Playing "catch up" (June-July)

Wow! I can't believe it has been a month since I blogged. I feel so disconnected.

Okay everyone you will have to bare with me. This may take a while to recount all that we have done in the last month.

On June 5th we made our first offer on a house. It took about 2 days before we heard back from the seller. She counter offered and so did we. She said she was firm with her counter offer and we decided it was still a great deal on the house so we accepted.

During this negotiation of price we were in RR so Ryan could work and I could pack. Madalyn and Ethan stayed with my parents. Due to some unexpected events this also ended up being Ryan's last week at Firehouse. Which turned out to be really nice. We had Ryan all to our selves for about 3 weeks. Now that he has started his new job the kids are a little confused. They want to know where Daddy is and don't understand why they cannot talk to him whenever they want.

So, Ryan's last day was Sat. June 7th. Sunday went to church to teach our class and make sure we would have help the following Sat. when we were loading up the Uhaul. After Church we drove back to Waco.

We spent this week enjoying time with the kids. We went to the Zoo one day and played outside on the water slide at my parents. We also went swimming at the Baldwins a couple of times.

(Madalyn & Ethan watching the rhinos)

(Madalyn the Butterfly)

(Ethan the Butterfly)

(Madalyn having fun in the pool)

(Ethan discovered that he loves goggles)

(Ethan learned how to hold his breath under water)

(Madalyn & Ethan swimming around)

We were also in our "option period" on our house during this week. So we had the inspection to be at. The good news from the inspector was that this was a structurally sound house. The bad news was that the AC did not work and the tub in the master bathroom needed to be replaced. The seller had the AC in the house replaced now it works great. She is also paying for the tub to be replaced.

On Friday June 13th Ryan and I went back to RR so we could pick up the Uhaul. We got the Uhaul around 9am and went to our storage unit to start loading up. It took us 2 hours to empty out the storage unit. It was really easy b/c we had flat carts to use at the storage place. Our unit was on the second floor of a climate control storage facility. The Uhaul was backed right up to the loading dock for easy loading. Once we were done at the storage unit we went to our apartment and got the truck backed in and ready for loading. It was lunch by this time so we went and grabbed a bite to eat. When we returned we started loading the truck again. We got everything out of the bedroom, closet and kitchen that evening. I was also able to clean the empty rooms.

Saturday morning our help from church was not coming until 10am. Ryan woke up early and we took everything down stairs and put it on a tarp(except for 5 pieces of furniture that I could not help Ryan with). I finished cleaning and we waited for our help to arrive. It took 20 min. to finish with 2 extra people. I vacuumed on last time and then went to the office to turn in our keys. We were on the road to Waco by 10:50am. Ryan & I got cleaned up so we could meet with our realtor to sign some papers after lunch. That evening we unloaded the Uhaul at another storage unit. We only had one person show up from my parents ward. Luckily it only took us about an hour to unload.

While we were unloading the truck Mindi & her family, Marion & Seiko, and Adrienne & her family were at my parents playing on the water slide with my kids. I wish I could have visited more with my good friends that I rarely see. Sorry, Adrienne it was good to see you and your adorable family for the short time that we had.

I helped my mom and a few other people make a memory scrapbook for a Becky Gropp. My mom and Sis. Webb asked everyone to write letters telling Becky how much she means to them. We then put the letters together in a scrapbook.

(Amy, Leigh, Mom, Sally & Myself)

Well I still have more to write about but I think I will stop for now.

Packing is draining

(Boxes in the dinning room)

(Wrapping with the green stuff)

On Monday Ethan was helping us pack. He really liked using the green wrap stuff. He was ready to wrap everything with it. After Ryan went to work Ethan was really quite. When I found him he was asleep on the step stool. Of coarse I ran to get the camera. I took the picture and as soon as I did he woke up enough to move to the couch. Isn't he the cuttest?

(Ethan asleep on the step stool)

(Ethan asleep on the couch)

The BUICK of a Dishwasher...

