Moving Saga: Part 2

Ok so the move is over, all of our boxes are FINALLY unpacked (although most of our stuff is in storage still), and we are slowly getting settled in.  So, this is Austin, the city we now call home:

 

This area is in the middle of a horrible draught right now so it's a little dry but not nearly as bad as I was expecting.  There is a lot more green and there are a lot more trees than I had imagined.  I mean, it's not Colorado or anything, but on a scale of New Mexico to Colorado, it's probably like a 7. So here are a few of my observations since settling in:

• It's hot.  Like the low at night is around 82.  I sweat withing seconds of walking outside. I have never appreciated air conditioning so much.
• It's humid.  Which makes the hotness feel even hotter.  Although, I have to admit, it's not AS hot and humid as I had mentally prepared myself for, so that's good.  Also, this humidity has done wonders for my skin, and ironically, even my hair.  I don't think I'll ever have to use lotion again.  Even my chapstick addiction is slowly decreasing.
• People are super friendly.  Even the waiters and cashiers and mechanics are super cheerful and happy to strike up a friendly conversation or answer silly questions.  
• I don't know if it's because Austin is such a mix of people from everywhere but I don't hear that thick southern drawl nearly as much as I expected.  Except yesterday a lady said hi and it took me a second to realize it because it came out as Hah.  I'd like to say I will never succumb to the "ya'll" thing but it really is a handy little word and I look forward to the day when I've been here long enough to justify using it without sounding like an idiot.
• I honestly expected to see giant bugs and reptiles everywhere we go but I have yet to see even one.  I really really dread the day that I find a scorpion, snake, tarantula, or 6 inch cockroach in my home.  I will probably scream, panic a little, call Preston to have him come home, get told no because we are too far from his work, panic some more, and then leave and not come back til Preston gets home to take care of it.  You might think I'm joking but believe me, I'm pretty sure that's how it will go down.  I may enjoy power tools and changing my own oil but I don't do bugs and reptiles. Yuck.
• There are parks, pools, splashpads, and waterparks everywhere.  I've never been a big water person but I have already come to appreciate it a lot with this heat.  I just wish Cohen was old enough to enjoy it a little more. 
• Austin is a super dog-friendly city.  I bet 85% of the people in our apartment complex have a dog.  And our complex lets dogs come in the lobby where they have a water bowl and free treats, as well as a big fenced dog park where you can be off-leash and run around and play.  Tank loves it.
• Everywhere we go we pass at least ten restaurants that we decide we want to try someday.  We have already been getting lots of recommendations for awesome bbq and tex-mex places.  I'm pretty sure Texas is not going to be good for my already round waistline. 
• On the subject of food, Austin has a few restaurants that we either didn't have in Utah or were too far away to go to often.  One is Chipotle, which is one of my favorites, and we have one 4 minutes away.  Also, they have Schlotzky's here which Preston and I both love.  And there is a Cheesecake Factory down the street, which everyone knows I could eat at weekly.
• The main grocery store here is H-E-B and we LOVE it.  It has the hugest produce section I've ever seen in a store, with fruits and veggies I've never even heard of before.  The store has tons of selection for everything, really good prices, and the generic store brand is delicious.
• One of the things we always hated in Colorado was Texas drivers.  Turns out Texans don't just drive horribly in Colorado.  They drive horribly in Texas too, and always at least ten UNDER the speed limit.  It's so annoying.  
• My UT driver's license expires tomorrow but I didn't want to renew it since I was moving to TX and decided that getting a TX driver's license would have to be a priority upon arriving here so it didn't expire.  It took a WEEK because we had to get our truck inspected, get it registered with the county, switch our car insurance to a Texas policy, and fill out a bunch of paperwork just to get a stinking driver's license.  It was so ridiculous and I only got it done with one day to spare.
• The people of Texas adore our chunky red-headed baby as much as people everywhere else so they must have good taste.  :)

