Perspective

We have been living here in Texas for almost a year and a half now.

I have to say, I really do love the people here. 

We have made some amazing, life long friends. 

We have added two wonderful dogs to our family.

Travis finally got a much deserved promotion. 

Texas has been great to us. 

And I can't wait to leave!

Living here, away from family has really put a lot of things into perspective for me.

I always knew I was close with my family, but never

truly realized how much I would miss them until we moved. 

A big part of moving here was because it was that dream that we would be

better off financially, and be able to "live the dream". 

The idea was we would be able to afford for me to stay home once 

we had kids, and be able to purchase a house, and fly home 

when I needed to see my family and friends. 

But that's how it works, it's always "supposed" to be a certain way. 

I can tell you, it hasn't been a single one of those things. 

But what moving here has given me is time to think about what is really 

important to me. What do I REALLY want?

What I really want, isn't a beautiful big house, it is a comfortable

place to call home within driving distance of my sister and parents. 

And if having to work after having kids is what has to happen, so be it. 

I grew up living very close to my grandparents, and seeing them all the time.

I always dreamed of having the same thing for my children one day.

That simply isn't going to happen living this far away.

I want my kids to grow up near their cousins and my friends kids. 

I want to be around when my first niece or nephew is born. 

Or when something exciting happens, to be close enough to celebrate.

I want to be able to meet Kim for margaritas and happy hour on Friday evenings,

and spend a few hours with the girls more than twice a year.

I want to be able to sit with my parents in their backyard chatting the afternoon away.

I want to take the dogs to the beach! 

I have realized those are the things that mean the most to me.

And those things are all back in California,

where I long to be. 

I will never look back on this decision to move to Texas as a mistake. 

It has shown me what I want and what is important. 

Sometimes you just need a change of scenery to make you realize

everything you ever wanted was right there in front of you all along. 

And while life there wasn't what you hoped and dreamed it would be,

it was actually much better. 

Hoping and praying we will be back in California by the end of 2013!

My Sister's Visit

Back at the end of September my sister finally made her 

way out here to visit me and see what Texas is all about. 

It was so nice having her here, and just being able to hang out like we used to.

We didn't do anything super special, but we did have a list of

places and things she just had to see before she left. 

One night we went to dinner at Babe's.

We went on a Sunday night and it wasn't too crazy busy.

Our server told us at the end of our meal Shaque was there. 

We contemplated asking to take a picture with him, but we both chickened out.

I also took my sister to Bahama Buck's to experience her first shaved ice.

Now for all my friends in CA, this is nothing like a slurpee or icee..

it's about 1 million times better! 

My sister is a huge Icee fan, and she agrees shaved ice wins hands down! 

If you haven't tried it, get yourself to a shaved ice stand. 

Or come visit me and I will take you!

The biggest of our adventures was heading to the Texas State Fair.

I have never been, and obviously, neither had she.

Travis tagged along with us. 

We ate some really terrible fried food, saw Big Tex, walked around, 

saw some animals, and did even more walking.

Overall we had a great time, but holy hell is the fair expensive. 

Big Tex. RIP.

These were nightlights. My BIL may need all of them.

Biggest Frito Pie Ever. Literally.

Enjoying said Frito pie.

Fried cinnamon roll with bacon. Barf.

Fried Shiner Bock beer. And a cold Shiner. Fried beer = blah

 

Fried alligator. Double barf.

Butter sculptures.

This is Boris. He is HUGE.

Big Tex

1 Year

This weekend marks one year since we moved here to Texas.

What a year it has been! 

There have been some really hard times this past year,

but overall I am so glad we made this decision.

I think I would have always regretted not moving here and giving it a try.

 

I have mentioned before, I absolutely love the area we live in.

Everything we could ever need or want is within a 5 minute drive. 

We have also made some really great friends out here. 

Adopting Callie has certainly been a huge highlight of our life here in Texas.

 

Travis has worked his ass of this last year, and last Saturday he was 

finally rewarded for all his hard work.

He got a nice big promotion! 

I am so proud of him, and this is a very well deserved promotion.

It has been a lovely way to end our first year here in Texas.

Don't get me wrong, I miss my family and friends back in California

very, very much. But we are finally settling in to life here in Texas.

My sister is coming to visit in a few weeks and I just can't wait. 

We are hoping this next year here has many more blessings in store for us!

A Little Trip to Austin

Yesterday Travis and I took a little trip down to Austin.

