Our Texas Move

I'd like to introduce myself today since I've been missing from the planet for almost a month now. I'm converting to Texas kindess each day and melting away piece by piece. I'm gonna be a whole new me.

Kidding, other than the melting and Texas kindess part.

First off, I'm convinced that moving is just a disaster in and of itself. It's a pain in the patooty and a real strain on my nerves. We went with this company called Ally VanLines because they had the best prices and the nicest reps I had talked to. They seriously were SO NICE. I felt very comfortable with them, but I was just wary about moving in general. I told them I wanted my stuff delivered no later than May 25th, so they picked our stuff up on the 17th. After a glorious week in Park City and a couple of days spent with my family we made our trek to Texas.

We left bright and early on the 23rd and decided last minute to drive through Wyoming. Ya know...it wasn't that bad. For some unknown reason, Wyoming was green and pretty. We drove through this crazy/scary/very cool wall of fog for a while with very little visibility. One second there was a huge truck passing and then it was gone.

We were glad when we were out of it. Nothing much happened for the rest of the day other than we drove too much. We made 15 hours of driving and the kids were great up until the last 2 hours. We had no choice to stop since there is pretty much NOTHING in Kansas. We stayed the night in Hays, Kansas and had enough time to get our stuff to our bedroom, let the kids run for about 15 minutes and we crashed into bed. 

Day 2: Since we made such good time the first day, we only had 7 hours to go; however, it still took us forever with stops. The kids were, once again, gems and we couldn't have hoped for better. I called the moving company to see when our stuff would be there (I had several people tell me it would be there no later than the 24th....and it was the 24th) and I was told that it wouldn't be there for another 5 days. I asked why that was, since I was assured the 25th, and this "assistant supervisor" got mad at me saying that they never guarantee dates, that they wouldn't, and since I wasn't happy with this service they were going to return my stuff to Utah. Then he hung up on me. 

I was furious! I hadn't yelled at him. I wasn't rude. I called him back and he said he would check with Ally vans to see what could be done. Whatever. I'd call them later.

In the meantime, we made our way through Moore, OK who was just hit by there devastating tornado. So sad. The first picture is a demolished neighborhood and the second is across the street with all the damaged cars. You can't see it in my picture, but there were piles of rubble everywhere. I just can't imagine. :(

The rest of our drive seemed long because we were so ready to be out of the car. We finally got to Texas and I wished I would have taken a picture of the state sign saying "Welcome to Texas! Drive Friendly - The Texas Way!" The Texas- Pride (brainwashing is what I call it) starts from the first step across the line. Beware: it works. There's a whole state to prove it. 

I called the moving company back, same guy screamed at me some more after saying (very calmly) that I would withhold my bad ratings if they would just....didn't even have time to finish my sentence before he screamed at me telling me my stuff would get sent back to Utah and he hung up on me again. FINALLY, after I started bawling and told him that he was the worst customer service I'd ever received he started to listen. I asked him how he was allowed to keep his job if he treated people this way....he never answered, but said, "Let's just start over." Whatever. Bad rating and better business bureau here we come!

We were housed by Brian's family for a few days (bless their hearts for putting up with us for so long) and we had a blast, especially the kids. They were elated to have cousins to play with all day. We drove our area a bit and we really like it! We got a new table and a washer/dryer (LOVE!) and tried to get as settled as possible. 

Long story short, they delivered our stuff a week late and didn't even really deliver it. We had to rent a Uhaul, unpack our stuff at the local Wal-Mart, and then bring it to our apartment. It was a pain, but we're happy to have our stuff and be a little settled. 

Here are some pics from our new place:

Master bathroom - I love my colors! So happy.

Master Bedroom with my little man defending his favorite space.

We have a long hallway leading into our bedroom with the bathroom off to the side and our huge walk-in closet right next to it.

Living Room 

More to come. I just have to clean the rest of my house before I take a picture of it.

Saturday DATE!

We went on......a DATE!!!!! Oh my gosh, the world may end. No, no it won't because we must do this again. I know some people that mourn the loss of regular date nights once children come into the picture. Seriously, we never had regular date nights without children, so we were bad at this whole thing before they came. Plus, they make us happier anyway. However......

IT WAS SO FUN!!!

We went to Texas Roadhouse (thanks mom for watching the munchkins!) and sat at the bar for the first time. I think I prefer the bar! Being in Utah, eating at the bar means that one person has alcohol while everyone else drinks their water and cherry limeade. We originally sat there because the table wait was an hour and the bar was first come first serve. We had a movie to get to, so we chose the bar. We got our food in record time. The servers were ultra nice and extra attentive. I got to sit next to Brian instead of across from him and I had a much better time. Who knew? I love the bar! :)

We also saw Ironman 3. Amazing. Love what they did to his hair. Lovely. Paltrow was classy and her white suit rocked my fashion loving socks off. Movies are fun! Sigh. Dates....they help me relax and remind me why I married that cute man I live with and rarely see. Oh boy, he's a keeper!

We'll have to visit you again, date night. It's not the children I'm battling. It's that 215 page paper (book - by Brian) that has stolen my husband away and I can't wait to be rid of you.

Weight Watchers: Week 3 and 4

Week 3: I'm not going to say much about week 3 other than the fact that routine started setting in and it was wonderful. I had an easier time saying "no" to those delicious and tempting....everything. (I mean, It's not only desserts that are tempting, but BREAD (I miss eating those carbs by the loaf), and MILK! I never thought I'd cut back so much on my milk intake. It's starting to become a treat for me to have a full glass of milk. Plus...I like food. Eating in general makes me happy, so it was becoming easier to not snack so much.

Week 4: Graduation week. Family in town. Ice cream cake. Meat. Rolls. Treats. Shall I go on? I'm starting to get hungry now. Along with having a big celebration and family in town, I didn't get my workout in either. I just wanted food food food!!! I wanted sweets beyond belief and I indulged far more than I should have. It was hard. Once I had one night of dessert, which I saved points for, my body went into super-sweets-craving mode. It took me quite a few days to get over that (HA! Still not over that....as I'm staring at the candy bar on my piano), but it's the start of a new week and I WILL do this! I feel so much better.

Plus, we'll be moving in a couple of weeks and won't be able to cook my own food, so I'll enjoy that week when it comes. Bring on the ice cream for moving week! Kidding. Well....sort of....