Max Attack!

Oh my heavens, it's been AGES! I'm so sorry (to no one, cause I'm sure anyone that DID read this has long since given up after my weeks months of silence).

There hasn't been a whole lot happening over here at the Pines (which I'm still getting used to calling my self...) Other than the arrival of Max.


He's our new adopted pup dog. We got him from NBRAN, which is a great Brittany rescue organization. I found him on facebook, where they post several pictures a week of britts that need a good home.
I fell in love with him because of the above picture, and immediately felt that he NEEDED to be in our lives. I had to try to convince Shan of this, as he doesn't necessarily agree with my views of fate, but I just had a feeling that bringing this dog into our home was very important.

The one thing you may not be able to tell from the above pictures is this:
Max only has three legs. His front left leg had to be removed due to a break that was never treated, which resulted in his constant licking, and an infection. He's also on thyroid meds because he has hypothyroidism. It's okay. We love him anyway...it's sort of like bringing a little old man into the house. There were a few things we didn't know about him until he got here (we didn't meet him until it was time to bring him home, because he was being fostered in CANADA)...he's short. As in no where near as tall as a brittany...as in he can pretty much stand right under Murphy. He's also not purebred like Murph. He seems to be part beagle. This is supported by the fact that he bays instead of barks, especially when he's on the scent of rabbits.

It was a little touch and go to start. The first day he came in, he took over all of Murphy's bones, and got very aggressive when Murph would try to interact with him. But after a few days, they were good buddies.


I promise I'm going to try to be better about this thing. I'm currently working on some floor plans for you to ooh and aah over, since no one has come to see the house since we moved in, I may as well give a virtual tour...

cruisin' along

That's right! For the honeymoon, we headed on a seven day cruise around the Caribbean.
besides the happy honeymooners, Daddy, Starri, Manda and Michael were also along for the ride.

We left Miami Saturday, and cruised all night to our first stop at Half Moon Cay, an island in the Bahamas that the cruise line owned, so it was just the cruisers on the beach.

One of the only pictures of Shan pre-sunburn

Yes. Shan did proceed to get one of the worlds worst sunburns on this beach. But before that, we did have a great time swimming and hanging out on the beach before getting back on the boat to float over to St. Thomas. (Luckily, we had a sea day in between, so Shan could sort of recover from is 12th degree burns).

Maegan's Bay Beach, one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world

(check out that awesomely splotchy sunburn that Shan is sporting)

St. Thomas was another hang out on the beach day, and a little shopping before boating on over to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We did a lot more site seeing in PR than the other locations, mostly because there wasn't a swimmable beach there, but also because there were these great old forts there that used to encircle all of San Juan. Shan loved checking out all of the old structures, and look out towers.

Shan and I at the fort

View from the lookout tower

That brings us to my favorite, and least favorite part of the trip all rolled into one.


Grand Turk. I have wanted to see Turks and Caicos pretty much since I came out of the womb, so I was SO excited to see it for reals. We had arranged to go on an excursion at T&C that included a catamaran ride, to snorkel at a reef for an hour,
before getting back on the "party boat" which included drinks (and, unfortunately, drunken dancing...)


and a little beach time on a private beach,


before taking us back to the main beach...where I proceeded to not hold down all that rum punch I'm seen slamming in a few of the previous pictures. While I was paying for not eating enough to counteract the alcohol consumption, my new hubby was out scouting some real estate for us (I wish!)
Before he dragged (because I couldn't walk) me back to the boat, so that we could finish up our trip and wind up back in MIA.

Check out Shan's AWESOME leg burns

(yes, they still look like that almost a month later)

Overall, we had a great time. We did learn that we're not necessarily cruise people, as we enjoyed being on the beach more than boat activities. We didn't really partake of any of the awesomeness on the boat, except for the karaoke most nights. We do plan to try to return to T&C for our 5 year anniversary, where I can hopefully actually enjoy it, not in a drunken stupor.

I'll end with this; because it just seems fitting:

Yes, this is probably the MOST pictures Shan and I have ever had taken together, with the exception of our wedding.

Thanks to Starri Nation for the pictures!

she's baaack!

