Trip to Richmond VA and other stuff!

This week I headed up to Richmond, VA for a weeks worth of training for my new position with Terracon! It was a beautiful drive up! I was lucky enough to hang out with some of my future sister-in-laws cousins who live there, and they showed me around! Thanks Steve & Shannon! After my first day of training, I met up with Steve and Shannon and they showed me around town, including some of downtown, Virginia Commonwealth University, and then Shockoe Bottom!

This is where we had dinner, an awesome pizza place in Shockoe Bottom!!

It was a nice evening filled with good conversation and getting to know the area of Richmond! Dinner was interupted a few times by the trains that came rolling through, but it was still a very good time!

Tuesday I didn't do a whole lot after class except to study for my first test that would be on wednesday! I passed with a 92% on my project designer test! This class will allow me to help write specifications for asbestos work that will be bid on, so I learned quite a few new things! Wednesday I decided to take a riverboat cruise on the James river, for $5 you got a 40 minute cruise and heard some of the local history, it was a lot of fun!


The riverboat!

The flood wall that protects the city of Richmond, 40' high!



These flood gates shut when a massive amount of rain falls on the city

The city of Richmond is only 9' above sea level, so when it rains in Richmond, it has a tendency to run down towards the river. A few years back a hurricane sat over Richmond and dumped 10" of rain in about 8 hours, and flooded the Shockoe Bottom area. Many restaurants and businesses closed while clean up began. The Bottoms Up restaurant has just re-opened in the last 6 months after all of their clean-up and repairs were completed on their building.

All along the river were traintracks and behind those were all the old tobacco warehouses that used to be the livelihood of the Richmond area. They have now been converted into shops, restaurants and condos and lofts! Lucky Strike brand used to be who was located here.

A detailed sign of the riverwalk area along the James River

After the river cruise, I had a little more time left before the sun went down, So I drove around town, and saw a lot of murals painted on the sides of buildings, and then I went and saw the Richmond state capital and then St. Peter's Church where Paul Henry gave his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech!

My last two days were spent in my asbestos air monitor course, which was more review than anything to me, just a formality I had to do because the state of NC wouldn't accept my training from Michigan. I passed my 2nd test with a 92% After a long week of learning and studying, I was ready to head home to my own bed!

Yesterday was Terracon's picnic, a little warm, but gave me the chance to meet some new folks from work, since i'm out in the field so much, I don't get to meet people very often! This week I will more than likely be working on the Justice Center inspection, and then thursday I get to fly home to Detroit for my bachelorette party! I can't wait to see everyone!!! And then again on the 16th I fly back again for the wedding, so I will be one very busy girl logging a lot of miles between NC and MI! Here's to some cooler weather that is headed for NC this week, with a high of barely 70 tomorrow!

Off to Richmond!

So after a hectic week of my training being cancelled and then reinstated, I am all packed and ready to head to Richmond, VA in a few hours! I'll be taking an asbestos air monitor course, as well as a project designer course. Both of these classes the state of NC is requiring me to take since my training from Michigan can't transfer here. But they are allowing all my experience doing asbestos related work to transfer, so that is helpful! For the next few weeks it seems like I will be living out of a suitcase! After I get back from Richmond on friday, the following thursday I will be flying out to Detroit for my bachelorette party! I fly back on Labor day (the 7th), and then I get back on another plane the following week (the 16th) to come back for a week for the wedding! Then when I get home on the 23rd, i'll be moving into a new place the first week of October! Phew! At least I have everything wedding related taken care of, got my strapless bra and accessories yesterday, Dan is taking care of the marriage license, and I have elected my dad to handle my flowers and the cake! It sure will be nice to get back to MI for a visit, as I am sure it will be much cooler than it will be down here! Hurricane bill made a pass yesterday, but was still off the coast of the carolinas, so all the coast got was rain, flooding and waves. Well, thats about it for me, talk to ya on the flip side!

My adventure in Kentucky!

Lil' Abner Motel & Cabins!

Our Kitchen

Bathroom

Sleeping/Sitting area


Well, after a long week, I was finally able to head up to Kentucky to spend the weekend with my 2 favorite boys, Dan and Murphy! I got out of work early, as I had already put in my 40 hours in, so I was able to get on the road at 1pm! Let me just say this, there is no DIRECT route to Slade from Raleigh... But none the less, I made it there in one piece. My digital camera, on the other hand, was not so lucky... I fished it out of my purse to take a picture about 2 hours after I had left, only to discover that my screen had become cracked... :( So I though, oh, i'll just stop at a wal-mart and pick one up on the way (this was before I knew that 80% of my drive would be on secondary highways). After hours of searching, I came across a wal-mart, in the middle of nowhere, in a town called Jackson, KY. population, 500 (thats what I bet it is too). After some weird looks because of my Michigan plates, I find a new camera, and complete my purchase, and get back on the road. I made it to Slade, KY just after 8pm. It was a beautiful day for a drive, even through the crazy mountains that I had to go through for half the drive!

