Website Spotlights

My extremely talented sister Natalie has her official photography website up and running. She is AMAZING! She has done all my baby's and family photos, so if you have liked what you've seen here in the past, take a look! She is available for bookings. Get her now why she's still at "student rate," because I guarantee she will not stay that way for long!



I am not the sort of person who looks at blogs of people I don't know. I just can't justify to myself the use of my time that way. But I was referred to this website by a new friend of mine and LOVE it! Of course, it is not just crafting or for fun, it's functional. It also promises to save one money. The icing on top? It's a craft. And I have always wanted to try my hand at woodwork. I cannot wait to try out (the simple plans first!) some of these fabulous, free knock off wood furniture plans. Have a look!

Open House!

Time for my open house! There are a ton of pictures so I made them small in an attempt to appear less vain. Everything is in place except for a few textile items: namely pillow covers for my couch cushions and a fabric panel to hang down the wall that I've had my eye on, but they will have to wait their turn in line at our budget. Too bad because that will add the color, so if things seem a bit drab, please excuse.

Front room: outside the glass door is the common patio. This door is the only window we get any direct sunlight from.

We had to get ourselves some new shelving. There are always new things needed to adjust to a new space.

Book shelf

Dining Room. We were able to do a cheap fix (hide?) for the old 80s chandelier by covering it with a Japanese lantern. So much better! You can see our small patio out back and the mammoth apartment structure behind it. You've got to stand right up next to the glass and look up to see what kind of day it is. But I love having an outdoor space. I have some fun plans for it. Those plans, too, are in line at our budget.

Kitchen. And Cameron discovering the usefulness of our stool--another new item needed to reach the top shelves of our cupboards.

Upgrade! A Dishwasher. Ta-da!!

Looking down the hallway

The closet on the left houses my favorite upgrade: our very own washer and dryer!

Bathroom is on the right; upgrade to two sinks!

I like to keep my bathroom decor minimal. Besides the towels with circles woven into them, this is all there is.

Cameron's room is at the end on the left. His room is very big and still echos a bit even with all his things in it! We gave the big room to him so it could act as a playroom too. We felt bad about how cold the floor was and made sure to get him a rug to stand on while he played, even though we could have really used it in the front room for looks. That's one thing about decorating a house when you have a toddler: you have to make a lot of concessions, and I did. There is another mammoth apartment structure out his window as well.

I just had to show these big mirror closet doors that are in both rooms. Remember these?! He LOVES watching himself in them and the closets behind them are spacious; his room's closet is entirely devoted to storage. Nice!

Our room is on the right.

We have a door to the bathroom, another reason we chose this room.

We really love it here and even though there are things about living downtown, like no direct view of the sky and loud neighbors, we really like being close to Tyler's work (very few people with families get to bike to work here) and "the action." We'll make it to the suburbs eventually but we're in no hurry. I didn't think I would say this at such a young age, but I wouldn't mind staying in this city forever! Yeah, it's that good.

Texans

Our move was a fast, last minute one. We found out December 30th and left January 4th. The packing and cleaning had been started before our long and super fun Christmas break, so the task wasn't as bad as it sounds. Well, no worse than moving is anyway. ;)

After packing the truck with help from friends and family (Thanks!), we had dinner with my sisters Natalie and Melanie and her family at Brick Oven as a final farewell to Provo. Provo has been my home for almost nine years and it was a good way to close that chapter for me. (And on a side note, Cameron and Paige finally made peace that day and are again good friends.)

After dinner we got straight into our packed truck and drove to Spanish Fork to stay the night with a friend. (Again, thanks!) We spent the next two days driving across a few states on thankfully dry roads. The first day was a success. The second one, not so much. Cameron was being horrible and so was mommy, I'm sad to admit. But driving across 8 hours of barren Texas land, extremely tired and sore in a moving van with a tired child isn't the formula for cheerfulness. Cameron finally fell asleep at 8:30 and was out for the final three hours of the drive. Tired kid! Thanks to Tyler for keeping it all together that day and driving the whole time! (I tried and kept having visions of crashing.)

Tyler's work put us up in a hotel until we could find a place. It was a nice place with two floors so we could easily put Cameron down for bed and naps. Cameron was thankfully very calm and relaxed through the entire move and hotel stay. He also adjusted very well to our new place: the first night in his new room he snuggled down into his crib and went to sleep without a sound.

