Sorry it’s been so long… we moved

I know it's been a while. I've been busy. And lazy. I also partly blame my dad though because I want pictures of his retirement to go with this post, and he has yet to email them to me.

September 18th: We left for Utah with high hopes. It was a good drive, until dark. That's when the deer decided to show up. LOTS of deer. We stopped in the next town because of this. Rawlins, WY had some big college game going on and so all the cheaper hotels were booked. We ended up staying in an overpriced room because we didn't really have any other option.

September 19th: We arrive at CC's and spend some time with her and her mom. I stopped by a bookstore and dropped off an application. We learned to play Farkle and Apples to Apples thanks to CC.

September 20th: I went to a fake interview. The company is stupid and doesn't know how to manage its system. They ended up blowing me off. The rest of the day we went looking at apartments. We looked at about 12 different ones. Some were an immediate no. In the end, we were interested in three, but could only afford one.

September 21st: We called around to other places to see if they allowed cats. Most of them said no. We called around asking if they had any one bedroom apartments opening soon. Most of them said no. We called around asking for our price range, most of them said no. We then spent the rest of the day doing job apps.

September 22nd: We decided on the one we have now and got our deposit down, then did job apps the rest of the day.

September 23rd: We flew to Virginia - stressed about being jobless, but happy we found a place to live and excited to see my family!

September 24th: My daddy had his retirement ceremony. He's accomplished so much that I didn't know. I'm very proud of him, and I feel like I'm letting him down even more by being unemployed. I feel like I'm disappointing him by not having my degree already. I love him to death, and I want to make him proud. I also got to see all of my family. My grandparents, my aunts and my cousins. I got to meet my newest cousin (JW) for the first time. He's a handful, haha, but what toddler isn't? We just hung around my parents' house and had dinner outside. It was a nice day.

September 25th: (Our anniversary) We went to the beach and took family pictures. I know my grandparents are all about the bloodline, but I always feel bad when they don't include step-mom, and now Steve. After pictures Steve, AW and KI got in the ocean. I would have too if my swim suit fit properly. It was just a little too snug, so I wore a dress over it. Instead, I took turns with my aunts holding JW up in the waves. He had a little bit of rash, so we couldn't let him sit down and get sand in his diaper. He really seemed to like it! My grandparents, aunts and cousins had to leave early though to drive back to Ohio. So after saying goodbye, Steve, AW and I started collecting seashells. The ones we kept are in a little dish by my bathroom sink. My parents went to a play later that night, and I helped AW with her homework.

September 26th: We went to Busch Gardens. We went on a bunch of rides, ate dinner and then the Halloween event started at 6. First, we went to a little Halloween musical show that lasted about 20 minutes. Then we started walking through the haunted houses. My little sister apparently scares easily. She refused to be first or last. She had to be in the middle. The people that work there know that the scared ones are always in the middle though, so they really focused on her. She giggled like crazy when they would follow her or one of us. It was a lot of fun!

September 27th: Step-mom got super sick. Throwing up all day, so we decided to just hang around the house. Steve and I were worn out from everything happening since we left South Dakota, so we needed the break.

September 28th: Steve got super sick. Throwing up all day. Step-mom was feeling quite a bit better though, so after AW got home from school, the three of us went shopping for her first homecoming dress. Daddy wouldn't let her go with the boy that asked her, because the boy wanted to do the whole dinner/date thing. Our dad is very protective of his girls. Daddy made his super awesome ribs that night too as promised, and they were delicious. I felt bad that Steve didn't get any, but it was better for him not to. He was still throwing up after all.

September 29th: We flew back to South Dakota. 10 hours. It sucked. Steve was better though. Waiting for our last flight, my phone rang. The bookstore wanted to interview me on Friday. I told her I wouldn't be there 'til Saturday, and she said she'd make an exception for me.

September 30th: We went to the post office to do a change of address; went to the bank to open an IRA account for Steve's 401K; went to NB's to say goodbye and pick up a few things; stopped by my work to pick up my last paycheck and say goodbye again to my girls there; picked up the uhaul; emptied our storage unit; and emptied our room in his parents house.

October 1st: October already!? Got up around 7. Left at 8:30. Jasmine was not happy. She was meowing very loudly. She panted from time to time. I gave her lots of extra love whenever she started freaking out. After the first half an hour, she was fine. She'd meow from time to time, and I'd pet her and she'd be fine. She kept switching between our laps and her own seat in the middle. We got to CC's again at about 830. She wasn't there so we went to bed pretty early.

October 2nd: Got up and went to my interview at the bookstore. She loved me! I was so happy and excited! She said she just had to do the formalities of checking my references and such, but that she wanted to get me into orientation as soon as possible! Yes! After that, we went to our apartment, signed the lease, handed over a huge check that would cover our whole lease. They wanted all of it because we were unemployed. I had to borrow money from my dad. But hey, no interest! We're going to pay him back the money we would normally being paying for the rent. So it works. We got our keys and moved in. We started at about noon and we were finished by four. So we took the truck back to U-haul. AG was able to help with a few things before ZG woke up. After that, Alicia babysat our truck in case of thieves by playing with ZG in the grass. Thank you AG!

October 3rd: We unpacked 80% of everything. We were so sore from the previous day from the heavy lifting and all those stairs. Those stairs aren't much a few times a day, but 50 bajillion times, they are torture. Tylenol was our friend. We also got a few groceries. Cold stuff mostly that his mom couldn't pack for us.

October 4th: Finished unpacking and since then we've mostly just been vegging out. Me waiting for my job to start. Steve doing more applications. We passed one of the places Steve had applied for, and decided he would go in the next day to talk to them.

Steve got the job after going in. He started yesterday. It's a temporary job, but they should have permanent positions opening up in a few weeks. If not, this job should last long enough for him to do more apps and find a permanent position elsewhere. Please pray he finds a good permanent position soon!

I know it's long. That's what we've been up to.

Steve Drew This