Jobs

I realized that I haven't really talked much about work so far. I had been rather concerned about finding a job in a small town, but the Monday before we moved, I was offered a job at Hampden-Sydney! After applying for tons of positions and only hearing from a few, this was/is a huge blessing. I'm working for H-SC in the area of International Studies. This means I get to help students study abroad and help guys from overseas come to study domestically at H-SC for their degree. I started the first week in August (two days after we moved) and the wonderful thing about it is - we now have health insurance!!

Chris is really enjoying his job so far, as well. He's pretty involved with the soccer team this fall up until the season ends and basketball starts up. This means he has games to go to on weekends and some days during the week, and is really happy working in sports finally.

The joys of plaster

One of the things we've discovered about the house we are living in is that the walls are made out of plaster. It looks exactly like dry wall, but don't let it fool you. It is a different breed of wall.

Typically, I wouldn't care about something like this, but I didn't realize how hard plaster is! It took us twice as long just to hang one thing on the wall. We weren't aware that you're not supposed to put nails into plaster, so we've run into several problems:

1.We nailed into the wall and the wall cracked. Solution: We have started putting tape on the walls first and then nailing into the spot with the tape. This minimizes cracking.
2. The nails will just not go into the wall! Solution: Move the nail over an inch or so and just hit it a lot harder.
3. Sometimes the plaster is so hard that the nail bends instead of going into the wall. Solution: Throw the nail away and use a bigger one.

As you can see, we have no idea how to deal with plaster walls. We're working on it though...and learning new things every day!

Still in the process..

Car shopping Saturday turned into an entire weekend..! We started in Richmond and ended up looking at cars in Fredericksburg and then Stafford. Since we were already in northern VA and hadn't found anything, we decided to just spend the night up there and try again the next morning. We still don't have a car picked out, but we have a couple leads and are hoping to make a decision by the end of the week. Thanks for all your thoughts on cars and advice! We'll keep you updated once we finalize something.

What kind of car do you drive?

Tomorrow, Chris and I are going car shopping in Richmond. We're not sure whether this is just going to be for research or whether we'll come home with something. After living with only one car for almost a month now, though, we're ready to find something soon! And I'm sure the people helping give us rides would be happy, too...
So, two questions for you:

1. What kind of car do you have?
2. Would you recommend it to us?

We need help! We don't even know whether we want to get a car or a small SUV...so please give some advice if you have any!

Fried chicken

There's a place a little south of Hampden-Sydney called Granny B's. We were told that they apparently have the best fried chicken on the East coast. One day, family was in town so we decided to go check it out and it was pretty delicious! I am not sure about it being the best in the East since I haven't tried too many places, but it was awesome. I especially liked their mac 'n cheese though..!

Mini golf

Team Ashleigh:Team Jessie:We played mini-golf while we were at the beach last weekend - Team Ashleigh v. Team Jessie. Team Ashleigh ended up winning by two strokes, but both teams put up valiant efforts. I made a hole-in-one on a practice shot, which I thought should have counted but the consensus decided that it didn't because I took the shot after I had already played the hole. Here's a picture of Chris posing after his legitimate hole-in-one.

Sand

One of my favorite pastimes at the beach is burying people in the sand...especially if it's not me! Jessie emerged from the sand much more gracefully and happy than I would have!

Aquarium

When we got into town, Chris and I went to the NC Aquarium. It was no Monterey Bay, but still a ton of fun. I got to pet sting rays, which was awesome. Some of them were very friendly and kept coming back for more! I did get a little freaked out when one lept halfway out of the pool at me when I wasn't paying attention. Chris wouldn't even get near them - but you all know how much he loves animals...hah

Among some of the cooler animals they had were eels and sharks:They also had a lot of fun places to take your picture, which we obviously took advantage of:

Beach again

We are at the beach! It is wonderful to take a break and enjoy the sun for a little bit. I had never been to Emerald Isle, but it's a long and skinny island off the shore of North Carolina. In some parts of the island you can actually stand in the middle and see the ocean on one side and the bay on the other. We had to go over a bridge to get there...
And once we got to the realty place they had ice cream waiting for us :)

Projects

We have been here for a week and a half now and our place is still a disaster! We're slowly getting organized but there are so many projects to take care of as we unpack things.





For example:
We needed a place to put books and DVDs so Chris built a bookshelf.
I put paper in the drawers so they clean to put things in.
We keep getting the little things done but the list is never ending! But how about that pretty paper my mom brought us?

Finally a new phone

I have a new phone! I know you have all been dying to call me, and now you can! Although I am sad to see my old one go, it certainly was time. I had my old phone for over 4 years and save for a few minor issues, it served me well. Unfortunately, the antenna broke off in the accident and I had very limited and sporadic service after that. Thank goodness for free upgrades :)

And no, my phone number did not change in the process.

Bday

Last weekend Chris made me a cake for my birthday. While he was hard at work in the kitchen, I sat by and watched while licking the bowl.













