Disney Wonder Sept 3-7,2006 Part 2

[JLSE50]

I got my cholesterol test results in the mail yesterday! My LDL dropped 12 points, my total cholesterol dropped 52 points, and my triglycerides dropped a whopping 110 points! Whoot! I might not have a heart attack after all. Well, okay, my HDL fell, too, so I have to do something about that or I'm still at risk, but I'm working on it.

AND my liver enzymes are back in the normal range, so I might not have to have a liver biopsy. I can't tell you how excited that makes me!

Sorry...back to your normally scheduled thread now...

WOW!! Great news! We are glad you shared.

Jan

 

[JLSE50]

Well we got bad news last week. The powers that be at UPMC decided to close our hospital and merge it with another one the brought a year ago! They are guarenteeing that we will have jobs just not where they will be! This is suppose to happen July 2009. I dont want to do floor nursing!

I got a phone call today from Mercy(The other hospital-sent in a resume Sat.) I have an interview for the ER on Wednesday!!
Wish me luck!

BEST WISHES
Keep us posted!

Jan

 

[JLSE50]

We just found out that in two weeks when they are redoing half of our unit, we can't have any patients in any of the rooms down there. Guess what kind of patients? BRAIN INJURED!!!! We have no idea where the heck we are supposed to put them all. It's going to be for three months!

The whole unit has to be relocated? Did you ask for the rehabing of the unit?

What about your Therapy spaces?

Best wishes Sounds like "flexibility" will be a requirement. I hope the patients can handle it.

Jan

 

[JLSE50]

Good luck Vicki!

eeek. Displaced people everywhere!

I quit my job Friday. Not working at all! Very excited, but apprehensive. Tom wants to get out of here ASAP/possibly reenlist so he thinks its more important for me to focus on school and finish my degree as close to him as possible. I actually think without working I might finish BEFORE him.

Since I've been old enough to work, I've worked. Kinda crazy to just sit back, relax and let someone else take care of me!

I also switched my major back to education-- so after this fall I'll have an Associate's in Business Admin and i'll be about 6 classes away from the student teaching for my BA in Elem. Education!

Congratulations!

Best wishes as you start this new Adventure!

Jan

 

[zweihund]

The whole unit has to be relocated? Did you ask for the rehabing of the unit?

What about your Therapy spaces?

Best wishes Sounds like "flexibility" will be a requirement. I hope the patients can handle it.

Jan

They are trying to work out the logistics now.....the rehab unit is divided into halves, and is going to be renovated one half at a time. It BADLY needs it. They are starting with the brain injury unit, which is great, except that have not decided where they are going to move the patients to. Our half only holds 19 people, and their half holds 18. They may take over some of the acute care beds upstairs, which will be a complete disaster, or they may move in and double-occupy some of our 19 rooms, which will also be a complete disaster.

waiting to see what happens.

 

[JLSE50]

They are trying to work out the logistics now.....the rehab unit is divided into halves, and is going to be renovated one half at a time. It BADLY needs it. They are starting with the brain injury unit, which is great, except that have not decided where they are going to move the patients to. Our half only holds 19 people, and their half holds 18. They may take over some of the acute care beds upstairs, which will be a complete disaster, or they may move in and double-occupy some of our 19 rooms, which will also be a complete disaster.

waiting to see what happens.

Let us know how the disaster unfolds.

Patsy: how are you handling retirement? Is Tom reinlisting or disabled?
Tae Ja: How are you doing?
Vicki: What happened with the interview?

Jan

 

[Piecey]

Patsy: how are you handling retirement? Is Tom reinlisting or disabled?


Jan

More than likely doing whatever it is that you do whenever you go back in with a college degree. It's not called reinlisting, because you're ranked higher. He is disabled but can still go back in he just looses the disability they gave him.

We talked last night about finishing school and deciding where we want to end up. Going there, letting me teach and drawing his disability long enough to earn some equity in a home that we could go back to upon his retirement from the military. I don't know what will happen, it's hard to say at this point. it just seems silly to me to jump through all these hoops for them through this disability hooplah, just to have him go back in and loose it and me not be able to teach because we'd have no idea where we will end up at. I guess if we got on a big base, I could teach on base but if he went back in as a Marine.. there aren't a lot of big bases. It just seems silly to go into debt for me to get a degree if he's going to go back in because then i can't use it.

He's not happy at all in a regular work world. He comes home and tells me these stories that have him SOOO upset and I'm like "that stuff happens everyday, Tom. welcome to civilian employment."
i don't think he can handle it. He gets irritated when his boss takes a half day off and I'm like "well he's the boss. he can do what he want" and he goes into "well in the military you can't do that, etc."
I have a feeling we'll be a military family.

