I'll be home for Christmas

We have officially left our old place and now only have one home rather than two! On Wednesday after work we worked on cleaning our old apartment. We finished at eight o’clock which is when we had our manager scheduled to be over to check it out. She thought the place looked great and gave us our full deposit back. We were sooo happy to be done.

Our little Christmas tree, in our new place.

We slept in a bit on Thursday to recover from all the late nights and hard work we went through to get everything done. After I got Ezra to work I made sure to get laundry done so we had clean clothes to pack. After work we packed and got everything ready for our trip.

Well, I’ve never had any major problems with holiday travel before. This year changed that. Everything was fine getting to the airport. Our plane was a little late but not much and it didn’t cause any problems. We flew into Portland, OR and took TriMet over to the train station. Our train was running about two hours late. Apparently all the snow in California had slowed it down. So we made it to Lacey around 8 o’clock.

While in Washington we did a lot of packing. Ezra’s mom is moving down to Salt Lake City so our days in Washington were filled with packing and sorting through things. We made a lot of progress and hopefully everything will be done and ready when they take off this weekend. We also had a wonderful get together with Ezra’s family on Saturday the 22nd. I got to meet family members that I hadn’t met yet and I think I’ve finally met most of Ezra’s family.

We found some of our wedding cake in the freezer. We decided we should eat a bit.

Monday, the 24th was the really crazy day. We got up early and worked on packing things. I got a voicemail that there was an issue with our train. Great. I called Amtrak and they told me that the train that we were supposed to catch at 11:20 was running late, two hours late. They said to call back again at 12:45 to check on it. Okay. Well, there were a few things we still had to shop for and some bank stuff Ezra had to take care of, so we took our time getting that done. On our first stop Ezra asked about the trains again (it was about 10:20am) and he suggested I call Amtrak and check on it again. So I did. They told me there was a train we could catch that was supposed to arrive at 11:20 (our original time) but was running about ten minutes late, so it would be there at 11:30am. That train would take us to Portland, then we could take a greyhound bus down to Albany. Cool! We rushed through our last stop, which was Target. One of the items we got was a gift card, a normal, typical, every day gift card. It had some issues and took a while. We had a train to catch and I knew we would be pushing it so I sent Ezra out to the car and he and his sister, Casey, went back to the house to get our things. Then they would come back, pick me up and we would go straight to the train station. It was a great plan! The only thing was, we were slightly short on time.

We were pulling up to the train station and we could see the train sitting there. I knew this was a short stop and that we’d have to hurry. Then we pulled into the parking lot as the train pulled out. We missed it. I walked into the train station and asked about it. He said that was part of the train, but that our original train was running late and they didn’t know when it would arrive. We'd just have to wait. I had about an hour of frustration and then was fine. I just don’t like being let down. I felt like we were so close to being back to our normal schedule but then had that ripped away, and literally seeing that missed opportunity chug away. So we sat and waited. The train arrived around 3:40pm and we finally made it to the Albany train station at 7:45, about 3.5 hours late. I was really just relieved to be back in Oregon and so close to home.

Then we were pleasantly surprised by our welcoming party! Who pulls up? None other than my mom, sister-in-law, and my adorable new nephew Oliver! I’m ashamed to admit that Oliver was a little more exciting than anything else and when we walked in the house and I had Oliver in my arms I may have forgotten to greet my dad… Oops! The rest of the family was just starting on desert when we arrived so Ezra and I ate dinner and then didn’t have to wait for desert. It was great to see my family. And play with Oliver. Oliver trumps all.

Auntie Allison and Oliver!

On Tuesday we had a great big family breakfast, opened presents, hung out and relaxed, then in the afternoon we had more family show up and did some more presents. In the evening we got to watch the new episode of Doctor Who. Awesome! Oh, and throughout the day there was a lot of Oliver. Did I mention that Oliver is the best? I love being an Auntie!

The Christmas tree! All ready with Santa's gifts.

Britney, Oliver, and Matt getting ready to open Oliver's stocking.

Sleepy Oliver.

Such a happy baby! He loves watching the village scenes around the living room.

Auntie, why are you taking pictures of me?

Today has been a pretty relaxing day so far. Britney and Oliver showed up this afternoon and I got to see my adorable nephew some more. I have to get my Oliver fix because I won’t see him again until sometime this summer.

