Howdy Eh?: July 2014

Our last post was mostly pictures from our summer of fun so this time will be a little more wordy. I don't mean to sound so complainy in all of this, but I'm kind of using this blog to document our lives and I think it will be funny to look back and remember all of this stuff later in life :)

The Move

According to Google maps, it's about 1,200 miles (2,000 km) from Provo, UT to Temple, TX. We thought that 20 hours in the car with Ellie would probably be a bad idea so we decided to split up. Ellie and I flew down to Houston while Brett and my dad drove all of our stuff down to Temple. Here's how it went haha...

Julie's Story - Our flight left Salt Lake City at 6:30 AM so we woke up around 4:30 to get ready, feed Ellie, etc. We booked the flight through frontier airlines which I had never used before. For whatever reason there was no way to check into the flight online so I had wait until I was at the airport. With frontier, you have to check in at least 45 minutes before your flight boards or you can lose your reservation. Kids by nature make their parents late for things (sorry Ellie but it's true) so here I am at 5:44 AM watching the clock as I wait in line to check in, I'm pretty much a nervous wreck because I'm pulling a suitcase, holding the diaper bag, and swinging Ellie in her car seat in an attempt to keep her happy. I finally make it to the counter and it's past the 45 min mark. Luckily, I think the lady saw how stressed I looked and took pity. Whew!!! Our first flight took us to Denver and Ellie was an angel; She slept the whole time. The next flight was not so easy. We made it to Denver and I had just enough time to change Ellie's diaper before boarding was beginning. (Mom's out there: how are you supposed to go to the bathroom when traveling alone with your infant? ... couldn't figure that one out) Ellie is used to eating whenever she wakes up so as we are boarding she starts to get fussy. I make it to my aisle seat and she gets worse. Ellie is freaking out and the woman in the window seat is talking about how this will be a great flight as long as this baby is happy (... no pressure right?) I finally forget the plan of waiting for take off to feed her and decide to nurse Ellie with my cover in my aisle seat as all of the passengers walk by to their seats (... who needs privacy anyway). Everything is good; Ellie is content and we are on our way. There was the sweetest black woman sitting next to me who Ellie could not stop smiling at, it was adorable. Later on, Ellie starts screaming again because she's tired and there's nothing I can do until they take off the seat belt sign. Literally 20 seconds after standing up to rock her she's out like a light. She sleeps until about 10 minutes before we were supposed to land. Long story short, We can't land because of weather so Ellie screams her heart out for about 20 minutes straight. Everyone is staring. Nothing I do. Complete humiliation with a touch of I'm a terrible parent as well. Finally I get off the plane and wait for the car seat I checked at the gate and it never arrives. They have lost the car seat.. NOOOOOO....

On the verge of tears now here's the situation. Ellie is hungry, wet, crying, and heavy because I've holding her for the last 5 hours, my brother has been waiting for me at the airport for over an hour now because our flight was so delayed, They don't have our car seat, and I still really need to pee...

In the end it all works out of course, the car seat had just been placed with the checked luggage instead of with the gate side luggage. I changed Ellie while I waited for the luggage to come. She got so tired from crying that she fell asleep and forgot about the hunger. And Eric and I had a nice venting session about it all on the way home. :) I'm just glad we are finally here!! :)

Brett's Story - After dropping me off at the airport, Brett went to pick up the moving truck and start loading before my dad's flight got in. We shared the moving truck with our friends Jeff and Claire since they are going to A&M's medical school as well and it would save both of us a bunch on money. Jeff and Brett loaded all of Jeff's stuff into the truck and then realized that the truck's air conditioning didn't work. lovely :) Rather than drive all the way to Texas without AC, they decided to get a new truck and just unload and reload everything. After that hiccup, my dad arrived and the men were on their way. They drove until late that night (Tuesday) and then got up early and drove all day Wednesday. They decided to drive all the way to Temple on Wednesday rather than pay for a hotel a second night. Little did they know that when they would arrive at our new home there would be no electricity (no AC) and that the water had not been turned on yet (no bathroom). They got to Temple at about 1 AM to this surprise. I'm pretty sure this was one of the worst nights of sleep that Brett has ever had. Besides being hot, tired, and uncomfortable, my dad has a tendency to snore quite loudly. (sorry dad, it's the truth)