The main reason behind the trip was to to a Love Light session

with the insanely talented Lyndsay at Life In Motion Photography.

Since the photo's were late in the evening we figured we would 

just make a weekend of and it get a hotel room for Saturday night.

We packed up and headed down around 11am.

I had a hair and makeup appointment late in the afternoon.

So we just took our time driving, rocking out 

to music and chatting. It was a nice 3.5 hour drive.

Made a stop at Bailey Banks & Biddle.

DAMN! 

I picked out my new ring. You know, when we hit the lottery. 

Then we headed to the hotel to relax for a little bit and get ready for our pictures.

 Modeling a lovely fanny pack

 

These made their way to my Christmas list.

I booked the room on Hot.wire. My sister and parents have both done this

and scored incredible deals at super nice hotels.

I figured we would give it a try.

I tend to be rather snobby with hotels, but since we were on a budget

I thought 3.5 stars would be good enough. 

Heck, on another popular hotel site it get's 4.5 stars. 

Well, pulling up to the place I knew this was NOT a 3.5 star hotel. 

More like 1.5 stars...if that. 

Pulling in the parking lot there had to have been at least 25 signs 

stating they were not responsible for your car being broken into. Awesome.

Another 15-20 signs stating hide your belongings and lock your car. Rad.

And then one sign stating they videotaped every license plate that drove it. Stellar.

We checked in, went to our room and I wanted to vomit. 

It was just disgusting. 

Had we not still had to finish getting ready for pictures I wouldn't have bothered checking in.

We got ready and as we were heading down to leave decided 

we were going to take the pictures, come back pack up and drive back home.

So that's what we did! 

We left Austin around 11:30 pm.

Stopped in West, Texas around 1am for kolache's for my pregnant friend who LOVES them!

And we made it home around 2:30 this morning. 

 

Best kolache's ever. Mixed berry is my fav!

All in all, it was a great trip. 

I cannot wait to see how the pictures turned out. 

And one final note, don't trust Hot.wire.

Going Away Party

I'm a little (or a lot) late blogging about this, 

because I just realized I never hit publish way back when I wrote it. 

Better late than never?!?

Back in August my sister and parents threw us a little going away party.

Since we were moving to Texas, we thought  a bbq / cowboy theme would be appropriate.

We had a great time, and my sister did a great job with everything.

It was so nice to get to see everyone one last time before we moved away.

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

All photo's courtesy of LuLu's Photography

How It's Going

I thought I would do a little update on how we are adjusting to life in Texas

and just an overall update on life at this moment.

The area we live in is in North Dallas, and we absolutely love it here. 

Everything I need or want is within 1 mile of our place. 

The only time I really have to leave our city is to go to our RE. 

It really does feel like we live in Orange County, 

just with much nicer people and a lot more spread out. 

Back in December I started working at a baby store. 

(I know, an infertile working at a baby store seems insane, but it doesn't get to me)

I thought it would be temporary while I looked for a more legit job.

Especially because the pay is crap. 

But, as time has gone by I have actually started to really enjoy my job.

I have always been obsessed with baby gear, 

so this is the perfect job as I get to play with it all day long!

After a lot of thinking I decided to stay at this job for the time being.

For the first time ever I actually really love my job.

Also, they are going to be extremely flexible with me needing time off for Dr. appointments.

Plus my job is about 10 minutes away from the RE's office. Perfect. 

As for Travis and his job it's a billion times better.

Two days before we left our California vacation to come back here

we found out he was being transferred to another store. 

Well his new store and general manager is amazing!

He is no longer working 10-13 hour days. 

It's been so nice for our relationship that he isn't stressed out and at his whits end every day 

after getting bitched at all day at work for no reason. 

He was also offered another promotion,

but yet again it was in B.F.E and we just couldn't accept it. 

There wasn't an RE within 100 miles of where we would be moving.

Not gonna happen. 

We are praying that he is offered another promotion here soon.

And then there is all the fun infertility crap.

Every day that passes I want more and more to be a mom. 

Travis wants so badly to be a dad.

We have to do one more cycle of just Clomid before our insurance will cover

injectible medication, so that's up first.

We are going to talk to our RE about IVF.

Even though it isn't covered by insurance, I don't know how many 

cycles of IUI I want to put ourselves through only to possibly end up having to try IVF.

Like I said, we are going to talk to our RE about all if it much more in detail. 

