Scientist by day...construction worker by night

Shaun is such a hard worker! He spends his days working as a scientist in the Jones lab. Currently they are working on trying to figure out what is happening inside plants (on the micro level) that causes them to die after they are pollinated. This is the watered down version anyway. He is really enjoying his time here so far.

After working all day in the lab he comes home and after dinner gets right to work on the house until I can talk him into calling it a night. (which is usually at least 10:30 or 11:00 PM) I am so grateful that he is such a hard worker! It's so nice I don't have to be constantly nagging him for help. Thanks, honey!

Ripping up the nasty carpet.

Painting

Many of you keep asking for before and after pictures...well, we aren't quite to the after stage just yet. We are working on this house from top to bottom so as soon as the upstairs is finished you will definitely get pictures!!

home sick

...missing my family and friends!

Good thing I have Shaun! He is such a great husband! He even let us have pancakes for dinner! If you know Shaun, you know that was a great sacrifice for him. I think he agreed just so I would feel like I am home. :) Thanks honey!

wall paper surprises

Shaun's first day at the lab! He will start classes in September but for now he is at the lab jumping into research.

Look at that nice hair cut!

While Shaun is gone all day I have been spending most of my time removing wall paper. We have found lots of surprises behind the paper.

Surprise 1: layers of wall paper. Look at all of the history in this house. JK

Surprise #2: Very dirty walls and ceilings! Can you see that dirt line from where the wall paper used to be?

Surprise #3: holes, nails, and even a secret message... I didn't post a picture to protect the innocent. But it said: "papered by __________,

May 2007!" Can you believe this wall paper is only three years old. YIKES!

Surprise #4: a mouse hole. They had stuffed it with newspaper and then put mouse bait on the floor. Shaun was the brave one who pulled all the newspaper out and then sprayed expanding foam to seal it. Hurray for husbands!

I almost have all of the wall paper down. I think we have filled around 10 garbage sacks full of just wall paper... thank goodness for the phone (family and friends) and my ipod to keep me company during the day. :)

My new best friend & Creature...

Hello! Meet my new best friend Gemma! AKA my GPS! Out here in Ohio I cannot find anything. I can't even figure out what direction I am driving since there is not a large mountain range to my east. :) Thankfully Shaun had some insight that we may need something like this in the future and bought Gemma this past January for our anniversary. We nicknamed her Gemma and she is the most reliable friend! She has helped to eliminate a lot of potential frustration. Thank you Gemma for getting us to Church and wherever else we need to go. :)

My next new discovery is lightning bugs! I am so fascinated by them. After 9:30 PM every night we can go out watch these creatures light up the night. They are SO awesome! One night I was out on the deck and one flew up right by me. All of a sudden it's bum just lit up this bright yellow greenish color. It was so great to see it so up close and personal!

http://christaisgoingtonyc.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/fireflies.jpg

Last night some ward members put on a Lightning Bug Party in their back yard. We had 'smores and got acquainted with some new people. Everyone is just so friendly here in Wooster. Once it started getting dark the kids ran around like crazy with their nets catching the lightning bugs and putting them in a jar. It was cute to watch some kids just release the bugs right away and other kids trap as many as they could catch. It was a fun event!

http://artfiles.art.com/5/p/LRG/12/1292/FN1O000Z/anthony-morrow-fireflies-in-jar.jpg

If you ever get a chance you have to see lightning bugs! You won't be disappointed!

Thank you Truck Drivers!

Shaun and I made it to Ohio. It was quite the task moving all of our stuff across the country! Definitely not something I want to do again for awhile. But mostly we have truck drivers to that that we made it in one piece. Boyd Bills (Shaun's former roommate) is also moving to Ohio so we shared a moving truck. It was nice having two main drivers even though I did drive through a lot of Kansas. Ü

So the second main day of driving Boyd started following this truck. He seemed to know the road really well and was directing us away from big pot holes, etc. We stopped at the same rest stop and Boy'd got to chat with him. He said he noticed we were following him so he started leading us. It really helped during a stressful time of driving. This was the truckers last trip before he was retiring. He said he had driven 10 million miles in his life. (Shaun figured out that his miles are equivalent to him driving to and from the Moon 21 times. CRAZY!) Very nice guy, though.

The first day we stayed with my aunt in Colorado. (sorry forgot to pull the camera out.)

The second night we stayed with Shaun and Boyds' former roommate Thomas. Thomas made us some very yummy pizza!

This is Boyd checking our truck. Our truck had a split personality. We are pretty sure there was a major electrical problem because sometimes it wouldn't get up past 40 MPH. And sometimes the AC would blow through the defrost vents instead of the main vents. Crazy!!

Since we were such a big load (26 footer truck + my car tagging behind) we had to fill up at some trucker spots. They were always very helpful in showing us how their pumps worked.

Then we got to stay with Jess and Melissa in Indiana. (This is not a picture from the trip.) I was so tried by this day the camera didn't make it out again. :( They were so hospitable! So fun to see our friends. It was nice having something to look forward to at the end of each day.

One more reason I want to thank truck drivers... On our last day of driving out of nowhere our trailer hitch came off without us even knowing. So our trailer (That was towing the car) was dragging along the freeway. Yikes! A trucker honked at us and I said, "oh they are so nice, they are just saying hello." But, really the trucker had to swing in the other lane and get our attention so we would pull over. We are so grateful that my car was safe and that the trailer was still in one piece. What a scary feeling!

I really felt like the Lord was looking out for us. I appreciate all of the kind people who made our trip great! I think I can consider myself a pioneer now. JK

We are happy to be here and even though our new town home needs a lot of work we are excited for this new adventure. More posts coming soon on the Ohio/house adventure so far!!