After all of that we had arrived! The move was done and for that we were both tremendously grateful. :)

Getting Settled

After move in day, we quickly got the water and electricity handled. We bought a used refrigerator, washer, and dryer off of craigslist and Brett being the handyman that he is got them working for us. We got a Sam's club membership and stocked the kitchen. Brett assembled our kitchen table and chairs from IKEA. We picked up our mail key and we were pretty much ready to go, except for internet.

Brett did most of the internet/cable research and we had found a company that was a bit cheaper that we decided to go with. Turns out they don't service our part of town so they said no. We decided to go with Time Warner Cable instead. Cable itself is out of our budget so we decided to just get internet. We signed up online, bought our first modem, plugged everything in and... it didn't work. Brett called them to ask what was up and they said that a guy need to come to our physical location to set something up outside but we didn't even need to be home for it. They said they would be sent out the next day (Sunday) to set it up. So Sunday night we had assumed that the guy had come so we set it all up again... still didn't work. Brett called them back and they said that a guy would come the next day (Monday) since he didn't come yet. Waited all of Monday, still no guy, still no working internet. Brett calls them again, they don't really know why the guy didn't come bla bla bla, Brett works with this person on the phone to try a few different things which don't work so they are going to send a guy over. (for real this time) The appointment is for Wednesday afternoon and the cable guy comes - It's a miracle! We finally have internet!!!!! On the bright side, both Brett and I finished our books because we weren't distracted by things like Netflix.

The White Dream

Our car, affectionately known as the white dream, has been through a lot. It was beat to a pulp by the hail at our wedding reception, it's driven the road from Provo to Cardston who knows how many times, it's over 12 years old now etc. It' s a fighter, and it's part of the family. This summer, we finally made the leap and imported it. We towed it behind the moving truck all the way to Texas ... and then it started to fall apart.

After importing, the next step is to get in inspected and registered.

Inspection: Brett took it to a shop that does the inspection to get an idea of what we would need to replace. I guess having a crack in one tail light, and hurricane tape over a gaping hole in the other isn't exactly safe. Brett goes to a salvage yard, finds us some new tail lights for $40, replaces them, and goes back to the shop. They tell that it would pass inspection except for our brakes. You have to push down too far for it to break so we need to get that fixed. Brett takes it to a break shop and we put down a $1,000 to replace our breaks. We pass inspection - YAY!!

Registration: We go to the registration office and they tell us that we have to drive to an office in Waco so that they can look for a sticker in the car. (can't you just look for the sticker here... please...) After they find the sticker we have to have an officer inspect the vehicle. Then we come back to this office and they can register it for us.

After leaving the office disappointed, we went to the DPS (department of public safety) because I lost my driver's license and I needed to change my address and last name on it anyway. The last piece of identification listing me as a Rasmussen is finally gone. Anyways, I got my license and Brett and I were so relieved that the day was over until we got into the car... and it wouldn't start. (Irony - I just got a driver's license and now the car doesn't work) Brett tries a couple more times and it starts yay! but it's making the kind of sound a go-cart does when you first start it. I don't think it's supposed to sound like that. So here we are, one tow truck, some fast food, a rental car for 2 days, and $500 for a new battery and vacuum assembly later. Let's hope this is the last thing we need to fix in the car for a little while.

The Good Times

It's true that we would probably rather not move across the country, talk to cable guys, or spend more money on our car right now. Brett's only a couple days into classes and already feels overwhelmed and behind. But that's just life. And the truth is that while there have been a lot of stressful things going on lately haha, life is good. Our ward is so social and inviting and we've already started making friends there. Brett has met a lot of really nice people at school too and we've been able to ask and give help to some of them. We have what we need and we're happy. Here's a short video to show why none of the bad stuff really matters in the end :)