We really are alive, despite limited cell phone service (one teensy little bar that allows for text messaging, at best) and no internet access (except the library or when I'm at work).
Life on SherDen Farm is wonderful! I love all the animals and the peace and quiet. The sunrises are to die for, the garden produce is delicious, and the company is accomodating and gracious. It's all good!
We had a bit of a rough start at the farm -our frenchie attacked a kitten (in all fairness, the kitten WAS teasing her...) and in my gallant efforts to get the kitten out of her mouth, I, myself, became kitten and my poor fingers got crunched. Luckily, Sherry was outside at the time and ran in to get Skott who came running out and had to use pressure points to get Izzy to release her jaw off my fingers. For a dog with very little teeth, she managed to go all the way through my finger with her back nubs, plus the skin on top of my finger was all cut and ripped. One trip to the ER, a $1,000+ medical bill, 3 trips to the vet (located 45 minutes away), an awful antibiotic reaction, and two weeks later, I am mostly all healed. Poor Izzy -she has a prey drive that has landed her in two more scraps with cats... This last time the cat got her pretty good and the last few times she has seen said cat, she hasn't tried to chase him anymore.
We are still hitting the job market with a few leads here and there. Keeping fingers crossed! My job at the hotel has been really hard lately as far as mean people go. I'm ready for a biology job. So ready.
Sorry I dont have any pictures to post. I wish I did. It is so pretty out here.
Hope all is well with everyone. I apologize for my lack of contact, but know that we love you all !
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Has it been almost a month?
Geez, I just realized it has been FOREVER since I've blogged. I have a handful of unfinished ones saved, but it seems like blogging is the last thing on my mind lately...
Quick update:
We sold our home and we sign next week. We tried and tried and tried to find a rental in Eau Claire that would 1.) rent short term and 2) accept pets. No luck. I'm pretty sure I talked to every landlord in this entire county! We decided that committing to a 1-yr lease completely negated the reason for us selling in the first place so we took Dad and Sherry up on their offer and we will be living at the peaceful SherDen Farm inbetween our moves. I LOVE the farm and I am looking forward to spending time with Dad and Sherry. I'm going to get some awesome audiobooks read, as this move increases my commute time by an hour. Oh well, it will be worth it!
Dylan (Skott's 15 yr old son) came to visit for three weeks. What an adjustment! He is a good kid and we had a lot of fun with him! He got a long really well with my nephew, Mason, so that was nice for him to have someone to hang out with while we were at work. We went camping 2x while Dylan was here: once to Door County and once to Nugget Lake. We wanted to go back to Door County for the Fourth of July but they were all sold out. Nugget Lake was still a blast! Despite the heat and the fact that the campgroud ran out of ice (really?).
We are moving along packing although as the time draws nearer, the "to-do" list is growing faster than we can keep up. Keeping with the Shaw moving tradition, we will be putting everything into storage on one of the hottest days of the summer. Seriously, it has either poured rain or snowed every one of our eight moves. This will be the first time we have ever moved when 1.) It hasn't rained or snowed and 2.) Skott hasnt bought a gigantic package of Sharpie markers (he always thinks we're out despite the fact that we have at least 30 of them in the office).
I promise I will update more when all is settled. The job search continues. I have put out lots of apps. Skott has been in contact with some old friends in Washington and I have been looking at Master's program and Research Assistant jobs. **crossing fingers**
Have a great summer!
Quick update:
We sold our home and we sign next week. We tried and tried and tried to find a rental in Eau Claire that would 1.) rent short term and 2) accept pets. No luck. I'm pretty sure I talked to every landlord in this entire county! We decided that committing to a 1-yr lease completely negated the reason for us selling in the first place so we took Dad and Sherry up on their offer and we will be living at the peaceful SherDen Farm inbetween our moves. I LOVE the farm and I am looking forward to spending time with Dad and Sherry. I'm going to get some awesome audiobooks read, as this move increases my commute time by an hour. Oh well, it will be worth it!
Dylan (Skott's 15 yr old son) came to visit for three weeks. What an adjustment! He is a good kid and we had a lot of fun with him! He got a long really well with my nephew, Mason, so that was nice for him to have someone to hang out with while we were at work. We went camping 2x while Dylan was here: once to Door County and once to Nugget Lake. We wanted to go back to Door County for the Fourth of July but they were all sold out. Nugget Lake was still a blast! Despite the heat and the fact that the campgroud ran out of ice (really?).
We are moving along packing although as the time draws nearer, the "to-do" list is growing faster than we can keep up. Keeping with the Shaw moving tradition, we will be putting everything into storage on one of the hottest days of the summer. Seriously, it has either poured rain or snowed every one of our eight moves. This will be the first time we have ever moved when 1.) It hasn't rained or snowed and 2.) Skott hasnt bought a gigantic package of Sharpie markers (he always thinks we're out despite the fact that we have at least 30 of them in the office).
I promise I will update more when all is settled. The job search continues. I have put out lots of apps. Skott has been in contact with some old friends in Washington and I have been looking at Master's program and Research Assistant jobs. **crossing fingers**
Have a great summer!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Family dinner
Family dinner was a Greek/Mediterranean theme this month. Dad and Sherry brought pita and hummus, plus Dad brought some of his homemade cheese curds from their goat milk. They were so good!!! Justine brought a delicious spinach salad with feta and lots of good stuff on it. Carrie brought kalaskhlsdfskbdland ????? none of us could pronounce it/and or remember how to spell it, but it was good! We made some meat thing on kabobs (once again, the name leaves me) with a spicy yogurt sauce. There were fresh fruit smoothies for dessert.
