House Projects

Since moving to Virginia, I have tried to find ways to keep myself busy while looking for a job! Luckily, I am in love with DIY, being creative, and finding ways to repurpose old items. I have recently become slightly (ok, maybe a little more than slightly) obsessed with this website and have found all sorts of great ideas and tips!

One thing I've been working on is refinishing an old mirror. An old, very heavy mirror with the backing NAILED to it. Not something you see anymore! My idea is to use it in our half bathroom downstairs, and replace the boring old stock mirror. I don't have a picture of it before I started, but it had white/light green paint all over it. I had to use paint stripper and a sander to take all the paint off before staining it. Here's what it looks like after staining: 

I just finished putting the mirror back in, and nailing it all back together, so I'll post a picture of that once it's all done!

My next project is to strip and re-stain this beauty I scored at a consignment store for $29! 

I was in great need of a nightstand, but didn't want to pay over $100 for one that isn't even real wood! This thing is solid and heavy, and I think once it is stained the same color as the rest of the set, it will look awesome! Especially for $29 :)

Last weekend, we had planned to have Nick's class and their wives over for dinner so that I could meet everyone. We were in the middle of painting several walls, so we had at least 4-5 different sample colors all over the walls. I wanted to have the house all nice and together looking before everyone came over, so I had planned to finally make a decision and get the walls painted. Nick went rafting in West Virginia for a bachelor party this same weekend, and everyone was coming over at 6 pm on Sunday night, so I had 2 days to get the kitchen and the wall in the living room painted! (This was also the weekend before taking my NCLEX- so another reason I didn't study much!)

Luckily, I have met some great people here already, and one of them (Bo, the precious dog I rescued in Corpus's new momma!) came over and helped me paint!! She and her husband (who is also in the Navy) live one block over and they recently bought a house too. They have been doing lots of painting/renovating so we decided it would be way more fun to have painting parties and help each other out. She was a huge help! Thanks, Stephanie!!!

Here's a few pictures of the painted walls! Sorry some of them are so dark.

Nick's wedding gift to me. I think it's a perfect place for it because it's so visible!

Found the white shelves at Goodwill for $2 each 

The gray matches my yellow mixer so well!!!

We just hung some curtains (got them on clearance at Target.. with gift cards!)  yesterday! They still need hemming, but they look AWESOME!

More to come soon!

--The Choffels

I PASSED!!

I passed, I passed!!!!!!

Well, at least the "unofficial" results I had to pay $7.95 to receive say I passed! Praise the Lord!! I KNOW the Big Man was watching out for me. I had a TERRIBLE time finding the motivation to study for my NCLEX (The nursing licensure exam). There were too many other exciting things catching my attention around the house whether it was painting, cleaning, or spending time with that darn good looking husband of mine! 

Isn't he cute??

Luckily, to graduate from our program, we had to take an exit exam, which is basically a cumulative exam from all of nursing school. It is very similar to what we will see on our NCLEX exam, and we are required to pass it in order to graduate. Since I was more than ready to be in Virginia living with my husband, and not in Corpus Christi, I was super motivated to pass this exam! I also knew it would be a great review for my NCLEX, so I studied a great deal. I ended up doing very well on it, and the instructor said I was "right on track" for taking my NCLEX, which was very reassuring! When it came time to study for the real exam, I felt like I was just reviewing information I had already studied a thousand times! This was good and bad. Good because that means this wasn't the first time I was studying the material, but bad because I was bored with it and tired of studying the same material over and over.

I felt pretty good until 2 days before the exam when I started freaking myself out just a little bit. I was making myself nervous because I hadn't studied as much as I thought I would have, even though I felt prepared. I went to sleep early the night before the exam, knowing I have trouble sleeping if I'm nervous about something. I was almost asleep, then OF COURSE, several jets fly DIRECTLY over the house, 10x louder than they have ever been before... and they've been extremely loud! And it wasn't just because I was about to fall asleep the night before my big exam.. I couldn't even hear Nick talking, and his head was right next to mine!

It took me another almost 2 hours before I finally fell asleep, so I ended up getting about 6 hours total. I was tired the next morning, and all during my test. I kept praying for only 75 questions and my prayers were answered! (NOTE: The NCLEX is scored weird. You have to answer a certain number of "difficult" questions in order to stay above the "passing" line. You can have anywhere from 75-265 questions to accomplish this. If you have answered enough hard questions and have stayed above the passing mark after 75 questions, then the test shuts off. You keep going until you've answered enough to pass, unless you run out of time or questions!) If the test shuts off at 75 questions, that doesn't automatically mean you passed. You could have failed so miserably, the computer says "Wow, this girl has no hope of recovering, she should just stop now!" I felt confident enough when the computer shut off at 75, I had passed and I wasn't TOO nervous about it. And I was right!!! I'm SO relieved it is over! Now to wait for my license number so I can apply for more jobs!!

- Laura Choffel, RN, BSN :)

Change

Maybe I should run for president. I think our life in the past year includes more "change" than Mr. Obama's overwhelmingly popular campaign slogan.
Since January of 2011, I have:
- Moved twice- once cross country. Well, technically 3 times if you count unloading the trailer in Dallas after moving everything from Corpus Christi in order to take a vacation for a week before heading to Virginia! This is my first time ever living out of the great state of Texas!
- Married the love of my life!
- Bought a house
- Graduated from nursing school, making this my second bachelors degree
- Traveled from the West to East coast in 4 days
- Backed a trailer up my long, narrow driveway by myself!! OK, so this isn't really change, but you had better believe I'm proud of this fact, so I figured I would go ahead and list it.
- Been in an earthquake and hurricane all in the same week.. welcome to Virginia!
- Purchased a sewing machine and re-taught myself how to sew.. made all my bridesmaids gifts!
- Become an excellent stripper. Get your mind out of the gutter- a paint stripper! I've been learning to re-finish old furniture! More on that to come...
- I know there's probably more stuff, but you get the idea.

I have now been in Virginia for 2 weeks. I was hoping to get out here and immediately get a job since there is that thing called a nursing shortage everyone has been talking about, right?  Well, partly right. There definitely is a shortage of nurses, but the hospitals just can't afford to hire them. Especially new nurses with no experience. Because of the economy, older nurses whose spouses have lost their jobs, are staying at theirs or are trying to go back to work, so us new nurses are competing for the few available spots. I also did not realize how good Texas really has it in terms of the job market. Texas has definitely not been hit like the rest of the country, and I'm seeing that firsthand. Also, I think I have "military spouse" written all over me. "I've just graduated from a random nursing school in Militaryville (Corpus Christi) that you've probably never heard of if you aren't from Texas or aren't in the military (red flag #1), and I'm moving to Militarytown (Virginia Beach) (red flag #2) where I have no family, friends, or connections whatsoever. Before that, I went to school at Military University (Red flag #3)(Texas A&M) where I met my now husband. Oh, and that recommendation letter that was sent to you a few months ago? Make sure you change my old last name to my new one because I just got married (Red flag #4). And finally, I will be licensed in the state of Texas (icing on the cake) because it is my "home of record" meaning that is where I still claim my permanent residency. This is allowed for military and their spouses since we will be moving so much. I was hoping that having 2 bachelors degrees and graduating summa cum laude would help me get a job. Frustrating. I take my boards a week from today, so hopefully that will make me more marketable. Prayers please!

Enough ranting!

Even though I haven't had a job, I've managed to keep myself busy with projects around the house but I'll save those for another post.

Not sure if anyone will actually read this blog, or how religiously I will even update it, but my hopes are that I can share with our family and friends some of the ups and downs of this military life!

--The Choffels