Treading Water

The first day of school has come and gone.

Look how adorable Taylor was on his first day!

Haha, oh I am in love!

Moving on...

Tay and I Finally found jobs!! I started mine on the 10th and Tay on the 12th - I bet you can never guess what we do!! Because when I tell you, you will Not believe it.

Early-Morning Custodial.

Now I have nothing against the custodial part, in fact I find fulfilment in cleaning the Spori (art) Building every morning (M-F). The part that does me in,though, is the jawdroppingly early time we have to get up - 3:15 A.M! Just to make it to work on time at 4:00 am.  It is actually an interesting story how it all came about, except not really.

Taylor and I searched all over Rexburg that second week we were here, high, low, and around we go. By the end of the week all I wanted to find was a rock big enough to crawl under because we were Never going to get jobs in this itsy-bitsy-over-populated-under-jobbed-no-Super-Wal-Mart town. Hmph.

But then as blessings sometimes come, the jobs were sort of just dropped in our laps, disguised as not a blessing, but a curse - garr! 4 AM! I will admit though, a blessing it is.

We walked all the way around Campus construction in search of the Campus Facility Department because Taylor's momma knew a guy over there who was over grounds crew and she thought Taylor could get in. When we got there we asked where his office might be and the secretary just looked at us for a second, blinked, looked at a lady across the room then back at us and asked if we were looking for jobs. We said "Yes," of course. The lady across the room got up and asked what we would think of early morning custodial, for both of us. Taylor was all for it (it was a job for crying out loud) while I was scooting away - how early is early, I thought. I am Not a morning person.  But in the end I gave in and Lady (as we will continue to call her, because she doesn't deserve a name and here is why...)handed me some sheets to fill out, but in the middle of getting those papers from her hand to mine she zeroed in on my shoes. I was wearing pink Areo, plastic flip-flops. For those of you who don't know, that is a big NO,NO at BYUI. However, I had forgotten this in the 8 months I had been away and was so stuck in my old habits I didn't think about it - school hadn't even started yet! But none the less, Lady was offended and said that before I could sign the papers I would have to walk back home and put on appropriate shoes. WHAT?! Umm, she clearly did not know nor care that it took us 45 minutes to go around all of the construction that was closing off this part of campus, I was not going to walk home just to come back in sandals that hooked around my ankle. No I was not. I looked at Lady and said, probably a little impatiently,"Look, I have been off campus for eight months, the flip flop is an ingrained habit of my recent summer, school hasn't started, and you are really going to kick me out for wearing flip flops just to sign your employment form?! Lady, you must be crazy!"

No. I didn't really say that, I could never, would never. Oh, but I thought it. I did say something convincing enough for Lady to let me stay and fill out the short four sheets of paperwork, but I was shaking slightly the whole time, anger, embarrassment, hot feet, I don't know. But, boy did Taylor take on the job of calming me down well. He knows how worked up I can get about such injustices. I love him!

Tay and I work 15 hours a week, each. And I just got a job down in IF at Bath&Body Works, so now it feels like we are rolling in the dough...I just hope it all works out...(insert nervous laughing and hair tugging...)

Seriously though, Taylor and I have been so very blessed these past few weeks with finding jobs to support ourselves, even to earn a bit to put in our savings account if we spend wisely.  We also were dealt another blessing in disguise 3 weeks ago: Our. Sink. Clogged. 

Oh, I know what you are thinking - a Blessing?! Haha, Oh, ho, my friend - that is an actual curse.

But just you wait until you hear this:

Funnily enough, we had a large meal that day with fam, which equals Lots of dishes!

But everyone jumped in and we got them done!

I am only sad about our sink, not about how fun this epic dish washing challenge was!

We finally moved our operation to the tub for obvious reasons :)

So our sink was sooo clogged it nearly over-flowed. Taylor and I were bailing buckets of water into our little red cooler, throwing it out the window in the hallway and running back for more. We weren't even using the water, the sink just kept magically refilling itself...or backing up. Whatever. You are probably wondering where the managers are in this chaotic scene ofSevere Apartment Malfunction (SAM) . I was wondering that too. They wouldn't answer their phones, their door, or the little voice in their heads that was probably saying something along the lines of, "If you don't check your messages soon, the apartment building you MANAGE is going to be under WATER!" (Of course, I can only assume that is what it said.)

Rachel had the brilliant idea of asking the apartment above us to kindly cease doing their dishes as they may be flooding the first floor with all of the water it takes them to do their dishes. They complied. Problem solved. ish. 

Then the Managers show up and apologize, say they will call the owners right away, get them on it ASAP.  But I am sure you can guess how that went down. It didn't.

I called the owner myself and she sent her husband over a little while later. His name is Keith, and Keith is the Good Guy in this story. First, Keith fixed the clog. But not really, three days later it clogged again. And again it was due to the fact that our pipes are connected with the apartment above us and they were doing their dishes (let me step in the middle of this story and say just real quick that Taylor and I clear our plates before washing and also, the drain in the sink has this little criss-cross design that won't let anything down bigger than three peas.) Next Keith and his wife Julie called a professional plumber and got them here within an hour as the sink really had over flowed this time, so much so that it got into the hallway and our pantry. The pro's had to snake the drain seventy feet and found only about one ton of grease from months or years, whichever, of not being properly cleaned. Second, and most importantly ( this is where the blessing takes off its horrid mask, unfurls its wings and flies) Keith told us that he could install a new (YAY!) laminate floor in two days. And let me tell you - it is gorgeous! Two reasons for why this was our prize: 1. The floor was already split in the middle when we moved in and either side of it rolled off at a sharp angle (due to moving walls or something and, you got it, WATER DAMAGE). 2. I don't think the owners wanted anymore water damage. Also, I think they felt bad that we had had so many problems since moving in.

Another awesome surprise, and third as to why Keith is the Good Guy, we are getting new carpet next week, double YAY!

Whew! That was a big story. Probably longer than it needed to be and I swear I wasn't as upset as I sound. I knew that we weren't going to drown in our own kitchen, that if any damage did occur the owners were good to fix it, and I was pretty sure we were going to get new floors once it actually did over flow. All of those thoughts were enough to keep me calm.

I won't bore you with a second large story and will leave that for next week: Our Cabin Escape! You have to see the amazing fire the boys built and all the good food we enjoyed. Also I will Finally make some comments on our Honey Moon :)

'Til next time, Stay Afloat!

Tay&Kels