Luckily, the rain held off so the kids were all able to go play outside and several people were able to sit outside and eat. Since everyone was so spread out, I didn't get many pictures.
Sadly, this is the last family dinner we will host in this house :( If all goes as planned, we will sign on the sale of the house July 20th.
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| The floral design Skott made in my smoothie |
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| Skott handled all the food and dessert tasks. |
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| Paco was a little freaked out by all the people |
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| Carrie likes her smoothie! |
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| Kenalee and Erika |
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| Kenalee loving Erika |
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| Justine |
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| Sherry |
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| They know who the softie is to beg from |
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Remember Me
Remember Me
Author: Unknown
Remember me when flowers bloom
Early in the spring
Remember me on sunny days
In the fun that summer brings
Remember me in the fall
As you walk through the leaves of gold
And in the wintertime - remember me
In the stories that are told
But most of all remember
Each day - right from the start
I will be forever near
For I live within your heart
Early in the spring
Remember me on sunny days
In the fun that summer brings
Remember me in the fall
As you walk through the leaves of gold
And in the wintertime - remember me
In the stories that are told
But most of all remember
Each day - right from the start
I will be forever near
For I live within your heart
Monday, June 13, 2011
Maple bacon + dark chocolate
For family dinner at Carries last month we were instructed to "bring something with bacon".
This is what we brought:
(yes, I realize the picture is sideways. Blogger was flipping it every time)
This is what we brought:
Maple bacon and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies!
(yes, I realize the picture is sideways. Blogger was flipping it every time)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Caution: Slippery when wet
I know I do a lot of complaining about my job, when really, I should be grateful I have some form of employment.
but I think this "situation" at work is getting a bit ridiculous.... what do you think?
Background:
about 6-8 weeks ago, puddles started to form in the basement of the hotel. They were atributed to a leak in one of the water park pumps. Said leak was located and repaired but the puddles continued to grow.
Eventually, the entire basement was covered in at least an inch of standing water. Funny, the management wasn't the least bit concerned.
Several weeks go by. The time clock is in the basement, the breakroom is in the basement, housekeeping is in the basement. I was working all night with soaked socks from sloshing through the water in the basement.
After a month of this ridiculousness, someone reported the company to OSHA. Oh boy, management was FURIOUS! "Who would do such a thing?" they lamented. They were given a week to remedy the hazard.
They did nothing except this:
This is the sign on the door to the storage rooms. I think this is their way of covering their butts.
Day 6 of their week timeline they start moving boxes from the soaked storage rooms.
Lots and lots of soaked, moldy boxes lined the stairwells to the basement. I saw unbelieveable things like the big screen tv's -soaked. Boxes of pillows -soaked. It was smelly and slightly frightening due to the dangers of mold.
They finally decided maybe they should tear out sheetrock and insulation since it looked like this:
but I think this "situation" at work is getting a bit ridiculous.... what do you think?
Background:
about 6-8 weeks ago, puddles started to form in the basement of the hotel. They were atributed to a leak in one of the water park pumps. Said leak was located and repaired but the puddles continued to grow.
Eventually, the entire basement was covered in at least an inch of standing water. Funny, the management wasn't the least bit concerned.
Several weeks go by. The time clock is in the basement, the breakroom is in the basement, housekeeping is in the basement. I was working all night with soaked socks from sloshing through the water in the basement.
After a month of this ridiculousness, someone reported the company to OSHA. Oh boy, management was FURIOUS! "Who would do such a thing?" they lamented. They were given a week to remedy the hazard.
They did nothing except this:
Day 6 of their week timeline they start moving boxes from the soaked storage rooms.
Lots and lots of soaked, moldy boxes lined the stairwells to the basement. I saw unbelieveable things like the big screen tv's -soaked. Boxes of pillows -soaked. It was smelly and slightly frightening due to the dangers of mold.
They finally decided maybe they should tear out sheetrock and insulation since it looked like this:
(notice how high up the sheetrock the water and mold is?)
After installing a sump pump (that did nothing to help) they decided to just "give up" in hopes that as summer came, the water would go away. Apparently, the problems stem back to cutting corners on permits and tests when they built the hotel four years ago... Turns out they built on a marshy area.
So this is what I deal with every day, this is what I wade through every night on my way to the timeclock and housekeeping. It smells absolutely wretched down there and just recently, the guest complaints have started -"Our room smells musty....". Hmmmm ,yah think?
How can this be legal?
How can this be healthy?
How are they getting away with this?
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| storage |
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| Housekeeping. The shiny is all water. |
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| This is the deepest area, well over 1" |
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| the hallway to the time clock |
It reminds me a little of our high school: as you walked through the gym into the freshman wing of the building there was "Danger: asbestos" spray painted on many of the pipes and ducts. Nice.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Selling our home
For those of you that didn't see my facebook post, we have put our house on the market due to the job search in the Eau Claire area proving futile. We have to be able to expand my job search nationally and because of the depressed housing market, we decided the first step would be to sell the home. We don't know how long this will take. Our realtor told us to expect 100-200 days average.
It has been REALLY hard keeping the house spotless! hahaha
but seriously,
working night shift is not conducive to trying to sell a home.
Many a day we wake up after a couple hours sleep and head out to the parks to kill time during a showing. Plus side: we have gotten out more and enjoyed nature. Down side: taking the dogs out in this horrible humidity.
Here's a couple shots from last week:
Skott took about six pictures of me and Izzy and in all of them she is licking my coffee mug. Hmmmm, that wouldn't be due to the fact that there was some Rumchata added to the coffee? She is such a lush....
Here's a link to our listing:
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