New year...new things to talk about!

It's been a while!!

Things are just now starting to get back to normal after the holidays. Travis is back at work this week, and I'm working my normal Monday, Tuesday, Friday schedule. It's actually kinda nice to get back into the routine!

The past two weeks were fun but pretty hectic. We enjoyed our time in Trussville with my family for Christmas (although it didn't last nearly as long as it did when we actually had "Christmas break!). Christmas Eve, after we ate with the Cushing clan at Granny's and opened presents, we grabbed our stuff and drove back up here to Baugay's. It's a good thing we didn't wait until the next day to leave because when we woke up Christmas morning, this is what we saw...

The view outside of our apartment

 
I knew they had been talking about the possibility of snow on the weather forecast, but I didn't actually think it would happen! It really was a white Christmas!!! We must have gotten 4 inches at least....and it was so pretty :) I think that's the most snow I've seen in Alabama since the "blizzard of '93. 


So, Travis and I got ready and went out to head over to Cheryl's for Christmas at their house. First, we had to uncover one of our cars though!!

The snow even covered the driveway and roads!

He's such a good husband :)

While Travis was uncovering his car, I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures...

Baugay's house looked like a Christmas card picture!

The view looking down the street

So, we set out on our journey...not wanting to be late. Luckily, Highway 72 was pretty clear of snow (from all the cars that had already driven on it). The worst driving was on the less traveled roads. This next picture makes it look like we were driving in a snowstorm!

Snow everywhere!

 I wanted to make a detour before our Christmas celebration though. So, we headed over to our house (that sounds weird to say!), so that I could take a picture of it covered in snow :)

Beautiful! :)

We finally made it to Cheryl's house in time to open presents and eat an awesome lunch together. 

The Grant girls before lunch

 After lunch, we all headed outside to make a snowman and have a snowball fight. It was a lot of fun! Sir Melts-a-lot turned out pretty cute too :)

The building process

Almost finished!

Sir Melts-a-lot!

Us with our masterpiece :)

No pictures from the actual snowball fight (I was too busy throwing them and getting hit!), but here's an "after" picture:

After the snowball fight

 The highlight of the day, however, was not the snow, the food, or the presents because....ALISHA GOT ENGAGED!! I was so surprised and excited...I think I probably scared Tyler because I was squealing so much. Her ring is so pretty, and I'm just so happy for them! They are planning to get married sometime in late July/early August.

Right after they told us

The ring!

I'm sure I'll be talking about wedding planning a lot on this blog, so just get ready!

Then, on Sunday (the 26th) for lunch, Travis and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary..haha. We went out to eat at P.F. Chang's, and it was really good. Trav had never eaten there, and I hadn't been in a long time, so it was fun. 

It was still snowing on Sunday!

Last week was a crazy, busy one. I'll break it down for you:

Monday: Work 
Tuesday: Work, then Grant cousins Christmas party
Wednesday: Wedding venue/dress shopping with Cheryl and Alisha all day, then I taught the K-1 Bible class at church that night
Thursday: Work, then fondue night at Cheryl's
Friday: Work, then furniture shopping all afternoon, then we went out to eat with Matt and Maggie, went to see their new house (which is so nice!!), and then played games and spent the night at Matt's house
Saturday: Watched Bama embarrass Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl with Matt, Tyler, Alisha, and Emily. Then we met Darlene at our house to measure the living room and breakfast room so we could get an idea of what furniture would fit. After that, Tyler and Alisha came back over and we ate pizza and played Settlers of Catan. 
Sunday: Church x 2, went to a reception in Woodville for Jeremy (he's leaving for Afghanistan sometime soon), and then had a birthday party that night after church to go to.


 WHEW!!! Makes me tired just to type all that. Needless to say, I was pretty tired and irritable by the end of the week. Even though we got to do a lot of fun stuff, those weeks where I don't get any kind of a break just wear me out. So, that's why I'm kinda glad to be back to our normal schedule. 


As far as the house goes, we're still supposed to close next Thursday (the 13th). The radon mitigation system was installed last week, so we were able to take a look at the pipe when we went to the house Saturday afternoon. The pipe is in the master BR closet. It's pretty big and ugly, but I guess it's better than breathing radon, right? You can't see it unless you go in the closet and turn around because it's in the front left corner, so at least that's good. We've got our homeowner's insurance decided on. The termite inspection went well. The appraisal's finished. Now, we're waiting on the radon re-test (to make sure the system is working), and then the sellers are supposed to get a handyman out to fix a few minor things. I can't believe we'll be homeowners in a week!! Scary and exciting!!


Well, I think I've talked your ears off enough. Hope you've had a happy holiday season and a great new year so far!! :)

Radon, Lovely Weather, and Other Fun Topics...

