I got a job offer this week!!! Yay! I've accepted the offer from a large hospital organization in a nearby town to be there Foundation/Development Specialist. I'll be working at the hospital foundation with two other women (its a very small shop as far as development offices). It's very much (well almost exactly really) like a job I was trying to get in Madison. My start date will be July 9th-3 months to the day from Matt's first day :) I will be working for a woman I met through AFP. She's a mentor in the mentor program I joined and I just happened to sit next to her at the very first meeting. I think I picked a fantastic seat at that first mentor program meeting-I sat between Debbie, the Gilda's Development Director and Elsa, my new boss. I think this job will be a great way to learn a lot more about development fundamentals and I think I'll really like the ladies I work with. It will definitely be a bit of an adjustment-heading back to work after 3 months of just hanging out :) It is kind of crazy how quickly those three months went. I feel like I did a pretty good job of keeping busy though.
Anyway-just wanted to update everyone on the good news! I hope you're all having a great weekend!
June 30, 2012
June 25, 2012
Visitors
Sorry for the two week lag! We had our first house guests! My sister and grandmother left this morning after staying with us for a week. Overall I think it was a fun week- although I think it was the hottest week of weather I've ever dealt with!
We did some catching up, a bit of sightseeing, and lots of cooking! I don't think I've ever had that much food in my refrigerator. We got to go to a Tigers baseball game on Tuesday. The temperature at the opening of the first inning was 93 degrees...at 7:10pm! Crazy. It ended up being a pretty good game-Detroit won so that always helps. We did some shopping the next couple of days and some things around our house. Always nice to have my grandma around to help me figure out what to do with my plants and figure out old curtains.
Thursday we went out to dinner with Matt's parents. I think that was a success as well. We went to a pizza place we'd never been to before and it was really good. I'm glad we've found a good place around here to go for pizza. Only problem is it's very popular, doesn't seat a lot of people, and doesn't take reservations. I think we figured out if we go before 6:30 we can get seated fairly quickly. Friday Matt took half a day off of work and we went to The Henry Ford-a very interesting and huge museum in Dearborn. It's truly amazing the things they have in that museum. If you are ever in this area that should be on your must see list. Right now they have a special exhibit going on-The Titanic. Definitely worth getting the extra ticket for that. It's crazy how much stuff they've been able to recover from the wreckage.
Saturday saw a trip to the zoo. Well first the farmer's market, then the zoo. The market here is like a somewhat sad little sister of the one in Madison but I'll take it anyway. The zoo was great. It was only in the mid 80's that day so it felt almost comfortable :) We stayed there for about 4 hours so we could be there for the 3:00 giraffe feeding. My sister got to feed a giraffe-her favorite animal. She was like a kid at Christmas. Definitely worth hanging out for an extra hour. Sunday was a nice day around the house. We didn't do much-just kind of enjoyed the cooler weather (down to about 75-ish) and enjoyed a bit more time together. Matt and I made a nice dinner on the grill and my sister made a nice dessert. Then we finished off the evening and visit with a nice movie. All in all a nice week.
Now I'm back to my days of having the house to myself. I'm hoping something will come up on the job front soon. And in the meantime-I have a trip planned to Wisconsin for 4th of July coming up soon to look forward to!
We did some catching up, a bit of sightseeing, and lots of cooking! I don't think I've ever had that much food in my refrigerator. We got to go to a Tigers baseball game on Tuesday. The temperature at the opening of the first inning was 93 degrees...at 7:10pm! Crazy. It ended up being a pretty good game-Detroit won so that always helps. We did some shopping the next couple of days and some things around our house. Always nice to have my grandma around to help me figure out what to do with my plants and figure out old curtains.
Thursday we went out to dinner with Matt's parents. I think that was a success as well. We went to a pizza place we'd never been to before and it was really good. I'm glad we've found a good place around here to go for pizza. Only problem is it's very popular, doesn't seat a lot of people, and doesn't take reservations. I think we figured out if we go before 6:30 we can get seated fairly quickly. Friday Matt took half a day off of work and we went to The Henry Ford-a very interesting and huge museum in Dearborn. It's truly amazing the things they have in that museum. If you are ever in this area that should be on your must see list. Right now they have a special exhibit going on-The Titanic. Definitely worth getting the extra ticket for that. It's crazy how much stuff they've been able to recover from the wreckage.
Saturday saw a trip to the zoo. Well first the farmer's market, then the zoo. The market here is like a somewhat sad little sister of the one in Madison but I'll take it anyway. The zoo was great. It was only in the mid 80's that day so it felt almost comfortable :) We stayed there for about 4 hours so we could be there for the 3:00 giraffe feeding. My sister got to feed a giraffe-her favorite animal. She was like a kid at Christmas. Definitely worth hanging out for an extra hour. Sunday was a nice day around the house. We didn't do much-just kind of enjoyed the cooler weather (down to about 75-ish) and enjoyed a bit more time together. Matt and I made a nice dinner on the grill and my sister made a nice dessert. Then we finished off the evening and visit with a nice movie. All in all a nice week.
