living in a hotel

My weekend in San Antonio was wonderful. My parents and I stayed up talking until 3 am the night I arrived. Thursday my mom and I met a great friend of mine from high school, Colten, and his mom and girlfriend for lunch. We then did some mother-daughter shopping, and I found TWO pairs of awesome jeans on sale at Anthropologie....LOVE that store! :) Afterwards, the family met at my brother's house, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening of pizza, wine, and talking. :) Friday we slept in and then went to the lake to spend the second half of the day with my grandparents. It was soooo good to see them as well as my cousin Clayton. Saturday we met my friend Ashley for lunch and then did some shoe-shopping....got TWO pairs, visited my aunt, uncle, and cousin with her new baby, visited Marie and Nina, and then had dinner at my parents with my brother and Britteny. Sunday we went to lunch with more family so that I could give my cousin Jordan one last hug before she moves to Italy for three years!

My good buddy: Colten

I miss and love these two sooooo much.

I returned Monday afternoon missing family but realizing I had so much to do. We packed all day, and the movers arrived Tuesday at 8 am. They stayed until 6 pm that night filling boxes, wrapping pictures, and loading furniture. They finished loading the truck Wednesday at 11 am, and then I spent the remainder of the day cleaning the house. We said our last goodbyes, reminisced over great memories, and visualized our first days in that home. We are sad to leave, but so excited for the new house.

There goes all our stuff!

So, we have moved into our new home for the next 2.5 weeks: The Residence Inn. :) I barely slept in today, even though I had every intention to...thanks Bella. I have to cancel cable, set up a PO Box, and shop for sound-cancelling head phones......oh that's right, I fly to Dickinson, ND tonight. I have an interview for the Assistant Director of Alumni and Donor Relations at Dickinson State University. :) Truly by the grace of God I was able to apply and even receive an interview. I arrive at 10 pm tonight, and then begin my 5 hour itinerary first thing in the morning. The job sounds so wonderful, exciting, different, AHHHH! I am so nervous!

Prayers appreciate. :) I'll keep you posted. Love y'all!

thunder

I'm sitting on the couch in the living room I grew up in, watching tv with my parents, and drinking coffee. Given the amount of light coming through the windows, it feels like 6 am...but it's actually 10 am. Thunderstorms are slowly moving through the area, the sky is dark, rain is pouring down, lightning flashing, and thunder roaring. Awesome. I feel like a little kid. We have the front door open so that the rain and thunder are louder. It's just a reminder that God is powerful, almighty, and so so big.

Grand Junction doesn't get "thunder" storms, just rain, but Dickinson sure does. Just another thing to look forward to. :)

recent travels and decisions!

The first week in April was spent in Cabo celebrating Karen's bachelorette party. The week was filled with sun, pina coladas, laughter, girl talk, reading, nail polish, great food, massages, and beautiful views! It was so good to have a relaxing week, especially since all of May is crazy busy! We cannot wait for her wedding in Blue Ridge, GA Memorial Day weekend!!

Enjoying the cold blue water!!

Crazy girls posing as mermaids! :)

Group shot before dinner on the beach!

One day after I got back from Cabo, we left for Dickinson, ND to find a place to live. We saw every possible housing option (probably 6 or 7 total) within our price range in one day. Dickinson has a population of only 17,000, and apparently, an estimated 500 new families will move there in the next year....hence the reason for the housing shortage. Every "good" house usually sells within a week or so, and it just so happened that nothing to our liking popped up when we visited. We searched online for houses the week before we left, and all of our top choices sold before we arrived. So......we're building!!!! We are soooo excited about this! Our first home was built in 1923, and our second home will be built in 2010. Ha! They break ground later this week, and we should move in late July or early August. The Lord totally provided an extra special blessing: we found out on Friday that Marathon extended the temporary living from 45 days to 90 days (due to the housing shortage), which means we will be living in Marathon's corporate apartment until the house is finished! Huge!! We are stoked about picking out our cabinets, flooring, counters, paint colors, etc, and some other features we are even more excited about include: 3-car garage (we couldn't use our garage in GJ), paved driveway (gravel in GJ), heater and drain in the garage (for snow melting off the car!!), a more open floor plan, one extra bedroom and bathroom, speakers throughout the house, a fireplace (also didn't have this in GJ...apparently it doesn't get cold enough?!?!), more closets, etc.!!!

Similar to what our house will look like except the color, stone choice, and add one more garage stall.

Coming into the town of Dickinson! :)

Wednesday night I'm flying to San Antonio to spend a few days with my family and hopefully see some friends, and Caleb will be heading to College Station for Final Review at A&M. We get back Sunday night, the movers come to pack up our house on Tuesday, and we close on this house Thursday, May 20th. Because we don't actually move to Dickinson until the first week in June, we will be living in the Residence Inn in Grand Junction. We have to set aside items that we can live off of until we move into our new home in August, and everything has to fit into my car (with Bella). We will also be able to stuff some things into Caleb's car, which the moving company will deliver to Dickinson. So we have to pack for three months, including our gear for camping, mountain biking, Alaska trip, and my sewing! Not sure how I'm supposed to do this?!?!

So today's plans? Running errands around town, canceling cable and internet, getting my hair highlighted, and packing for the big move!

Love y'all!