So, that's life right now. 

It is getting better every day and we are settling in to live here in Texas.

 

Last Week

As I mentioned earlier my parents were here visiting last week.

It was so nice to have them here.

We didn't do too much, but just getting to hang out was fantastic.

They got a room for two nights at a local resort and I went and hung out

with them while they stayed there. We pretty much drank and hung out by the pool the entire time.

My kind of day.

Thursday Travis was supposed to be off work, so we headed to Cowgirls stadium. 

My Dad and Travis were super excited to go on the self guided tour. 

I thought it would be cool, but wasn't as excited as they were.

Until we got there.

And I stepped foot on the field.

I lost my shiz.

I was like a 12 year old boy seeing b00bs for the first time.

I was running up and down the field.

Taking a million pictures.

Running play's with my dad and Travis.

It was awesome.

Until my dad forgot he was 53 and make several attempts to kick a field goal,

which resulted in a pulled hamstring and him limping for the next 24 hours.

The rest of the tour was a little lame.

But I did get to see where hottie Miles Austin gets dressed, so that worked for me!

I wish I had pictures, but they are all on my mom's camera which is back in California.

As soon as we got home, Travis got called in to work.Great ending to the day.

They left Saturday morning, and we have been chatting on Skype every day since.

I miss them so much, but I'm so thankful they were able to come out and visit.

Now I've just got to get some more people out here to visit!

We're In

We are finally in our own place and out of my inlaw's house!

Hallelujah.

Friday my mother in law and I painted.

Yesterday we moved everything in.

I never want to move again..except back to California.

Our new place isn't super big, but it's bigger than our last one.

If you can believe this, our first apartment was 542 sq. ft.

Ya, it's no wonder we nearly killed each other every day.

This place, while still not "big", is much bigger for us, at a whopping 840 sq. ft.

I have a beautiful kitchen.

Complete with granite counter tops and beautiful glass sconces hanging over my kitchen island.

It's like a dream.

Maybe once all the boxes get put away I will take some pictures.

Because I'm sure you are just dying to see the place.

*there really needs to be a sarcastic font*

But we are home. 

At least what will be home for the next year.

And fingers crossed we have to move into something bigger next year 

because there is a baby joining our family.

One can only  hope.

Things Are Changing

Things are certainly changing in our lives right now.

Travis started at his new store, and the hours are much longer.

He is hating it. 

He loved his last store. He loved his employees. He loved his GM.

I was offered a part time position at a retail store (I'm still looking for a "real" job)

and it pay's a whopping $9.50 an hour. 

All my paychecks combined would hardly cover my car payment, 

let alone the rest of the giant stack of bills.

I guess when the cost of living is much lower, companies don't have to pay as well.

This has been really hard for me to handle. 

The fact that I'm paying $40,000+ in student loans,

and can only get a job that will pay me $9 bucks an hour. Seriously?!?!

I have sent out at least 40 resumes. 

Times are desperate. And so I am.

I've starting applying for jobs I would have never considered before.

Positions I don't really want, but that pay better than $9/hour

and would allow us to pay off our debt, which was a huge reason for moving in the first place.

We, (like idiots) assumed this would be our chance to catch up financially

and put us in the position that when we do have a child (and you know how well that's going)

we could afford for me to stay home and not have all this debt.

Guess we were wrong.

At least for now. 

I'm praying and praying with every ounce of my being 

that a "real" job will come along soon. 

One that will at least pay what I was making in California.

And now I must go send out more resumes....

Hey Y'all

 We finally made it to Texas.

It was just a short little 28 hour drive. 

NEVER. AGAIN.

We had a few mishaps along the way, which included pulling over in Arizona 

to unload the entire trailer and repack it.

In 108 degree weather.

But it helped immensely in the long run.

And it was a million times safer after we did that.

But it still sucked balls.

Anyways, we are finally here.

I am still in shock that this actually happened.

Saying goodbye to my family was worse than I thought it was going to be.

I haven't cried that hard since my Grandpa passed away a few years ago.

My mom was a complete mess, full on hyperventilating sobbing.

My sister refused to cry in front of me, yet I still lost my mind as I hugged her goodbye.

My dad tried to keep it together, but he cried too.

I guess we are a family of hot messes.

So now the real fun begins.

We are staying with my in law's for the next 13 days 

until we can move into our new place.

I am FREAKING out about finding a job and have applied to every single place I can think of.

