Medieval Contraptions on Friday the 13th

Dogs

Isn't she cute?!?!?!
Everyone's Resting...
He's a little cute too...
Sometimes they do rest...

PRIZE FOR BEST CAR DEALERSHIP!

CAR

So we've been messing around with this Jeep Patriot thing for a while now. Originally, I had talked to someone at Obrien Jeep in Greenwood, but we ended up going to Fletcher Jeep in Franklin because they actually had a Patriot in that we could test drive.

Immediately I knew that I liked the sales person from Obrien better, as the guy at Fletcher had no clue about the things he was letting come out of this mouth. The guy at Obrien, he was a bit more knowledgeable, but more importantly, if he didn't know the answer, he went and looked the answer up.

Case in point: Fletcher guy keeps insisting to me that air conditioning comes standard on the Patriot. However, that is not the case. I know its not the case because its an option that you have to add on, and it costs $950. He argues with me about it, even though he's showing me print outs on some Patriots that clearly show that the air conditioning is an option. After pointing it out to him three times, he finally relents.

So he doesn't have in stock what we want, and when we expressed interest ordering it, he totally blew it off and said that he can just get one from another dealership, no problem.

My initial thought? This guy is an idiot. I can't see any dealership being willing to trade with him, especially if they are semi close. Dealerships aren't able to keep the Patriots in stock, and most don't have any at all in. A dealership isn't just going to give one away when they know they'll be able to sell it, but whatever.

So I call this guy the next week and he insists that I give him a little more time, that he's trying really hard to get it in. He tells me that he knows that we want our car NOW, and that's what he's trying to do. (Sidebar: We never said or implied that we were in a hurry, actually to the contrary, we said we'd be willing to wait to order one in, but again, whatever.) A couple days later I call back and get the same thing, and he asks me to give him another week. (He's also irritated with me because I won't agree to a different color. I originally told him black, but later said I would be fine with silver too. But he wanted me to accept a Jeep Green one. No thanks.) So we do wait another week. Nothing.

So Mark calls to set up an appointment to order one. Very reluctantly, the guy sets something up and then makes the following comment to Mark:

"No offense, but I really wanted to sell a car in March...not May."

So obviously this experience has been about him getting what he wants, not us.

I try to convince Mark to go to Obrien Jeep or Shadeland Jeep, but he doesn't want to deal with anyone else, he thinks it'll be a hassle. (He would have to fill out another credit application, plus deal with another sales person) I point out that by the time he drives down to Franklin, he could have already done all that, but then he gave me some line about how the guys already done a lot of work on our behalf. Personally, I wouldn't say A LOT, and I think it was more on his behalf than ours. But whatever.

So Mark goes and orders the car. He calls me and lets me know that he did it. I ask him how much it came too, he says he doesn't know, he didn't ask. And apparently the guy didn't tell him or give him any information on it. In Mark's defense, he had just gotten off work after working a 12 hour overnight shift. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

So I call the guy to get the price. He tells me. After thinking about it some, I call back and ask if I can get an itemized copy of the order, what options were put on, etc. I would think that Chrysler would have sophisticated enough software to be able to do that. I was told he would fax it to me.

So I get the fax. What does it say you ask? Price * Sales tax = Total price. No details what so ever. So I just let it go.

Later Mark and I are discussing the options and looking at pictures when I think I point out the fog lights. He apparently thought the fog lights were something else that he thought looked stupid, so he said no when they asked about them. Had I gotten the print out, I would have caught that.

So Mark calls back about adding that option. They tell him that they can't just add that to the order and that it would have to be canceled and reordered and our wait would start over. He he says he'll talk to me and let him know.

We decide to go ahead and get them, but Mark wants me to call back and tell him, I assume because he doesn't want to deal with the guy. So I do. But the guy tells me that there's no way to do that because the order has already been placed. And that we would have to add them after market. After listening to him tell me that its too late for a few minutes, I tell him that he told my husband that the order would just have to be canceled and a new order placed. After a slight pause, he was like, "yeah, I guess we can do that." So I tell him to please do that. Needless to say, the man wasn't pleased with me.

So that's all about that...and that's just the Readers' Digest version!

Love you all!