So we are living temporarily in a little 2 bedroom apartment while we wait for our house in UT to sell.  It is actually under contract and scheduled to close the end of this month.  We are crossing our fingers that nothing falls through.  It sold a lot faster than we were expecting and are so excited to not have to make double payments for a long time.  We will probably stay here for a few more months just to save up a little more for a down payment on a house here and then we will hopefully buy and be able to settle in for real.  I feel kind of in limbo living in this apt.  Even if we had the room for it, I wouldn't want to completely unpack and decorate just to have to pack it all up and patch up all the walls a couple of months later.  After the move here, I want the next one to be as little work as humanly possible.  Everything is currently in storage in the garage.  I have never lived in an apartment before in my life so I'm constantly paranoid that our neighbors below us are going to hate us for the screaming baby and the giant dog.  It seems pretty soundproof so far though because we would never even know we have neighbors, it's always so quiet.  It's actually a really cute apartment and pretty spacious.  It has lots of big windows and natural light, a good sized kitchen, and more closet space than our house in Provo.  The complex itself is nice too, fairly upscale with good people, a nice pool and lots of other things.  The thing I hate the most I think is that we live on the 3rd floor.  It's nice not to have people above us but hauling your groceries up 3 flights of stairs with a kid in your arms or having to take Tank out to go to the bathroom several times a day gets old real fast.  You would think between the multiple trips up and down 3 flights of stairs and all of the sweating I would have lost ten pounds by now but alas, it is not so.  Here are some pics of our apartment:

This right here is the best part of our entire apt.  I haven't had a dishwasher in ten years!!!

You can't tell from the picture but this tub is ginormous and I love it.

So that's our little apartment.  I am so anxious to be able to buy a house here and be able to really feel truly at home again!  Until then, if anyone wants to come visit, we have a nice little living room floor for you to sleep on.  :)  Part 3 of this saga coming soon....

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

 WARNING: Long Post Ahead

I seriously do not even know where to start.  So much has happened in the three months since I last updated this blog.  First things first, I'm sure almost everyone knows this by now, but for anyone who doesn't, we now live in Austin, TX.  Preston got offered a job with a biofuel company called Joule and they needed him to start less than 3 weeks after the offer.  We were so excited he got the job but needless to say it was a bit on the stressful side trying to fix up the house, get it on the market, pack, clean, find a place to live, plan a move, have a garage sale, take stuff to DI and the dump, and say goodbye to friends all in just 3 weeks.  I may have been a bit of a crazy woman, I'm not gonna lie.  (On that note, for any of you who I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to before we left, I am so sorry and I promise it wasn't anything personal).

Moving to Austin wasn't a huge surprise.  We had never stepped foot in Texas before coming here but we were looking for jobs here on purpose.  The more we talked about it and researched it and prayed about it, the more we felt that Austin is the place for our little family right now.  We had always expected to move back to our beloved Colorado after graduation so it was a little unexpected, but we both feel that we are in the right place for us right now.  We have heard nothing but good positive things about Austin from EVERYONE we have talked to and we are excited to be here.  It will have it's pros and cons for us but so far we like it a lot.

Anyways, so Preston's Mom came down from Idaho before we left and helped pack a ton of stuff for us, as well as keeping Cohen occupied so I could actually get stuff done.  It was such a huge help.  Then, the night before we left, Preston's Aunt Lisa and Uncle Carl (and kids) and so many of our awesome friends came and helped us clean and do last minute stuff and it was such a blessing.  Preston's dad, his wife Marilyn, and his little brothers drove all the way down from Wyoming with a big horse trailer to help us move all the way to Texas.  Austin is at least 20 hours from Provo so we stopped in Farmington, NM to stay with Preston's sister Saren and her family, and then again in Midland, TX to stay with his other sister Aspen.  It was nice to spend time with his family and be able to do the trip in smaller chunks.  Prestn's little brothers rode with us in the truck and were such a HUGE help in entertaining Cohen and giving him snacks and toys, etc during the whole trip and it made things so much easier.  Cohen was great the whole time. I'm pretty sure he only cried for a grand total of thirty minutes on a 3 day trip. I was amazed.  We couldn't help but realize just how amazingly blessed we are with family and amazing wonderful friends in our life.  A special shout out to Becky, Bobbi, Amy, Ashton and Gen, Marie, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Carl, Aunt Marva, Curtis and Marilyn for all of your help!  We honestly couldn't have done all of this without you!

P.S. a couple of years ago I wrote a post describing an ongoing argument between Preston and I on which state is uglier.  I always said Wyoming, Preston said New Mexico.  After driving from one corner of NM to the other, I have conceded that New Mexico is, in fact, the uglier of the two states.  Without question.  It's just dirt, dirt, and more dirt. And wind. And dirt. Here are some pics of the move down.