The stress of not having any income is really getting to me.

Oh, and since we are a one income family right now,

it would only make sense that the trailer we rented for the move wasn't big enough for all our stuff.

So we had to get rid of tons of stuff.

I realize it's just stuff, but now we have to buy all new things.

Normally I would be super excited about that, 

but not right now with me not working. 

(*note to self: don't let travis be the judge of how much will fit in uhaul next time we move)

So the very little amount of money I had set aside for decorating,

will now be going to purchasing all new stuff that I had just days ago.

At least shopping will keep me busy and out of this house!

What Almost Was

I was flipping through my iPhone photo's tonight

and came across the pictures of the house Travis and I wanted to buy last year.

We had gone to Texas to visit and thought we would look at homes 

just to give ourselves and idea of what was in our price range.

I don't think either of us though we would find a house we loved so much.

I think about that house all the time.

Not just because it was a house, as opposed to our tiny apartment,

but because we really loved every single thing about it.

EVERY. SINGLE. THING

It was and still is my ideal floorplan.

The elevation we had chosen had a lovely front porch, something we both dream of having.

It was on a golf course. 

The cherry on top, it was 1300 square feet bigger than our current apartment 

and would have cost us $4 more a month than our rent.

That's right,

$4 FREAKIN' DOLLARS!!

So here is a little tour of the house that almost was ours. 

(Please excuse the picture quality & lovely lighting. I worked with what I had at the time. And it was storming while I was taking pics)

Looking back at the front door from the great room.

To the left was laundry room and garage.

Down the hall and to the right were 2 bedrooms and a full bath

Kitchen

Dining Area

Great Room

(It was big, even though it doesn't look like it here)

Formal Dining

(We planned to use it as a kid's toy area)

Master Bath

Master Bedroom

(Again, bigger than it looks)

Laundry Room

(Huge improvement from the washer & dryer we don't have in our apartment now)

Our Lot

The "Backyard"

(It's hard to tell, but our view would have been the golf course. I think it was the 2nd hole)

Taking The Plunge

Since Travis and I started talking marriage 4 years ago

we always talked about the possibility of moving to Texas.

He grew up there and loves every single thing about it.

I have gone to visit his family over the years,

and I was shocked when I realized I really loved it too.

Last summer we went out to visit his family and check out some houses

to see what was in our price range and whether or not this was for us.

We found our dream starter home.

The perfect floorplan, square footage and it was on a golf course.

Literally, our backyard would have overlooked the 3rd hole.

On the flight home I lost it and realized I couldn't leave my family.

So, we decided to stay here.

Then as months passed we talked about Travis' long term goals at work

and he expressed that we ultimately wanted to work at the corporate level.

It just happens to be based in Dallas.

He started applying for a few jobs, but the fact that we live in California was hurting his chances.

So, the talks began again.

I realized that as much as I love and adore my family,

the only way Travis and I would be able to have the lifestyle we longed for, 

was to move out of California.

(*by lifestyle I mean, for me to be a SAHM, when we have kids, not "drive a Range and wear expensive jewelry" lifestyle)

It hit me then and there that I had to do what we thought was best for our family.

Or at least give it a try.

All that to say,

we are moving to Texas...

 in 10ish weeks.

We are so very excited.

I cannot wait to see what this new chapter in our life has in store for us. 

I am looking forward to getting to explore everything Texas has to offer. 

My biggest concern with the move is finding a job.

I don't intend on nannying once we move out there.

Mainly because, I work for such an incredible family right now

and I don't think I will find anything close to that ever again. 

Not only that, but I did graduate a few months ago and I would like to try 

and put my degree to use, even if only for a short while. 

I know we are in a horrible economy, and jobs are few and far between.

I am terrified I won't be able to find a job when we get out there.

And not working is not an option.

We are planning to rent the first year we are there and use the difference in rent

from what we were spending here to pay down our debt.

The "plan" is to purchase a house after the first year. 

We will see how that goes.

Everything else I seem to plan sends me for a loop, so we will just say we "hope" to buy a house! 

We have ten weeks left, and so much to do.

Not only finding an apartment, packing, and finding me a job,

but a trip to Palm Springs, Tim Mcgraw concert, my birthday,

 a baby shower my sister and I are throwing, a going away party

and flying to Texas to do some apartment shopping. 

Oh, and spending as much time as possible with family and friends.

It is going to be a busy 2 months.