Good News! :D

Yesterday, I had an interview. It went very well. This morning, I got a call from the company. They offered me the job! :D I immediately accepted.

I liked the feel of the company yesterday. I think it's something that I could enjoy. It's small and my boss seems like a nice guy. :) I'll be working about 35 hours per week. I will have a comfortable pay range to start at, and in 90 days, I will have benefits! For the first time EVER!! :D I will have health, dental, and life insurance as well as 401K. I'm ecstatic! It is a good day.

So, today, I went into the office and filled out all the necessary paperwork. Then, I went and took the drug test. I hate drug testing. Not the idea of it. I don't really care. I've never done any drugs in my entire life (If you think about it, how could I? I am terrified of needles; smoking makes me sick; and I avoid taking pills unless it's absolutely necessary. I suppose I could snort whatever kind of drug people snort - haha - but that just doesn't sound pleasant. And, beyond that, I don't really want to be high. I'm high on life already -- :D).

I just hate having to pee in that cup. I'm a girl. It's not exactly simple for me to do. I am never sure if I should sit and try to hold the cup under me or if I should hover or some other way. It's just very strange for me. So, then I decide on a plan and then I can't do it. haha... even if I have to go, my bladder just refuses. I have to take deep breaths and remind my bladder that it doesn't have a choice. HAHA ;)

Anyway, I did finally pee in the cup. I haven't heard the results yet, but I think it's fair to say that I'm clean. :) I start tomorrow morning at 9 AM. I am excited, but nervous. It's been a while since I've had a job, but I know that I can do this job.

I think I did pretty well on this job search. I searched from Sunday to Friday. Got a call on Friday. Interviewed on Tuesday. Got a call back. Interviewed again on Wednesday. Made it to second choice. Back to the drawing board. Search some more for jobs Wednesday to Friday and then again on Sunday. Get a call on Monday. Interview on Tuesday. Get job offer on Wednesday. I think it was pretty quick. I am very lucky. :)

Now I just need to get my schedule back to normal. I've been on Philip's schedule since October of last year (he works nights). When I got the job offer this morning at 8, I had to get up and go into work. On about 3.5 hours of sleep. :S But, hopefully that means that I will sleep great tonight (I am exhausted!) and can wake up refreshed and ready for work tomorrow. Wish me luck! :D

Good News, Bad News...

I always like to start with the bad news.

I have always been a fan of Frosted Mini Wheats (the cereal). I recently found out that it has gelatin in it (for those of you who do not know, gelatin is made from crushed up animal bones and ligaments, etc. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin). Some vegetarians choose to still eat gelatin, or at least not go out of their way to avoid it. I am very firm in my vegetarianism. I don't eat anything which required an animal to be killed in order for that item to be made. So, gelatin is out.

I religiously check the ingredients in food to make sure that there is nothing in it that I can't eat. I have no idea how I missed it on the Frosted Mini Wheats ingredients this whole time. I'm guessing that I just thought I had checked it before and then never checked it again. So, I was a bit ill about that when I found out. And, now I will no longer be buying or eating Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats. :(

Also, Joe and I went to this Italian restaurant near where we live. I ordered a vegetarian dish. Several bites in, I thought I got a tiny bit of meat, probably sausage. I spit it out just in case, but I wasn't completely convinced that it was meat, especially since I had already eaten quite a bit and there had been nothing in it. I also didn't want to ruin the meal for Joe. Well, I took a few more bites and sure enough, I bit down on a piece of sausage. I almost threw up. Joe wanted to send it back and get me something else. I didn't want to cause any problems, so I didn't. Maybe I should have. I'm sure that someone just used the wrong spoon or something. I probably would have said something, but I forgot to tell the waitress beforehand that I was vegetarian (As I do quite a bit of the time to make sure there aren't any mistakes). If I would have told her when I ordered, then I would have sent it back and had them take it off of my check. So, that ruined that meal.

More bad news (but this leads to good news!), my parents are officially not coming down for Christmas. They told me that a few weeks ago. I was disappointed, but I am determined to spend Christmas with Joe. And, Joe has a tradition in his family of spending Christmas Eve at his Uncle Joe's house. For those of you that know Joe, you know that he doesn't have a whole lot of family left (that he likes/speaks to) and he certainly doesn't have any other real family traditions. So, I am not about to make him miss his only real tradition. Therefore, I would be spending Christmas with Joe and his family and without my family.

I wasn't moping about it so that Joe wouldn't feel guilty, but he apparently knew that I would be disappointed about it. So, he offered to pack up the boys and go to Indiana with me right after we finish at his Uncle Joe's house on Christmas Eve. That is usually done about 5:00ish, so when we finish there, we will pack the boys into the car and drive to Indiana (roughly 11 hours away). It will be a long night, but I will get to surprise my parents. :) I know that my mom will be especially heartbroken that I couldn't be there for Christmas, so she will be ecstatic when I show up on her porch at 4:00 in the morning on Christmas Day. :) I'm so excited!

Also good news, I re-read Twilight to get the ugly movie images out of my head. It's much better now. I started re-reading New Moon just for the fun of it and then I realized that I don't like the book as much because Edward leaves and Bella is heartbroken. That got me to thinking though... They're making a New Moon movie. The movie should have very little of Robert Pattinson in it. Therefore, the New Moon movie still has a chance of being decent. :) lol... anything to keep my hopes up!

Good News...

