beebe

A few pics of the Beebe Bridge repair.

During the job I:
learned a TON about steel construction.
networked with a lot of bridge engineers from Olympia.
was told that if engineering didn't work out I could probably work in the steel industry (mostly because of my lack of fear of heights).
heard the life stories of 4 flaggers.
walked about 10 miles a day and lost a pound because of it.
was yelled at by angry people who thought the work wasn't going fast enough.
was told i was a lazy state worker by someone, even while they were heading home to their family, while i was working 14 hour days and hadn't seen Olaf in weeks except when he was sleeping... but that's a soapbox i won't go into again.

Good experience.
Good networking.
Good money.  I'm not gonna lie.  Overtime is good right now.

Glad it's over for me.  Another guy will finish up the last of the inspection this week while I go back into the office and normal life.  Nice!

THANK YOU Mom and Dad for watching Olaf AND both dogs for 3 weeks...  Hopefully you are recovering.

so... very... tired...

I am almost done.  Back to my normal work week next Monday.  Can't wait to catch up with you all!

Would write more right now but 3:45 comes early :)
Loves.

since i've been gone...

Since I've been working a lot lately, Olaf has been able to spend most of his days hanging out with his cousins, one of whom is his best bud Micah.  Micah is 20 days older than Oly, and lives only 5 minutes away, and they really are best buds.  Awesome!

Auntie Christie took them to the beach at Lake Wenatchee last week to play with some other kiddos and play in the water.  Here are some CUTE snapshots of the two of them and their trucks!

upcoming crazy

On Monday afternoon I get to begin 2-3 weeks of inspection work
12-14 hour shifts
7 days a week
noon to midnight(ish)
whoa.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

This is the first time since starting this job 3 years ago that they are finally letting me out of the office to go outside!  No cubicle!  Fresh air!  Interesting job!

So if you live in Washington maybe you heard that the Beebe bridge between Hwy 97 and 97A got majorly damaged by a semi truck last Monday.  A very sad story.  More photos of the damage can be seen here.  My job will be to watch the repairs being done by the contractor.  Lots of paperwork to do, as I explained in an earlier post, but most of all it's an opportunity to see something that most people will never get to see - major bridge repairs.  Including, jacking/lifting/tensioning/fabricating/heat straightening...  Yeah it should be pretty sweet if you are a nerd like me.

Obviously I am freaking out about not seeing much of Olaf or Steven for that time...  but my parents have volunteered to watch Olaf at nights, and my sis in law Christie will be watching him all day, so I feel very blessed to know he'll be in good hands with family.  And of course Steve will be home on the

weekends to hang with Olybug.  And I'll see him between like 7-10am, so that's not too bad.

So if I don't write a blog post for a few weeks... you know why.
I will probably have to spend about 4 hours on the computer just catching up with you all when I get back!
But anyway I don't start until Monday so perhaps you'll hear from me again before then :)

my little rocker

this is proper wedding attire, right?

what a punk :)