Now I'm back to my days of having the house to myself. I'm hoping something will come up on the job front soon. And in the meantime-I have a trip planned to Wisconsin for 4th of July coming up soon to look forward to!
June 11, 2012
Settling In...For Now
Well I think I'm finally starting to totally settle in. I'm getting to have a routine and everything. Granted that routine doesn't include a whole heck of a lot but oh well! I spend about an hour or two a day looking for jobs (I think this is the most depressing part of the day as there just aren't many jobs here) then I spend some time looking up new recipes, then I pick a project or errand for the day. I know-my schedule is riveting :) I am thankfully still volunteering at Gilda's Club about once a week. Since the Development Director there is the only friend I've made (granted she's older than my mother and the mother of a teenage daughter herself) I'm happy to help out there. I'm sure I'll have an adjustment period and set up a whole new routine when I get a job. I really am looking forward to having to make that adjustment.
Matt and I are settling into a routine of our own as well. Matt gets to have all the fun and go off to work during the day :) Then when he gets home we make dinner and go for a walk. We're getting pretty good at trying different recipes-maybe one or two a week. Then we either read or do some work around the house. The weekends have been great. I love having two days of pretty much constant company- it's great having someone to talk to all day! This weekend we went out on Matt's parent's boat with some of his family. It was really nice. The weather has been uncomfortably warm here lately. I keep asking Matt if this is normal-I can't handle a summer of high 80's to 90's. So the boat trip was a nice way to stay cool.
I'm starting to feel more at home here. I've even managed to find multiple ways to get to the grocery store without using my gps at all! I was quite proud of myself that day. I think the other thing, besides just learning the lay of the land, that has helped me feel more at home is Matt and I have become a bit more dependent on one another. I think we're both people that pride ourselves on being self sufficient so this is a big thing for us. We've learned to communicate better on all issues big and small and we're just getting better at understanding what we each need and want to feel at home. It's been a welcome and continual lesson from this move and one I wasn't really anticipating. Just goes to show that there really is always room for improvement-even when you don't think things need it.
I'm also feeling more upbeat because I have family visiting next weekend! My sister and grandmother will be coming to stay for about a week. Then it's not too long until we head back to Wisconsin for a long 4th of July weekend. It'll be so nice to see family again. I never went home a ton when I lived in Madison but I think just having the option to be home in 4 hours was comforting. It's like I lost that safety blanket when I moved. But I guess, we all lose our safety blankets at some point. I'm just happy I had great friends and family around me to make the transition easier.
Matt and I are settling into a routine of our own as well. Matt gets to have all the fun and go off to work during the day :) Then when he gets home we make dinner and go for a walk. We're getting pretty good at trying different recipes-maybe one or two a week. Then we either read or do some work around the house. The weekends have been great. I love having two days of pretty much constant company- it's great having someone to talk to all day! This weekend we went out on Matt's parent's boat with some of his family. It was really nice. The weather has been uncomfortably warm here lately. I keep asking Matt if this is normal-I can't handle a summer of high 80's to 90's. So the boat trip was a nice way to stay cool.
I'm starting to feel more at home here. I've even managed to find multiple ways to get to the grocery store without using my gps at all! I was quite proud of myself that day. I think the other thing, besides just learning the lay of the land, that has helped me feel more at home is Matt and I have become a bit more dependent on one another. I think we're both people that pride ourselves on being self sufficient so this is a big thing for us. We've learned to communicate better on all issues big and small and we're just getting better at understanding what we each need and want to feel at home. It's been a welcome and continual lesson from this move and one I wasn't really anticipating. Just goes to show that there really is always room for improvement-even when you don't think things need it.
I'm also feeling more upbeat because I have family visiting next weekend! My sister and grandmother will be coming to stay for about a week. Then it's not too long until we head back to Wisconsin for a long 4th of July weekend. It'll be so nice to see family again. I never went home a ton when I lived in Madison but I think just having the option to be home in 4 hours was comforting. It's like I lost that safety blanket when I moved. But I guess, we all lose our safety blankets at some point. I'm just happy I had great friends and family around me to make the transition easier.
June 1, 2012
Rainy Friday
I think for the first time since we moved it is actually raining on a day it was predicted to rain on! I'm pretty okay with that-I've had a nice low key week. I actually haven't done any real yard work in about a week (although I was able to mow our lawn!! Our little baby grass is doing so well)! It's been a nice little break.
For the holiday weekend Matt and I decided to just have a weekend to ourselves. It was great. We really hadn't had a weekend that we did whatever we wanted since we moved. We didn't do anything around the house except cleaning up from our meals. It was just what we needed. On Friday we went to a concert at DTE Pine Knob which is like a mini-Alpine Valley. Overall it's a nice outdoor venue. The concert was Eddie Money-I honestly don't know any of his music but it's the first concert of the season every year and some of Matt's high school friends were going so it seemed like a nice night out. It was great meeting some girls Matt went to school with. They were really sweet. The drive home was a bit more eventful than I would have hoped. I was the designated driver for the night (driving Matt's car) so Matt could enjoy hanging out with old friends and on the drive home one of his tires completely blew out. Unfortunately it was at about 12:30 am on one of the busiest highways/express ways in the area. I decided it was best just to call the police and a tow truck to get the tire changed. We finally got home and in bed around 3 am. A bit more of an adventure than I expected but things could have gone much worse. I was just happy I was completely sober so I could deal with everything! Matt and I have now decided we should take an afternoon and figure out how to change the tires on both of our cars. Although I will say even if I had known how to change his tire I still would have called the police. It just feels so much safer having them there.