Due to my lack of sleep and work schedule, all my days seem to flow together and I have a little trouble keeping my days straight. Not to mention what the stress and lack of sleep has done to my memory...so I'm gonna do my best to post interesting happenings since the last post.

I can't remember when my last post was, and I'm too lazy to go back and check before I write this, but I planted some herbs on Monday. Dill, Marjoram, Parsely, Chives, Cilantro, and something else, I can't remember. I am very excited to say that they have already started sprouting! Plus then on Tuesday I planted some jalepeno peppers, red peppers, canteloupe, and tomatoes. The melons have begun to sprout already as well!!!

As you guys know, we sent our documents over to Vietnam already. I've been really stressing because we had to resend an application and some pictures, and our documents are getting ready to expire. If they expire, we have to start everything over again. By expiring, I mean they have to be submitted to the IAD before they hit the six month mark. That would REALLY suck.

But just 10 minutes ago, I got the following email:

Hello Angel, I just spoke to Thuy she said that your dossier has been handed in. They are waiting for a list of children from the orphanage's that we work with to come in so that they can match you. They thought this would happen next week.

So I am pretty excited!!!

I've been thinking about this a lot here recently. I think that no matter what happens, we will end up with the child that we were meant to have. It's been a long road to get here, and stressful, but I know that it will be worth every single bit of it.

Just another day...

Man! I have to tell you I am SO, SO exhausted. I, of course, worked crazy hours all week. And then I worked an eight hour day today and yesterday. I'm really a little irritated that I've had to do that, because I haven't had a chance to really enjoy this nice weather!

So a lot has happened in this last week, so I better get to it!

The main thing was our water situation. Monday, I had a well company come out to look at our well and give us an estimate. (we had water, the pressure just wasn't right) He told me that to fix what needed to be fixed, it would be 600-750. I said ok, as I didn't really have much of a choice, as it needed fixed. An hour and a half later, all they succeeded in doing was getting the well pump stuck and leaving us without water. Oh, and he wanted to charge me $225 for it. For not repairing anything. And they told us that it would probably be about 3,000 to fix and that we might want to consider city water.

We decided to go ahead and go the city water route. After a series of subcontractor quotes, we finally got one to connect us for $2,480. Plus we had to pay a fee to the water company of 700. PLUS, we have to pay a monthly surcharge of $53 with our water bill for 240 months. If you do the math, that's 13,000!!!! Luckily our home owner's insurance reimbursed us $2,400, so it was really only about $800 our of our own pocket, plus the $53/month charge.

On a brighter note, I planted some herbs yesterday. I think some chives, sweet basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, and marjoram. Not sure how long they take to grow, but I hope its quick! I will plant some more outside, once the "danger of the last frost" has passed, whenever that may be.

Last but not least, I still think Daylight savings time sucks. And I especially think it sucks that I lose an hour of sleep during tax season. As if I don't suffer enough from lack of sleep... ;)

I'M BACK...FOR NOW....

So I have to tell you that this past month or so has been absolutely madness. I'm not sure I remember ever being so chronically exhausted. I have been working 16 hour days, plus Saturdays and Sundays. I haven't had time to do a lot of things, and Mark is only available when most people are sleeping. So my point is for nobody to take it personally, as things will slow down here after awhile.

Note worthy items:

• I think that we have decided on a new vehicle. We are going to go with the 2007 Jeep Patriot. We will be trading in Mark's Scion. The Patriot will fit in with our lifestyle a little better, plus it gets awesome gas mileage, better than the Scion. And plus it's a vehicle that we both decided on. If all goes well, we will probably have it this week.
• We finally got our paperwork submitted. It's been an ordeal, but I think we have finally got it all taken care of. We had to submit an application and photos separately, and once I know that they have arrived in Vietnam, I will be able to finally stop stressing about it. Special thanks to my mom for saving us in the photo disaster!!! Also, since I'm on the subject of thanking people: Dad Hunter-Thanks for getting us the green slip info so quickly. Jason-Thanks for shoveling our driveway. You went above and beyond what I expected. Marty-Thanks for fixing our pipes and restoring our water, we really appreciate it.
• I think a pipe cracked on our well pump. Our water pressure has never really returned to normal, sometimes I can take a shower, sometimes I can't. A guy is supposed to come out and look at it tomorrow, so we'll see. He says it will probably be less than a thousand dollars to fix--although I was hoping he would say less than $100. But oh well, I suppose that's the way it goes.