Last night I decided we needed to run our dishwasher. It had some old detergrnt stuck in it when we moved in and we have never used it. I was a little afraid to use it because it looked so old I was worried something bad would happen. Ryan refers to the old dishwasher as a Buick (It looks really old but he says it will probably never die). Since we are moving in 2 weeks I thought I would try to run the dishwasher to make sure it was clean for the walk thru. So we ran it late last night. Around 10pm we had a knock on the door but we were already in bed. So we ignored the knock and went to sleep. Today when we looked in the dishwasher the detergent was still caked to the door. Ryan scraped it off and ran it again. Once again we had a knock at the door. Ryan opened the door and the lady that lives under us said something was leaking from our apartment into hers. Ryan told her we would turn off the dishwasher and told her she needed to call maintenance. A few minutes later the maintenance man came over to inspect our dishwasher. Apparently the bottom is all rusted out and was leaking lots of water into the apartment under us. He came back later with the head guy and they decided it needs to be replaced. It probably will not happen until next week. They also said that Manager told them that they had this problem about a year ago. Nice! Both of the maintenance men were confused why it was not replaced when it happened the first time. I wish I had not been so worried about using it back in Jan. when we moved in. I could have had a new dishwasher for the last 41/2 months. That stinks!! Oh Well! You LIVE and you LEARN. Right?

New Job...Different Town...

Ryan recently excepted a new job in Waco.

He will be working for Aramark on Baylor campus. We are very excited for this new job and all it will bring. This job is very family friendly and gets us out of the restraunt side of food service. Actually there are quite a few reasons this will be better, but I won't go into all that.

The timing has worked out very well for us. Our lease on our current apt. ends June 30th and Ryan starts his new job the first week in July.

We are planning to buy a house. This is so exciting to finally get to find a house that we can make our own. I am also very excited to be close to my parents. I am so excited for all this change to happen. I have started packing what little we have in our small apt. It should be really easy since more than half of our stuff is in storage.

I can't wait to be able to put the kids to bed in their own bedrooms. I can't wait to be able to do laundry at home again. I can't wait to have a backyard for the kids to play in and to use our grill again.

Well if you can't tell I am very excited. If anyone knows of a good realtor in the Waco area we would love some suggestions.

4 Months Down...

We have lived here for 4 months. I think I have been suffering with depression because I have not felt like we moved into a very friendly ward.

• First of all I was introduced as a new person for the first 3 months.
• I am very quite person when I don't know anyone and I tried to sit with people but it didn't really help. No one really talked to me.
• We finally got callings about 3 weeks ago as Primary teachers.
• We had no H.T. until last night when they dropped by (apparently they tried to meet us the week before but we were in Canada)
• My V.T. came once but I was in the shower (she talked to Ryan)(I should really call her soon)
• The R.S. presidency came to meet me and get to know me just yesterday after church.

Well I guess I should not complain but it was really depressing to me and made me miss my old ward that much more (I miss my Bryan Ward Family, y'all were awesome). I have only made one friend (well when I say friend I mean we say Hi at church when we see each other). She moved in at the same time as us and Happened to have the same first name as me. I sat with her a few times in RS but she has a baby boy and it was hard for her to sit with him very long. She also got a calling in YW about a month after moving in.

Ok, sorry for my venting. I am trying to think more positively and come out of my shell. I want to be fair and do my part in making this a good transition for us. Hopefully things will get better.

I should also add that I hate the apartments were we live. This is another source of my depression.

On a brighter note my loving husband and I had a discussion last week about my depression. I made a deal with him that I would do better about taking the kids out to play, cooking, and trying to make the best of our current place of residence.

I am happy to report I have been taking the kids to the park, playing board games, cooking 5 out of 7 dinners, and taking a little more pride in making this place our home. I also have tried to not get on the computer so much (was not part of our deal just something I need to do). It has not been easy to motivate myself to get up everyday but I am working at it one day at a time.

READY and waiting...

I am so ready to find a house to buy. Although it won't happen until this summer. I keep looking up homes for sale in the area and wishing it was time. I should probably stop that but I am so impatient. I can't wait for the day...

* I can park in my own driveway and not have to carry my groceries up a flght of stairs or through a parking lot (because you couldn't find a parking spot close to your apartment).

* My kids can run and have fun in the house without thinking the neighbors will be knocking on the door soon.

* I can paint my walls and decorate the way I want and not have to think about the holes I left in the wall.

* I no longer have to pay rent that doesn't help us in the future.

* I don't have to worry about my guest vehicle being towed because it is parked in the wrong spot or at the wrong time of day.

* I get all my things out of storage.

* The kids have a real room (not the living room floor).

* I no longer have to use the laundry mat (because I have my washer and dryer out of storage.

* I have a yard for my children to play in.

Okay, so I guess you probably get the idea. So now the count is on. We have until the end of June to find a house. Although I am very excited to have our own house it is also a bit scary. With all the foreclosures that are happening and also any repairs will be our responsability.

