Tag Archives: moving

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!

Our courtship story, and a special surprise for me

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I don’t know who knows the story of how Josh and I met, but here it is:  Our senior year of high school, Josh and I both went to something called Y Weekend at BYU. We went to the campus, got a tour, attended some sporting events and classes, and got to know other seniors from all over the States. I think there were about 40 people in our group.

Josh and I didn’t really talk or get to know each other during Y Weekend, but we recognized each other enough so that, flash forward a few months to the first week of our freshman year at BYU, we recognized each other when we were put into the same New Student Orientation group. After a fun weekend at orientation, with more campus tours and a dance, Josh and I knew each other, had talked, and started to be friends.

During freshman year we hung out a few times, and went on a few dates (including Preference, so I’m a supporter of girls’ choice dances), and really had fun together. But Josh was only at BYU a semester before he left for his mission, and he lived in the Heritage dorms and I lived in Helaman…you know, long distance. ;-) So we stayed just good friends. But as a Christmas gift for me, right before Josh left, he surprised me in the lobby of my dorm and gave me a super nice card (still have it and love what it says) and a framed picture. It was a photo that I had taken a few years before on a vacation, one of a pier and an old boat at sunset, that Josh really liked and had put on his photography blog (and you probably know that Josh is awesome at and loves photography). So the picture had special meaning. I loved it and put it up in my dorm room, and then each other room I had the whole time I was at BYU.

Flash forward two years to when Josh got home from his mission, and really, things just clicked. He started writing me (I was in Spain) when he got home, we exchanged emails, we both ended up at BYU in the spring, we saw each other for the first time, we went on our first post-mission date (an amazing magical date – a photo scavenger hunt, of course), and pretty soon after that we were seeing each other every day, then dating, then in love, then engaged, then married. :) BYU in the spring and summer was a wonderful time to date and fall in love. :)

Anyway, flash forward to yesterday, a few years later, when we’ve moved from BYU, married for three and a half years, with a ten-month-old baby and a new life, and we’re hanging up pictures in our new house (our last big move-in task, yay!). I found the framed boat picture (which I’ve always kept on display in our house), but I needed a frame for a picture of the Savior that we’ve never hung (and I was starting to feel guilty). The boat picture frame fit the print of the Savior perfectly and even matched, so I figured I’d put it there for now, just until we get a new frame, and then the boat picture goes back to where it was (it’s still very special to me). But when I was changing the picture, I was shocked to find, hidden behind the boat picture, a nicely matted picture of me and Josh during our preference date, with a short hand-written note from Josh on it. Wow! I had never even seen that before! It was so crazy to think that Josh gave that to me almost seven years ago, and I had that picture and note the whole time, but never found it until we were married with a kid! Crazy! I started shouting with so much excitement when I found it that Josh (who was hanging pictures upstairs) thought Carson had taken his first step.

It was a really neat experience. Kind of felt like something from a movie. Thanks for letting me share. :)

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. ;-)