So this spring I had high hopes at trying my hand at a garden. However, my hopes have been all but dashed when I was informed that it's too late to start right now. If anybody can give any advice I would appreciate it. We bought seeds for: Watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, snow peas, cucumbers, zucchini, jalapenos, red peppers, etc.

Also, I think we need some advice on getting grass back. When do we put grass seed down? Do we need fertilizers? Weed killers?

Last, we really need to put trim down in our dining room. I've been researching it, and I think that we can do it. But I think that we need to borrow a miter saw or something like that from someone... plus I need someone to come with me and show me what to buy.

Adoption and other Misc updates

So I'm thinking that we are probably going to go with the other adoption agency. I think we've decided that the wait is too long with FTIA, although they are a great agency. That's one of the problems that you can encounter with new programs...

So we have to have our dossier submitted by the end of next month, otherwise I would have to redo all of our documents. Although the agency has referrals ready, we would not be able to travel at the required time.

If we submit our dossier sometime in the middle of March, it would potentially put us at a May/June travel time. But that's just an estimate. Could be later. Don't know how long the stay will end up being either. Should know more later.

I'm going to have one more conversation with a lady who is adopting through this agency right now before we make our final choice, but this is probably what we will do.

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So I thouught we would have our pipes fixed by this morning. Didn't happen. We did fix everything that we tried to fix, but there was one more leak that we didn't catch. So another day without water.

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Hopefully my car will be free and clear tonight and I can actually get out of the garage.

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I think that's all the updates that I have for now.

Update

Well, the space heater didn't seem to be doing any good in unfreezing the lines, so after I got back from my mom's (taking a shower), I went out there with my hair dryer. I blow dried the pipes for about half an hour, but it didn't seem to do much good. So I left it out there for a little bit and kept checking it, moving it around.

SO FINALLY IT WORKED!!! WE HAD WATER!!!!

Unfortunately the water was spraying all over the place. Yes, our pipes burst. In 4-5 different places. So we are officially without water, no nope of it coming back. Marty is going to come over on Friday and see if we can get the pipes switched out.

I can't remember if I told this to Mark or not (but maybe he'll read it tonight), but when he gets home tomorrow morning, I'll take his car to my mom's, take a shower, then go to work. (Because my car isn't going anywhere anytime soon)

And just so we are clear, I already understand that this is my fault for not making sure that the garage closed all the way, so if you feel the need to keep reminding me, I already know that.

Days of our Lives

Don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post, but our pipes froze a couple of weeks ago and we had no water for a weekend. Luckily once I figured out the problem, I got a space heater and we had water within 20 minutes.

So work has been getting busier and busier, and I am working a lot of hours now. With the snow and ice that came in Monday night/yesterday, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it to work, although I thought more than likely I would. And I did. But I only worked until about six, as the partners were concerned with everyone getting home before it got dark.

My drive to and from work was fine. The problem was when I pulled into our drive way. I got about 1/4 of the way into it when my car started getting stuck. At this point I had to make a decision as whether to leave it there or attempt to get it into the garage. I wasn't sure what the whether was supposed to be like last night, and the thought of having to deal with a snow/ice covered car didn't appeal to me, so I tried to get it into the garage. I made it without too much trouble, although I took awhile. I had to go forward a little, reverse, go foward, reverse, etc until I got into the garage. But I make it. Actually it's about 5:45 at this point. I forgot to close the garage after grabbing the mail. Mark had to leave for work around 6:30. When he left, he called me to tell me to close the garage. I was in the middle of doing something, so I didn't do it right then. He texted me a little before 9pm to ask me if I did it. I hadn't, so I got up right then and went and closed it.

Then when Mark got home at 8am this morning, he informs me that I didn't close the garage. Well, I know for a fact that I went out there and did it, so the only thing I can think of is that snow had drifted into the garage, and it must have hit it at the bottom and then came back open.

So we have no water today. Last time it unfroze with the space heater in about 20 minutes, this time its been on there since 815 or so, and as of right now, no such luck. Plus, I am stuck in the garage, and Mark is stuck at the end of the driveway. So I can't go to work. Actually, I can't do a lot of things...brush my teeth, take a shower, wash the dishes, feed the dogs, etc.