We lost the birthday candles somewhere in the move, so we ended up finding all the other candles we had in the house instead.I know it wasn't 23 candles, but I was still exhausted by the time I blew them all out!

It ended up being a great distraction from unpacking for a couple of hours!

Doughnuts at the post office

We went to the post office the other day to check our mail. We were having it forwarded to general delivery since we hadn't found an address yet. While we were in line, a postman came up and offered us doughnuts! It is such a different world down here - I can't believe it! I have never lived in a town where everyone knows everyone and people are as nice as can be.

Changes

Please bear with me! We are making changes to the blog and as I don't really know html or how to do it, I may make some mistakes. Let us know if you notice something that needs to be fixed!

Support

I really can't stress enough how wonderful and supportive everyone has been after the accident. We have been inundated with cards, visits, thoughtfulness, and even a care package! We have never known such unexpected generosity as we have throughout this experience. Literally - it brings tears to our eyes, and we are SO thankful! Our wonderful friends got together and sent a care package after the accident :) Included was season 6 of Scrubs - which made Chris just about the happiest I've ever seen him! Especially because we were still facing about 4 more days without cable...

Pictures!

I know you've all been waiting. We finally got internet today, which I am very happy about. I wanted to post a couple quick pictures tonight - but please keep in mind, we still haven't finished unpacking. There are no pictures on the walls and I am excluding pictures of one entire room off the living room that we've been calling the "trash room" because we have boxes and bags of trash piled to the ceiling for storage in there right now! The house is very old, but we are enjoying trying to adapt :)

Front:Stairs:Dining room:
Kitchen:Living room: Notice, we have a fireplace!


Upstairs hallway:Our room, before and after furniture:Guest room: (note here: we are just realizing how HUGE this house is, and actually wouldn't mind if someone wanted to come here and live with us! We have a nice queen bed and two dressers that you can have to yourself if you decide to come live here :) )BR3:Backyard:

Still no internet

If you haven't guessed by me not posting pictures of our place last night - we STILL don't have internet at home! I should have guessed that there might be an issue. When we tried to get internet in Arlington, we found out a raccoon or something had chewed through our external line and ended up having to wait an additional week until they could get it repaired. We again have some sort of line problem, but are still hoping to get it resolved by today. So far it's almost been helpful not to have it because we don't have anything distracting us from unpacking, but now I'm starting to get anxious!! Cross your fingers - hopefully you'll be hearing from us tonight with pictures :)

Housing update (a.k.a. – my Mom, the All-Star)

My parents drove down the day after the accident to say hi and to help out in any ways they could. While they were here, we drove around some neighborhoods and my mom started making calls :). By the afternoon, we had found a place to live! Here is a picture of the house:
On one side of the house is an apartment that a girl from Longwood will be living in. The part we are living in is the main house, including 3 bedrooms!! Wow. Compared to our 550 square foot apartment in Arlington, this place is HUGE. It turned out that the man my mom contacted is a huge fan and supporter of H-S Basketball. Once he found out Chris would be working with Coach Vick he was more than happy to meet us and help us out.

Two more things: we just moved our stuff in yesterday so we are trying to get settled this weekend. We are in the process of setting up utilities, etc. so the ETA on our internet is not until Tuesday. This means you will most likely have to wait until then to see interior pictures (we had to stop really quickly at a place with internet so I could post this!).

Last thing: If the scenario above does not prove to you how much of an all-star my mom is, then this might: My mom drove down here Thursday while Chris and I were at work, bought a ton of cleaning supplies, and went to work on cleaning out the house. When we got back, she was just about done and ready to make the drive back home. She drove all the way down here just to help us clean! I love you, Mom! Thank you!!

Accident update

It’s been a week since the accident so I wanted to provide everyone with a quick update. Here’s a picture of the car if you haven’t seen one already: I am still doing well. Yesterday I met with the athletic trainer at H-SC. We found out I separated my shoulder, but it’s slowly getting better. He gave me a couple exercises to do to start loosening it up. Friday was the first day I tried to go without the sling all day and it went pretty well.

A quick note: We have been OVERWHELMED with all the love and support from family and friends. We have no way to thank you all enough. More on that later – but for now I just want to make sure you know how much we appreciate you. Thank you :)

Update

Hi all! I'm sure you have heard by now that I was involved in a car accident on Saturday. It was an awful experience for both of us but I wanted to let everyone know that I am doing all right. My parents came down and spent the day with us on Sunday helping us find a place to live and taking care of the car. In the meantime, if you need to reach me, please try to contact us via Chris' phone. If you don't know his number and need it, leave a comment below and one of us will get it to you. I am shopping for a new phone now, so hopefully this will only be temporary!

Just an update - we are still looking for a place to live, but think we may have this issue resolved tomorrow afternoon. We also both started our new jobs today - mostly paperwork and things you would expect for a first day, but more on that later.

Thank you all for your prayers and support over the last couple days! They are much much appreciated.