Marvel I say

Jake and I enjoyed the day together on Memorial Day. Jake didn't have to work which was a plus! This was the first Memorial Day I haven't had to work in years. We spent most of the day building an exposure unit for me to use in working with silk screens. After a few trips to Home Depot and a few calls to Jake's Dad we were able to get it finished in one day.

We had a grill out at Philip and Tracie's. Jennifer grilled some shiskabobs and hot dogs, I made sweet corn tamale cakes, and Tracie made a yummy jello cake. It was a good meal and pleasant enough weather. It wasn't raining but it was muggy. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Below are some photos of the exposure unit we built. Marvel at our excellence!

I don't want to but I want to

So it is official....Jake and I are looking for another place to live. I was doing laundry and pulled out some of my shoes that are in my closet and they were covered in mold. I then pulled everything out and saw why my shoes were ruined...... We told the complex that there was a little water damage in the closet from the last flooding issue we had last summer. They were supposed to take care of it while we were in Chile....They didn't. They have YET to clean up the carpet or fix the molding and rotting wood. Jake had to take photos to the front office and speak to the manager who simply sighed and said it would be taken care of immediately....that was yesterday morning.....still nothing.....Well, they did come look at the damage, I know this how? Oh because they LEFT OUR DOOR UNLOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I came home and it was unlocked and I almost had a heart attach right there. So, as sad as I am to move, I am DONE with these people and this place. We will be looking around hopefully on Saturday and be able to get everything set up so we can move out in August when our lease is up. Below are some photos of the damage.

I had to throw away 6 pairs of shoes, including my tennis shoes :( it hurt me to have to get rid of them. They had been molding for months, no wonder I have been sick for the past two weeks! I hate the idea of actually having to move all these BOOKS, but I hate the idea of having to stay here even more so I guess I will tell my self that as I am lugging boxes of books up and down stairs.

Who's the Colonel?

A lot has happened since my last post. Our furry friend hasn't been back! The maintenance guy for our apartments placed a trap outside where "the raccoon" has been getting in and out at. There has never been anything in the trap so our guess is that he wasn't in the walls when they placed the trap outside and he just couldn't get in. FINE BY ME! It has been great, my sleep hasn't been disturbed! Well, if you don't count when I sat straight up in bed the other night and mumbled something. Jake then claims that I said "I don't understand. I'll have to ask the Colonel." I don't remember this at all, but Jake laughed quit a bit at me. We still don't know who "The Colonel" is, but it has quickly made it's way into our everyday speech. If I don't know the answer to a question I simply say "I'll ask the Colonel".

We woke up a few mornings ago to a wet floor in our bedroom. This happened last Summer as well. Our bedroom is under the ground so when it rains a lot the ground water sometimes gets ahead of the sump pump that is supposed to prevent flooding........it didn't. The last time this happened it ruined our chest of drawers which we just replaced last month. This time it ruined Jake's night stand! The apartment complex of course doesn't cover any of that. It would be something we would have to claim with our renter's insurance. The problem is that the furniture isn't worth the price of our deductible so we are just out of luck! I am so close to wanting to move, but I doubt we will find a place as big as ours for the price of ours. I only worry about what if this happens while we are in Chile and our bed or shelves full of books get ruined? DAH!

Jake had to present his prospectus for his dissertation at Vandy. He passed of course! So now he can get his application for his permits turned in soon and we will be able to reimburse ourselves from the last trip! Hopefully.

One of Jake's friends is leaving the country for 8 months and was getting rid of some stuff and she gave me a bike! I was so excited, I haven't had a bike since I was 10. It is a nice bike too! She gave me a bike lock for it and it is outside next to Jake's. I took it for a spin the day we got it, I have never had a 10 speed bike, so when Jake yelled across the parking lot "down shift" I had no idea what he was talking about and almost hit the parked car next to me! Apparently there are really cool bikes that you can shift up or down to help you peddle. Who knew? It has rained everyday since then so we haven't been able to take them anywhere yet. We might get to this week, fingers crossed.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's we know! We are having a grilled lunch at Tracie and Philip's tomorrow after church. Some grilled chicken and fixens if it doesn't rain. We will also have a Publix cake, they are so good! It has been raining so much this past week that we will be lucky if we don't spend the afternoon swimming around in the yard. Hope everyone has a good Mother's Day and is appreciated by their families!

