Ribs. Them's good eatin'.

June 12, 2011

After getting settled into out new apartment we finally got to go all out for a nice sit down meal. My sister, Andi, told us a while back about the way she cooked ribs it sounded so easy and good that we'd been wanting to try it. We don't normally buy ribs but we saw an ad that they were on sale so we went out and got some. Here's all you do: Put the ribs in a crock pot, dump a bottle of BBQ sauce all over them, and let it cook on low all day until you're ready to eat. That's it. Really. The aroma just fills the house with great BBQ smells and temps you to pull them out early to eat them. Jen made some shell pasta and Rhodes rolls to go with it. The rib meat just falls off the bone. So easy and delicious that I wish we had tried it sooner. This will be a regular meal in our rotation now.

Mmmmm!

Here's a picture of Jen looking beautiful with her bump as of June 21st. She's so cute!

Texas Apartment

June 1, 2011

While I handled the move, Brian was in charge of finding us a place to live.  He only had about 3 weeks to do it though and really only had time on the weekends to go and look at places.  We were so lucky that my sister and her boyfriend let Brian stay with them in the meantime.  Brian and I are very different when it comes to apartments.  I like newer and updated and Brian likes cheaper and livable.  We made some compromises and after he looked at several (and I looked too via the apartment websites) we settled on Brian's taste.  We decided to only do a 6 month lease as we are hoping to possibly buy a house soon.  Brian found a place in Carrollton that has 2 bedrooms and 1 bath and the rent was considerably less than what we were paying in LA.  June 1st was the day we got our keys.   We finally got to see our apartment that evening.  It was awful!  The carpet was absolutely disgusting and there were cockroaches all over the place.  I wanted to cry and possibly did.  Thankfully the moving truck hadn't arrived with our stuff yet.  

June 2, 2011

I called the manager first thing the next morning and told her what we found.  I met her at the apartment and showed her what I was so unhappy with.  She promised to have the carpet replaced the next day and also to have her maintenance come and bomb the place for the pests right away.  I told her that I had not heard from the moving company yet, but that they were supposed to give me 24 hours notice before delivery.  I was to get in touch with them to see when they planned on dropping off our stuff.  Of course when I called they told me that they were ready to come first thing the next day!  Yikes!  I had to beg for them to postpone the delivery until later (without incurring a $300 charge).  Thankfully the dispatch guy was really nice and promised that they would delivery sometime around 2/3pm.  I then had to make sure that the new carpet would be ready in time.  The manager at the apartment insured me that it would be.

June 3, 2011

I showed up at the apartment around 2 and the carpet was finished around 3.  I hadn't heard anything from the movers so I just hung out.  Thankfully I had a book to keep me occupied.  Brian arrived at 5:30 to check out the carpet, which looked so great!  Unfortunately there were still some roaches so we worked on killing them and he went out and bought some spray to have.  At 6 I called the dispatch to find out why the movers were so late and he said they would be at the apartment by 8pm.  I told him that was a little late for the delivery because it would take a couple of hours to unload at least.  He agreed and we postponed it to Saturday (and I didn't have to pay anything because it was their fault).

June 4, 2011

The movers showed up around 8:30am and loaded.  I was in charge of checking off the numbers of the items as they came in.  Brian directed the guys where to put things.  We think we got everything, but aren't planning on unpacking it all seeing that we'll only be staying here 6 months.  We still come across the roaches, but they are nowhere near as bad as before.  We have the apartment pest guy here each week spraying too.  

Here are the pictures finally of our new place.

Kitchen

Dinning Room

Living Room

Patio

 2nd Room-aka Storage Room

Our Bedroom

 Bathroom

 Laundry

It took a little bit of time sifting through things to determine what we needed/wanted for these 6 months and what could be stacked away in the storage room.  Don't worry about baby, he'll hang with us until we figure out where we'll be living next.  We're content here, but anxious to see if we'll be able to do some good house hunting before our lease is up.  :)

A NEW CAR!!!

May 30, 2011

I've always wanted to come on down because I'm the next contestant on The Price is Right, shake Bob Barker's hand as he points to a massive sliding doorway and hear Rod Roddy shout, "A NEW CAR!!!" I could gawk and jump and ham it up good for the cameras in excitement. Unfortunately, buying a car is not as fun.

I was so happy to have my Jenny Bear with me finally. But we needed some wheels quick because the insurance company was going to settle with me. My truck ended up being totaled. Even though I liked the truck, I have to say I wasn't disappointed. Jen and I are starting a family and a two-seater truck just isn't family friendly. So it kind of works out for us.

