Ready for the Run

Okay 9 miles in 1 hour and 50 minutes.......I ran out of water so I had to stop. It is just too hot down here to run without enough water. I'm ready for next Sunday though. I will leave on October 3rd and return on October 5th. It's still not too late to donate to my run in honor of Dave and in support of TAPS. Here is the website link below

https://taps.kintera.org/army10miler/rachaelalvarez

I'm really looking forward to seeing the girls (Meka and Liz) again. Oh I miss them so much. I have to work tonite, but only 5 more weeks to go (so I'm feeling a little better about that). I know I haven't posted any pictures as of late, but I haven't been taking so many. Not to mention my camera is on the fritz ( I think technology hates me this week). Nothing I touch seems to work. I struggle a little more at times lately with the 1 year anniversary of the crash quickly approaching. I don't really feel like it should be called an anniversary (that should be left for a happy occasion, but I wasn't in charge of naming dates I suppose). Hope everyone is doing well. I will work 4 out of the next 5 days until I leave. The dogs are going to the vet on Thursday (Leah hasn't had any problems with her pancreatitis flaring up, but I just feel more comfortable with her being looked after by the vet). Mom, Dad, and Nick are going on a cruise on Monday and will be gone for a few days. Well, that is about all from here for now.

Well, between working 5 of the past 6 nights and the computer being on the fritz, I've been tired to say the least. The Army 10-Miler is set for October 5th. I'm flying out on the 3rd and will return on the 5th. Training is going well and my goal of completing it within the set time looks very positive. I have learned that I am much stronger (physically and mentally) than I ever thought I was. I have 5 more weeks of my contract at the hospital and am looking forward to the end. I plan on doing a little traveling during the month of November. First to Austin for my friend, C's house warming party. Then on to my sister's house in New Orleans for about a week. Then I'm going to be flying from NO to Northern California. Dave's hometown of Lathrop, CA is dedicating their Veteran's Park on November 15th this year. They began this project with a ground breaking ceremony on Veteran's Day last year shortly after Dave died. Then I will fly back to New Orleans and stay their thru Thanksgiving. After that anyone knows. As I am finding out, I wouldn't call myself flighty, but my plans have a tendency to change very quickly. I would like to start a fulltime job back in the ICU, but I really enjoy the time off that contract nursing affords me right now. Only time will tell......for now the job continues, the house renovations continue and that is about as much as I can say for sure.

More work on the house

The dogs...being dogs.

Watching the hummingbirds in the backyard this morning.

Shopping trip to Home Depot.

Made some headway in putting in the french doors.....to far to turn back now!

The only room completely done....a guest bedroom.

Master Bedroom.....painted

Computer Room....almost done

Guest bathroom after removing all cabinetry.

Guest bathroom renovations....

Just to let everyone know......hurricane Ike didn't end up affecting us down here in Corpus at all. Not even a drop of rain. Here are some more house pictures taken last week.

Home Renovations

This was the first day of paint color on the wall......this is after we retextured and primed so we were so happy to get to this point!

Putting up the ceiling fan in my old bedroom. I know it's a green room Liz, but it is not as bad as your green room...hahaha

Crown molding is up and we are almost finished. The big unpainted space on the wall is where the french doors are going to lead out onto the patio. It's hurricane season right now, so we have to make sure we don't have to rush when we knock that wall out.

2nd bedroom. I need to finish the trim in here and then it will be done. I do the trim at night when I can't sleep. Not sure what the neighbors think about people being there and up at all hours of the day and night.

Guest bathroom...demo day. Keeping the cabinets and refacing them. They are really solid cabinets.

Another view of the guest bath....the hamper wall cupboard is going to be replaced by glass floating shelves coming out of the wall.

