Tag Archives: moving

Graduation, moving, new jobs, family visits, and other big adventures

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NOTE: This post has been a draft for a few weeks, so it’s a little outdated. I was waiting until I could get the pictures the right way, but I still haven’t figured out and I guess something’s better than nothing, right? So sorry for the big lack of updates, the out-of-date post, and the sideways pictures. Hope you love us anyway!

Sorry for falling behind in the posts! Life has been busy. Isn’t it always? But really, life lately has been more-than-normally busy with some pretty big events: graduation, moving out, finding a house, moving in, and travel.

Josh graduated in April with a bachelor’s and a master’s in Information Systems at BYU. And did I mention that he was the Masters of Information Systems student of the year? :) Seriously, Josh is an amazing student. He’s always loved learning and been a really good self-learner (something I really admire about him). He worked really hard his whole time at BYU, got great grades, impressed his professors, and graduated with two great degrees. And – even more impressive – a great job! Josh is now working for a company called Pariveda Solutions, at their Denver office. It’s a great company that we’re excited to be part of. And it’s the same company Josh interned for two summers ago.

So after graduation, we had about a week to pack up our house. My mom had helped us start when she was in town for graduation, but Josh and I had the bulk of it to do ourselves. But we’re both pretty organized people. I like making lists and planning in advance. We wrote down each packing task we had to do on our wipe-off board and divided them up into days, then checked things off as we got them done. We even were a day ahead of schedule. But, holy cow, moving kicked my trash! It was hard! Actually getting out of Provo and taking care of all the last-minute things (sooo glad we loaded the truck a day early) was rough. And not just the packing and the loading, but the long long drive and the unloading and moving in…that’s a lot of work! Here’s some things I learned from moving:

  • Ask for help! I wish we had had more help, especially with packing (and mostly babysitting Carson). (Thank you, thank you to Caleb, Sam, Zach, Luke, Heather, Melanie, and everyone else who did help!) Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help…I never want to be the one who has to ask. I never want to inconvenience anyone. Why is it that we’re so reluctant to ask for help sometimes?
  • We took our time loading. Sam and Caleb came over and helped load the van like a game of Tetris. It was great. I wish we had taken as much time and brainpower to unload, though. We were so eager to get everything out of the truck and into the house. And we were working against a deadline. It’s not like we dumped everything into the front room – we put a little thought into it – but I just wish Josh and I would have decided more in advance where we wanted everything to go. But maybe a little reorganization as you move in is unavoidable?
  • Be sure to take care of myself physically and spiritually during a move. It’s easy to pull late nights, eat too much fast food, and overdo it with lifting stuff when you move. But especially with a little one to take care of, I think I overdid it. Josh, Carson, and I all got colds after the big move.
What’s your moving advice? Since we’re just renting, it’s pretty much a guarantee that our family will be moving someday in the future (though let’s really just not think about that right now). How do you make moves go smoother, especially with young kids?
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Well, after we drove to Josh’s parents’ house in Denver, we stayed with them for a few days while we looked for a rental house. We received lots of blessings and felt very grateful to find an amazing little house that we were able to move into in just a few days. We love it! More pictures and descriptions to come later.

After a week of unpacking, moving in, and (thank goodness) a little bit of relaxation, we all flew to Texas – Josh to Dallas, where Pariveda’s headquarters are located, for a two-week work training; and me and Carson to Houston to stay with my family.

This past weekend was halfway through the two week training, and Josh was able to come down to Houston to see us, yay! It was a  blast. Now Josh is back in Dallas and Carson and I are still here and grandma and grandpa’s, but on Friday we’ll all fly back to our new home together. I miss Josh a lot, but Carson and I are having a very fun and relaxing time here.

So that’s our big catch-up post on life! I’ll try to post more pictures soon, but here’s a little bit of everything that’s happened lately. (Click a picture to see the caption.) Hope you’re all doing well!

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. :)

Hey Y’all, We’re in Dallas!

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Yep, we’re here! After a weekend of driving, we arrived at our new home (that is, extended stay hotel) Sunday night the week before last. Here’s us saying goodbye to Provo:

And us right before we left.

Our car was riding a little low…

…because it was filled with all of our life that we’ll need for nine weeks in Dallas:

So after a day and a half of driving…

…we reached Texas!

And then after some more driving, we arrived! Here’s some pictures of our temporary home.

You can pretty much see all of it in these three pictures (except the bathroom). It’s just a tiny little studio-apartment type hotel room with a sink, fridge, table, bed, and TV. What more do you need, right? And it was definitely the cheapest and easiest option we found.

Josh is really enjoying his internship, and I’m just working from home, and we’re doing great! It’s been a fun summer so far, already filled with a few family reunions (watch for posts to come). We’re also really looking forward to exploring Dallas while we’re here. So if you know of anything awesome to do here, let us know!