Feeling a Bit Oracular...

The word of the day is fitting. Tyler and I have been busy in a way, and not busy enough in others. I feel busy just because of school, I love to learn, but really do not like school. I am ready for summer, when I don't have to worry about homework. Tyler has been busy at work, but unfortunately doesn't have a lot to do otherwise. I know that if we owned this house he would be Mr. Handyman and fix up stuff, but we cant do that. And praise the Lord we don't have to!

Neither of us have started our new jobs yet, although I went in for my training, and have to go in every now and again for a series of shots. They said it was possible that I will get 1 client a week until the end of the school year, and then I will get more. Tyler received a call about a week and a half ago saying that it would be about 3 more weeks until he could do anything. We aren't quite sure if that means he will be starting soon or not.

All this being said, we have had some nice surprises. Two weeks about my mom and dad came and stayed with us for a weekend. Mom and I worked all day Saturday and Sunday making our new couch covers (post to come), and Dad and Tyler spent some quality time playing with the technology. We were able to take them to our favorite restaurant, and show them around a bit of the area. That being said, we pretty much stick to 4 roads, so there wasn't much site seeing.

This week we got a call from Saralyn Murray asking if she could stay with us in May, so we are excited for her visit too!

We have begun to process the big question of what to do in a year. I am only doing my associates degree, so after that we will need a new place to live. This gives us endless possibilities. Hopefully the next few months will provide some guidance as we both test out some new jobs.

We love hearing from friends, and really enjoy visitors. If anyone is nearby, feel free to stop in!

Cattercorner, Kitty-corner, Cattycorner

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who has been neglecting my blog. We have been quite busy, but with great reward.

I really don't remember very far beyond this past week. But, the biggest news in our lives is by far job related. In October, Tyler went to a job fair put on by the Kroc Center in South Bend. We had visited their website and learned a lot about the Salvation Army from a lady that I work with who attends the church. The job fair was huge, hundreds of people were there looking for jobs, but Tyler's interview went very well and he received the highest score possible. He was told he would certainly be getting a call soon about a 2nd interview. Time went by, and nothing happened. In early December we got a name from the lady I work with, she said to check with this person and see where they are in the process. We knew that they had moved the grand opening back and figured they were just behind. We got a hold of someone, and his resume was passed along to the right people, and we waited some more. By the end of January we were tired of waiting. Tyler called at least 2 times a week, and found out that his resume had been lost. He was a little perturbed to say the least. He continued to call until he was promised an interview, and after that interview was canceled, he called some more. Finally, this past Tuesday, only 3 days after the Grand Opening, he had his interview. One of the questions they asked was, "you have all of these qualifications, why have you waited until now to apply?" Ha.
So Tyler got the job!!! He was so excited. His main duties will be in the recreation facilities, as far as specifics we really don't know yet. But, it is a fantastic opportunity and he was told that there is a lot of room to move up in the company.

As for me, I have been looking into options of things to do with my Deaf Studies degree (oh by the way, I am now in a 2 year AA program in Deaf Studies rather than a 4 year BA for Interpreting). There are a ton of options, but I would feel most comfortable about having a marketable skill other than Sign Language when I hit the job market. Nursing is something that has always interested me and I really want to look into. So I researched around the area and found a company called Interim Health care. I was interested in the job of Personal Care Attendant and decided to go pick up an application. When I got to the office, the woman handed me the application, some agreement forms, medical forms, and a pre-test. Apparently, before you can even apply you must take the pre-test. So I went back to the little testing room and did my best. I needed an 80% to pass and ended with a 90%, I was so nervous. So I filled out the application and did the interview right there. Technically I am not hired until I can pass a background check and a health check to make sure I am free of communicable diseases, but I'm not too worried.

I am not positive yet what all I will be doing but I was able to gather a good bit from the test, and I talked to another lady at work that use to work for the same company doing the job I am getting. Mostly, I will go to a patients house and... take care of them??? I'm not really sure. But I do know that I get human interaction, and I'm pretty excited about that.

So Tuesday was a big day, followed by Wednesday when we filed out taxes. We went ahead and filed through H&R Block, and it was a very painless experience costing next to nothing and ending in a nice sized return.