Just to be upfront...a lot has transpired in the past week, so this will probably be a pretty lengthy post. You have been warned :)

I'll back up to last Friday. Travis and I met with Amy at Regions to sign paperwork...lots and lots of paperwork! Good thing I have to sign my name 50 million times a day at work, or it probably wouldn't come so naturally. She explained all of the stuff about our upcoming loan to us, which made me excited and nervous at the same time. Closing day is less than a month away. So we leave the bank, eat a quick supper at Rosie's (yum!), and then head to the mall for some Christmas shopping. In honor of my parents taking my sister and me Angel Tree shopping several times when we were growing up, I wanted us to do the same thing this year. I let Travis pick out our "angel", and he chose a little 10 year old boy named Ramzie. Now get this...what made this little boy special, apparently, was the fact that he listed a "science kit" as one of the items on his wish list. Haha :) So, off we went in search of a science kit. We finally found a "cool" one at a toy store (I think Travis was reliving his childhood a little!). We also bought Ramzie a card game from another toy store and a new pair of jeans and a sweater. I hope he'll enjoy everything!

Saturday morning was the big inspection on our house. We met the inspector there at 9 AM, and we were there until almost 11:30! He'd set up a radon test last Wednesday in the house (which takes at least 48 hours to complete). Steve, the inspector, walked us through the house inside and out and showed us all sorts of things we didn't know. Overall, we learned a lot, and the house was in pretty good shape according to him. He found a couple of safety issues that can easily be fixed (by the sellers, before closing), and a few other minor issues that the sellers would hopefully fix as well. If anyone needs a recommendation for a home inspector, let me know because he was great! Darlene, our realtor, took our picture in  front of the house before we left Saturday morning:

Yipee!

 So, we left the house feeling pretty good about everything. Steve said he would download the results from the radon test and send us an email with his inspection report later that afternoon. We went home and got ready to head to Montevallo for Alan and Katie's wedding. Andrew came over and rode with us down there. The wedding was beautiful, and we had a lot of fun! Katie looked gorgeous, not surprisingly, and they both seemed really happy. It was great to see a lot of people from Tuscaloosa that we hadn't seen since May as well! 

Alisha and me at the wedding!

  Bad news, however, arrived in the form of an email just about the time we got seated for the ceremony. Steve sent us the results from the radon test, and the house tested really high with radon. Really high. According to the EPA, if your house tests higher than 4 pCi/L, you need to have a mitigation system put in. Well, our house averaged 20 pCi/L! 

Some of you may not have ever heard of radon. I hadn't until earlier this year. If you go to the EPA's website, you can learn more about it. Basically, it's a gas that you can't see, smell, or taste that is formed from decaying uranium in soil. It can get into your house from cracks in the foundation or even through the water supply, and if it builds up to high levels, it can cause cancer. It is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer (behind cigarette smoking), and the EPA estimates that almost 1 in 15 homes in the U.S. have high levels of radon. Check out this map to see which parts of the country have the highest radon levels (red = the worst). 

Anyway, my first thought (since we know someone personally who lived in this area, never smoked, got lung cancer and died in his 40s) was to say "Let's walk". Because we can technically get out of the contract, since radon is considered a safety issue. But, what's to say that the next house we found that we liked wouldn't have the same problem? All of north Alabama is in the red on the map. Plus, we've also learned that just because your house tests low or high for it at one point, that doesn't mean that the next test will have the same result. The results depend on the weather and the pressure in the atmosphere at the time. So, what if we found another house we liked, got it tested and the results came back ok? Who really knows if the results would be the same time if it was tested a month later? Here's the kicker: the people who own the house now say that they had it tested back in 2007 when they bought it, and the results were fine. Now they're 20??

Basically, the only way to assure yourself that the radon levels in your house are within the acceptable limit is to have a radon mitigation system put in. We got a couple of quotes from different companies in the area, and they cost between $1000 to $2000 to put in. Of course, if we decide to stay with this house, we'll have the sellers pay to put a system in. 

Right now, the house is being re-tested for radon by a different person. The sellers offered to pay for it just to double-check that the first results were accurate. This test should be finished tomorrow, so we'll hopefully know by tomorrow night what the new results are. I'll keep you posted, of course!

Moving on, it has been freezing cold around here lately! I feel like we are living in Antarctica, not Alabama! Travis actually got to leave work around lunchtime today because of the sleet/freezing rain in the area. It was so nice having him home during the day...brought back memories of our college days when we'd actually see each other at other times than just at night.

Work has been crazy this week. A lot of out-of-the-ordinary stuff happened to my patients, which translated into me feeling like a pretty awful nurse. Most of it I guess wasn't really my fault, but it was still frustrating. I wish everything went smoothly all of the time, but some things are just out of my control. Anyway, I had a breakdown yesterday after everything happened. Luckily, Mom answered her phone and helped calm me down and remind me that I'm a good nurse and stuff like that just happens sometimes. I have the best Mom :)

If you're still reading at this point, I'm proud of you! I figured this one would be a little long-winded :)

Hope you are staying warm and dry this week! Aren't you thankful for a warm place to sleep at night? I know I am!