Shiny and New

Hello again, how is everyone?
I'd say I'm doing okay. I am a bit stressed at this time but that should be resolving in about a week's time.

You see, I started my new MSU job about a week and a half ago. Who knew it was so much paperwork and eye drooping orientation to go through? It's tiring really and all I want is to meet my 9 students and get on with the semester. But, alas, I must sit through the meetings, learn the politics of the school and complete all the required paperwork. I have about 5 lists of "to dos" prior to Sept 1st and I keep misplacing them. This could be lending to my stress? The lists, I'm afraid, are tending to lengthen as I worry about what to cover in post clinical, if I should write some case studies for the students, and if the staff on my unit will be as welcoming as last semester (this I'm not too worried about as I am phoning the manager today to set up a little 1 on 1 to chat about expectations, etc from me and the students). Like I said, it'll be okay and the semester will fly by. I secretly hope MSU offers to extend my contract and welcome me back in the spring for another go round since all this paperwork and orientation is exhaustive who would want to do it again?! I even have an "office" and I put "" around that because it's really a conference-like room that a few of us new kids share along with the mailboxes and copier that the rest of the profs share.... so really, even though Joc got all excited and told me to take a picture of it, it's not a true office but it's a step in the right direction. I hope I'm gonna love this just as much as I dream I will.

Other new and shiny things include the basement glassblock windows that are being installed as I type this entry. Joc and I have gone round and round about how to best waterproof our basement. A sump pump is in our future (I think) but she'd rather DIY it and leave it to the next bloke who buys the house. I'd rather add the pump and add the value to the house and be able to tell the next guy, yes our basement leaked but we installed new windows, sealed the cracks and put in a sump pump. Guaranteed dry baby! One thing we agreed on was new windows, so for relatively cheap, we are getting those fancy glass blocks. I'm pretty excited. The dude just finished knocking out the old windows and will start placing the new one's shortly. PUMPED!

And for those keeping track, we are still not pregnant. Sigh, but the prayers and thoughts are appreciated and whether our children come from us or from another, we will build our family.

Now I will start at the top of my shiny and new "to do" list and start crossing things off damn it, I need to see some progress already!

Until we meet again...