Gratitude List

We moved! It's true. We made it. The new place has already taught me much about gratitude and what to be thankful for, so I thought I'd share my little list with you (and I included pictures for your added viewing pleasure).

I'm grateful for . . . Warranties

 

This is the back door that goes out onto our awesome man deck. Notice how the wall is all banged up? Since the couches wouldn't fit through the front door, the boys decided they should just lift them up and over the railings of our 2nd-story deck. I doubted their manliness capabilities, but they proved me wrong! Problem is, the couches (brand new, by the way) were also too big for this door. Off came the door. Still to big. So they just pushed and pushed until the couches came through. If you think this door looks bad, you should see my couches. Thank goodness they came with a 5-year warranty. Can't wait for the couch guys to come fix my couches! 

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I'm grateful for . . . Bathroom Mirrors

Mirror, mirror, NOT on the wall . . . will you ever come? 

Remember how this place was just remodeled before we moved in? Well, the remodel wasn't completely finished. Don't judge us if our hair isn't quite perfect when we're out and about, it's tricky without a mirror.

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I'm grateful for . . . creative blinds

 

Remember the awesome man deck? Well, there's a door from our bedroom that leads out to it. For several days both this door and the window in the bedroom (as well as windows in both bathrooms) were without blinds. This made for some very tricky changing tactics until the problem was fixed with an old sheet. Hope the neighbors didn't see anything they didn't want to!!

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I'm grateful for . . . Refrigerators

 

Dan calls this our "Lord Fridge." As in, if we were lords of some kingdom, we would have a fridge like this. It's gigantic and would actually be big enough for a Provo apartment of 6 men. And it wasn't in the apartment when we moved in. Thankfully it was cold outside so our food didn't go bad while we waited for it to come. (Thought for the day: why is fridge spelled with a "d" when refrigerator is not?)

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 I'm grateful for . . . Light

I know, it's a weird thing to be grateful for, but until this morning we have had no light in our bedroom - the electrician (who had a mini-mullet) had to come out twice to get it to work. 

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I'm grateful for . . . Laundry!

Remember how excited I was to have a washer and dryer? Well, we have them! Since I knew we were moving I told Dan we'd have to wait until we got to the new place for any clean clothes, because I did NOT want to waste more dollars at the laundromat. We moved our dirty laundry over and threw in a load our first night here, but when we turned the dryer on it sounded like a monster from Transformers (cool, right?) Fast forward 2.6 weeks later and we still have no dryer. I keep holding out thinking, "It will get fixed tomorrow, I just know it!" I did finally swallow my pride and did a couple loads of the bare essentials, but now we're out of clothes again.

Dryer guy FINALLY came yesterday and the prognosis is NOT good. They may even have to take it into their place to get it fixed. "We haven't suffered enough!"

I can't believe I'm going to post a picture of our laundry, but you have to see it to believe it. And I didn't plan on having the drawer open (notice it's empty). This picture doesn't do it justice.

And I can't believe I'm about to tell you this either, but the laundry in our bedroom has started to smell. (GROSS!!! What kind of a wife am I anyway?) Thanks to The Roommates for this BYU Scentsy. We put the Zen scent in it and I can no longer smell said nasty laundry.

 

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I'm grateful for . . . WARM water

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be homeless? After one glacier-cold shower I was done, so for the past 2 weeks I have been showering at the gym. Just like your average homeless person. I will never take warm water for granted again. Ever.

When Dan doesn't have time to go to the gym before class (which is pretty much all the time) he usually just takes a cold shower. No, he doesn't scream like a little girl, but it's close. Well, yesterday he said he'd had enough of the cold. So we heated up warm water on the stove and washed his head in the kitchen sink. Dan couldn't figure out why I was laughing so hard as I poured hot water from a pan over his head. Does anyone else find this whole situation humorous? :)

Loco. Pure LOCO.

Just in case you forgot how much fun it is to move, I'll remind you. First you have to go through EVERYTHING you own and somehow make it fit in a box. When you're doing a big move (cross-country) you have to pack extra well and make sure everything that's worth anything is not only in a box, but also wrapped so it won't get destroyed. Dishes, books, decorations, clothes, shoes . . . the list goes on. Boxes, tape, and brown paper take over your life for the duration of the packing phase. If you're a man, you get to move heavy things (including a piano in this case). Then, when it's time to unload everything you get the fun job of opening each box, finding a place for everything inside the box, then getting rid of the box. And let's not talk about the number it does on your hands - multiple cuts from the scissors from trying to get boxes open in a hurry (and handling all that cardboard is NOT good on the hands - cracked and bleeding is a guarantee). Does this sound fun yet? Glad you all remember what it's like.