Okay. I'm back. and on a real computer.
There have been a TON of changes in the life and times of me and mine...which most of you already know about, but for anyone out there that doesn't or anyone who stumbles upon me on the interweb (hi!) I'll fill you in...

volume one: the wedding
Most of you know we got married here. Shan and I left on Wednesday for a leisurely drive down to Asheville. Thursday we got up and had a great last day before the wedding hub-bub began just to ourselves. We went on a tour of the Biltmore, since Shan had never seen it before. We also had a wonderful lunch at the Bistro, before checking out the wine cellar where the ceremony was actually being held.

Friday, family started rolling into town, and it was time for a rehearsal-less (we didn't actually rehearse anything) rehearsal dinner at Luella's.

The whole pre-wedding party, getting ready to chow down on some BBQ!

The only thing Shannon asked for in the whole wedding process was to have BBQ for the rehearsal...so we went to this great little whole in the wall, and ate til there was literally NO MORE ROOM, before Shan and I went our separate ways for the night before tradition.
My part of the party (Crys, Daddy, and Starri) headed back to the Inn at Biltmore for some post dinner drinks with Arrie, before crashing for the night.

The day of, Crys and I got up to go have our herr did before the rest of the family arrived and the getting ready proceeded.

(and now for a stream of pictures...)

My favorite picture of the wedding party!

The wedding itself was perfect. Exactly what we wanted it to be, with just immediate family (with the exception of Shan's sister, who we really missed :( )
We had the ceremony and the reception in the same room, the Champagne Cellar. Which to get into, you had to walk down this beautiful tunnel

and into the room that we had decorated with what felt like hundreds of candles (thanks Crys, Manda and Arrie!!)

After the ceremony, our guests were given a tour of the winery and a wine tasting, while the room was flipped for our reception. (which was just a cocktail hour and dinner--and of course cake) The dinner was amazing--seriously some of the most delicious. food. ever.


All in all, it was an uneventful event. We had a wonderful time, with wonderful people and wouldn't have changed a thing about it.

Pictures by Starri Nation, and Sara Wise
flowers by Amanda Jewel

In progress

I do believe that our Internet will be hooked up tomorrow and then I'll be free to blog from a real computer instead of from a iPhone. There will be pictures! And details of the wedding and honeymoon and house! Thanks for your patience and stay tuned...

Settled...ish

So we're here. We're married and honeymooned and everything. We're certainly not unpacked though... Right now I'm just testing my blogging ability from my new iPhone! Yes that's right my husband (boy that sounds weird) bought me one for our one month anniversary. I'll be back later with more details as soon as I figure out this app.

My apologies

I'm sorry for those of you checking in regularly, only to be disappointed by the fact that there hasn't been an update. The truth is, we're in a holding pattern until we get into the house (next Friday, if all goes well!)

We had our inspection last Thursday. Save for a few minor problems, there were no deal breakers, and we're ready to move forward...and are certainly looking forward to closing on the 13.

Lord knows we're looking forward to getting out of this hotel. Murphy is included in that too! He's so cramped up here...and even though he gets two days a week at doggy day care, it's still not as good as having him in his own place.

We only have one more Monday morning of getting up at 0300 to get down here in time for work. This past Monday was ROUGH. After getting up, driving three hours, dropping to dog off at day care and working all day...I was really looking forward to some blissful unconsciousness. Murphy had other plans. Right before we got ready to go to bed, he started puking ALL over the place. And just when we thought he was done, he'd start again. At one point I had him in the tiny hotel bath with me (so he wouldn't KEEP throwing up on the carpet/BED) and he was just shaking like crazy, to the point I was so worried that I called the Emergency Vet Service here in town. Of course they recommended we come in at once, and why wouldn't they? For walking in the door they planned to charge me $85...and that doesn't count any treatment he would have needed. Shan and I decided to wait him out a bit, to see if he calmed down. And after about an hour of emesis every 10 minutes, he drank a little water, and fell asleep.

He's fine now. And, for the record, if he'd kept it up, we WOULD have taken him to the vet...but it seemed that he had eaten something that aggravated his stomach (it looked like rubber) and past experience with a pukey puppy has taught us that once he gets it up he's fine. So we let it play out, and he's back to his usually chipper self.

I promise more house related posts as soon as we get into the, you know, house.

Can you say STRESS?

Ugh. Shan and I are both so STRESSED these days...it's miraculous that one (or maybe both) of us isn't dead.

