Well, we made it! We have now been here for a week and while it still feels like we're on vacation, we love it! When we got here last Thursday, the temperatures were SO HOT all weekend! We finally saw a little rain Sunday morning, but it quickly went back to blue skies and has been BEAUTIFUL all week. Everyone kept trying to tell me about how depressed we'd be with the over cast skies and rain, but, man, this is heaven. I look forward to the rain that is coming soon too :)
BIG thanks to my wonderful parents, awesome sister in law Nicole, and fantastic aunt and uncle for helping us move!!! We hope more family and friends can come visit us soon!
It has been SO great not working and having Dustin at home too before he starts classes. We were able to put our house all together, including most decorating done by Wednesday! Which is seriously record time for us. In our last two places, pretty sure we NEVER were fully moved in. I love love love our little apartment. It is the perfect size for us and I feel like we have tons of space for storage and everything. This complex is so amazingly quiet that sometimes I wonder if we even have neighbors.
We met our ward on Sunday and when the bishop found out we were from Utah he said, "Oh good! You're active!" Which we laughed pretty hard about cuz being from Utah definitely does NOT make you active. Our ward is pretty small, but after feeding the missionaries on Wednesday (we have missionaries just for our ward! How weird is that?! Okay, it's not weird, it's actually really normal outside of Utah!), we found out that the activity percentage is 25%.... so that's why it seems so small. We'll see how long it is before we have to give talks in sacrament meeting... and yes, I said HAVE to give talks cuz I hate giving talks....
We made some new friends called the Stanfords--Yolanda (yo-land-a) and Nate. And their 5 kids. The invited us over for lunch on Sunday and we had a great afternoon with them. Nate goes to Western States University like Dustin so he gave us a whole bunch of great advice. We had them over for a fondue and games last night too and it's nice to have friends here already!
Today was a fantastic day. Dustin got to go to new student orientation, and I got to work on application stuff. I am now trying to work with Robert Half Accounting and ExpressPros Jobs to find something to do out here. I did some more testing for Express Pros for Excel, Word, 10 key, and typing, and I feel really good about my scores so hopefully they have something for me when I go meet with them on Monday.
After I was happy with my test scores, I treated myself to a couple episodes of Desperate Housewives before Dustin got home. Hahahaha. Tonight we are heading over to my aunt and uncle's house in Battle Ground for they BYU vs Utah State game.
Pictures and more Portland happenings to come!
We're almost there! I know you're all excited because then I can start blogging about COOL stuff instead of just about moving. 3 days. That's all the time left. Then cool stuff begins... like job hunting.
That's right, for the first time in over 3 years now, I am officially unemployed. My last day at StoresOnline was a good one and I will miss the people I worked with and became good friends with, but I am kinda happy that it's done.
This week I also applied for what I think would be a fantastic job--- it's a data entry position in Boring, OR. I seriously think it would be one of the coolest things ever to say I worked in a town called Boring. Doing data entry. But the position sounded like something I would actually really enjoy and the salary is right, benefits are right, and schedule is right, so *fingers crossed* that they contact me for an interview soon! Costco application is in too, and WinCo already rejected me for the cashier/checker position. Probably cuz I said I wouldn't work on Sundays. But I didn't really want that job anyway. Oh well.
Most everyone we talk to asks if we're all packed up. Well, we're getting there.... I swear it's a process that never really ends. Except that it has to end on Wednesday cuz ready or not, we're driving that Penske away. Our house has turned into a disaster zone as we've been trying to find an appropriate box for all of our crap...er...stuff. But tomorrow will be dedicated to getting everything fixed so Tuesday we can run errands, Wednesday I can card club and clean, and then move!!
So much left to do, so little time!
22 Hours left at StoresOnline
8 Days left in Utah
2 1/2 Days left working at the Funny Farm
3 Going Away parties left to attend
3 Dozen cinnamon rolls left to make for the last day at work
3 Applications submitted today, 10+ left to discover open job postings
2 weeks left til school starts back up
and....
100 boxes left to pack and load!!! And then unload!!! And unpack!! (Does the packing/unpacking ever end?!)
Man, time keeps flying by and our move date gets closer and closer.
Update on our Portland move: We are scheduled to move Wednesday September 21st at 6:00 PM, drive to Jerome, spend the night, drive the remaining 8 hours on Thursday September 22nd and check in to our new home at STAR CREST MANOR in Portland around 3-4 PM. That's fine, everything is finalized with the apartment. But boy, was it drama. I guess this management group has had a hard time with students in the past and wanted us to pay a huge deposit and THREE MONTHS rent in advance. Which I was definitely not happy about. Shouldn't the background check, rental history check, and credit check verify that we are responsible adults that are the ideal tenants and therefore they should be begging us to live there?! I told them that was unreasonable that they should discriminate against us but would be willing to compromise with a lower deposit and first and last month's rent in advance, to which they agreed. Man, I don't remember it being so hard to get an apartment, but this whole deal has been quite the experience.