Okay, okay, I know it has been a while.....Work is putting a cramp in my blogging. Just to let you know though my schedule has not changed. I'm either at the hospital, working on the house, eating, sleeping, or running. That's it. I do have a little change in the schedule. I canceled my cruise to South America. I think after being gone for 2 months this summer to various places I'm all traveled out for the time being.....except maybe for the occassional trip to New Orleans or elsewhere in the country. I have decided to try and get a full time job and I want to be in the ICU. That took me a little while to figure out, but I made it back. I have pictures of my house I need to post before people start really getting upset.....lol. So here they are. My new house? Doesn't quite seem to sound right being that we are ripping it apart in some rooms. But here goes. This is only the back two bedrooms and the back bathroom. I'll post the others as we work on them.

Me being rescued out of the mud (it was like quicksand)

Exploring the Athabascan Glacier, Columbia Icefields

crevase on the Athabascan Glacier---scary

The Saffleur Falls

above the Saffleur Falls

the gorge by the Saffleur Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

this is where we were camping on the Kootney Plains

more hiking pictures

view of Lake Abraham--it looks tropical

small waterfall on our hike

magic Kootney wood fires

Okay so, I'm not doing so well with the whole working and blogging thing. My days and nights are all messed up. I sleep till noon and then am up all night. Luckily I have decided that when I'm up at night I will go to the other house and paint trim, since there is so much to do. We put up crown molding in one of the rooms and are actually almost done with two rooms. I'll try and get pictures up tomorrow and later this week. Other, than that I eat and sleep. :) Oh yea and run too, made 6 miles today. Feeling pretty good about the 10 miles on Oct 5th. My knee was bothering me last week and I was a little concerned, but I bought new shoes and it's feeling much much better. Thank goodness. Alright, I'm off to watch some HGTV and take a shower. I also put a few more Canada pictures up this is where we were camping, the Kootney Plains. Also we did alot of day trips from there. Enjoy.

Work, Eat, Sleep, Eat, Work.......This is my schedule right now. I slept until 4pm today. Now I'm getting ready to go back to work. Off Monday and Tuesday. I'm hoping to start putting up crown molding in one of the bedrooms and I need to go buy some french doors. I was very disappointed on the whole door thing. I went to a custom shop and actually found some great doors and a fairly reasonable price. The problem is most doors built at custom shops are new build doors and they are bigger than the ones from the 60's or so. So to have them fit into the existing spaces (which I cannot change due to structural stuff that I definitely do not want to do at this point) would be CRAZY expensive!!!! So I'm settling on prehung doors from the home depot that are cheaper, but easier to put in and will already fit. I guess in the future if this is where I'm going to stay forever I can always put the other ones in........they were very pretty! Anyways, that is my plan for the beginning of this week. Also gonna go by my friends flip house tomorrow to get some ideas maybe. Till next time.........

It's been a few days

Okay, I know it's been a few days since I've blogged. Here is what is going on. I started work this week and have been at orientation every day for like 4 hours. It would have been nice to go one day and that was it, but that is not how it worked out. I start my regular night shift tonite on my own. I feel like I'll be okay on the floor. It is definitely fast paced, but not terrible (so far). Then also we started renovations on the house. (my mom and dad's that I am buying). We close next Tuesday or so I am told that is when they want their money....hehehe! I have pull all of the existing shelving out of the closets and the walls in the back 2 bedrooms. Dad and I textured the walls in my old room and we are deciding what to do with the other one at the moment. In the guest bathroom I have taken most of the fixtures down and am at a standstill there until I get the bedrooms done. My old room looks out on the patio, so I have decided to put in french doors to that room and also replace the doors that go out to the patio from the den. That is my job today. To decide on which doors I want to put in. I've been to Home Depot and Lowes. I haven't fell in love with anything yet (and of course price matters). So I'm off to door shop today. Then to the gym and work. Tomorrow I have off so I will sleep in the morning and do house stuff in the afternoon, evening. Being a homeowner really makes one busy, huh? Bella and Leah are doing fine.....sleeping as usual. Other than that the family is just on the same schedule it always is. Nick is a little concerned how me working is going to affect him. He seems to thing that everything has to be scheduled around his activities. He is quite funny, even though he is not trying to be. Alright, I'm off to make small decisions that cost a lot of money.