I had been expecting this so I was already researching cars and prices and preparing to deal with the car salesmen for a while. Jen needed a new car too since she sold hers in LA. We liked the Hyundai models so I did a lot of the leg work online first. We found a black 2011 Tucson in Ft. Worth that Jen liked for a great price. We got there and test drove it and said we'd buy it. The car salesman actually was really nice and not the typical slimeball which was wonderful. He said, "Let's go in and do the paperwork" and I said, "Well wait a minute. Can I see the Elantra? Because I want one of those too." We tested the Elantra and liked it. This was a silver 2012 model and I told him we didn't have to buy it so I needed to get a great deal. I managed to buy it at the invoice price and now Jen and I are riding in style...


We love our new rides. Jen's never had a brand new car so this is really special for her. Now she just needs flames painted on, two 15 inch subwoofers in the back to let everyone know she's coming, and hydraulics for some three wheel action. She's going to be the envy of the kiddie car pool one day for our boy and his friends. Flames on that black paint are gonna look INCENDIARY I'm telling you!

Moving Time for Jen

The original plan was to have Brian fly back to LA over Memorial weekend to load up and U-haul and then to drive us out to Texas.  After Brian's car accident I decided that wasn't a good idea at all because I knew the drive would be hard for Brian to do again and I really didn't want to be stuck in a U-haul.  I asked Brian if we could just hire a moving company and let me fly out to Texas?  It took some pleading, but it was really the best decision.  I met with different companies to get quotes and worked on finishing up the packing.  My parents came up one weekend and helped too.  My dad posted about it on his blog.  Click here (there's great pictures) I was super grateful for their help and sad to say goodbye to them.  It was nice being in close proximity to them and they were so excited for their first grand baby.  Now they just have to travel a little further, but they'll get 3 for 1 (Me, Courtney, and baby)

Then it was finally moving day!

May 27, 2011

The movers arrived around 9:30 and loaded up.  Boy did we have a ton of stuff and the apartment looked so strange empty.  Here are some pictures after everything was gone.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would for the loading process (6+ hours), but it was on the truck and I was happy that we didn't have to do it ourselves.

I spent the night at a friend's (who was gone for the weekend) and was set to fly out the next day.

May 28, 2011

I'm sure you may be wondering what happened to Edna?  Edna was my 1998 Tan (yuck) Ford Taurus that I had been driving since 2001.  It was my mom's leased car that my grandmother had bought for me to use when I moved to Utah for school.  While I didn't love the car for it's aesthetics, it had major sentimental value.  Since it was old it really wasn't going to be worth bringing it to Texas (plus the ac wasn't working and that would have been bad with the hot summer approaching).  My aunt mentioned selling it to CarMax, which was an awesome idea and exactly what I did.  I drove it to a CarMax that was close to LAX and within a couple of hours sold it for what Brian and I found it was worth (on Kelly Blue Book).  We got more than we figured we would for it.  Here's one last picture of me with Edna.

After I handed over the keys and got my check, I took a taxi to the airport and hopped on a plane to Dallas to see my BB.  I was so happy to finally be reunited with him.  It was hard being apart for the 3 weeks, but we survived and are ready to start our life in a new place.

Goodbye Baby Showers

May 13, 2011

My great co-workers threw me a baby shower/goodbye party.  We ate pizza (which was something I actually liked to eat at the time).  It was so fun to get things for my little guy!  Here's some pictures from the shower.

I practically cried each time I opened something.  Since I had only found out days before what I was having I hadn't bought the little guy anything yet.

We also ate a super yummy chocolate cake!

It was wonderful and I'm so grateful to the people that I worked with out there.  Thanks!

May 25, 2011

Some ladies in my ward also organized a shower for me.  I felt so blessed.  Sadly I didn't get a ton of pictures as I left the camera in my purse, but they had a yummy cake as well as other delicious desserts!

It was beautiful and fun.  I got lots more outfits and some beautiful homemade blankets.  Here's a picture of the blankets.

My little guy sure is set!  Like I said...I was so blessed in LA with wonderful people in my ward who took good care of me, especially after Brian had left.  Friends invited me over for dinners and were willing to help me pack things up.  I was so grateful.  It was sad saying my goodbyes!

Baby's Gender

May 9, 2011

I had scheduled my ultrasound a couple of weeks before everything happened with Brian's new job in Texas.  I was devastated when I found out that he wasn't going to be there.  What were were going to do about finding out what we were having?  I wondered if we should just wait until I was in Texas and had found a new doctor.  There was a small problem though as friends wanted to throw me a shower before I left LA and I really didn't want gender neutral things.

Brian and I decided that I'd ask the ultrasounds technician to write the gender on a paper and put it in an envelope to open later.  That is exactly what I did.  The ultrasound went well, but I didn't get to see much.  I didn't want to accidentally see something.  The tech was great and I carried the sealed envelope with me all day (and I wasn't even tempted to open it!).  Once I got home, I emailed Brian the pictures that I was given so he could see our baby and then I opened the envelope.

I was pretty sure that the baby was going to be a girl.  It was just something I thought since the very beginning although it really didn't matter to me.  I just wanted a healthy baby.  Brian had also thought it was going to be a girl because that's what I had been thinking.