But at least I have the day off I suppose...

A Long Time Coming...

So it probably doesn't come to a surprise to some of you that sometimes I do things without thinking about it, or without a seemingly logical reason for doing it.

The other day I was talking on my cell phone to a friend of mine. He was driving back from out of town and telling me about his trip. Mark is upstairs in the shower at this time.

To set the scene, I am in my living room. If you've seen our living room since we rearranged the furniture, you know what it looks like. Everything was pretty clean in the room, except for that Rajah had somehow dragged a basketball sized medicine ball out from underneath a chair in the corner.

So I am mindlessly walking around the living room listening and talking on the phone. Here's the part that you might or might not understand. My mind is always at work and sometimes I have a really hard time focusing on one thing. Even when I am paying close attention to something, maybe 5-10% of my brain is subconsciously focused on something else. While I am completely aware of the thoughts going on, I don't really pay much attention. Kind of like sometimes when you drive the same route everyday, you realize you at work and just kind of drove auto-pilot.

So anyway, back to my phone conversation. I am talking on the phone and something catches my attention on the ceiling. Honestly, I think it was just that we have textured ceilings, and I that the pattern was interesting. So while I am on the phone, I step up on the coffee table and look closely at the pattern. Again at this time, 95% of my mind was focused on my conversation. So now I am pacing back and forth on the table. Engaging in a conversation. To the point that David didn't know that there was anything distracting me. Suddenly, midsentence, he hears me scream at the top of my lungs and the phone eventually goes dead!!! I keep trying to call him back, but it keeps going to his voicemail. Finally a couple minutes later I get a hold of him, and he makes sure everything is ok. Only half jokingly, he says that he didn't know whether he should call the police or something!!!

So what happened, you ask???

Well. As I was talking, my subconsious brain must have thought that it would be cool if I could jump off of the table and land on the medicine ball all on one foot. Now this all happened so fast, but that's exactly what I tried to do. I hopped off the table with one foot and tried to land on the medicine ball. Only the ball was round and of course when I landed on it, it immediately went rolling, causing me to let out a scream, and fly off of it landing on my face! If you can picture my living room, I jumped towards the step in the dining room. I was VERY lucky because I had put my hand out to catch my fall, and had I not landed on my hips first, I would totally have a broken wrist right now.

Now somehow during this fall, I had hit the mute button on my phone, a function that I didn't even know existed, so I didn't know how to turn it off. So I hear David calling my name, but there's nothing I can do about it. So I imagine it must have been pretty scary to him to hear me scream like that, and then have the phone go dead. And since I was trying to call him when he was calling me, the phone was going straight to my voicemail, so it was like my phone had gotten cut off.

Luckily, all I ended up with was a very sore wrist and I strained a tricep muscle. And before anyone says anything, I don't know what possessed me to do that...its not something I would have ever done intentionally. Really, it was quite a weird experience....

Teaser

So I've done some stupid things in the past. Things where afterwards you kind of wonder what possessed you to do it in the first place. I had one of those moments last night. And I definitely suffered the consequences from it. I'm probably lucky that I didn't end up in the emergency room!

Tune in later to find out what...

And no fair anybody asking Mark about it...That's cheating!

Update revisited.

• We got our paperwork back from the consulate yesterday. I'm a little frustrated that I paid extra for tracking and confirmation, however according to UPS, the package hasn't been mailed yet. But the important thing is that we now have it. Now we need to nail down a decision on the agency.
• Yesterday I finally was able to park in the garage. However, in the process, my new lap top box was thrown out. With UPC code still attached. Meaning I don't get my rebate. :(
• Work is very frustrating right now...hoping to be able to work that out soon.
• Chopped my hair off again last weekend. It's shorter than it's been in a while.

That's all that's been going on recently...

Update

So I don't really have a reason for my lack of posts. It's not that I have been busy with work, as that's not really been the case. It's not that I haven't had time, as I seem to have a lot of time on my hands these days.

Update on things:

Job is going ok. Not too busy. I don't regret switching jobs, but I really miss my friends from the old place and the fun we used to have.

