Tag Archives: Denver

Catch-up post: Moving to Houston

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Yes, we moved! It’s kind of a crazy story. You know what’s craziest? Exactly one year ago, we were living the life in Provo (in that cute little house we still love), Josh was a week away from graduation, and we were preparing for our move and first job in Denver. Who would have thought that now, one year later, we would have moved to Denver, celebrated Carson’s first birthday, started and ended a pregnancy, moved to Houston, and welcomed a new baby? A pretty action-packed year, huh?

So our life in Denver was great and happy and we were enjoying it. The first we heard of the upcoming move, it was a Thursday night not too long before Thanksgiving. Josh had stayed at work late for a third-quarter results call and I was at home. I was thinking about going to see a play with my visiting teaching companion (the sister we taught had a daughter in a school play) and called Josh to see if he’d be home in time for me to go.

“Um, maybe tonight isn’t the best night,” Josh said.

“Why not?”

“Well, we just might want to stay home and…talk about stuff,” Josh said.

“What stuff?” Immediately I was suspicious. Josh didn’t tell me anything (I think he hadn’t wanted to disclose anything until he got home), but I could tell that something was up. I waited anxiously (I was so anxious) for him to get home.

When Josh came home it all came out. He had just found out during the call that his company, Pariveda Solutions, would be closing their Denver office. The office was a smaller and a newer one, and it just wasn’t working out for the company, so they would be officially shutting it down by the end of 2013.

Wow, that was unexpected. It left us with several options. The company, thankfully and a huge huge blessing, was very kind and would pay for any of their Denver employees to transfer to (almost) any of the other Pariveda offices across the country (including Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, a couple in California…maybe a few others I’m forgetting). Or, the Denver employees who wanted to stay in Denver would actually be starting their own company doing essentially the exact same thing for the exact same clients, and they would have been more than happy to have Josh working for them. There were a few other totally new employment options we were looking at, too.

In the end it was a really hard decision and took a whole lot of thought, talking things through together, and especially prayer. Josh and I had chose to go to Denver because we felt like the Lord told us we should. Were we supposed to stay in Denver, then? Or would the Lord bring us there just to have us move somewhere else? Yes, it was a hard decision and it took several weeks to figure it out. During the process, I think both Josh and I went through all the stages of grief (denial, depression, acceptance…whatever they are). There were lots and lots of roller coaster emotions involved.

I think we decided, first, to stay with Pariveda. It is a very good company and Josh enjoys working for them. After that it was a pretty easy choice to come to Houston: my family is here, it’s a good office, the manager is Mormon :). The next choice was when to move: before or after the baby came? If it was before, it meant things had to happen fast: the sooner we could go, the better, I thought. If it was after, it meant staying in Denver and hoping that the Pariveda office there stayed open long enough to keep Josh employed – if not, it meant him traveling to other offices to be staffed. That made both of us uncomfortable. And then, as I thought about moving with either a big pregnant belly or a newborn… I thought the pregnant belly would be easier. So we decided to move before the baby came, meaning ASAP.

In the end, I guess it all did happen pretty fast: we first found out right before Thanksgiving, we made an official decision sometime mid-December, and Carson and I officially flew to Houston, leaving our Colorado life behind, on January 4 (Josh came, too, but would go back later, after a week of house-hunting, to oversee the movers packing up our house and finish his work projects in Denver).

Here’s the moving van loaded up with our life:

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The whole thing wasn’t for us, we promise; we don’t have that much stuff yet. (Actually, Josh and I decided that moving every 8 months is a great way to keep your stuff parred down: we went through two major deep-cleanings and stuff-sortings in a year, and we’re feeling pretty good about our lack of junk accumulation.)

So now, of course, we’ve been settled into our new house for quite a while (and we’re loving loving loving welcoming our new baby girl Annelise into it). I’ve got more to say about our house and finding it, though, and what we all did in the meantime. So stay tuned!

Moving

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Here are just a few pictures from moving. Not a ton; we were pretty busy packing, loading, finding a house, and being a little stressed through all this. But it was fun, too. Not so fun that we want to move again anytime soon, but perhaps someday…

Carson’s moving week injury. Josh and I were busy packing and not watching as he tried to pull himself up to stand next to an empty bookcase. One of the shelves came down and hit his face. :( Poor guy.

All our stuff…remembering back, now, it was kind of a fun adventurous week, with all of our stuff in a big pile, lots of boxes, eating Brick Oven pizza on the floor of our living room after we loaded the truck…good times. One of the best parts was spending so much time together as a family (and couple) as we worked.

Turns out moving week is pretty fun for kids (at least Carson). Who doesn’t love all those boxes?

This is the morning before we left, the morning we loaded the trailer.

…and this is how we kept Carson occupied while we loaded the trailer. Snacks are just wonderful sometimes, aren’t they?

