On the street where we live

First off, can I tell you how much I love Texas? Well I do! Although we are nearly 1200 miles from home, Texas is growing on me. I love being warm. I love the lower altitude. (It still doesn't mean I can run for more than a mile but it at least helps!) I love a pinch of humidity. I love the greenery. I even enjoy the flatness of it. I love that we are in an area with an outrageously high restaurant per capita ratio. I love that we are only 20 mins away from the LDS Dallas Temple. I love that our apartment complex has a gym and a pool. I love that down the road from us there is a lovely little river, which is the home to a whole bunch of turtles! I love everything about it. Except perhaps hailstorms and tornadoes, which thankfully I haven't had to experience first hand yet. It is absolutely beautiful, as you can see.

The turtles!

That Mr. of mine is pretty cute!

This is the walkway up to our apartment. I love all the red brick! Our whole apartment complex is this beautiful red brick!

I've had a blast decorating our apartment. You can find the before pictures on this post, if you care to look back. It has come a long way. 


It has been fun to actually have time this move to decorate instead of moving in the middle of the semester when there is never enough time. I've tried to give everything a place but I haven't completely decided what to do with the study so currently it is the catch-all room that I try to keep looking semi-respectable. Sometimes I do better than others. On those "other" days, I just close the doors and no one is the wiser! 

The front room.

  This chair is one of my favorite things! 

I've always wanted a cute accent chair and we were finally able to get one!

 Dining room.

Kitchen.

And through that lovely door is our little laundry room/pantry.

This is what the study looks like when it is having a rough day.

This is it on a more tolerable day.

 

I absolutely love all these shelves! They are really fun!

Our bedroom.

It's huge. And we love it.

And don't mind the Mr. eating his chips on our bed.

Alright, I kicked him off to get a real picture.

And yes one of those pictures is sideways. I really need to print up some more 5x7 pictures in the landscape direction. It's on my to-do list.

This isn't the greatest picture but I absolutely love these curtains! Thank you Ikea!

I also love our closet. It's huge! And the fact that we have a spare closet on the other side of the room 

(you can see it in the first picture.) 

We are really starting to feel settled here. We love the area, love our apartment, love our ward, and feel really blessed to have two great jobs. Although we miss everyone back in Utah, we are really enjoying our adventure here in the Lone Star State.

A couple items of importance

Things have been pretty wild around our house the last few weeks so I decided I better fill you in.

First things first, I got a job! Yay hurray! I was offered a job with a pediatric home health agency a few weeks ago and was excited about the possibilities with it.We then immediately decided I needed a car because there is no way we could survive with only one car if I have a job, especially a job that requires driving. Which brings me to exciting point number 2, we bought a car! 

We car shopped for a couple of days and then bought a brand-new 2013 Hyundai Elantra and love it! We've never had a new car so we are feeling like we are from the future driving around our little Elantra.

{This was obviously taken prior to receiving our permanent plates, but when I got those TEXAS plates it was a little surreal. I'm a Texas driver. At least according to my plates, my driver's license is a different story....} 

All in the span of 5 days I had a job and we bought a car. It was pretty crazy but we were really excited. As things progressed with the home health agency I found out that the case I thought I was going to get wouldn't work anymore. So I decided to meet with a couple of families and see if it would be a good fit. After being rejected by both I was starting to become very anxious and nervous. We bought this car with the understanding that it was my car to be paid for with MY paycheck. I was wondering how on earth I was going to pay for my car when I didn't officially have a paycheck yet.

Being the planner that I am, it started to consume my thoughts, give me anxiety, and make me feel as though I was never going to get a job as a nurse. After a few days of worrying, no news from the agency, and lots of prayers I began to feel comfort and that everything would work out. Just a couple of days later I met with a family who liked me and I was officially offered the job! I am working full time and the hours are great. I work three 8 hour shifts (10-6) and one 12 hour shift (9-9). Seriously, what nurse works 10-6? The major downfall is that the 12 hour shift is on Sundays so that leads to less than optimal church attendance, but thankfully this job will not be permanent.

I have been feeling so blessed with the way things have worked out over the last few weeks. This job is perfect for me right now! I am really enjoying what I'm doing, the hours are great, of course it's nice to make a little money, and it is SO MUCH FUN having cute scrubs! I just haven't even been able to pull out my  green UVU scrubs because everything else is more exciting! haha.