Because of the buy-out situation with the house, we're using the equity of our Traer house to pay the down payment on the new house. But, until we actually close, we're trying not to over spend...just in case we need to dip into our savings to cover any extra costs. We still need to book a flight to Miami for the honeymoon, and book a hotel room for that night...but we haven't yet and prices are only going up and it just getting more and more frustrating.

I'm not even looking forward to the wedding or the honeymoon anymore, because they're starting to feel like something else I need to check off a list. I'm really upset that that's how I feel about my own wedding, but moving, starting a job, and trying to get ready for a wedding are just too much.

Speaking of the new job, it's going relatively well, except that this week I'm doing my absolute least favorite part of the job, and I can't wait to be done. I'm a little irritated with it, because it won't even be part of my regular duties once I get into my hired position, but it's still something that I need to be able to do. For the record...I CAN do it, I just don't LIKE/WANT to do it.

I'm so tired of living in a hotel. I feel bad for Murph being cooped up here all day. On Mondays and Fridays he goes to doggy day care...which makes me feel like one of those over-indulgent puppy parents that dresses him in fur coats (ha), and feeds him out of rhinestone dishes..but it's the only thing we can do with him due to our bi-weekly 3 hour drive.

Okay. I'm done whining for now. I think.
Grump.

Old home sweet home

I'm sorry I'm not a better picture blogger. I really wish I were better, but I'm not a camera toting fool like some people. I will try to work on that in the future.

After my first official week living in the QC (in a hotel, whoo!) I am happy to be back at home (in Traer) for the weekend. Shannon is currently up on the roof cleaning the skylights. He has actually taken the glass out of the window and is cleaning up/painting some roof issues. It's weird to be able to sit on the couch and talk to him while he's on the roof. He say "hi" by the way.

We're having the home inspection on our new home on Thursday, which I won't be there for. But, I promise some pictures soon! We're still not sure when we'll actually move all of our stuff down there, as we intended to leave our Traer house staged until it sells...but that means leaving all of our furniture.

The new job is wonderful! Any job would have been welcome, but this is what I really want to do...so that makes it even better. Currently I'm working in a clinic setting during the day, but eventually will be moving to the hospital on thirds. Most people detest the idea of working over nights, but I am SO looking forward to it, as I have always been a night owl.

The next few weeks are going to be seriously busy...so I'll do my best to update along the way...but no promises.
-Shannon is going Turkey hunting in Wisconsin this weekend (leaving Thursday)
-May 11 Shan has a dinner event, for which he has to wear a suit (he's fancy!)
-May 13 We close on our house
-May 28 there's something....oh yea. The wedding! (Of which we still need to figure out the Shan's suit situation and wedding rings)
-June 4 a friends wedding
-June 10 leaving for Miami, for the cruise which leaves on the 11.

So. Blogging will probably take a back seat...but I'll do my very best to eventually post pictures of the new house, decorating ideas, and of course any wedding/honeymoon stuff. So stay patiently tuned...

HOME run!

Yes. I'm punny.

Shan and I came down on Sunday and looked at eight more houses. Some of them were quite strange, including one that had a full sized stove sitting in the middle of the kitchen! (as in not against a wall, or anything...) Most of them were either too expensive for what they were, or needed more work than we wanted to do. There was even one that clearly had hippopotamus sized rats, okay maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration...but there were rat turds the size of marbles...

Annyway. We wound up looking at one we had previously looked at, and liked pretty well at the time, just not as well as the Le Claire house. The house sit on 4/10 of an acre, is two story plus has a full finished basement, three bedrooms, 2.5 bats, and a two car garage (which Shan fully intends to build onto). It does have a pool though.

When we looked at it about a month ago it was listed at X dollars. Since then it had gone to buyout and was owned by a relocation company (I don't know what it is about us and relocation properties) and had dropped approx 15k.

We decided to put in an offer yesterday for 7k less than that (so X-22k) with a closing in three weeks.

We did find out there were two other offers...but since we were able to close so soon we felt pretty good about our offer. We came home, said a few prayers, ate some Chick-Fil-A, said more prayers and went to sleep.

Today they chose to negotiate with us, and wanted 4k more than our offer. Shan told them at first we would maintain our offer, but would release them from their obligation to replace all carpet. They came back and told us that was already a done deal...but met us in the middle and accepted 2k over our original offer....

So that's the story of how two young people bought their second house a mere month before their wedding.