Adoption is slowly moving along. Vietnam issued new regulations at the beginning of January, so we had to wait and make sure there wasn't going to be more that we had to do. We got our last form, at the end of December, but we've run into a problem finding time to get the state seal put on the remaining documents, so that I can get them authenticated by the Vietnamese Consulate. Mark was finally able to wake up during the day so that he could get that taken care of last Friday, and Saturday I got the documents mailed off to the Vietnamese Consulate. Unfortunately we are running into a time crunch with the documents. None can be more than six months old, and sometime during February, my medical form will reach that date. So hopefully we can get everything submitted by that time so that I don't have to redo it.

I took my third section of the CPA exam-Auditing. Hopefully I did well, I don't know.

So for the next few weeks, I think I'm going to try and work on some things around the house:

• Replace the cabinet hardware in my bathroom
• Replace towel bars in my bathroom
• Paint Kitchen
• Trim in Dining room

I would love to be able to park my car in the garage again. Unfortunately I can't because it's loaded with boxes. So if you read this Mark, and you have nothing better to do, maybe you can do that. And that can be my birthday present.

I can't remember if I put this in my last post, I know that I told somebody about this, but we are looking for the following items:

An area rug that looks like it belongs in a girls room.

A crib set that is not too expensive.

If anybody sees anything like this, please let us know.

Well, I will sign off for now!

I'm back!

I would apologize for my lack of posts here recently, but I'm sure that nobody noticed. ;)

HOUSE

We have nixed the open house idea. If anyone wants to come over and see it, feel free. There are a couple of projects that we still have left to do, but as a whole, its coming together nicely. No if anyone is interested in seeing it, feel free to stop by.

JOB

My new job is awesome. Don't regret moving at all. I think it's going to work out really well.

ADOPTION

Things are kind of at a stand still. We are waiting to receive out I-171H. Once we get this form, we will be good to go. We're getting Chloe's room ready. Right now we are looking for a fairly inexpensive rug for her to play on. I think we want it to be a girly rug.

JUJUTSU

Mark got his brown belt over the weekend. He did a good job on his test. Only two more tests and he will be a black belt. After his next test he'll be able to wear spandex shorts and a skirt.

I got my yellow belt. Which really is quite unfortunate. I was hoping to be able to stay a white belt, but no such luck.

NEW INTEREST

So I've decided that I want to take up a new hobby: Photography. I've thought about this before, but never really done anything about it. I've kind of looked around for a photography class, but have been unable to find anything. So if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to let me know. I was at a bookstore over the weekend, and I remember seeing a digital photography book, so maybe after Christmas I will pick that up.


I suppose that I should go ahead and get back to work...I think this is all the news and updates I have for now. Let me know if I left anything out!

Get Together!

So we've been thinking... We've been/are doing a lot of stuff around the house (house related/baby related), and we think it would be nice to show everything off! Being that a lot of it is not done yet, I am having great faith that it will turn out nice...or at least better than my paint job in the office! :)
Plus, we thought it would be fun for everyone on both sides of the family to get together. And for Sammi and Rajah to get used to people.
That being said, we wanted to have a little "get together" at our house. I know its hard to coordinate schedules, especially with Christmas coming up, but here is what we were thinking:

December 17th- (Sunday)
December 22nd- (Friday
December 29th- (Friday)

Thoughts? Can you guys (or at least the two or three of your who actually read this:)) make it?

Oh...and can anyone guess what December 29th is???

Weekend in Review

Only 5 more days left at my current job. How awesome is that!?!? No more driving all the way up north. I stopped by my new place of employment on Friday and got to see my office again...it's really nice!!!

We didn't really get a whole lot done this weekend. With Mark's work schedule, I seem to spend a lot of time by myself, as he's sleeping and working. That means we really need to switch gears and start getting stuff done on the weekdays. My upcoming tasks for the next week:

• Drywall mud all along the base of the walls in the dining room.
• Finish the floor in the baby's room.
• Add quarter round to the baby's room and office.
• Paint Dining room.

On a different note, I can't tell you how excited we are that Terry and Dorothy are going to be adopting from Vietnam as well!! Our babies will be close to the same age, and I think it will be nice for them to get to know each other.

