom orientation, anyway, which will be snoresville. I've done clinicals at this hospital before so I already know how their documentation works, how to use the Pyxis, which brand of blood glucose monitor they use, blah blah blah. I think I'll take a book and read under the table like I did in 5th grade social studies class. Haha.
Labels: moving, nursing, nursing school
Thursday, June 07, 2007
head. hurts.
I have a monster headache today. My inner nursing-school hypochondriac wants to declare it a cluster headache and go to the ER for some oxygen and good drugs, but in real life I think it's just a regular ol' tension headache that needs some ibuprofen and big glass of water, which I'm taking care of right now.
School is nearly done. I've turned in all my assignments, including extra credit and my giant term paper. I've taken my last two regular exams and did just fine on both of them, so now all that's left is the two final exams for med-surg and for psych. Interesting, each final is only 60 points, not 100 points like usual finals. I will study for these exams, but I am so not worried about them.
In moving news, I got us a storage space today and bought a handful of boxes to start the pack-a-thon. Yesterday I plowed through our biggest storage closet and got rid of a bunch of stuff, posted a bunch of stuff on Freecycle, and divided up the rest into "take to apartment," "pack for storage unit," "leave with house" (light bulbs for the light pots, the egg holder for the fridge), and "Freecycle later". Now that I've got boxes, I can get going on packing stuff up and we can start ferrying things to the storage unit.
I also went and looked at an apartment today. It's not perfect - there are definitely both pros and cons - but it would be fine for a year or so and the price is right. It's like a mother-in-law apartment in the owner's house - upstairs there's the owner's unit and downstairs there's his workshop. I like the idea of living someplace that isn't an apartment complex full of people. Pros: super-nice neighborhood, walking distance to some of our favorite restaurants, big living room, big kitchen, extra leetle room for an office, storage space, hardwood floors. Cons: bedrooms are tiny and don't have real closets, just closet-y areas without doors, no dishwasher, electric stove, bathroom is nice but tiny, no off-street parking, laundry is in a storage room next to the apartment. We'll see - the owner is going to run credit checks and all that and get back to us with a decision soon. I tried really hard to be pleasant and gave him info that should make him want to rent to us: R* has a great job! We've been homeowners for quite some time now! We like quiet living spaces! I love the owner's artwork! Etc. If this place doesn't work out, no big deal - we don't plan to move before August 1 anyway.
All of this extroversion today was hard for me. Especially with a headache. But I got a lot accomplished so go me. Now I'm going to go find some lunch and then go put stuff in boxes.
School is nearly done. I've turned in all my assignments, including extra credit and my giant term paper. I've taken my last two regular exams and did just fine on both of them, so now all that's left is the two final exams for med-surg and for psych. Interesting, each final is only 60 points, not 100 points like usual finals. I will study for these exams, but I am so not worried about them.
In moving news, I got us a storage space today and bought a handful of boxes to start the pack-a-thon. Yesterday I plowed through our biggest storage closet and got rid of a bunch of stuff, posted a bunch of stuff on Freecycle, and divided up the rest into "take to apartment," "pack for storage unit," "leave with house" (light bulbs for the light pots, the egg holder for the fridge), and "Freecycle later". Now that I've got boxes, I can get going on packing stuff up and we can start ferrying things to the storage unit.
I also went and looked at an apartment today. It's not perfect - there are definitely both pros and cons - but it would be fine for a year or so and the price is right. It's like a mother-in-law apartment in the owner's house - upstairs there's the owner's unit and downstairs there's his workshop. I like the idea of living someplace that isn't an apartment complex full of people. Pros: super-nice neighborhood, walking distance to some of our favorite restaurants, big living room, big kitchen, extra leetle room for an office, storage space, hardwood floors. Cons: bedrooms are tiny and don't have real closets, just closet-y areas without doors, no dishwasher, electric stove, bathroom is nice but tiny, no off-street parking, laundry is in a storage room next to the apartment. We'll see - the owner is going to run credit checks and all that and get back to us with a decision soon. I tried really hard to be pleasant and gave him info that should make him want to rent to us: R* has a great job! We've been homeowners for quite some time now! We like quiet living spaces! I love the owner's artwork! Etc. If this place doesn't work out, no big deal - we don't plan to move before August 1 anyway.
All of this extroversion today was hard for me. Especially with a headache. But I got a lot accomplished so go me. Now I'm going to go find some lunch and then go put stuff in boxes.
Labels: moving, nursing school
Sunday, May 20, 2007
clinical finished
My last day of med-surg clinical was this week! We left early on the last day and went out together for pizza and beer. It was fun. I really love my classmates. Now I've just got one more evening of psych clinical and I will be nearly finished with the quarter. Of course I've still got several more tests and a research paper and final exams... but it's all doable. And then it will be time for summer break and starting my new job!
We're also starting to work on getting ready to move. We're going to sell our house at some point this summer and move into an apartment for the next year while I finish up school and find a job, so we'll be able to buy our next house that will be a little bigger. We're planning on probably having a baby in the next couple years and our current house is just a little too small. Or really, it's just not laid out optimally. We hope that by selling while the housing market is still hot, we'll put ourselves in a good position to buy in a couple years. But in the meantime, it means we've got to sort and clean out and pack and fix up the house and rent a storage unit and find an apartment and put the house on the market and gaaaaaaaaaaaah. I shouldn't look at it as one big task, I guess - it seems much more manageable if I break it down into single tasks like "clean out the filing cabinet".
Thank goodness for Freecycle, that's all I can say!
We're also starting to work on getting ready to move. We're going to sell our house at some point this summer and move into an apartment for the next year while I finish up school and find a job, so we'll be able to buy our next house that will be a little bigger. We're planning on probably having a baby in the next couple years and our current house is just a little too small. Or really, it's just not laid out optimally. We hope that by selling while the housing market is still hot, we'll put ourselves in a good position to buy in a couple years. But in the meantime, it means we've got to sort and clean out and pack and fix up the house and rent a storage unit and find an apartment and put the house on the market and gaaaaaaaaaaaah. I shouldn't look at it as one big task, I guess - it seems much more manageable if I break it down into single tasks like "clean out the filing cabinet".
Thank goodness for Freecycle, that's all I can say!
Labels: moving, nursing school