Here's a link til I can get my own pictures up: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-Detail/5115-White-Post-Rd_Bettendorf_IA_52722_M83430-64481

On the Hunt

Let the house hunting commence! Check back for updates soon.

On the double

A few weeks ago we had an open house. Approximately 11 people came through, which was awesome, considering we were hoping for one or two people. We don't know how many were just nosy neighbors...but at least we've had some foot traffic.

Other than that, we haven't had any interested parties contact us...that is until yesterday afternoon.

Shannon called me at noon, and asked me if I could have the house ready for a private showing by 2:00. Which, quite frankly, was crazy talk. But who am I to keep from showing our house to a potential buyer, so I hung up the phone, turned up the tunes, and started running around like a mad woman. I got this house cleaned from top to bottom in under two hours, including vacuuming and folding/putting away laundry.

Then I loaded Murphy up, and vacated the premises for a few hours. Haven't heard anything else, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

On another note, we did find out our buyout offer...and while it's not as high as we were hoping for, it is at least a positive balance. So with that in mind, we'll be setting off on another house hunt on Sunday!

We're also picking up, (dog and all) and moving down there on Sunday to live in a hotel until we find a house, since I have to start my new job on Monday!!

Fire! Fire! (alarm)

So, I told you yesterday about getting our MCI back...well, another issue that we addressed was the lack of a carbon monoxide detector. We decided to buy a fire alarm/CO combo, and while we were at it we decided to go ahead and update the other fire alarm as well.

The task itself was fairly simple. Just detach the old, hook up the new to the existing 120V connection and attach to the wall. The end.

We tossed the old alarms in the trash and went on the next item on our "Fix it ourselves, before we get charged $150 to replace a $2 light switch cover" list.

Late Sunday night, right in that peaceful just about to drift into dream state, I hear a little beep beep beep beep beep beep beep. I shook Shan (who irritatingly is able to go from awake to sleep in the snap of the fingers) awake, to see if he'd heard it. We thought maybe it was the new fire alarms? Although, hopefully those would have sounded more like this: BEEP BEEP BEEP. Remember this was of the softer (or in this case, smaller font) variety. Just as we were ready to write it off as a fluke and go back to bed...we heard it again.

We both start wandering around the house trying to figure out what the crap is deciding to show it's butt NOW. I mean, it's had all night...it could have interrupted River Monsters, or the folding of the laundry...but no...it has to be now.

Is it timers on the stove? Maybe we need to set the clocks since we turned the power off? Is it the water softener? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BEEPING?!?!?!? Did we throw something away that beeps?

Epiphany: The old fire alarms! We left the old batteries connected. Of course! We're so silly! Just disconnect the batteries, and all will be well!

As we're patting each other on the backs for our wondrous Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson abilities, especially late at night when our faculties aren't necessarily at the sharpest, the fire alarms decide to let us know that they've yet to be bested with a "CHIRP!"


Shannon: How is this happening! They don't have any power! I have to get up in three hours and drive three hours! I hate these stupid things! They have to stop in a minute, THEY DON'T HAVE ANY POWER!
Jenni: Honey, I don't think they're going to stop. Ironically, they're letting you know that they don't have any power. They want a new battery.
Shannon: Oh, I'll give them a new battery!
(At which point, he opens the garage door, and hurls them frisbee style into the ditch that runs along the side of the house)

Problem solved!

(Don't worry, I did go out and retrieve them the next morning)

Stairway to Heaven....or, Front Porch, as the case may be

So, we got back our MCI (Major Component Inspection, for those of you not in the know) report...which is a list of things that an inspector perceived to be wrong with our house and that we had to address to their satisfaction, or take a cut in our buyout price.

One of the things on the list was that there were no steps from the front porch into the garage. Now, in the five years we've been here I think I can count on one finger the number of times that door has even been open...and I don't recall EVER having to get to the front porch in such a hurry that I couldn't either go through the house or out and around the garage, but I digress.

In order to keep from walking through the door from the front porch and face planting into the garage floor...well, you could just look, and hop down, but apparently that's not good enough...so Shannon took on the task of stair building.

He essentially copied the plan of the existing stairs from the garage into the house and modified it to suit the other door.

Original model, sporting the latest in Mt. Dew fashion

Shannon got to play with power tools! Well, a circular saw, and is drill...but you know how men are about power tools.