This is an actual neighborhood in New Mexico.  How would you like a yard like this?

Cohen with Preston's Grandma

Cohen with Preston's Grandpa

Cohen's first time at a splash pad.  When the water shot up it freaked him out.

Ugly

Ugly

More ugly. What we looked at all day every day on the drive.

Good ol' Roswell, NM

Finally in Texas-but still a good 8 hours from Austin. And yes, Cohen is obsessed with ripping glasses off peoples faces and chucking them on the ground.  It's fun for all.

Green!  Entering the hill country getting closer to Austin

Finally in Austin-cool little park down the street from our apt. With trees. I'd missed those the last few days.

After several attempt to eat the gravel at the playground...

Our new apartment-well temporarily

                   

               Preston's family before they left to head back for Wyoming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that was our big move.  Don't worry, more posts to follow.  :)

He Done Gradjumatated

It's true what they say...the older you get, the faster time goes by.  When we first got married Preston still had three years left of school and it felt like it was going to be forever!  Now, here we are, three years and one cute baby later and he's all done. It's almost a little unreal still. No more having him come home for dinner just to go back to school to work on a group project or take a 3 hour exam.  No more spending the evenings and weekends trying not distract him while he does hours of homework.  No more spending hundreds of dollars on books every semester.  I think it's still a little unreal for him too.  He's been going to school for so long.  He served a two year mission for our church when he was 19 so he went to a semester of college before he left, took a two year break, and then came back and jumped back in.  So overall from start to finish, he has been a college student for a really long time.  I just want to give a little shout out to Preston for everything he has accomplished over the last few years.  I know it's nothing rare or special to get a college degree, but I feel he has accomplished a lot and here is why...

• He took (and got A's) in classes with names I can't even pronounce, let alone know what they mean.
• He was never satisfied unless he knew he had done his best or tried his hardest.
• Every time he thought he bombed a test, it turned out that he still got one of the highest grades in the class on it.
• He actually enjoys learning and took his education very seriously.  (in contrast, I skipped class all the time in college and spent most of my time playing.)
• He was always responsible, self-disciplined, and determined to do well.
• He managed to do all of this while being married for most of his college career.  (And let's face it, I'm clingy and distracting.)
• Not only was he married, but unlike most college students he was a homeowner and shared all the responsibilities that go along with that such as paying a mortgage, mowing the lawn, fixing things, taking out the trash, etc. and he never once complained about it or failed to help out, no matter how much homework he had.
• Not only did he have a needy wife and an old house to take care of, but for the last year of school he had a baby to help take care of and spend time with.  Even when he was getting only a few hours of sleep every night he would still help with getting up with Cohen.  He has changed his fair share of diapers, given his fair share of baths, and packed his share of diaper bags. His only chance to sleep in was on weekends but he got up with Cohen so I could sleep in and have a break.  He was amazing.
• Not only did he have a needy wife, an old house, and a cranky baby to take care of but he now had a wife who went from being the sugar mama to a stay at home mama and our income was cut by 2/3.  He somehow managed to work two jobs and go to school full time so that I could stay home with Cohen.  He was gone from 6am til 10pm or midnight almost every day.  He got very little sleep at night, had no social life or time to do things he enjoyed, and he barely ever got to see his new son.  He sacrificed so much!
• Now not only was he taking care of a needy, non-income producing wife, an old house, and a cranky baby but he literally never had a second to himself to catch his breath or relax and somehow he managed to graduate in a difficult major (mechanical engineering), in the top 10% of his class, with a 3.88 GPA

I know for a fact that Preston (who is way too hard on himself most of the time) feels that he has not accomplished any of the things he had hoped to by this stage of his life but I am truly amazed at what he has done.  I never would have had the ambition to choose such a difficult major to begin with, let alone had the self-discipline and motivation to actually succeed---no, excel at it.  Especially with so many other things going on in life.  He would have been completely justified in taking some time off of school or taking out lots of loans so he wouldn't have to work, or slacking off a little in classes to lighten his burden.  But he didn't.  If I know Preston, I'm sure the thought never even crossed his mind.  He's just not like that, and that's one of the things I admire most about him.  I love him so much, and regardless of how little he feels he has done, I am SO proud of him and so grateful for all of his selfless sacrifices for our little family.  If only I could be even half the person he is!