Here's some good news for the great state of North Carolina:



Jessica's Law Takes Effect In North Carolina
Sunday, November 30, 2008 – updated: 11:08 pm EST November 30, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Starting Monday, many sex offenders convicted in North Carolina will get longer prison sentences.

Under "Jessica's Law” a person who commits certain sex crimes against a child under the age of 13, must serve at least 25 years in prison.

It's named after Jessica Lundsford. She used to live in Gaston County.

In 2005, the 9-year-old was kidnapped, raped and buried alive by a convicted sex offender in Florida.



Finally. Some justice. Hopefully this will help keep some children safe. So that people who were caught once will hopefully not have a chance to get out and hurt more children. :) Hopefully they'll rot in jail until they're too old to be able to hurt any more children.

We're going to own a house next week!

I talked to Joe just a little while ago. And there is good news! We are approved. And the house appraised for $175,000. :) (well, that's the appraiser's estimate of what the house will be worth when we finish the remodeling).

It's so exciting! We're going to start scheduling everything now! I can't wait! The bad news is that we won't actually be able to close on Tuesday. The bank said that the paperwork will take until Thursday to finish, so we will close on October 2 instead of September 30. Our realtor said that the current owners should not have a problem with 2 extra days, so it will not be the end of the world.

Joe just got back. We have a meeting with the tile guy and the cabinet guy today. :) I am so happy. And the guy who's taking out the baseboard heating is scheduled for Monday, October 8. And that means that I can get my mom and my sister tickets to come down! I am so excited. I talked to my mom and she said she'd stay for as long as I need her and she'd take off whatever days she needed to. She's as excited as I am.

Such good news! And now we wait a week. And then by this time next week, we'll be home owners. :) And next weekend (if we're not in Texas), we will be working on our new house! And then the following weekend, my mom and my sister will be here helping us paint! And then by the end of October, we will be all moved in. And no longer living in Crackton. Such great news!

Appraisal + Gas shortage

The appraiser finally called yesterday afternoon. It was like 3:00. And it still wasn't final. She had questions for Joe. At that point, she was at $165,000. That's very good. Joe flirted with her a little to try to boost it up a little bit. :) He wants it to be higher. The higher the appraisal, the more we'll be able to borrow for remodeling (we can only borrow a certain percentage of what it will be worth).

Joe is at the bank right now meeting with the banker and trying to get things set in stone for the mortgage so that we can close on Tuesday! :) I am so incredibly excited. So long as everything goes well with the banker (we don't expect any problems), we will just have some final paperwork to complete, and on Tuesday, we will own our very first house!

Joe and I were supposed to be going to Salisbury this weekend to hang out with some very cool people (They know who they are :) ), but this stupid gas shortage may cause us to cancel those plans. Last night on our way home from work, there was a gas station which actually still had gas (all grades), so there were lines clear down the streets at all the entrances to the station. My car is at about a quarter of a tank right now. Joe's truck is at like 3/4 of a tank, so even though it gets less gas mileage, we're driving it. They don't want people to get gas unless they absolutely have to, so we're trying to hold out on filling up my car. Besides that, Joe's truck is a diesel and diesel seems to be easier to find right now.

If we have to cancel our plans, I will be going to Lowe's to pick up supplies for the house... like paint and other such items. :) Also, I have to pick up some stuff to repair the house we're renting right now. Daly chewed on the cabinets in the bathroom and I have to sand and stain them again. :( Also, I have to replace the floor trim that she chewed on. And I'll probably start packing up the stuff that we don't use regularly. Joe and I have decided that even if we aren't finished remodeling the house in Shelby, we're moving in by October 31 so that we won't have to pay another month's rent at the house in Gastonia. I am so incredibly excited that I can't even find words! No more Crackton. It's the best news ever. :) Besides finding the love of my life, Joe, and the adoptions of all four of my babies, of course. :)

It's not over until it's over... and it's not over yet!

The waterproofer ended up going to the house yesterday because he was already in the area. Turns out that the leak problem is an easy fix. We can do part of the work (some digging and moving stuff out of the way) and they'll fix it for about $600, or they can do all of the work and it will cost around $800. So, that's good news. It's not as bad as what Joe had thought.

Also, we got another quote from an a/c guy and it was less money (Joe's first guy wanted to charge $11,800 and it still meant that we would have a gas and an electric bill because there would be 2 units, which also meant our electric bill would be sky high!). This guy would replace the a/c unit that was there with a new unit which could service the whole house and put in "zoning." This means that there would be two thermostats, one upstairs and one downstairs. When the thermostat downstairs is satisfied, the vents would be blocked off and the upstairs would still continue to be cooled until that thermostat was satisfied as well. It saves money and energy. Also, there would be no gas involved. It will be all electric. Which saves us a lot of money!

The final inspector is coming today at 9:00 am. When he finishes, we will know what needs to be done and if there are any real problems with the house. We aren't expecting anything since the house was already inspected once before when another buyer had a bid on the house and the only thing that came up was termite damage under the house (which has already been replaced and treated).

If this inspector comes back with no real problems, I think we're still going to buy the house. We won't be able to remodel the bathroom right away, but from what we've seen in other houses, this house is a real deal. And, after speaking to our realtor, we are assured that whatever money we put into the house (within reason), we will be able to get back out. She told us that when we finish the updating in the house, she would expect us to be able to get $170,000 back out of it. And we wouldn't have to put that much into it. :)

So, now we're just waiting for the inspection to come back. I'm on pins and needles. This process has been more stressful that I had hoped! But, hopefully it will be over soon! We should know this afternoon if we're going ahead with the bid or not. Wish us luck! :)