Author: Jake

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers!

I know it has been a while since a good update entry so I thought that I would spend some time and bring everyone up to speed on the Stapleton household.  First of all let me mention that the First Lady of the Stapleton Mansion got her grades last week and she earned another 4.0!  This just goes to prove that her brain is as big as her 80’s hairdo.  This puts Jess about 1/3 of the way done with her masters, so she is moving at a pretty brisk clip through graduate school.  Jess is also doing well at her new job it’s a lot slower pace than her old job so she’s having to adjust.  The good news is from the information that we continue to get from her old place of business this move was definitely the right thing to do.

I am also pleased to announce that last weekend we finally finished unpacking and organizing the house so that I can get back to the construction once Christmas is over.  Due to some unforeseen circumstances at work it looks like I am going to have 8 very intense months ahead in 2007, but I am still hoping to make progress on the house at an acceptable pace.  My plan is to have all the interior stuff completed in time to landscape in the spring.  We really have some of the most unattractive plants surrounding our house at the present time.  Right now we just about have all the doors hung but I will have to take them back down to paint and make the adjustments for them to close properly (but they are out of our way).  There is still a lot of trim and crown molding to put up, along with the ceilings downstairs, and completing the new bathroom in the basement so things are not going to slow down too much around here in the near future.

All in all however things are going very on all front’s in the Stapleton household.  Work is keeping me very busy.  Last month I picked up my first company car (a long held dream come true since the beginning of my commuter days) nothing fancy I just got a 2007 Accord.  I have almost put it through my first 5000 miles and I only have 2 complaints.  First, there is no auxiliary input jack for my MP3 player or XM radio and second the seats are somewhat uncomfortable.   I doubt I will get another Accord but for my first foray into the company car program it will work.  Jess & I have been very busy at church as always.  In fact we are both teaching Sunday school this month Jess has the preschoolers and I have the toddlers.  Petey and Phoebe are getting along relatively ok but man she is a handful.  There is not one of us in the house that is not bearing a scar emotional or physical from the kitten stalking us, that and we are having the worst time keeping her out of the shower whether if we are taking a shower at the time or not! On the geek front I have been beta testing the Google reader which is an RSS feed aggregator product.  This thing is the bomb!  If you read RSS feeds daily you should really check it out.  As for the website I hope that everyone is enjoying it I have some ambitious plans for it if I can every get around to putting them into place so stay tuned.

Lastly, we would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas.  May you remember the true reason for the holiday to celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ.  As you succumb to the inevitable rate race of activities during this time may you be covered by the grace and love of God during your travels and time together with your family.

Take care, everyone talk to you soon.

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog readers!

Well I know that it has been a while since an update so first of all let me say that I am sorry.  But there have simply not been enough hours in the day of late to do anything but the necessities.  So I am going to give a quick bullet point update today in hopes that I can get back to regular updates at a later time.

• After 75 days of remodeling we moved into our new house on October 30^th.  There are still some doors left to be hung and painted and the same goes for the downstairs trim, and we also need to hang the drop ceiling downstairs, but the house is very livable and we are all under one roof.

• If it does not speak, bark, or meow I can’t find it.  Putting the house together is taking way longer than I expected but then again Jess & I are just plain worn out.

• Meow?  Jake when do you get a cat?  Well that’s an interesting story 5 days before we moved Jess found an 8 week old kitten in the middle of 5^th Street Road and saved it.  Within 18 hours the cat had been named Phoebe and I knew I was screwed then and had to keep it.  So now Petey has the pet that he has always wanted.

• Jess gave her 2 week notice at work on Friday.  She is going to work for another agency doing exactly what she did at her old job.

• I have been working either at work or on the house and sleeping and that’s just about it for me.

Sorry the update was so plain but that’s about all I have in me right now.  I am feeling very old and worn out but I am trying to correct that a little bit everyday.  3 months of averaging 5 hours sleep a night and 5000 miles a month have taken a pretty decent toll on me.  But now we are all in the house under one roof I can try to get back to normal and get a little bit rest.  I hope this update finds everyone well take care.