Saturday afternoon, Dan went off to help someone in the ward move. While I was gone I tackled the disgusting stove. Pretty sure it hadn't been cleaned in my lifetime. 2 hours later it no longer smelled like a mixture of vomit & urine, AND it shined like the top of the Chrysler building. :) Dan walked in the door just as I was finishing the cleaning and promptly said, "So, how would you feel about moving next week?" Yes, my jaw dropped and he actually made me speechless (that doesn't happen very often). The guy who Dan helped move just moved into a newly renovated duplex of sorts - they're in the bottom apartment, and the top apartment which will be finished in a couple days is open and just about ready for renters. Guess who owns the duplex? Another guy from the ward who ALSO happens to manage the apartment we currently live in.

Dan told me all about the place - it hasn't yet been lived in since it was remodeled (no cleaning someone else's grime!), wood floors, double-paned windows (wahoo!) big kitchen, granite counter tops, new appliances, WASHER & DRIER (we currently get to use the laundry mat - took us 14 loads to wash all the blankets/towels that we used to wrap around our furniture in the move), backyard (Dan's real excited about the fire pit back there), large porch, and people who we'll actually know not be afraid of as neighbors. Oh - and here's the real kicker - it's $150 LESS each month. We decided we would talk to our landlord to see if he would let us out of our current lease if we moved into the new place. Guess who walked into church during the opening song and sat on the bench right in front of us? Our landlord. Totally a sign.

So after I got a good look at the place (love it!) we decided - Yep, we're moving! We've been in this apartment for 9 days now. Just long enough that it was starting to feel like home and I wasn't having to use the GPS every time I went out. (On a side-note, the fact that Dan's roommate hadn't been able to move all of his stuff out yet turned into a blessing. I still have boxes that are sealed and packed, as I was waiting for the 2nd bedroom to open up. No better time to move than the time when you still have some packed boxes, right?)

How's THAT for an adventure?

I was waiting to post pics of this place until it was officially cleaned and didn't look like a tornado had hit it, but since we're moving, that will never happen. Here's a pic of our 9-day home. Thank you, 5592 Pershing #31 for getting me through my first couple weeks of married life.

ps - anyone who came to help us with move #1, will NOT be notified of move #2. We.Are.CRAZY. :)

Stay-At-Home Wife

My friend told me I needed to be a better facebooker when I moved away. Blah. My sister said I needed to start a blog. Hmm. Don't get me wrong - I love reading other blogs, but I've always thought, "Who am I to think people like me enough that they want to read about my boring life?" Well, boring or not, here it is. And I won't even be offended if you don't read. And I'm telling you now that I probably won't be good at posting regularly.

Leading up to the marriage and the move, I told Dan I didn't need to find a job . . . I could just be a stay-at-home wife!! Seemed like a great idea at the time. Well, we made it to St. Louis late Friday night. Enjoyed lots of time together Saturday & Sunday, and then Monday morning he was gone and off to school like a good little boy. After about 2 hours without my man, I was bored and wondering what in the world I was going to do with my time until I found a job. Oh dear. I didn't think that would happen for at least a couple of weeks. Dan let me make him dinner that night to give me something to do. Isn't he nice! :) Now that all our stuff is here (I have a LOT of stuff!) I am plenty busy getting this place organized. Special thanks to Dan for letting me take over the big closet and move him to the small one. He's the best.

Speaking of finding a job . . . after getting almost-conned on Craigslist (don't EVER look for jobs there - they're all phony) and spending hours on Monster Jobs (not getting conned), I've come to a conclusion that I did everything wrong in life. For all those women who could possibly at some time in the future be following a man somewhere and need to find full or part time employment, let me give you some advice: be a nurse or a truck driver. Both get paid well, and both are in high demand, even amidst this "economic crisis."

Ok - it's 11:00 in the morning and other than applying for a few jobs, making Dan breakfast and lunch (wow - he really got the good end of the deal in this!) and writing this post, I haven't done anything productive. Don't tell anyone I'm still in my pajamas (including slippers and Skyline hoody because it's FREEZING here!). Yes, it snows in St. Louis, and I never knew that someone could have an appreciation for double-paned windows, but I do. Not having them is quite tragical. And cold.

And for all you visual learners out there (yep, deep down I'm still a teacher) here is a picture of what it looks like outside my window right now.