The Stapleton Family

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Well we are still in the home stretch on finishing the house. I took this Friday and Monday as a vacation day with the hopes of completing the project but it does not look like that is going to happen. For everyone out there who does not realize it new construction is much much easier than a remodel. I mean at certain points it can take you 2 hours to get a room trimmed out, especially if the room was built in 1962 and is about as square as an igloo. Speaking of 1962 the wood from back then sucks! It took me almost 4 hours on Friday to change out my front door and it was only the slab! Once I figured out that the door jam was a well aged, brittle, and somewhat rotten the process went a lot easier. I had to use 2 1/2 inch screws to go through the hinges far enough to find good wood! The door jams will have to be redone but that is a project for another year with the screen door it will do for now, we enter and exit the house via the garage anyway. However all that being said I still have a target date of the end of the month set for completion of the remodel. Hence the title as long as we have been working on the house I bet you think its ginourmous (look it up Webster made it a word this year).

Also this month Jess had some family in from Washington State so we visited with them a little, and unfortunately Jess’s step father’s mother passed away as well. So between the house, family, work, & church we have been swamped. August is looking to be pretty full as well I will be in Colorado, at the beach (beach still to be determined), and Indianapolis all for a week at a time. But hey that’s the fast pace life known as Stapleton.

On July 24th Jess and I will be celebrating our 8th Wedding Anniversary (10 years together), then our birthdays shortly there after. So after 2 houses, 1 rental, the cars going to Graley’s Auto Body 12 times, 2 BA degrees, 4 computers, 2 beds, 3 TV’s, 6 DVD players, 10 jobs, 5 cars, 2 surgery, taking in Petey & Phoebe, and finding a church home were still together so it must be love.

It’s getting late and I am planning a full day of trim tomorrow so I will just leave you with the immortal words of Socrates “I Drank What?”.

Have a good week!

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Sorry to let the blog go very stales but I really have been busy lets look at it by the numbers. Since the last blog entry

*Jess had another 4.0 last semester!

Then I have
*Driven 9844 Miles
*Spent 16 Nights in Hampton Inn’s
*Learned that Jess can work a paint sprayer far better than I can
*Nearly finished the 2nd bathroom
*Primed, painted, & hung over 200 feet of trim
*Have entered into the home stretch on finishing the house
*Purchased a new King size bed (that way Jess has to take a cab to bother me while I am sleeping)
*Launched jakestapleton.com version 3.0
*Switched from Movabletype to WordPress for my blogging software
*Ordered, installed, or rebuilt 7 PC’s
*Developed a new form of road rage for people who drive 65 mph to save gas (that’s their choice and its cool just don’t do it in the left lane!)
*Ditched Comcast for cable and went to Direct TV
*Ditched Comcast for internet and went with Verizon DSL
*Ditched Lingo VOIP for Verizon VOIP
The last 3 above have taken place for the better and a decent cost savings!
*Rejoiced in no rain (no I don’t like a drought but I was tired of mowing twice a week)
*Written my Congressman and Senators over 20 times to complain about their votes (someone is going to regret that email me link one day)

So as you can see from above the Stapleton household has been a very busy place. I have really felt under the gun to get the house completed plus I am just sick of working on it. So the projects have not been very much fun. Working is keeping both myself and Jess very busy lately. So please take this brief update as a catch up and normal updates will resume shortly. Have a great weekend everyone!

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

I hope this entry finds everyone well. Let see what’s been happening since the last entry. Jess had a lot of her hair cut off. She went from being a wookie to being an ewok with a little more color. This weekend I performed my first mowing of the year and cleared out the so called “landscaping” around the front of our house to make way for some new LOW maintenance stuff of our own. It only took 7/55 gallon garbage bags to get everything cleaned up. This will be a shocker for a lot of you but after working on it for a month I am now getting up at 5:15 every morning!

For those of you that know I am a night person you can appreciate this, it has obviously allowed a lot extra time in my day. I read a lot of productivity blogs and the current trend is getting up earlier and not working over at night to allow more family or leisure time in you day. My goal was to start getting up earlier to work out but I have been so busy lately it has been used to work I have also been working a lot of Saturday’s and evenings as well but that is starting to level off now. That’s a really good thing I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest in need of a hip replacement. Speaking of hips some of you might remember from my last entry that the cat had a domestic accident well it appears that her left hip is really messed up. I believe that this just aggravated an injury that the cat already had when Jess picked Phoebe up out of the middle of road but getting stuck in the chair made it worse. So we are taking Phoebe to see an orthopedic specialist in Cross Lanes to see what we can do for her if anything. However she is moving very well and still causing trouble and anxiety on a daily basis her hip just pop’s out when she walks sometimes. Well that’s about all that has been going on but I will leave you guys a slide show of what the Petey & Phoebe look like now she has grown a lot.

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Well since I see it has been a month since an entry lets get everyone up to speed.  First of all last month was short and very busy.  I drove 5,120 miles and converted and trained 4 bank branches all the while maintaining my normal work responsibilities.  I commuted about 300 miles a day during the process. Yes I could have got a hotel room but I only needed to be in the bank from about 10 to 3, and you know when you travel a lot if you have the chance to sleep in your own bed you take it.  However the conversion went extremely well and I ended up receiving several kudos both internal and external for pulling it off; putting another feather in your cap never hurts.   Work has finally allowed me to get a Blackberry I have only had it a few days but its sweet!  It is my hope that this will allow me just to keep up with my email while I am out of the office so I don’t have to come in every night and spend my first 30 minutes answering emails.  Jess has been working like a dog as well plus continuing her full time graduate classes.  I have finally talked her into taking half time next semester at this point she has accomplished so much it should only delay her graduation by a semester.

The house is coming along we have a lot of the ceiling up in the basement now.  I took my last vacation day on February 26^th and that weekend I painted 220 feet of trim with 2 coats of paint.  Then on that Monday I hung quite a bit of it for a vacation day it was pretty sweet.  I played with my power tools and Patton was on AMC (there is of course cable in the man cave oops I mean “garage”) it does not get much better than that.  I am making preparations to landscape around the front of the house something has to be done there are some really really unattractive plants out there.  Several people have asked for pictures of the house but I am only going to publish them when the house is done so everyone can see the before and after.  But I fully expect it will take me the rest of the year to finish out the house.

Last Friday Phoebe suffered a domestic accident she was trying to get through some railings on our kitchen chairs and was stuck.  When I found her she was struggling hanging upside down by her hips.  So after 2 sets of x-rays she has nothing broken but she is of course uncomfortable and her hip pops out when she walks.  So the vet prescribed some pain pills to give her for 8 days.  Now let me ask this question have you every tried to give a cat a pill?  Let me describe it to you this way imagine wrestling with an ill tempered porcupine that is on fire, that holds a grudge and there you have it.  So we have this long tube you stick down her throat to shoot the pill in her mouth, Jess is doing the shooting while I have the cat wrapped up in a towel trying to hold its mouth open.  Gee you know we only have to do this 7 more times.  At least we are getting some free entertainment I think that the cat believes that Care Bears are here and play with her!  (Obscure 80’s movie reference)

Jess and I are looking forward to some much deserved time off this year please feel free to pass long any suggestions for vacation destinations.  I tried to talk her into going to Jamaica to stay at Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye estate but for some reason she thinks $900 a night is a little steep the nerve!

Everyone take care talk to you soon.