Lot #0414

You might be wondering why I have posted a photo of a patch of dirt. Or, perhaps you have put the title of this blog and the picture together. In any case, some pretty big news in my world today! And NO, I haven't heard from Westminster! I am building a house!! It is in Eagle Mountain in the Ranches subdivision. I can't even express how excited I am! I put the deposit on my lot yesterday and picked out the colors for the outside today. I even took pictures!

This is the color scheme for the outside. Not that you can tell really well from the picture, but the stucco is a dark brown and there will be rock accents. I picked the blue color for my front door and the beige for the garage door and accents. The other colors are accents and fascia, shutters etc. The shingles are obviously black. Pretty dang exciting! Tomorrow I am going to the "design center" to pick all my other stuff for the inside. I am definitely going to upgrade the carpet and pad and I am getting a gas stove. Other than that...who knows what they will be able to talk me into. So that's my exciting news! Obviously I have been having a great time here in Salt Lake! I have also found a job...which I kind of already had. I will be working for an agency here in Salt Lake going to different hospitals. I told the lady that I would probably be living in Eagle Mountain and she said they also do some hospitals in Utah county, so hopefully I will be able to stay close to home. All in all, things are falling nicely into place...if only Westminster would cooperate! But I suppose if they don't, things are going great anyway and I will just apply again next year.

Easter was really good for me! My best friend, Erin's, family had a BBQ. Of course I was in charge of all the grilling and the kids had an easter egg hunt! The Easter bunny even brought me a really cute shirt and some candy. Erin's family is pretty much my family so I was happy to be able to spend Easter with them. I also went over to my cousin's house for another BBQ on Easter night. All in all it was a fun and productive day!

I feel like I need to post a picture of some of the windmills I encountered on the way to Salt Lake from Salem. For some reason I am fascinated by them!! So I took about a million pictures from my car (can't believe I didn't wreck or something!)

I am headed back to Salem on Sunday. I am going to spend Sunday night and possibly Monday night at my dad's in Boise. Then back to Salem and work on Thursday! I am actually not dreading it! I am looking forward to working, picking up a few extra shifts and getting my things packed up and moving back here for good...and of course looking forward to finishing my house!! I will probably move in sometime at the end of August or beginning of September. In the meantime, I will probably bum a room off my cousin. So! I'm sure I will be throwing a big housewarming party at some point! Something for everyone to look forward to!

Spring has Sprung!

Well, I am officially out of my funk. I think Marija paying me a visit helped a lot! We had so much fun! We went out to Tillamook and went to the cheese factory. It was so freakin sweet! I love cheese.

There was a viewing area where you could watch them packaging the cheese. It was so cool! I wanted to jump through the window and take a big bite of cheese.

This was a gigantic vat of curds. They press these into the big blocks and then they let them age.

How bad would this job suck?? But it was cool for us to watch!

Tillamook also makes ice cream which I have been hearing wonderful things about ever since I moved here. So of course we had to try the ice cream! Marija got the Oregon strawberry and I got blueberry cheesecake. BEST ice cream EVER! And I don't even like ice cream! We then drove up the coast. Too bad the weather sucked bad. It rained off and on all day and it was windy and cold. But there was some seriously awesome scenery! We stopped in a town called Cannon Beach and had dinner and then drove home. I think we drove like 400 miles that day. I was pretty happy to be home!

Oregon coast...as you can see the weather sucks, but it was beautiful!

Me and Marija getting blown to smithereens. I look like a moron in this photo, but we were having fun!

This was on the way home. If you could see a little more to the right, there was like a total junk yard house there. I mean seriously....if you live somewhere with scenery like this, perhaps you could limit yourself to one or two cars up on bricks in the yard. Anyway, the rest of the time Marija was here we lounged around and went shopping. It was fun to have some time off and actually have someone to hang with!

I worked last night and Friday and I have not been sleeping worth a CRAP lately. I mean, I never thought I would say those words. This whole night time gig is kicking my butt. Hopefully I only have a few weeks left of this. The weather yesterday and today was awesome!! Today it was 75 degrees! I actually managed to sleep until 4:00 and then I got up and decided that it would be a good day to wash my car. And was it ever!! I was just going to do a quick wash, but once I got started I thought it would be nice to wax it...and polish my wheels...and condition my seats....so I spent a good 4 hours on my car, but man does it look good! Of course I took pictures.

I am so proud! And it is supposed to be sunny here until Thursday. I think that's some kind of record! So hopefully I will get to enjoy the fruits of my labor for a couple of days at least.