...as for my retirement.. I just got bad news. Because I switched my major and took classes as they fit my schedule (thus, all were useful but together they = nothing.) if I don't pass my two summer courses (which will give me my AS in Business Admin. I'm not eligible for aid because I took too many credit hours that amounted to nothing by .09%.... It's a little ridiculous and petrifying but the next eight weeks will be full of me kicking these two classes butts!

 

[purplern]

BEST WISHES
Keep us posted!

Jan

Thanks!!!! The interview went ok! I will hear in 1-2 weeks. We have a meeting with our Human Resource people today! It has been a week since they announced this and NO ONE has a plan!!! I really wasnt impressed with their ER. Our is so much nicer! They are going to re do it so many it will look nicer!

 

[purplern]

We were in an accident yesterday coming home from dinner. The car infront of us stopped. We stopped the guy behind us stopped the guy behind him was worried that the guy behind him would not stop and he hit the guy behind us and pushed him into us! Everyone was ok. Everyone except DH went to my work to get check-Tim had back and neck pain, I had neck pain, Amanda had shoulder pain and Ginger whined.

 

[LCTsMom]

Oh Vicki! So sorry to hear about the accident! Hope you're all well and not feeling any after effects!

 

[purplern]

Oh Vicki! So sorry to hear about the accident! Hope you're all well and not feeling any after effects!

Thanks!!! Everyones ok! Even Ginger! This is the 2nd accident the dog was in! I was afraid she wouldnt want to get in the car! Silly me!

 

[Piecey]

Thanks!!! Everyones ok! Even Ginger! This is the 2nd accident the dog was in! I was afraid she wouldnt want to get in the car! Silly me!

Dogs are crazy. Rink loves car rides, but he sleeps through them. He gets all excited when we open the back seat door, he hops up and then sleeps.


I'd just like to say that this growing up stuff is stressful, time consuming business. We're still living in my grandmothers house (which has been offered to us to buy but it needs more work than we are handy enough to put in to it) and since they've been discussing selling it for awhile, we decided we'd rather move out when the time is right for us than be desperate because we've been evicted. It's hard commiting to a payment though!
Thus, we've begun looking at houses. I'm not sure if its the smartest decision but we figured with the market the way it is and the fact that we know we'll be around at least 2.5 more years for school and VA loans only require you to live in the house for 2 years... it would make more sense than renting. I guess.

Except I'd have to get a job, haha. We looked at a really cute house but someone signed on it today. I have a feeling that is how things go, though..

Tom has veto-ed this house, or considering it, due to a sloped yard and a *bad feeling in my belly when I think about mowing it*

I don't think thats a good enough reason! http://www.coldwellbanker.com/servl...lbankerDataProperty_id=13560404&page=property

 

[purplern]

Dogs are crazy. Rink loves car rides, but he sleeps through them. He gets all excited when we open the back seat door, he hops up and then sleeps.


I'd just like to say that this growing up stuff is stressful, time consuming business. We're still living in my grandmothers house (which has been offered to us to buy but it needs more work than we are handy enough to put in to it) and since they've been discussing selling it for awhile, we decided we'd rather move out when the time is right for us than be desperate because we've been evicted. It's hard commiting to a payment though!
Thus, we've begun looking at houses. I'm not sure if its the smartest decision but we figured with the market the way it is and the fact that we know we'll be around at least 2.5 more years for school and VA loans only require you to live in the house for 2 years... it would make more sense than renting. I guess.

Except I'd have to get a job, haha. We looked at a really cute house but someone signed on it today. I have a feeling that is how things go, though..

Tom has veto-ed this house, or considering it, due to a sloped yard and a *bad feeling in my belly when I think about mowing it*

I don't think thats a good enough reason! http://www.coldwellbanker.com/servl...lbankerDataProperty_id=13560404&page=property

The house is very nice. But think down the road-there is only 2 bedrooms and if you are planning on having more than one child you'll out grow the house rather quickly!

 

[Piecey]

The house is very nice. But think down the road-there is only 2 bedrooms and if you are planning on having more than one child you'll out grow the house rather quickly!

We don't plan on staying here exactly. It's very complicated business. He REALLY wants to go back in so we decided we'd like to have something to come back to (if he gets deployed, i'd be able to come home and not have to stay on base, etc) and the payment would be ~$400 so cheaper than rent and still small enough we'd be able to make the payment on top of paying for base housing.

Other thoughts were we didn't want to lose the equity we could build in the next few years while in school. There are also great federal jobs here (Bureau of the Public Debt is here) and since Tom is a disabled Vet he gets like 3 extra points on his application (meaning, it's next to impossible for a civilian-- even a more qualified civilian-- to get hired over him) so if he went that route he could still retire in 15 years and move on to another line of work (like being a Wal Mart greeter which is what I tell him he should do all the time.)

