Lots of words, no pictures

I have been a pretty bad blogger lately. I guess I just haven't felt much like writing about what's going on. The main time-consumer in my life lately has been work, specifically the yearbook. After I administered the SAT at school last Saturday my editors came up to work, and we were here until after 6 p.m. But we got our first deadline done, so that is a plus! Things are actually going really well at work, just super busy.

I don't remember if I have posted officially about Chad's new job, although most of you who read this blog probably already know about it. So this is for all you stalkers I guess. Everyone knows that Chad passed his clinicals and is officially done with nursing school, so he will be starting as a graduate nurse at UMC. This is basically a job for people who are finished with nursing school and have a test date to get their RN license, just haven't taken the test yet. The best part(s) about it is it's full-time, Chad gets paid regular nurse's pay plus one year of experience because of his paramedic experience, he gets a sign-on bonus, they are reimbursing him for his nursing school, when he passes his NCLEX they are reimbursing him for the test and the review (which is about $1000 total), and full benefits. A few things have to happen before Chad can start his job though (which is January 19, I believe). First off, Excelsior College needs to kick it into high gear and put Chad in the system to show that he is finished instead of still working on his degree (I think they give the typical "4-6 week" timeframe for this to happen). Then, the dean of the college signs something and sends it to the state board of nursing. Then, after they get that, they can give Chad the go-ahead to register for his NCLEX. Then, Chad will have a test date. Then, he has to register with the state boards to get his graduate nurse license. From what I understand, all this has to happen before either January 19, his official GN start date, or the 12, which is when he starts his processing. So pleeeeeease keep this in your prayers that everything goes through and all the ducks are in a row so he can start a full-time, with benefits job in January. As most of you know it is highly frustrating and annoying to have to wait on someone else to get your paperwork through, especially if the wait is long and indefinite, and you are in a time crunch. Chad will probably have to read this paragraph and make corrections, because even though he's explained it to me a bunch, it's still a little confusing to me.

I guess something else new is that part of my Christmas present from Chad is a re-painting of the living room, entryway, hallway, and kitchen, plus repainting all the paneling and cabinets. This has been going on for about a week and a half now, and Chad has been working really hard. This Christmas present is awesome because I hate to paint and I'm not very good at it (I end up getting it all over the place), and Chad is an excellent painter--just ask Shawn & Emma, or Erin & Josh, and probably Joey & Emily too...I know he has at least helped 2 out of our 3 siblings repaint at one point or another. Anyway, we have been planning to redo these rooms for a long time, but just ran out of steam and money after we did a bunch of other stuff to the house right after we moved in last year. So, it's finally getting done, and I couldn't be happier about it. Luckily I have been really busy and spending a lot of time at work, so I'm not just being completely lazy while Chad is doing all the work. I will post pictures after it's all done, and since we are having Erin's family at our house next weekend, Chad's goal is to get much of it done before then.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry about the lack of pictures.