Today Goodwill was having a 50% off sale, and we went to find some work clothes. It is really hard to find scrubs that fit me, but I did find 3 nice, barely used tops and two pairs of pants that went well. Tyler needs khaki pants, but could only find those made for a more elderly class. We will continue looking for him. Now we are getting ready for next weekend, when Mom and Dad Horst come to visit. The house is in slight disarray still, but all is well. We have been enjoying our weekends full of homework and housework (at least I have enjoyed them) and I love doing little projects on the side. Today my project was "How white can I get clothes that I have had for more than 4 years?" The answer? Surprisingly white.

My weapons of choice, washing soda, Borax, vinegar, bleach, Yellow Out, a bucket,
 dish soap, Ammonia and home made stain remover

Shiv?

The word of the day is shiv, I cant come up with anything clever for that.
After a long time away, I have decided that I'm going to try this blogging thing one more time. Last semester got terribly busy and it sunk to the bottom of my list of priorities. But, I want to keep people updated, sometimes I just feel so out of touch with everyone.

We have had a crazy last couple of months, especially for me. My first semester of college was very trying. As I was getting acclimated to college life, I also was adjusting to married life and not living in Wayne county. I was taking 17 credit hours, plus working 20 hours a week. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed and very glad when it was over.

Tyler is working at Kmart, and they love him there. We were really fortunate that over the holidays he was consistently getting 40+ hours a week. Now his managers have been trying to get him as many hours as possible, and yesterday he won an award for his hard work!

Last semester we also did a bit of traveling. In mid-November I went to Ohio overnight for a funeral of a friend from high school. About a week later I went back to Ohio for Thanksgiving and got to spend time with family and friends. Unfortunately Tyler had to work over Thanksgiving, so he stayed home and kept track of things here. In mid-December Tyler's grandfather passed away, so we traveled back to Ohio for a night. The circumstances were not the greatest, but it was nice for Tyler to be able to see family and friends while we were there. Then, on Christmas Eve, we traveled to Tennessee to spend the rest of the holidays with Tyler's family. It was so great to be on a farm and get to enjoy the outdoors, not to mention the warm weather.

We drove back home on the 2nd during a snow storm, and have been dealing with the Indiana winter ever since. The snow is beautiful though, and I really am enjoying it.

Now this semester we are looking at a little more peace. I have a very light schedule, and Tyler has more steady hours. My goal is to do homework on the weekends so that we can spend the evenings together relaxing. I am very excited to get a little quiet time to myself too. I have already organized parts of the house that are driving me crazy, sewn, read a book, and started a new crocheting project!

Now you are all caught up on our lives!

A Ferly Day

Since my last post a lot has gone on here. I'm continuing with classes and getting ready for a change, but I guess I have a while to wait until next semester.

Two weeks ago turkey was on sale at Kroger, we decided to buy one and have our own thanksgiving since I will be in PA and Tyler will stay home for real Thanksgiving. I did all my research, looked up recipes for traditional dishes, watched videos on how to cook a turkey, and even made homemade gravy. Everything turned out wonderfully, except, when I went to carve the turkey (something I did not look up how to do, I re-murdered it) I realized that although I had gotten the neck out, I left the heart and liver in. Who decided they should be in a completely different spot? That's silly. But our Thanksgiving was delicious, and we are still enjoying the leftovers.

We have been working around the house gradually to keep making things more homey. This past week I went at our couch with a knife to fluff it back up. It looks 10x better, except for the scars... but I figure one I get a cover on it, that wont matter.

This weekend was exciting for us. We went on a date night last night to Hibachi, a nearby Japanese Buffet. Picture an oriental Ryan's with way better food and that is what it was. And today, I went to a signing lunch in which people from the Deaf community and the ASL students had lunch together and signed. Pretty self explanatory, but that was really interesting and fun for me. I love watching the 3rd and 4th year students knowing that if they can learn the language, I can too.

Well sorry there are no pictures. I have been finishing the editing of our wedding pictures and cannot work up enough energy to look through more.

Our Jaundiced View

My mom recently "got on my case" about not posting the definitions to the words in my post titles. So here it is.
Jaundiced     1. exhibiting prejudice         2. yellowed
                                                                                                                                                                          

As you know, we have had quite the time finding jobs. At first, my ideal job was being a nanny and cleaning some homes on the side. Applying for a job at college was the last thing I wanted to do, but I gave in and did it. It turned out that I got an amazing job, working for great people who will go out of their way to do things for me. My boss frequently asks me how Tyler and I are doing, if we are having any problems with the house, if we need anything etc. For Tyler, he didn't get the jobs we were excited about, and as more exciting jobs come along, we try to curb our enthusiasm and not get our hopes up. But I was reminded yesterday as I scrubbed out some very nasty sinks, that God does has a plan for us, we just are too narrow minded to see it. If we would open our eyes a little, we would see that every job that turns us down, is one step closer to the one that will be the best fit.