Saturday was rainy and a perfect dreary day to check out garage sales. We even ended up getting quite the find:
We've been in desperate need of a dresser so when we saw this guy for a good price we snatched it up. Thankfully it fit in Matt's car....just barely!
Oh, on Friday I finally finished and hung up a project of mine. This screen used to be bright blue. Since we moved I've sanded it down, cleaned it up and stained it. It finally got hung up and put to use as a jewelry holder on Friday. I'm really quite happy with how this one turned out!
Sunday we took a trip to Ann Arbor. It's kind of almost exactly like Madison (minus the lakes and fantastic capitol). I loved it! There's a sweet downtown area and we had lunch at a fantastic little restaurant that someone here told me we can also find in downtown Detroit. Although I loved downtown Ann Arbor our main reason for heading that direction was actually to go to World Market (LOVE that store!). Matt was pretty excited too since they had 50% off all of their grilling stuff. We bought a grill last week so Matt actually made out better on that trip than I did! But we put everything we got to good use right away and made a fantastic maple glazed salmon dinner on the grill Sunday night. We're getting quite good at trying new recipies (last night I made some super yummy homemade granola-it was so easy). Thankfully I have a cute little recipe box to keep all of the keepers in :)
Monday was a nice lazy day around the house topped off with dinner at Matt's parents complete with a game of bocce in which Matt and I continued to be the reigning champs.
This week has gone fairly quickly. I haven't done a whole lot. Unfortunately last night was the only night this week I actually slept through the entire night. I've had a terrible case of insomnia lately. Hopefully that goes away soon. I'd love to not feel like a walking zombie during the day.
Today is a cleaning/laundry/errand day. I'm not quite sure what this weekend has in store. I'm guessing a trip to the farmer's market and then who knows what. Hopefully something low key!
I hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. I'll be sure to post again soon.
For the holiday weekend Matt and I decided to just have a weekend to ourselves. It was great. We really hadn't had a weekend that we did whatever we wanted since we moved. We didn't do anything around the house except cleaning up from our meals. It was just what we needed. On Friday we went to a concert at DTE Pine Knob which is like a mini-Alpine Valley. Overall it's a nice outdoor venue. The concert was Eddie Money-I honestly don't know any of his music but it's the first concert of the season every year and some of Matt's high school friends were going so it seemed like a nice night out. It was great meeting some girls Matt went to school with. They were really sweet. The drive home was a bit more eventful than I would have hoped. I was the designated driver for the night (driving Matt's car) so Matt could enjoy hanging out with old friends and on the drive home one of his tires completely blew out. Unfortunately it was at about 12:30 am on one of the busiest highways/express ways in the area. I decided it was best just to call the police and a tow truck to get the tire changed. We finally got home and in bed around 3 am. A bit more of an adventure than I expected but things could have gone much worse. I was just happy I was completely sober so I could deal with everything! Matt and I have now decided we should take an afternoon and figure out how to change the tires on both of our cars. Although I will say even if I had known how to change his tire I still would have called the police. It just feels so much safer having them there.
Saturday was rainy and a perfect dreary day to check out garage sales. We even ended up getting quite the find:
Oh, on Friday I finally finished and hung up a project of mine. This screen used to be bright blue. Since we moved I've sanded it down, cleaned it up and stained it. It finally got hung up and put to use as a jewelry holder on Friday. I'm really quite happy with how this one turned out!
Sunday we took a trip to Ann Arbor. It's kind of almost exactly like Madison (minus the lakes and fantastic capitol). I loved it! There's a sweet downtown area and we had lunch at a fantastic little restaurant that someone here told me we can also find in downtown Detroit. Although I loved downtown Ann Arbor our main reason for heading that direction was actually to go to World Market (LOVE that store!). Matt was pretty excited too since they had 50% off all of their grilling stuff. We bought a grill last week so Matt actually made out better on that trip than I did! But we put everything we got to good use right away and made a fantastic maple glazed salmon dinner on the grill Sunday night. We're getting quite good at trying new recipies (last night I made some super yummy homemade granola-it was so easy). Thankfully I have a cute little recipe box to keep all of the keepers in :)
Monday was a nice lazy day around the house topped off with dinner at Matt's parents complete with a game of bocce in which Matt and I continued to be the reigning champs.
This week has gone fairly quickly. I haven't done a whole lot. Unfortunately last night was the only night this week I actually slept through the entire night. I've had a terrible case of insomnia lately. Hopefully that goes away soon. I'd love to not feel like a walking zombie during the day.
Today is a cleaning/laundry/errand day. I'm not quite sure what this weekend has in store. I'm guessing a trip to the farmer's market and then who knows what. Hopefully something low key!
I hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. I'll be sure to post again soon.
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