Hopefully the next four months will fly by and we will find the perfect starter home for our family.

MOVING: What a JOY!!!

So our plan for moving was that Ryan would have off Dec 28th - Dec. 30th (Fri-Sun). I left Thursday from Waco (leaving the kids with my mom) to Round Rock to pick up Ryan by 5pm when he got off work and off to Bryan we drove. We arrived in Bryan and got to bed early so we could get up refreshed and ready for the fun to begin. Friday Ryan and I finished packing in the morning and then waited for my Dad to arrive (He couldn't leave until Mom got off work to watch the kids)with truck and cattle trailer that we borrowed from Pepa. Ryan was unable to round up much help aside from family. We had Ryan, my Dad, my Father in law, Chris (brother-in-law) and two young men from church. We had decided to load everything that was going to our apartment first and everything that was going to storage last. As we filled about 2/3 of the trailer the men decided we would never make it in one trip. It was suggested we try to take what we had to Round Rock unload and come back to Bryan and finish loading the next day. So that is what we did. We got to Round Rock around 8:30 pm and the only person we could find in Round Rock to help us with such short notice was my cousin Brian. It took us about 1 hour to unload what had taken us 3 hours to load. Oh yeah those that went with us from Bryan where Ryan, myself, my Dad, Chris, & Ryan's parents. On our way back to Bryan we stopped at Whataburger to have some dinner. We arrived back in Bryan after 1am sometime and went to bed. Saturday Ryan and I got up and went back over to our townhome and finished bringing everything downstairs to make it easier to load the last of our stuff. by 9am my Dad was not at our place so I called my sister to check on him. My Dad and Chris arrived about an hour later with trailer. Ryan's Dad came back over too. I think it took about an hour to get it all loaded and then we went to my sisters house for lunch. We headed back to Round Rock and got to just past a tiny town called Thrawl when we had a tire on the trailer blow out. Ryan called our tow service plan provider and waited for about 15 min. with NO return call. So he got into our car and drove back a couple of miles to Thrawl to find some help. No Luck. So Ryan came back and He and my Dad changed the tire. Luckily the small jack was able to lift the trailer just enough to get the bad tire off and put the spare tire on. Now we were back on the road and headed to the storage building. We (Ryan , myself, Dad and a couple in our new ward in Round Rock) unloaded at the storage unit. We took a few things back to the apartment and then headed back to Waco to see the kids and get another much needed good nights sleep. Sunday we spent sometime at my parents house with the kids before we hit the road once again. We headed back to Bryan to clean the townhome and turn in the keys and stuff. I took us about 2 hours to get it all done and then we went back to my sisters and ate some dinner. Then once again we were back on the road this time to Round Rock. We got to our new apartment and got our bedroom situated just enough to go to sleep, after all Ryan had to work the next day. Monday I got up and tried to get some stuff put away so that when Ryan's parents came with the kids they would have room to play and a place to sleep. Ryan's parents had been in Denison for the weekend and went through Waco to pick up the kids. They wanted to go to Ryan's new job b/c they had never eaten at a Firehouse Sub shop. So when they arrived that afternoon we all went to see Ryan and eat lunch. Then Ryan's parents headed back to Bryan and the kids and I went home. Now you have heard all about our adventures with moving to Round Rock. Hopefully I will catch up my blog so that you will be reading about current activities.

Last Day of School

Friday was Madalyn's last day of school in Bryan, TX (b/c of our move to Round Rock). Madalyn's friends all wanted to give her a hug and say goodbye. It is so cute to see the friendships she made in just a few months of school. I took a picture of Madalyn with her teachers.

A NEW ADVENTURE!!

So here is the latest news from our family. Ryan has taken a new job with a new company. Yes, I know no more Chick-fil-A (which we all thought was going to be the only company Ryan would ever work for). Fortunatley Ryan was given a new oppertunity from my cousin and his wife. They recently opened their first store in a fairly new franchise called "Firehouse Subs" in Round Rock. So, Ryan's last day at Chick-fil-A is Saturday and he will start his new job Monday. Unfortunatley this leaves the kids and myself in Bryan until the managment company finds a new renter for our townhome. Hopefully with the Spring semester right around the corner we will be able to join him sooner rather than later (since this is a college town). As soon as our current home is rented out to a new tenant we will load up the moving truck and head for the hills (Round Rock). We are all very excited for our next adventure and can't wait to be back together in the same town.