I can't wait for my road trip on Thursday! I'm sure Thursday and Friday will be some very long days full of driving, but I'm looking forward to jammin down the road with some awesome music! Of course I have procrastinated with packing. But I guess it will get done eventually.

I have also booked my tickets to New York Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully it will work out this time! My dad is going to be there at the same time and I'm sure it will be a blast! I'm told that's the best time to visit the city anyway. So....that is the latest and greatest. No word from Westminster (try not to be shocked). I should probably finish packing and try to get some sleep. I can't wait to see everyone in SLC!

Still Waiting!

So, unfortunately I don't have any wonderful news to post. I don't really have much of anything to blog about for that matter. Which is why I haven't lately. Seems like I have been working and trying to catch up on my sleep lately. I think I am just getting too old for nights. I can't believe I don't get sick more often!

I have a lot of fun things to look forward to, but I have really been in a funk lately. I don't know if it is all the rain....or I just miss my friends and family or what. Even as I sit here typing this I feel like I want to cry and I really have no idea why. Other than I am a girl, which I guess is excuse enough. But I am not usually like this. Hopefully I am just missing everyone, which will be resolved (for a while at least) by a lovely road trip to Salt Lake in a couple of weeks! I'm pretty excited! The bad part about it is that I am coming when I was supposed to be going to New York. Sooo bummed that I'm not going. My brother called and told me that it's not a good time for them. Kind of sad since I was going to be there on Easter and on my brother's birthday, but oh well. I am hoping to go in May. Maybe Memorial Day weekend. I'm trying not to get my hopes up because who knows if it will work out! Anyway, I already had the time off work and I feel like I am desperately in need of a break, so I decided it might be wise to go to Salt Lake and take a load of my crap and explore some job options, look for a place to live, get my hair done and just see everyone. I'm leaving on April 9 and I'm going to stop in Boise and spend the night and see my dad who I am also missing a lot right now. I would kind of like to spend more time there but I have a concealed carry permit class on Saturday morning at 9 in Salt Lake. Anyway, I'm excited to see everyone....let me know what your schedule is!

One of my good friends from nursing school, Marija, is coming to visit me on Monday! I'm so excited! Hopefully that will help bring me out of this crappy rut I am in! I finally got my disgusting apartment all cleaned today and ready to go! I have to work tomorrow and Sunday and then she will be here. I'm sure the time will fly by...amazing how that works. 4 days off always goes way faster than two days of work!

I went out in Portland with some friends on St. Patrick's Day. It was quite a last minute thing but we really ended up having a great time! And we ran into like the 2 other people we know in this town! Here are a few pics... This is me and Amy, one of the other travelers I work with. Me and Michelle, one of the other nurses we ran into.

And this is Joe, another one of the travelers I work with.

I went out with another friend from work on the Saturday after St. Patrick's Day. We went up to Portland and went to the Portland City Grill which is on the 30th floor of some building. Pretty cool view but kind of a hoity toity place. We roamed around the streets of Portland and went to a couple of other places. It was a lot of fun! Other than Cat's husband ran her black Yukon into a white pole. Ouch. She wasn't very happy about it, but they are getting it fixed so I guess it is all going to work out!

Kathy, Cat (who I work with) and me at one of the many stops on our trek!

And I had a little visitor out on my deck the other day. I took this picture because I knew my niece would love it, but I guess it's good blog material too...

I always thought squirrels or chipmunks or whatever were cute, but there have been a couple out on my deck and after seeing them up close, I think they are kind of gross. Beady eyes, claws, they kind of make me think of rats. And they just run around like idiots and it takes them forever to figure out how to get off the deck.

I am planning a trip to Mexico (probably) for my birthday. Anyone who talks to me knows that I really wanted to go to Hawaii, but I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on a trip. We all know the economy sucks and it feels nice to have some money in the bank and it would be foolish to spend it all on a vacation. So I think I'll be going to either Can Cun or Cozumel June 13-June 17. Anybody want to go??

So, that's my life in a nutshell lately. Get it? Chipmunk? Nutshell? haha. I'm hilarious. Anyway. Obviously I have yet to hear from Westminster. Which is probably a big part of the reason I am feeling so weird lately. I absolutely positively hate not being able to plan things out and this is kind of big. Like, my whole life. It's irritating to me that I really can't 100% plan what I'm going to do after this assignment is up (May 14! I can't wait!!) I think I will probably be going back to Salt Lake regardless of whether I get into school or not, but there is a small chance that I will do some more traveling if I don't, so I guess it would be nice to know. I know I am blessed, and like I said I do have a lot of fun things to look forward to soon but we all have to whine every now and again, right? So thanks for listening!