Just a thought.

On another note, we got our delivery of flowers on Saturday. It was too late in the evening to go and plant, but we got a chance on Sunday. Here are the pictures!

Here is the right side of our flower bed under our living room window, before we worked. As you can see, no one did anything before we got there. So we got out shovels and broke up the soil, and then went through and pulled out all the grass and roots.

Here is the after, its a little sparse, but Vicki is going to give us more and we can fill it in. I also have a lot of seeds that I plan to plant in the spring and that will fill it in also.

 Here is the left side of the bed, below our bedroom window.



Before

After

Here is the side bed

And this is the pile of stuff we got out of the beds. Yes, when we moved here there was a bale of straw. We plan on using it to protect some mums that my supervisor is going dumpster diving for in November at a nearby retirement village.

We did this today. There was a pile of bricks in our backyard, and a little landing off the back porch. We thought it would look nice to put a little border around the flowerbeds. Also, that should give a clue to the grounds people that we will take care of our own flowerbeds. At some point we need to dig down a little and set the bricks in.

And, for the right side, there are some landscaping bricks down in the ground around the edge that we are going to dig up and make look nice...and by we I mean Tyler =)

 The next thing on the list is to make curtains and couch covers so we can have a nicer living room.

Vesuvian... something'erother

Well, it has been quite awhile since I have posted, sorry about that.

Woops! One of the stains we found

We did end up getting to stay in the guest house, it was really nice to have walls that weren't white and trim that was not painted. So we enjoyed our little vacation especially because while we were in the house we had an unlimited meal plan at the school. We made a couple unnecessary trips to the campus restaurant to stock up on fruit, sandwiches, chips, and the only pop we'll have for a long time. Every night we checked in on the house and watched the progress.

When we got back to our own house, we were delighted with the non-mildewy bathroom. My allergies are still not doing well, but they are a lot better than they were. We examined the house a little and noticed some stains that the maintenance men had left. I talked to the landlord and he told me to talk to the head of housekeeping, lucky me, I work for housekeeping. My boss was so helpful, and that night we got our entire carpet shampooed. Praise Jesus!

Tyler and I have both been adjusting to our jobs. I have been getting a steady 20 hours a week and everything is becoming second nature to me. My boss has been giving me jobs everywhere so that I can learn all the different things on campus, along with jobs where I lead and train other students. I was talking to my boss the other day and it sounds like I may have a student supervisor job for the summer which is 40 hours a week and I think a higher pay. Tyler's job is going well, but he would like to find another. A Salvation Army community center is opening up in the area, and Bethel is having a job fair hosted by the center so he is going to try and get a job there.


My current excitement is all about plants. My boss and supervisors tend to adopt us students, and I have worked with one woman named Vicki the most. We have had a lot of conversations and after learning that I liked gardening she got very excited. She said that she will be thinning out her garden and would love to bring me flowers, so tomorrow she is bringing us daisies, lilies, black eyed susans, marigolds, mums, resurrection lilies, ground cover, and some other stuff. She has been saving clay pots that the school is throwing out and giving them to me, and likes to give me starts of plants that are all around campus. And, in the spring, she has promised to take me dumpster diving. =)

My cooking day last weekend. On the left is peanut butt and chocolate squares, and failed homemade potato chips. On the right is delicious chocolate chip bread and homemade tortillas (delicious and cheap).

The chocolate chip bread, we got two loaves out of the recipe!

Postprandial Adventures

Last week on Tuesday, both Tyler and I got calls for job interviews. Mine was with the school housekeeping department, and Tyler's with Kmart. Thursday I went in for my interview and they hired me, and I started working on Friday. On Friday Tyler had his interview, was hired, had orientation today and will start on the 25th. We are both so grateful to have jobs and be meeting people.

We've been keeping busy the last couple of days getting ready to move out. In order for the crew to come and do the remodel, all of our stuff has to be out of our bathroom and spare room. Also, we've been working at making sure everything in the house is put away so that we dont have to worry about the crews messing it up.

We get the keys to our temporary home tomorrow, and they will start working on our house at 6:00am Monday. I'm working my hardest to think ahead to all of the stuff we will need, including food and cooking supplies. Also, we need to be sure that I have everything I need for school. We will take some before and after pictures of the bathroom, but for now we have no idea what all they will do.