Anything bigger is out of the realm of possibility for us right now financially. We technically don't have an income but since he is employed by the VA and we'd get a VA loan, it would work out. Kids are in the air- he's 5 years older so while we'd prefer to wait until we're 100% settled that would put him in his early 30's which he doesn't like.

I don't know. He doesn't really want to leave his family, but they're already an hour away. We don't want to live here forever but know it'll be a LOT easier to "get on our feet" here if he could get into public debt and I could secure a teaching job- then going where we want after we pay down student loans, have some equity, better credit and experience. Even 15 years here would mean we could go where we want in his mid-40's and my late 30's which I consider a do-able age for starting over.

Like I said, this growing up stuff is time consuming business.

 

[zweihund]

We don't plan on staying here exactly. It's very complicated business. He REALLY wants to go back in so we decided we'd like to have something to come back to (if he gets deployed, i'd be able to come home and not have to stay on base, etc) and the payment would be ~$400 so cheaper than rent and still small enough we'd be able to make the payment on top of paying for base housing.

Other thoughts were we didn't want to lose the equity we could build in the next few years while in school. There are also great federal jobs here (Bureau of the Public Debt is here) and since Tom is a disabled Vet he gets like 3 extra points on his application (meaning, it's next to impossible for a civilian-- even a more qualified civilian-- to get hired over him) so if he went that route he could still retire in 15 years and move on to another line of work (like being a Wal Mart greeter which is what I tell him he should do all the time.)

Anything bigger is out of the realm of possibility for us right now financially. We technically don't have an income but since he is employed by the VA and we'd get a VA loan, it would work out. Kids are in the air- he's 5 years older so while we'd prefer to wait until we're 100% settled that would put him in his early 30's which he doesn't like.

I don't know. He doesn't really want to leave his family, but they're already an hour away. We don't want to live here forever but know it'll be a LOT easier to "get on our feet" here if he could get into public debt and I could secure a teaching job- then going where we want after we pay down student loans, have some equity, better credit and experience. Even 15 years here would mean we could go where we want in his mid-40's and my late 30's which I consider a do-able age for starting over.

Like I said, this growing up stuff is time consuming business.

Growing up is kind of fun, though. You get all the control. It's scary sometimes, and when we bought our house (our first house, which we are in currently) I can't tell you how many times I wanted to say "forget it, let's just go back to renting" but man......nothing beats sitting in YOUR HOUSE. Until you have to replumb the whole thing

I think you guys are being very smart about everything, taking lots into consideration. I can't say we always planned that far in advance.

And you know, ANY time is doable for "starting over" - I had people in my Occupational Therapy course who were in their late 40's and in school for an entirely new career. You are never locked in.

 

[Piecey]

And you know, ANY time is doable for "starting over" - I had people in my Occupational Therapy course who were in their late 40's and in school for an entirely new career. You are never locked in.

Oh wow, I couldn't do that! I'm 21 and should finish in ~2years and it will be a hallelujah course (worse thing about going to a division of WVU is that classes fit into certain blocks and I'm a block behind so not everything I need the next semester is offered..) WVU offers a 1-yr Masters extension (which would prolly take me 2 since I didn't get my BA up there) to your BA in Education but I'd have to drive 2.5 hours to get to the main campus. I don't even think I'd have the ability to get my Masters, I'm so done with school! I'm 1 class away from an AS in Business Admin and two years from a BA in Elementary Ed. and I'm counting down, no joke. (Lucky for me the 1 class I need for the AS in Business Admin is required for the Education degree too!)

It is sorta nice to have control, though. It's sorta what we were going for instead of just waiting until we got the boot. One of the best things we like is that the city has a leash law so a LOT of these houses have fenced in yards-- perfect for Rink! We really can't make a move until Tom gets his disability settlement (which they've beckoned him away to Pittsburgh again for the same crap) because that is what will ultimately make the difference in renting/buying/how big. We know we'd rather buy but if he gets a smaller settlement than they're talking about, we wouldn't be able to afford when things like.. the whole house needs to be re-plumbed!
30% and we get a handicap tag for the vehicles... woohoo, perfect for Black Friday shopping!!

 

[Piecey]

Vicki- this is the one that we liked to begin with. They told us a contract has been signed but it still has a sign out front and is on the webpages! Er.

http://parksburg.yahoo.prupreferred...ue&mode=Search&propid=236W000222528#tblPhotos

 

[purplern]

Vicki- this is the one that we liked to begin with. They told us a contract has been signed but it still has a sign out front and is on the webpages! Er.

http://parksburg.yahoo.prupreferred...ue&mode=Search&propid=236W000222528#tblPhotos

I like that one too!!! Maybe it will fall through.

 

[Piecey]

I like that one too!!! Maybe it will fall through.

Haha.. I'm lucky I guess, I dont think $75k buys that much house up where you live.

 

[purplern]

Haha.. I'm lucky I guess, I dont think $75k buys that much house up where you live.

No up here they are twice that!