On Thursday and Friday we spent the day driving around town and getting familiar with the neighborhoods, and I spent the evening/night scouring the online listings for apartments. It was a long, tiring and stressful process but by Saturday we had narrowed it down to one place. We were adamant about having a place downtown to be close to Tyler's work even though it would be more expensive, but it still had to be as affordable as we could get (without sacrificing safety or amenities like W/D), which was why the process was so grueling because property + downtown + safe almost never = affordable. I turned the town inside out to find this place. We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning waiting for everything to click into place. Luckily we were able to move in Monday afternoon and had help from people in our new ward (the church is true) and the process was quick. So now we are surrounded almost completely by college students and even have frat and sorority houses down the road. But we figure we were just barely students ourselves, and it meets our criteria of being close to Tyler's work and affordable (affordable enough, anyway). In fact, I am pretty sure we were very blessed to find this place. And it's a small step up the "appreciation ladder": a washer and dryer and a dishwasher! I have been doing dishes by hand for almost three years now and I can't believe the increase in free time. Watching Tyler and I turn it on for the first time was probably comical. And of course the washer/dryer combo saves me untold time and hassle. I will give an "open house" of our apartment once I have things set up. ;)

Monday morning Tyler went for his first day of work. I insisted on taking a picture. He has really enjoyed it so far and we feel very blessed that he got this opportunity. We knew everything would "work out" for our best but I am still always amazed at how well Heavenly Father takes care of us. Our move has actually been full of small miracles and blessings, it really humbles us.

As for the city, we really love it, just like everyone said we would! I like living in a more urban neighborhood because it keeps me from feeling isolated. Just a few blocks away is a big street with lots of shops and restaurants, etc, that we all took a walk down the other day--we're an oddity pushing Cameron in his stroller surrounded mostly by college students and young people. In fact, children have been a rarity at most places we've been--I'll have to research where the mommies take their kids. But we've already visited a park so he could run around, which we'll be doing very frequently. There are lots of green spaces here and also a real good community feel. The people are very friendly and non presumptuous. All in all, it's the perfect city for us: a small community feel + the resources and vibe of a big city. Oh, and I have to brag that the day Cam and I went to the park, it was in the 60s and people were running around in tee shirts and jogging in shorts. Ahhhh, I won't miss cold weather!

Trying out a local pizza joint in a converted old house! Delicious and of course very trendy.
We found our library quickly and Cameron couldn't have been happier. This one is right downtown and actually had some homeless people hanging about...I think I'll have to take him to a more suburban branch in the future!

Stay tuned for our future adventures in Texas! We'll have lots of new things to see and do and are excited to share!

On Hotels

It is only recently that we began the experience of paying for our own hotel rooms. I have stayed in maybe hundreds of hotels in the my life but only on my parent's dollar. They weren't usually extravagant but always respectable and clean. Here is what I have learned about hotels: $50 gets a roof over your head and a bed, shower, and sink. It may or may not get you heaters or ACs that work. Want your room to be clean? Better double it. We stayed at the dirtiest hotel I have ever been to on the first night of our drive. It was still $67. The bathroom was dirtier than I have ever let my bathroom get and the worst part is it wasn't me that got it dirty. After that I vowed that I would pay double if it meant I could have a clean room. Yes, it means over a $100 with which I could have gotten myself, say, a pair of boots, which may seem like an unfair trade in long term scheme of things. But last night when I let myself into the clean and comfortable room at the Marriott Courtyard, I had the urge to kiss the ground, or at least the soft bed and clean shower. The nice ending to this story? The clerk had a hard time getting our reservation processed and gave Tyler a huge discount for "being so patient and nice" with her. Sometimes it pays to be patient, literally.

Hooray!

This is a quick post to tell everyone we finally have it: a job offer! Congrats to Tyler! We're headed to Texas, the city that begins with "Au" and ends with "stin"! Finally, we have somewhere to go once we have to leave our current apartment, we finally have plans. The moving truck is rented and our apartment is slowly making its way into boxes. Our current task: finding an apartment in Austin, site unseen. (Any help or advice?) Posts will be delayed for a few weeks at least.
Thanks everyone for your prayers!