We were surprised to find out that the paper said BOY!  

We immediately called our families to share the good news!  Pretty much my entire family assumed it was going to be a girl too.  It was fun to shock them.  We are so excited for our little boy to join us.  Here are the pictures that I got from the ultrasound.

He's so cute!  We love him!

The Drive to Texas

May 7, 2011

I left the day before in the early morning. Said a sad goodbye to Jen since I wouldn't see her for about a month. Then it was drive, drive, drive, drive, drive. I went north to catch I-40 and cross Arizona. Stopped for lunch in Flagstaff. Arizona is actually very pretty in this part of the state. I thought of Arizona as desert since I drove I-10 in the south part of the state on my move out to California. But there's a big forest that I past through. Tons of pretty trees. The desert parts of Arizona and New Mexico are pretty too with lots of mesas and red rock. I stopped for the night in Moriarty, New Mexico. That's east of Albuquerque.

I was going to make it the rest of the way today. So I got up and headed for Texas. I got to Amarillo then turned southeast toward the Dallas area. This was the wrong route to take for two reasons. The small highway I was on was going through little towns where you'd have to slow down. I should have taken I-10 through El Paso and stayed on the interstate to Dallas, but I wanted to try this route. The second reason this route was wrong is because about an hour and a half south of Amarillo in a little town called Hedley I got T-boned.


This picture hurts my eyes. I took good care of that truck. I was doing 55 mph when a teenage boy in a Dodge Ram decided to cross the highway without looking. It's an eerie feeling seeing a truck about to plow into you and there's nothing you can do to stop or swerve in time. Luckily, he wasn't going very fast. I had a couple scratches but was alright. Just shaken up. The state troopers and ambulance came. The boy wasn't hurt either and was very apologetic. I called Jen who freaked out on cue. I waited around for a tow truck to come and get me and my truck because it wasn't going any further. They took me to the Best Western hotel in Clarendon which is the next city to the north. Best Western is about the only thing there is in Clarendon. The nearest rental car place was back in Amarillo and the tow truck drive said if I need a ride there we could work out a deal. The problem with all this was my driver's license was expired unbeknownst to me. I never got my renewal notice in the mail because I think the DMV had my old apartment info. Oops! (I'll pause here a moment for you to grab your wallet and check the expiration on your license. Is the date coming up? Let me be a lesson to you. Go ahead and get that renewed.) No license means no rental car. I called my parents. Couldn't get hold of them. Called my sister who didn't know where they were. My brother-in-law immediately got in the car and headed to come get me but he is in Waco which is farther south than Dallas. I called my best friend, Josh, from the Dallas area. I was planning on surprising Josh when I got to Dallas because I hadn't told him I was moving. Surprise! Come get me! He drove to come get me so I called off my brother-in-law. It takes about 5 hours to get from Dallas to Clarendon. It was almost midnight when he arrived. We grabbed some sodas, turned around and made the drive all the way back. It was fun to talk and catch up on things though. We got home after 4am and crashed.

The next day my parents came and lent me one of their cars because I had my first day of work the next day. In the end I got a rental because Jen went online and renewed it for me. The rental place accepted the renewal receipt. Insurance was taking care of the rental while the truck went through the claim process.

Jen's sister, Courtney and her boyfriend David and their dog, Bruiser, took me in to their home to live. I'm so thankful for their hospitality. They even fed me well with lots of home cooked meals. If you're in the area I recommend staying there. I started working and looking for an apartment in my spare time. I missed Jen and talked to her every chance I got. I wanted the craziness to end and I wanted my pregnant wife with me. She kept me sane as we counted down the days until she'd come. I love you, Jen!

Brian's Goodbye to Friends and CA

May 3, 2011

Moving to another state means not being able to see good friends I've made. Who knows when or if I'll see them again so we had a last get together to say goodbye. We convened at a restaurant and ate and talked about the future and the good ol' days. These were friends I worked with at Bank of America at some point. It was a good time and I was glad to be able to thank them for being awesome and wish them good fortune until we meet again.

(From left) Michael (#1) Kim, Michael (#2) Sedeno, Laffit Logreco, Rouel Barranda, Rich (Spivey-Man) Spivey

Happy trails, gentlemen!

May 4, 2011

Today I decided to go on a hike while Jen was at work and enjoy the sunshine and soak up the beautiful surroundings of California. I threw some water and snacks in my backpack and went to my favorite trail in Topanga State Park. Not too far in I encountered one of the natives...

He took his time crossing but he had the right of way. Believe me.

I was also joined by plenty of other friends...

Makes me want to break into "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!"

After a few miles I reached the end of the trail at Parker Mesa Overlook. It's a great view of the ocean and inland to Downtown.




I'll miss this place and look forward to going back. California is a great state and I highly recommend you visit. Hasta luego, Cali!