...but then again

Since I actually have a signed contract in my possession, I thought it might be safe to update. Apparently I am going to be staying in Salem until May 14. Yes, I decided to extend my contract. And apparently the "higher ups" have decided to extend me, too. As much as I am sick of nights I think it will be worth it to have a guaranteed job with guaranteed hours for another month. The job I will most likely take when I get back to Salt Lake is an agency job with no required nights, weekends, or holidays. Yeah! Obviously I am not guaranteed hours, but the lady there told me as long as I am willing to be flexible I should have no problem working 3-4 days a week. I also explained the situation to her (the possible extension) and she said she would not blame me at all for extending and that they would be happy to work with me regardless of what I did. So, hopefully it will all be for the best.
I finally planned my trip to New York! I'm so excited! I'm leaving on the 11th of April and coming back on the 20th. I guess that's the beauty of extending my contract...I get to tell them when I want to work. So really I will only end up working for an extra three weeks here. And I will have more time to pack and prepare to move although knowing me I will still do it all at the last minute anyway.

Anyway! Of course I have heard nothing but crickets chirping as far as Westminster is concerned. Still keeping my fingers crossed. Technically it has only been two weeks because of their spring break so I'm sure I just need to be patient.

I guess that's the latest and greatest for now. I will be here until May 14 (the hospital is thrilled, of course. I'm awesome, can you blame them?!) I hope to head back home after that and possibly explore home ownership. Which means I may have to do a little couch surfing while checking out my options. So anyone with an extra couch to spare..... :)
Everyone take care, hopefully I will be updating with great news soon!

...Or NOT

Seriously! I am so sick of getting the run around. I have been trying to get a hold of my agency since Friday to make sure the the extension is a done deal. I got a message today that they still want to extend me, but the "higher ups" (a bunch of management idiots who have no freakin clue what it is like to work on the floor of the hospitals they are running) are putting a hold on it for now. Well lah de freakin dah! No worries about the people who were thinking they had a job for a while longer and are now going to have to move in less than a month!!! This is the reason I HATE traveling. I'm sure it's not like this in times of economic stability, but come on!! So....I immediately got on the phone and have looked at a few permanent jobs in Salt Lake (talk about counting my chickens before they're hatched....I still haven't heard word from Westminster). There are a couple of prospects that could be promising, so we will see what happens. I am so sick of not knowing what's going on in my life, I can't even plan my trip to New York next month because I don't know what's going on! Maybe it's for the best. Just wanted to vent a little frustration here. Thanks for reading....I'll be sure to update.

Randomness

So, I don't really have anything exciting to blog about or even any pictures to post, but here I am anyway! I am currently STILL waiting to hear back from Westminster. Surely they know how suspenseful it is for those of us who have applied and don't know their decision yet! I am trying (unsuccessfully) to be patient. Hopefully no news is good news, right?

I found out last week that the hospital here wants me to extend. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to...I'm so anxious to go home! But in any case, I have agreed to extend until May 14. I figured I should be very happy to have a job (and a good paying one at that!) and I am so not ready to move in a month! It would be a month from today, in fact. No thanks! So, as much as I don't particularly like Salem, I do like the floor I work on for the most part and the people are pretty darn awesome! I was planning on taking the week after my original contract ended in April and going to New York, so hopefully it will still work out that I can go. I have never been and I'm totally excited to go! I will have my own personal tour guide and I get to see my niece!!

In other news, I LOVE the new U2 CD, No Line on the Horizon (as if there was ever any doubt). They announced their 2009 tour dates today and I'm sad to say that Salt Lake is not on the list. However, I've read that they will also be doing another American leg of their tour in Summer 2010. Too far away as far as I'm concerned, but it's better than nothing! I feel like they might add some more cities to the list as what is listed now is pretty slim pickings! So hopefully Utah will be among those added. If not, I am going to attempt to get tickets to the show in Las Vegas on October 23. Well, even if they do, I will still try to go to the Vegas show. It sounds like it is going to be a phenomenal show! And U2 is always worth seeing more than once if you ask me! And who the heck knows where I will be this fall anyway! If all goes as planned, I will be back home. But, story of my life, I don't even know where I will be two months from now.
I hope everyone has a fabulous week!!

No Line on the Horizon

I am beyond excited for U2's new album tomorrow!!!