More change!

So last post I had mentioned that I was going to start looking for another job. Well at the time of the post I had already started the interview process for a position at USAA. This weekend I found out that I did get this job, so I will no longer be looking any more. I have put my two weeks notice i at T-mobile ( one of my happier days working there ) and my last day will be on Wednesday April 13th. I start at USAA on the 18th. I was very concerned taking this job, after all, it is another call center job. I spent the entire time, from the day I applied for the job to the moment that I was offered the job praying that I would only get this job if it is what God wanted for me. USAA is a good company, I'm looking forward to working with customer's who are not mad as soon as they get on the phone. This does also get me away from T-mobile before the merger which presents a lot of uncertainty. So all this change in our lives is a good thing. We are both moving in a more positive direction which is good. Nathan has been settling in to his apprentice job, it is quite different from working at progressive, but he seems to like it. My training schedule will me Monday through Friday for about half the summer so Nathan and I will have lots of weekends off to go camping and to the lake so we are really looking forward to the summer. Ok well that is all for now. Happy late birthday to our sister Erin! Hope you had a great day!!

Nathan's new new job

So as you may or may not know, a while back Nathan applied for an apprenticeship with the electrician's union in town. He got as far as the interview process but then was told that due to the economy, they wouldn't be able to hire him. In November, he started working for Progressive selling auto insurance. While call centers are great, it is easy to get stuck there because they pay well. About a week ago, Nathan received a call from the electrician's union saying that they had a position available for him as soon as possible; so Nathan has cashed out the remainder of his vacation and is starting his new job this week. We're really excited about this apprenticeship because it gives Nathan more of a career path rather than getting stuck at a call center (like his lovely wife).
Speaking of my career... I'm sure that most people know by now that AT&T has purchased T-mobile. While this deal isn't supposed to go through for about a year, and even then, I don't feel like there is an immediate threat to my job, I think this is a good time to start looking again. If for some reason something does go south for the call center, I don't want to be 1 of 600 with all the same skills looking for a job in the city.

In not so occupational news, Nathan brewed his first batch of beer! I bought him a brew on site kit sort of thing for Christmas. He made a pale ale, which from my understanding (because I don't care for beer) was pretty good. I think he is going to do another one here in a couple of weeks. We also have a big project for the summer, our yard. Getting married last summer was not kind to the yard, we just didn't have the time to give it the care it needed and the former home owners did not leave us a lot to work with. Hopefully soon, we'll have some pictures of our nice yard to post.
Well that is all for now, stay tuned for more news as it develops.

Introducing Petey!

So I'm sure that news has gotten around about our new addition. Nathan came home late one day from work with a 2 month old pit bull in his arms. We've had him for about a month now and he is growing like a weed. At his 1st vet visit, he was 5 lbs. One month later at his 2nd vet visit, he was 16!! If you have never had a very young puppy, it is a lot like having a baby....well not a lot, but there are some similarities. When he was smaller we had to take turns letting him out in the middle of the night, he puts everything in his mouth and he sleeps a lot. It was quite a change from our gentle giant, Lucy. We're not sure how big he is going to get. His dad was a bigger dog and Petey's head is getting pretty big. This is Petey at 8 weeks.

and....

this is at 12 weeks. He is a little hard to get him to sit still right now so this was the best I could do for a picture, I'm hoping he gets to be close to 75 lbs.

In other news, Nathan got a new job! He started about 2 weeks ago and will be selling insurance for Progressive. It is an inbound sales position so no cold calls. These past 2 weeks he has been studying for his state insurance license exam, which he passed today. He is very excited to be doing something new. The new job included a raise and all the progressive swag we could ever want. Those kind of perks come along with a call center I guess, we have more T-mobile stuff then we could ever need.

So as far as current events in this branch of the Cinocco family, that is about it. We're looking forward to the holidays and seeing everyone!!

So much for 1 a month....