So, that’s the news from this past week! It’s been a busy one, and we won’t leave Oregon until the 31st. So hopefully the rest of this vacation is just as fun as the first half has been!

Neck deep in the middle of moving and needing to get ready for vacation

We have spent the past week and then some packing and moving and moving and packing, not to mention cleaning, there has been a bit of that too.  We really like our new place. And it wasn’t until the third time we were here (when we started moving stuff in) did we see it in the daylight and realized that it is pink.  But that is okay.  It is our pink elephant of a house (cottage? So we have been told, don’t ask).  It reminds me of my aunt and uncles old place when I was really little because it has this awesome 70s wood paneling.

We can’t seem to find a spot for our lovesack though; it is just huge and devours anything it is close to.  Also we think we have figured out how to solve any drought problems Utah may have in the future, every time we tried to move a load from one house to the next, it would start raining or snowing. Very inconvenient, but skiers, snowboarders, and those that like campfires in the summer… you are welcome.

We will be leaving for vacation in a few short days and am very excited to see our families.  Allison has a new nephew to meet and we are both in need of some good ol’ Pacific Northwest goodness. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Guess how much I love moving!

I don’t like moving. Not a bit. It’s not the unpacking and finding a new home for everything. I actually enjoy that because it’s like a fresh start. I HATE packing. I hate taking apart the house I’ve worked so hard to make into a home.

We’ve taken five or six carloads to the new house, and our old place is feeling particularly empty. We started with the non essentials. We figured since we weren’t living there just yet we shouldn’t take the stuff we use often. That will change on Wednesday. Our home teacher and his wife will come by with a truck in the evening and that’s when we’ll move all the big stuff like the bed, dresser, couch, and larger bookcase(s). So that will be the first time we stay the night in our new place. I’m sure we’ll still have some carloads to take over, but there’s so much there already it’s definitely starting to feel like home. Last night I practically gutted the kitchen so we’re surviving on cereal and sandwiches until we’re into the new place.

You know another thing I’m not fond of that goes along with moving? Changing my address everywhere. I’ve made about five phone calls this morning to adjust things and then did a few online. There’s still more to do… but I realized the information I need is already over at the new place, so I’ll grab that on our next trip. It’s just such a pain.

Hopefully we’ll stay at the new place for the rest of our time in Provo. We thought we would do that for our current place but the problems we had with the landlord and management became too much. Our new landlord seems like a much more attentive person. She’s super nice and really helpful, and our neighbors seem pretty awesome too. All around, our new place looks like a good fit.

NaNoWriMo

This week I’ve been sick and hacking up a lung most of the time. On Monday I woke up with a fever and felt miserable most of the day. By midafternoon I couldn’t really move from the couch, not even enough to lift my laptop up and type for NaNoWriMo. How much energy does it take to sit at a computer and type? I mean really? But I couldn’t do it. I just curled up in a ball with some chicken noodle soup.

Ezra took great care of me and made sure I had everything I needed. My fever finally broke in the early evening and I started feeling better. I ended up writing over 5,000 words that night for my NaNo and caught back up to where I should have been. I’d stopped writing regularly when we didn’t know where we were going to be living. Since my fever broke on Monday I’ve had a lingering cough and occasional stuffy nose, but that’s about it.

Along with writing news, I finished my NaNoWriMo this week! I can officially say I’m a novelist. It’s only a first draft and I know it needs a LOT of work, but it’s a novel draft and I was super excited that I accomplished that. How many people can say they’ve written a +50,000 word novel?

You can tell when the stress of finding a place to live hit, and then my word count jumped up on the day I had a fever.

Our move-in date keeps changing but as of right now we can start moving in to our new place this coming Saturday, the 8th. We have until the 19th to move out and clean this place, so there’s no major rush to get everything done in one day. Everyone keeps asking if we need anything, and the only thing we really need that we can’t take care of ourselves is a truck. Some of our furniture simply won’t fit in my car. At church yesterday we had a lot of people mention that they have connections to someone with a truck, so I think we may have that problem solved. We’re so grateful to everyone who is so willing to help!