Showing off his circular saw skillz

The whole process was actually pretty painless (with the exception of a board falling on Shan's Achilles tendon and the hopping around/cursing that followed) Before we knew it, we had something that certainly resembled a stair skeleton:

Taking a second measurement...you know what they say about those-generally a good idea!

And speaking of measuring things...Shan specifically bought a mini tape measure to keep in his pocket:

Here is that same tape measure...surreptitiously NOT in his pocket...but on the grass, where it was 9 out of 10 times he went to use it.

When I wasn't actively taking pictures, wrangling the dog, standing on boards to keep them from moving while they were being sawed, or retrieving the tape measure AGAIN...I tried to stay out of the way...

Yes. I am sitting on the lawn mower. No. Murphy isn't dead in this picture...and if you look closely, you can see Shannon actually working in the corner.

Within a few short hours, we had a complete set of stairs. No more face plants onto the garage floor for us. Heck, we may even start using that door just because we can! More than likely, we'll send in some pictures to satisfy the inspectors, and take care of that $500 dollar deduction from our buyout for just about $15. Ha!

Just to prove I wasn't lying about Murphy being dead a few pictures above...here he is proudly modeling his Poppa's great achievement.

I'll tell ya what I want, what I really really want...

When it comes to house hunting for the second time, we have a little more realistic idea of what we want.

When we first came to Iowa on our whirlwind trip back in April of 06, we looked at about eight houses on one weekend. A few were 100 year old farm houses, with choppy floor plans, and ceilings so low even the dog could stand up straight in them. We looked at one that had an AMAZING floor plan, but was completely unlivable because of a leaky roof--which in and of itself wasn't a deal breaker...but the price was. One even had carpet in the kitchen (Yuck!) So when our realtor brought us to this house we were blown away.

I instantly fell in love with the willow trees, the hardwood floors, and the kitchen. Shannon loved the over-sized garage and the amount of land that came with it.

After living here for five years, there are certainly a few things we would change, and there are some things that we know we could do without in our second home. For instance, vaulted ceilings are not my thing. They're difficult to clean, and it's almost impossible to change the light bulbs. I love the amount of light that the sky lights let in, but they're also more difficult to clean.

With all that said...here are some things we know we MUST have in our next home, and some things that we'd like, but aren't deal breakers.

Must Haves:

• At least 4/10 of an acre (we love having a large lot, but we don't really utilize it)
• A minimum of 1800 square feet (I personally want 2000+, but when looking at real estate sites, they don't usually count the finished basement in the total square footage--so keep that in mind)
  
• 3-4 bedrooms
• A bathroom on each floor (I am not running upstairs every time I have to pee! Nor am I running downstairs in the middle of the night, those of you who know me, know my intense fear of serial killers creepin' in the dark!)

Like to Haves:

• A fenced yard (we can clearly do this ourselves...but we'd really like if it were already done)
• Some kind of deck/patio
  
• A finished basement
• A fairly updated kitchen (It doesn't have to be brand new, and I'm not a stainless steel freak like most house hunters, but I don't want a 1970's rust colored dishwasher)
  
• A fireplace
• More than one living space

One thing we know we DON'T want is a pool. The swimming season in Iowa is so short that it's not worth the up-keep to us. A few of the houses we've looked at have above ground pools, which we would most likely take out after the summer.

Of the houses we've looked at so far, none of them meet ALL of these criteria, but there have been quite a few that came pretty close. I figure that having a list here may help me keep all these things in mind when we go on our next house hunt...hopefully next weekend!

Unfortunately, we can't go this weekend, because we have a long laundry list of things we need to do to please the stupid inspection report. Sad Face. But, I'll let you know as soon as we get our search on.

Strike One

So I told you yesterday about a house that we’d fallen in love with enough to put in an offer…well, here are the details. (Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to share, so you’ll have to use your imagination…)

After looking at a few options, we found a three level ranch, which sounds weird, but basically it was a three story house built into a hill, and instead of going up, the “top” floor was the only thing you could see when you pulled up, and then the rest of the floors were beneath it. Each level had ground access.

The lot was a huge hill, and not necessarily ideal for the dog, but it was landscaped, and terraced out to a point that we thought we could make it work.

The top floor had the kitchen, living/dining rooms, and master bed and bath. The middle level had two more bedrooms, bathroom, another living area with fireplace, and a laundry room. The bottom level was just an empty partially finished area. We envisioned finishing it out for a mother in law suite.