(Sunset waiting for the boys)

Dan and Murphy arrived about 9:30, and it was great to see them! We spent a few hours just being close to each other, watching tv, which, may sound silly, but you miss that when your all by yourself! The cabin was great, it was very roomy, and a great deal! Saturday we woke up and set out to find somewhere local for breakfast.. This proved to be quite the task, after about 40 minutes, we finally found a place, and had some breakfast. After breakfast, we decided we were going to go to the Natural Bridge State Park. So we plugged in the address into the gps, and started our journey. It was a very curvy, and scenic route, and then we came to this tunnel...

Oh my God.... Imagine this, it goes right through the mountain, no lighting, only one car can fit through at a time, and you can't really see the other side until your right up on it. My favorite was the sign right before you enter, telling you to take off your sunglasses, HELLO!! As we were exiting the Nada tunnel, a car was coming at us full speed, and thank God they saw us and backed out. I about wore what I had just had for breakfast... After that, we safely made it to Natural Bridge State Park. It was quite warm and muggy out, so we opted to do the ski lift ride to the top of the mountain to walk the natural bridge!

It was quite a breathtaking ride up (600 feet to be exact!), and even more spectacular views once we got up there! We spent a few hours there, and then decided to go back to the cabin and take a dip in the pool to cool off :-) Since most of the restaurants in the area are closed on Sunday, we stopped at a little store and bought some stuff for hot dogs and beans to make for Sunday before we left. After relaxing for a few hours, we went out for dinner to the only chinese restaurant I bet in at least 50 miles from this place. And then we went to the drive in to catch a movie! I was so excited, as I have never been to one before! We chose to watch District 9, which I must say, I was not that impressed with, but whatever, it was still fun! After that, we called it a night, and went back and spent our last night together in KY.

The following morning, Dan made us breakfast at 9:30, which consisted of, hot dogs, baked beans, and potato chips, the breakfast of champions!! We drove around for a little while after checking out of the cabin, just to spend a little more time before we had to go our seperate ways. At 2pm, it was finally time to say our goodbyes. This is always hard for me, for both of us actually. Even though we will see each other in 3 weeks time. We followed each other to I-75, and he went North, and I went South, one of the hardest goodbyes i've ever had to do. He has decided that he will start looking in 6 months to find a job down here and move here to be with me, which I can't wait for!!!

The drive home was a nightmare, it took me 9 hours to get home because I chose (or I should say, pricilla the gps chose) a scenic tour of Tennessee to bring me back. But I finally made it at 11pm, crawled into bed, and went right to sleep!

Thats my weekend, hope yours was awesome too! I'll have a busy week ahead of me, and then next week i'll be in Richmond, VA for training, never a dull moment for me!

Phew, what a week!

All I have to say is Thank God tomorrow is friday! Its been a long week here! I was at Camp LeJeune and Cherry Point air base on tuesday doing inspection work on officer housing, it was a long exhausting day, and one of the hottest days i've experienced here so far.. Wednesday I got to get my physical for work, then got all the samples ready for the lab that we collected the previous day. Today I got to go to Durham Tech CC to meet up with one of my co workers and go over how Terracon does their projects, etc. I was pretty suprised at how differently things are done down here as opposed to Michigan! It was a good day! Then I started checking out potential new living arrangements. The first lady is nice, her husband works in DC, so its just her and her kids, and she wants someone to move in, seems nice enough, and if a few other places don't work out, I will definitely choose to live there. Then I had dinner with a new friend, we have a lot in common, and dinner was filled with great conversation! Next I went to another room rental potential, A couple is looking to rent a room in their home, they have a few other people interested, and they will be coming over the weekend to check it out, the guy said they would get back to me, so we'll see, it has potential... Then I came home to see that there were several Raleigh PD officers swarming my street, not sure what that was all about... I checked my e-mail and got an e-mail from a nice lady who is also a Yankee transplant from NJ. She is out of town, but we made plans to meet up on tuesday to take a look at her house, sounds like this could be a good place as well. So hopefully by the end of next week i'll know where the next place I call home is!

I'm so excited to be seeing my boys this weekend! I still have to get packed and take everything with me to work, as I will be leaving from there and spending a great weekend in Slade, Kentucky! I'm off to go pack, and then take some excedrine migraine, as I can not seem to shake this headache!

Have a good weekend and i'll make sure to post some pictures from the weekend when I get back!

I get to see my boys this weekend!

I am very excited! Dan and I have decided to meet half way over the weekend!! I can't wait, it seems like ages since i've seen him, and its only been two weeks! We are staying in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, just south of Lexington. We found this cool motel that has cabins for rent on their property as well, and they allow dogs! So I get to see both of my boys! It will be a long work week for me though. Heading out to Camp LeJeune at the NC Coast tomorrow with 2 co-workers to do surveys of the housing they are getting ready to tear down. So with the drive, it will be like a 12 hour day for us... Then the rest of the week I will be more than likely at North Carolina State University doing more inspection work. I hope to hit my 40 mid-day friday, so I can take off a little early from work to start the drive to Kentucky! I can hardly wait! Went and worked out at my new gym, planet fitness. Went well, but i'm sure i'm going to be very sore tomorrow! Talking to some cool ladies I met via craigslist, so I can have some peeps down here to hang out with until dan gets down here :) It was very hot here today, the actual air temperature hit 100 today, with a heat index of 107!!! Hopefully after tomorrow, it will start to cool down a little, August is the hottest month down here! But I will be loving it when fall hits, and its still gorgeous down here, and even more when snow starts flying in Michigan! But the snow will be nice to see when I fly back for Christmas! Signing out!