The week before we left, we got to visit Josh’s grandparents one last time. It was so great to see them; we miss you Grandma and Grandpa!

For Carson, moving in week was maybe even more fun than moving out. Empty boxes are the best!

It was hard on Carson a little bit too, of course. (Hard on all of us.) I think he did go through some anxiety in getting used to a new place, getting over the long drive (that was hard on him), and seeing lots of new people. But now that we’ve been here almost three months (wow, time flies!) we’re all settling in so well and really liking it more and more here. More posts on our new life in Colorado to follow!

We got iPhones

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And I’ve decided the new iPhones are responsible for the lack of posts lately.

See, now that Josh and I have iPhones, we use them as our cameras. And we just haven’t emptied our phones and put the pictures on a computer yet, so I don’t have access to pictures to blog about. Oh, and we’re trying to sort out computer stuff and set up a family computer so we can have all of our pictures in one location, but we haven’t gotten around to that either. But we’ve been taking lots of awesome photos over the past few months, don’t you worry.

For now, as far as pictures go, the only thing I’ve got are these pictures from Carson’s 9 month photo shoot during our stay in Texas (thanks, Mom!). But these pictures are so adorable, you shouldn’t need anything else. ;-)

As far as updates, life is good! Josh and I have felt all grown up lately, leaving BYU and getting a real job and moving and all. It’s exciting, but admittedly kind of weird sometimes. But yes, we’re doing all kinds of grown-up things like moving into a bigger house (in a nice neighborhood, though 15 minutes from just about everywhere), buying a second car (with no good public transportation options for Josh and our house 15 minutes from just about everywhere, a second car became a necessity), and even having the missionaries over to dinner (being called “Sister Lyman” by the missionaries probably feel the most grown up of all).

Carson’s been doing his fair share of growing up, too! This week I cleaned through his toys for the first time, packing away all the baby toys he’s no longer interested in. Aw, growing up! He loves exploring the house, climbing up and down stairs, and walking – with assistance. He’s not quite walking on his own yet. He’s still eating really well, and his latest favorite food is toast. He loooves it and once he sees toast, he won’t eat anything else (even his old favorites, like bananas) until the toast is completely gone.

We can’t believe Carson will be 1 in August! This past year has been amazing and incredible; we’ve been so blessed to have Carson join our family, and we’ve been blessed in numerous other ways, too.

Well, there’s a small update, but this week my goal is to get the iPhone pictures onto a computer somehow, and then I’ll have no excuse reason not to blog. ;-)

Update on life

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Hello! Hope you’re all enjoying your January and having a wonderful time. We are! Life is good. Here’s a smattering of updates through pictures…

Josh had a birthday! We celebrated with family (his brothers, my sisters) at a local sushi place. Yum, sushi.

Carson did really well, but he didn’t last the whole night:

Speaking of Carson, he’s kind of a ham. Well, at least he loves my point-and-shoot camera. If we need to cheer him up when he’s fussy, the camera usually does the trick.

We also got him some winter clothes with Christmas money. It was actually my first time picking out clothes for my own son (everyone was so generous with baby shower gifts!) and it was fun! We found some great sales at Old Navy and now I feel like a better mom because he has a hat and coat to wear outside in the cold.

See? Ham.

Random update, his eczema is gone! Hooray! Cetaphil lotion did the trick for us. Carson is also teething (two small teeth on the bottom already!) and loooves chewing things – mostly fabric. I’ve come to get him up from a nap a couple times and found him like this:

(That’s his sock in his mouth.) He also prefers his tummy and will always roll that way when we put him down on his back. And he’s starting to travel! Just rolling, twisting, pulling, and a tiny bit of scooting. But it means he’s starting to explore his world.

Well, what can we say? We just love this little guy so much. Seriously. Having a baby has been an amazing, incredible, and downright fun life-changing experience.

And that’s life! :) Well, life also entails some other pretty great things. Josh is finishing up his last semester and doing well in his classes. He graduates in just a few months! My new hobby is couponing…not awesome at it yet, but I’m getting there. It feels good to be able to use the increased free time I have to help our family save money. And here’s a peek at my new haircut. I’m loving the convenience of the shorter length!

We’re getting excited for our big move to Denver in April…wait, did we just annouce that for the first time? I think we did! Well, it’s true! We’re moving to Denver! Josh got a job offer from Pariveda Solutions, the company he interned for two summers ago, and we gladly accepted it. We’re headed out there at the end of the semester!

In the meantime, we really are enjoying every last bit of our time in Provo. We’ve been in our house here since we’ve been married (just over three years!) and we really love it. We also love being close to our siblings here at college. Dinner nights this semester have been a blast with all six of us.

So that’s us! Hope you’re all doing well and happy, too. :)