Ok so I should have known myself better than to think I would be able to remember to update this blog once a month in between work and planning the wedding. Lucky for all you web readers, the wedding is over and I will have time to stay on top of this :)
So Nathan and I have been married now for about 2 months. The wedding was awesome, we had lots of great help that day that allowed everything to work out just like we wanted it to. Thank you so much for all the love and support we have received before, during and after the wedding. I am putting together a online photo album to share photos with everyone. Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandnate/
We went to Cancun for our honeymoon. We spent a week lying by the pool, eating, and drinking. Pretty rough right? We did manage to go on one tourist adventure to the ruins, Chichen itza. It was a long drive through the jungle to get there, thank goodness for the rain that day or we would have fried when we finally made it to the ruins.


After we got back, the room was all decorated for the honeymoon. It was our last night there but better late than never right?

Since we have been home, we have been catching up on some much needed house/yard work, which is pretty much a never ending process. I think as soon as we get the weeds under control than it will be time for the leaves to fall! Our latest project has been a storage cabinet to hold the new glassware we received after the wedding. It is turning out pretty cool and it is about done, which means I will get to reclaim my dining room table from all these glasses.
We have also both been doing a little bit of job hunting, Nathan more so than me. I always manage to distract myself with some kind of hobby so that is on me. Also good news! Tomorrow is the 1st day of fall, that means it is time for me to bring out the pumpkins, scarecrows and other various fall like decor!!

Well that is all for now! We'll be writing again soon, I promise :)

Dining room, hobbies and Porter

March has been quite an adventure! Near the beginning of the month we spent most of our time working on our dining room. Mostly just a fresh coat of paint and some new blinds but it made quite a difference. Since Nathan and I work mornings now, it has been amazing to be able to get so much done on that room and I think it looks great. Here are some before and after pictures from the dining room.

Before Pictures of the dining room

Nathan Painting

After Pictures

I have been exploring some new hobbies as well this month. With the warmer weather I wanted to give geocaching a try; something I had heard about during my PDA training. It is essentaially treasure hunting with a GPS, but the treasure is just a Tupperware with some toys and random stuff in it. Nathan and I found our first geocache last week. It was pretty cool. It was neat to have something to do outside and a way to guide where we were hiking. We went again yesterday and ended up climbing a cliff in Ute Valley Park to find a cache :)
Another new hobby that I have picked up is called letterboxing, which is very similar to geocaching. People still hide boxes and post clues online. The major difference here is that when you find the box, there is a stamp in it. You stamp the log book with your own personal stamp and get to stamp your own personal log book with someone else's stamp. I thought it was a neat way to commemorate the visits to so many of the places we usually go. Another unique feature to letterboxing is that the stamps are usually handcarved. Naturally being the arts and crafts type person I am, I went out and carved a stamp as soon as a could. It came out pretty good.

My Stamp

As many of you know, Nathan and I adopted a "pitbull" puppy in September named Porter. Well our "pitbull" puppy is almost a year old now and is only 12 lbs. and is clearly not a pitbull. We have recently decided that it was not a good match for us and is no longer apart of the family. Unfortunately him and Lucy have a difficult time playing because of the difference in size. We hope he is placed into a good home because he is truly a sweet dog.

Well that is all for march. Wedding plans are coming together and we are looking forward to seeing you all then!

The year so far...

So I made a new year's resolution to start a blog for Nathan and I to keep our family and friends updated on our lives, so here we go!
We've had quite the year so far. The wedding planning has been an ongoing process but I am having a blast with it. We have been experiencing the joys of home ownership a.k.a. broken water heaters and clogged up drains:) It hasn't been bad though. I feel like we have learned quite a bit, I am really looking forward to the warmer weather to start working on the yard! I will be posting some pics of the house really soon.
Nathan is still working at home depot and I am still T-mobile saving the world one broken cell phone at a time. We're on completely opposite schedules right now but that should be changing here shortly. Both of us are ready to move on in our careers, so after the wedding ( and we burn through all of our vacation) the job search will be on.
Well that is all I really have to say for now, I plan to update at least once a month, even if there is nothing going on. Will update soon!!