So we (Mark and I) have been having discussions with Sammi and Rajah about when little Miss Chloe comes home. They understand that they are going to have to start working on thier jumping on people. Unfortunately, they don't jump on us, so we can't do anything there. (They are very sheltered) So we need people and kids to come over so that they can practice.

Good Vibes going out:

Jason: Hope things go well tomorrow. And I hope things get easier.

Mom and John: Hope things get better with the house and that the people either close or else you get another offer. And hope things move right along with the Perkins property so that you can get it appraised and everything.

Dorothy and Terry: We hope that your guy's journey to your baby goes as smoothly as possible. I am sure there will be some bumps along the way, but we'll be here for you!

Leah: Hope things go/went okay in the Dominican Republic. Hope you have a safe trip.

Mom Hunter: Hope everything is going great and you don't have too much stress trying to take care of everything:)

EVERYONE ELSE: Have a great week!!! Love you all!

News

I don't know that I would actually consider this news at this point, and even if I did, I'm not sure whether to consider it good/bad...I guess it's kind of neutral.

We are considering switching adoption agencies. I'm kind of hesitant, as from what I understand there are some shady adoption agencies doing business over there and I have no idea who those agencies are.

We really, really like our agency. They were one of the first agencies to get relicensed in Vietnam back in January. The problem is that they have only had 4 referrals this whole year so far. Supposedly it's supposed to pick up, as they are adding more provinces, but we haven't seen it yet. Added on top of that is that there are already 40 waiting families ahead of us, and we haven't submitted our final paperwork yet. At this rate, if you do the math, it will take us 10 years! Now I am sure that things will pick up, but still it's frustrating.

We talked to a lady from another agency and she says that they have already placed 18 infants, they have 4 families in Vietnam right now, and 7 more will travel in December. She says that they have waiting children and that thier referral wait time is 4-12 weeks, with travel in an additional 4-12 weeks. So that's that....

In other news, We are having a painting party on Saturday. It should be fun and everyone is invited...although I understand if you have other things to do:). At this point, I think it might just be me and David...and Mark if he is awake. We are going to paint the dining room and kitchen. What color, I am unsure. Hopefully the edges turn out better than my other room that I attempted to paint by myself. I am optimistic that they will, as David brought me a nifty little tool that lets you neatly to edges. (Although I'm not sure they had me in mind when they made that claim.)

Fingerprinting and my second section of my exam tomorrow...

That's about it for the night....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving...we did!

So I am going to bite the bullet and try to hand at the floor sander on Saturday. I figure it can't be too hard! :)

We are also going to go by Lumber Liquidators to look at flooring again this weekend.

Then on Sunday we are going to attend a flooring workshop, then maybe try our hands at doing laminate/hardwood downstairs.

The house has been a mess for so long because we've been waiting to do organization/cleaning/etc until we get everything how we want it.

So wish us luck!!!

Week in Review

I am glad to report that this week is almost over for me--workwise that is.

Week in Review:

Friday-Reversed into Mark's car.
Saturday- Did some shopping; helped my parent's move; birthday party for my brother.
Sunday- Went and watched the game at a friends house; played ping pong for the first time EVER.
Monday- Closed on a home equity loan for upgrades to our house; gave blood (Mark was turned down :) )
Tuesday- Invited David (from work) over and the three of us went to see Borat. It was probably the funniest thing that I've ever seen in my life, although I will admit as a disclaimer probably inappropriately funny.
Wedneday- Dentist appointments for both of us... (we'll see how many cavities THIS dentist says Mark has); I will be putting in my notice at work!!!! :)
Thursday- THANKSGIVING; 4TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY~~

So as you can see, we've had/will have a pretty exciting week!

Talk to you all later!!!!

Well...Here's my answer:

Angel:

That sounds very exciting and is no problem whatsoever. I will say that we have not had this situation before and I am not too sure how that works from a maternity leave standpoint but that is something we can look into. Taking those several weeks off and more if you want is not a problem. If you want to or will need to take more than that off then some of the time might be unpaid because our maternity leave benefit is paid through our short-term disability policy and I would not think that would cover time off for adoptions.

So basically, I can take whatever time I want...and I was thinking it was going to be an issue to take two weeks.....

So officially I have accepted an offer and will start December 11th!!!!