Living with nature

I have enjoyed living here in these apartments.......until now. We have a furry little friend who has decided to spend his nights crawling around in our walls. Such a fun experience when you are awakened by the sound of little clawed feet digging into the ceiling above your head. We have brought this problem to the front office several times and still have had no results.

I am very close to taking my hammer and busting a whole in the wall and snatching that thing out of there and placing it on the desk of the slow moving office worker. We think it is a raccoon. We saw one last year on our roof and heard it in the wall in the living room. It was gone after we told the front office about it, so we figured it would be quickly taken care of this time too. We have heard it a few times ....talking....then a few nights ago it was dragging something around in the ceiling in our bedroom. (Dragging what?!?!?!?!) It seems to like it in there, for every night this past week it has been up there....keeping me awake. Jake can sleep through most of it. Last night I had had enough and Jake got out of bed and started tapping the ceiling, which just made it scramble into the vent and wait it out.

Jake is going to go back to the front office today and talk to a manager. We have brought this problem up several times in the last two weeks to the same girl. She just takes down the apartment number and we still have our friend burning the midnight oil and I am sick of it. If it isn't gone by the weekend I am getting my hammer!

My ears!!!!!

This past Sunday was our first Easter as a married couple. Jake has actually been to the last 3 Shafer Easter get-to-gethers. Easter was the first time Jake was thrown to the wolves so to speak with my family, so Easter is always special to me. Jake and I made each other Easter baskets, I had planned on getting up early Easter morning to hide jelly beans in the house for Jake to find. That is was they did when he was a kid, but the warmth of the bed overpowered me and I stayed there for another hour.

We went to church with the whole family taking up 1 and a half rows while Jake sat up front to translate the meeting for the Spanish speakers in our ward. He was also right behind the two musical numbers we were "blessed" to hear that morning. He had to keep a straight face while one woman was belting out "HIS HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!" into the microphone for nearly a ten minutes. Jake sent me a text that read "DAMN! My ears!" It was hard to keep a straight face. I don't understand why musical numbers in the church have to be a night at the Rhyman and can't just be a hymn. I guess that is a curse of living in Music City.

update

So I haven't updated this blog since before Jake and I got married. Life is going well for both of us. Jake is currently working at Best Buy until we leave in January. He enjoys it well enough, but he is learning retail isn't as fun as it could be. Being told by managers that you have to sell a customer something they don't want or need is really hard for him.

I am working at Advanced Alarm Technologies where my sister, Jennifer, is the office manager. I am also working as an Artist in Residence at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville. I have a studio space to work in and a gallery space to show in. I am really enjoying it, and it will be something to put on my graduate school applications.

We are both just enjoying the time we have until we leave in January. Now we just have to find somebody to stay in our apartment while we are gone :) Any takers?

two weeks notice

Well, in two weeks from today we will be getting married! I am so excited to be sealed to Jake for time and all eternity. I got back from a month in Italy about two weeks ago. It kind of sucked to be away for a month, right before we get married. It just made me want to get married even more. I guess it means the poor sucker is stuck with me if I missed him as much as I did while I was gone. I guess all the walking in Italy did me good, because my wedding dress fits now! I was going to have to alter it a bit, but not now! Sweet!

On a non-wedding note, the 4th of July is huge in my family...HUGE! We always go to my brother's (Sam)n house. We grill, we swim, we play games, we have a blast! This year my sister Jennifer, my brother Philip, and myself went to play volleyball at the church before the big gathering. We played non-stop for 3 hours.....we are very sore...my muscles hate me...a lot.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and we will see you all very soon! Two weeks! Kind a weird! Love you all!