Thanksgiving and a new home

This week, as opposed to others as of late has been rather eventful.  We found out that one of the other apartments in out building has black mold and a mushroom growing off of the wall... yes a MUSHROOM!!  needles to say, we want to move.  We spent a few days looking for a new place and finally found one.  We call it our greatest Black Friday deal.  2 bedrooms, washer and dryer, covered parking, a landlord that has chickens which means we get eggs, she also owns a horse, oh and it comes with a microwave... Allison is happy.  the only downside is the distance, but I think I'm going to love being able to ride my bike more and more often.  I just need to fix it up a bit.  Oh and did we mention 2 (two) bedrooms?

We were also able to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her family up in Salt Lake. It was great, but my nephew was sick , and now Allison isn't feeling great at all. I am okay-ish. We didn't really get much shopping in, but maybe we'll try our hand at Cyber Monday this year.

Thanksgiving

This past week hasn’t been too terribly eventful. I registered for my first masters classes on Tuesday and then bought my books. I’m so happy to be furthering my education. I never felt like a BA was enough for me, so knowing that I’ll get an MLIS makes me really happy. I have the best job in the world and I want to be the very best librarian I can be.

Ezra and I donated blood Friday morning and then saw Breaking Dawn part 2 in the afternoon. I’m not a huge Twilight fan, but I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I think this was one of the rare cases where I prefer the movie over the book.

I’ve been making some major progress with my NaNoWriMo. Last night my word count passed 31k. I’m excited to be over half way done, but I know that my novel will need some serious revisions. At the moment, I’m just writing to get words and ideas on the page, regardless of how ridiculous it is. A part of me hates the novel right now just because it is so rough, but I know that if I take the time to really rework it I might just end up being proud of it. Maybe.

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I want to take a moment to share something I’m extremely thankful for. Ezra (stop now if you want to avoid gag inducing mushiness). He is my very best friend, and his support and encouragement has meant more to me than anything else. Ezra has always loved me for who I am, flaws and all. While we’re always trying to improve ourselves, he never judges me or makes me feel bad for my shortcomings. Instead, he encourages me and supports my efforts to be better.
 
 Before I ran my marathon, there were times that I didn’t want to get up and go running in the mornings. He would ask me how important that day’s training was. It was always important, and so with that reminder I would get up and hit the road or the treadmill. He got up with me at 3am on race day and helped me get ready and gave me a kiss as I headed out the door. I texted him at every mile marker to let him know where I was, how I was doing, and he would text back words of encouragement. It was something I really needed once I hit mile 20 and felt miserable. Then, when I finally ran past the library Ezra was there on the street corner cheering me on. Without his love and support, I never would have completed the Utah Valley Marathon on June 9, 2012.

Ezra took this photo on race morning. He was exhausted, but nevertheless supportive.

Right around here our texts went something like this- Allison: "Dying" Ezra: "Keep it up, you get a fabulous massage tonight"

Because of my husband's support, I managed to run a MARATHON!

I’m thankful that Ezra and I can be goofy together, serious together, that we can sit on the couch in silence and simply and make faces at each other. I’m thankful that we agree on the important things in life and that the things we don’t agree on are so small and trivial I can’t even think of one right now. I’m thankful that, because he listens to me so well, he seems to know me better than I know myself at times. I’m thankful that he always looks on the bright side, that he remains optimistic even when I start to freak out. I’m thankful that he can keep calm and be reasonable when I know I would be freaking out (such as that time he talked a woman out of giving me a parking ticket when we were geocaching).

In short, I’m thankful for my amazing husband, Ezra Smith, the most wonderful man that I’ve ever met. I love him with all my heart and am so grateful we get to spend eternity together.

Mushiness over.

Snow

This past week a few interesting things have happened to us.  The first was the Provo Library had me make a backdrop for a few display cases on the second floor.  It was fun to work on and I will be working on another in a little bit for December too.  The other thing that happened was SNOW!!! And like typical Utah fashion we got about 8 inches in one day, and then it stopped and we probably wont get anymore til Thanksgiving.

Allison has been typing up a storm since the first.  Working on a story for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Where as I have been drawing more and more lately.  Both are good, except that I let her see my work, she wont let me read any of her book.  But I do understand, I don't exactly like it when people peer over my shoulder when I am drawing.  Next week I might show off my head and all my bald glory.