Pink

Most of you who know me know that I don't own very many pink or purple things.  Especially clothes.  Especially clothes that I actually wear.  Preston sometimes mocks me because the majority of clothes that I wear are black or brown (which is true) and that I need to add some color to my wardrobe.  I had to dress professionally for 8 years so of course most of my clothes are dark.  And now that I'm not working, I don't want to spend money buying a bunch of new, non-professional, bright colored clothes.  So now that I'm learning how to sew, I thought I would experiment a little.  I have a whole bunch of shirts, skirts and dresses that are either too big or too small and never get worn so I decided maybe it's time for me to learn how to alter or "re-purpose" some of them.  I have a very pink dress that was given to me by my lovely friend Rebekah that needed to be taken in a little so in the spirit of trying to "brighten" my wardrobe, I decided to give it a shot. 

This is what it looked like before:  (PS. there's no way you will catch me modeling these in pictures so you will just have to imagine what they look like on real people).

I needed to add some length to it too so I found this pink polka dot shirt in my closet (which I also never wore) and cut it up to add it to the dress.  The pinks matched perfectly.  I also added some black trim to the bottom and a black flower up top and this is what I ended up with:

Sorry for the ultra bright picture.  Oh and ps I'm not even close to being that skinny.  I just tied the ribbon tighter around the middle so I could pretend for a minute that I don't still have a hundred million pounds to lose.  :)  Anyways, if you could see it up close you would totally laugh because there are so many parts where I screwed up and it is visibly obvious but I was too lazy to fix it.  Come to think of it, I'm too lazy to fix a lot of things.  I should work on that.  Anyways, all in all, I'm pretty proud of myself for how it turned out considering it was my first time EVER attempting to do anything involving a needle and thread and clothing.  Now the hard part will be convincing myself to wear something bright pink with pink polka dots and a flower.  :)

A Touch of Color

I'm almost finished with the living room, finally. For the last 8 years that I've lived here this living room has been pretty much the same. It wasn't bad, but it was really, ummm...neutral. Everything in it is cream, brown, sage green, and a touch of black. I decided it was time to add some color. Not in the repainting the whole room sense, just in adding some accessories. I love color. I swoon over bright colors in magazines and pictures. I'm just always so conservative when it comes to actually using it my own house. I really need to get over that. In my last post I showed you the new curtains I made which have some turquoise, blue, green, and brown in them. I decided I really liked the turquoise so I took an old, rickety, drawn on and carved on little desk from our garage and turned it into this:

I love the color! I think I am going to find some cute baskets to put on the shelves.

Then I decided to recover our couch pillows and now they look like this:



P.S. I made all of these from old sheets we don't use anymore so they were totally free. Preston lovingly told me that the pleated pillows (which by the way, aren't perfect but I'm pretty proud of them considering sewing is still so new to me) look like something he would find in his grandma's house. I'm sure he meant it as a compliment. :) Don't worry, he followed it up with "well, it's cool that YOU made them..." Hahaha. Boys. I only share this because I thought it was funny. He has actually been very complimentary about everything I have done around the house lately.

Anyhoo, I decided I needed some new wall decor for above the loveseat. I googled diy wall decor and found this:

http://www.thenester.com/2011/01/how-to-make-a-sunburst-mirror.html

Would you believe this was made out of posterboard? Yeah, posterboard. You can get that for 2/$1 at the dollar store. So, needless to say, I decided I needed to make one. I had an old mirror sitting around in the basement that I thought would be perfect so I got some posterboard and went for it. It doesn't look as good as the one she did (I like the shape of hers better) but I still like the way it turned out. And so far I have gotten a lot of compliments so the $2 that I spent on it was worth it. Here she is:



So basically, that wall of my living room went from looking like this:



To this:

Maybe it doesn't even look that great to other people but when you've had a room look exactly the same for so many years, any change seems to make it look better to me. Now I need to do some more pillows for the big couch (probably not more pleated ones because apparently that will make it a "grandma" living room), and next I get to tackle the basement kitchen/laundry room.

P.S. I know this stuff is probably really boring to most of you, (if any of you actually even still read my blog) so thanks for putting up with my craft reports and room makeovers. :)