The house is in a VERY desirable neighborhood, and the location was great for Shannon’s commute. We’re only looking on the Iowa side of the river, even though Shannon is working in Illinois, because the tax situation and school systems are better on the Iowa side.

The house is a buyout situation, meaning that right now it is owned by a company as opposed to a person. It has been owned by said company since September, with zero offers on it…so we assumed they would be very motivated to sell. Knowing this, Shannon put in an offer for 40K less than the list price (Which I’ll refer to as $X), with a contingency on a successful closing on our house by June, 15.

They countered back, and reduced the price by 5K. At which point, we walked away, since it didn’t appear they were willing to play ball. A few hours later, our realtor called us back, and told us that they had decided to sign it back to us at $X-30K, but they wanted to move the closing date up to May 15, and wouldn’t place a contingency on the closing of our current house.

Our realtor told us we had until end of business to decide…(which was about 2.5 hours)…then called back and told us that someone else was putting an offer in, and we’d better make a decision in the next 30 minutes. (We’re fairly certain this was a ploy, since there had been no movement on the house in six months…but we’re not for sure)

Since we’re in a buyout situation, we KNOW that our house will be out of our hands 90 days after our list date, however, we don’t know yet how much money we’re going to get for it….this is where to problem was. Shan was willing to meet the price, but was not willing to take the risk without knowing what our buyout will be.

With that said, we told our realtor to tell them we’d take it ONLY if they agreed to put the closing contingency back in the contract. And, apparently they didn’t like that.

We don’t know if the “other guy” bought the house, or what. It’s not listed any longer online, but that could just be because it was supposed to go to another listing agent at the beginning of April. We continue to check online every few days to see if it is relisted…but until then we’re putting together another list of houses we want to look at…so, we’ll see what happens!

UPDATE: The "other guy" did indeed get the other house for 3% more than we offered. Oh well. Onward and Upward!

Here are the things you need to know...

I know most of the people that read this will already know most of what I'm about to say here, but for those who don't...

Let me introduce myself: Hi, I'm Jenni!

(with a fern on my head...don't ask)

I'm originally from Georgia, and graduated from Georgia Tech a few years ago. While I was there, I met the man I would soon marry.

This is my fiance: Shannon
Shannon is originally from Pennsylvania, and after graduating from Penn State, he came to GT for his Masters in Mechanical Engineering. After he graduated from GT, he accepted a job in Iowa.

For the last five years, we've lived here:
Which we bought after a whirlwind weekend trip during our senior year to find a place to live. We bought it because it was a compromise for what we both wanted in a house. It had a little bit of land (approx. 4 acres) but was still in town. It's a small town, but it has a grocery store, and it has a $2 movie theater, and the Traer Pizza Palace; which has the best pizza I've ever had...all within walking distance.

The pond and the willow trees were two major deciding factors in the purchase of this home.

One other being I should introduce you to is Murphy. He's our three year old Brittany, and he's spoiled rotten.

You should know that Murph HATES having his picture taken, and usually makes a weird face...like that one.

Up until now, the last five years have been pretty comfortable and routine. Shannon would get up and go to work everyday. I've had a couple of unfulfilling jobs, until I decided to go back to school to get certified as a medical lab tech. I still hadn't found a job doing what I really loved...but was still looking, and planning our wedding, which is to take place at the end of May, when our world got turned on it's ear.

In mid-January, Shannon found out he'd gotten a promotion, and we were going to be relocated to the Quad Cities, which is about three hours from where we are now. Luckily, Shannon's company is putting up for our relocation, so we started immediately getting the house ready for listing. We did a few things, like change hardware, and lighting fixtures, and got that sucker listed.

Shannon has been been working in the QC since February, and has been staying in a hotel, and coming home on the weekends. It's been an okay situation, which has allowed me to stay home with the dog, and meet the slew of appraisers and inspectors that have had to come through on official relocation business.

However, as of Monday, I now have a new job in the QC as well(!!!) working in a hospital lab, and I start in a few weeks. This means we HAVE to figure out our housing situation. And this has NOT been fun.

We found one house that we absolutely LOVED, and put an offer in on it, but (it's a long story, that I may get into in another post) it wasn't accepted.

So, in a nutshell, that's what I'm hoping to cover in this blog. Adventures in house hunting, starting a new job, getting married, and any other surprises that may be coming my way in the next two months and beyond.