Raleigh's Farmers Market!

So I got up bright and early this morning to hit the farmers market before it got rediculusly hot outside! 7am, and it was still already 70 degrees and very humid! First I tried the North Raleigh Market, but there wasn't that much there, so I decided to go to the main State market down near downtown. It was huge! I've never been to an outdoor market before, but this was pretty impressive! Lots of veggies and fruits to choose from!

I walked the entire area, before committing to buy from anyone, and after that, I decided on some yummy North Carolina peaches, a seedless watermelon, some sprite melons (check this site out http://www.agr.state.nc.us/freshconnect/shipperdirectory/spritemelons.htm it tells you all about them!), a red pepper, some zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, corn on the cob, and potatoes (not in the picture because I just realized I forgot to put them on the counter for it!).

Yummy Sprite Melons!!!

All the yummy stuff that I got!

I will definitely be going back, there is so much to choose from! And the main market near downtown is open year round, so maybe in the fall I can get some apple cider and other fall type veggies! Next few days will be scorchers here, so here is to keeping cool!

Welcome to Raleigh

After living with Dan for almost two and a half years, it was quite the adjustment to living without him, and Murphy. The adjustment for them, and my family was equally hard. That first weekend, I kept my mind and my body physically busy, completing the task of moving everything into my new room. I went to the Salvation Army and picked up a new bed and dresser, put all my clothes away, went and bought everything from Wal Mart that could not fit into my car, and groceries. The weekend flew quickly, and my first day of work arrived, Monday, August 3rd, almost 1 month to the day of my first contact with my new employer! Everyone at Terracon was very welcoming and friendly. I completed the standard "new hire" paperwork, etc, learned my way around the office. I quickly began helping out with project related tasks, from reporting writing, to verifying work, and today, writing chain of custody's for samples that had been collected from a project site! Last night, I experienced my first Durham Bulls AAA Baseball game, it was a lot of fun! For those of you 80's film lovers, the movie Bull Durham was based off of the team, and was filmed here, with Kevin Costner! After my first full week here, I opted to stay home this evening, chatted with Dan for about an hour, then hit the groocery store, I know, what a life I lead! Tomorrow I am going to venture out and check out one of Wake Counties many farmers markets! I am very excited to see what kinds of local fruits and veggies I can get that are grown around here. And the main market is open year round, beat that Detroit!

The weather here, is something you definitely have to get used to, the humidity is nothing to compared to that of Michigan, and its everyday... I'm told it will take a few years to adjust to it! The next 4 days here we will be hitting record highs in the high 90s to the low 100's, plus humidity, can you tell i'm excited? Well, thats about it for right now, this Detroit girl is signing off on this warm carolina night

First Blog

So I have decided that it would be neat to start a blog, so that all of my friends back home, and everywhere else, can share my new experience that is, moving to the south! So bear with me, this blogging business is new to me!

Where should I start? It all started about a month ago... I was still in Michigan, doing asbestos air quality for my former employer, Fibertec. They had hired me on a "seasonal basis", with the hopes that work would be steady enough to keep me on past the summer. As with anything, Michigan's economy lacks a lot to be desired, so as a precaution, I started looking out of state just in case what I was doing would not continue on past the summer. The evening of July 1st, I was looking to see what other states had anything related to what I was doing in MI, which was industrial hygiene work, more specifically with asbestos and lead. I found a posting on careerbuilder, and decided, what the hell, i'm going to apply and see what happens. Barely 12 hours the next day, I got the phone call that will change the course of my life. The company's name was Terracon, and they were very interested in having me come down for an interview, to.... North Carolina. I of course was very excited at the job prospect, and within a half hour, I was greatful to have gotten the call. In that half hour, I was informed that the project I was on would be my last project for Fibertec. No worries I said, I have an interview in North Carolina next week.

Fast forward one week, I get on a plane headed for Raleigh, NC for my interview. My future boss Amanda, picks me up from the airport, takes me out to lunch, and then to the office for my "interview". It went very well, we are both excited at the likelihood of my moving down to be the newest member of the asbestos team at Terracon. They put me up in a hotel right next to the office, and after a long day, I go to relax for the evening! I then start the calls to immediate family and tell them about the interview, and that most likely I will be getting an offer, as soon as my background check comes back clear. Before I leave, my boss and I and her two kids spend a few hours at the local mall. Everyone was so nice! Saturday evening, I fly back to Detroit and wait for the news.

On July 15th, I get my official offer letter! That weekend, Dan and I drive back down to find me a place to live. After searching a few places, I decide on a nice offer from the son of the chief engineer at my office. His condo is located about 10 minutes north of my office, in North Raleigh. a few days later, we had back up Detroit, and I begin packing! On July 30th, after all of the family has been seen, my car is packed to the gills, and I set off on my new adventure down to Raleigh.