This means we have 2 weeks and 2 days left in good old Utah and we plan on living it up. Today we went bowling in the good old Jack family Labor Day tradition and I am sorry to announce that I failed miserably. Actually, my last frame I started with a STRIKE, but then proceeded with 2 gutter balls, sealing my fate in last place. If I would have hit ONE single pin after that strike, I would have beat Dustin. But nope, fail. Dustin was able to go fishing with his dad and brother and the other men in the family (uncle, cousin, brother in law) this morning and they had a great time catching stinky fish. We ended the night with a Jack family BBQ complete with homemade Butterfinger ice cream (yum!), and a trip to the Creers to visit for a little bit.
The packing process is coming along. I feel like we have SO MUCH STUFF that just needs to get packed, but then we have 2 weeks left so I don't want to pack up everything and not be able to use it all... Hmm..... good thing I'll have a couple of days before we move that I will be done with StoresOnline and focusing on getting everything together.
I look forward to the time I'll have in Portland while I'm job searching and will be able to set up the apartment, blog, recipe blog, and work on some projects! It will be nice to relax a little bit. Because job searching is so relaxing. Hahahaha.
Good times to come in September!
This week has been crazy with different wrenches thrown in my plans. Why is it that as soon as I plan out my life, some wrench needs to get thrown in to shake things up? I guess I'm just being kept on my toes.
Remember how much we love that apartment complex in Vancouver named Cascade Park? The one with the waterfall and the fireplace? Well, I called them to get applied for the apartment. And they told me that the one we wanted wasn't available because the tenants (who were supposed to be kicked out) were not leaving until October. Which doesn't work for us. So then they told me that there was only a downstairs unit available with the floorplan we liked, but that was not so great for us because the downstairs units are $50 more a month. No bueno when you're going to be tight on money as is. The apartment was supposed to be by the waterfall, we said great. Then when we called back about it, they said that the only one that was available is actually a DIFFERENT one that is down by the highway, but still a bottom unit. I was starting to feel like we were getting the run around.
I was able to download the applications and email them in and our email conversations continued... our credit was great (no surprise there), but they just needed to verify income. Which is great for what we're making now, but remember how we won't be making ANYTHING when we move? But they didn't say they wanted to see any financial aid rewards or anything.... And they wanted the security deposit NOW. Which I wasn't happy about because why would i send that much money if we weren't going to get approved? WRENCH.
Now I've seen enough Judge Judy to know that you should have EVERYTHING in documentation, so I continued with the email plan explaining that I wasn't going to send money without a contract. Which they disputed with "we only sign contracts in the office." To which I said, "well, if I can't sign a contract, I can't start paying rent September 1st cuz we won't be there til the week of the 20th." To which they said, "okay, fine, we'll see what we can do."
Tuesday they sent a contract over and said we could sign it and fax it in (why was that so hard for them? I have no idea). As I looked at the contract, I noticed that they also require you to have a landline number for the security gate so guests can call you on their keypad and you can let them in. This is not an expense we were even THINKING about getting as we don't nearly come close to using half of our minutes with our cell phones. Plus, with Dustin at school all day, and me at work all day to pay for this bottom unit, why would we want a home landline?!? So extra money for the apartment that we don't even want, and now extra money for a utility we don't even want? WRENCH.
At this point, I was seriously starting to question whether we wanted to live here and rent from this management as the whole process had seemed like a hassle and was hard to communicate with. So then we remembered our second choice in apartments: Star Crest Manor in Portland. Over $150 a month cheaper than Cascade Park with all the new expenses. And way closer to Dustin's school. Close enough that we wouldn't need 2 cars. Cut that expense out. And the landline. Add satellite/DVR service, and it's STILL cheaper than Cascade Park. No bridge traffic. An apartment with TWO bathrooms. 5 minutes away from the plasma center. This was looking like a MUCH better option for us and we set our minds that Star Crest was the right decision for us.
Then my Aunt Sheri went to Cascade Park to check out the apartment for us in person. And talking with the management, they told her that if she gave them the security deposit right then, we could actually have the original apartment we wanted because the tenants are moving out in three days. SAY WHAT?!? I guess that there are other people in the complex that want that apartment but haven't put money down on it yet, so if we showed the dough, it was ours. WRENCH. This gave us a lot to think about. We told them we'd take a day and let them know.
On the way home from work (mind you, this is all still TUESDAY), I get a message from Robert Half Accounting saying they have a potential position for me. I called him back and found out more about the job, that it would need to start beginning of September, that they were looking for someone that I met the qualifications for perfectly. This meant that I would have a job! That we could afford Cascade Park! WRENCH.
Seriously, by this point I was freaking out so we stopped at Arctic Circle and got a Butterfinger shake to clear our heads :) It worked.
We made a pros and cons list, listed out all expenses associated with both apartments, and decided to sleep on it.
Final decision made yesterday morning: Star Crest Manor in Portland. We think it will be a great home for us and if we end up hating it and having the money to afford Cascade Park, we can always move. I mean, we're going to be there for YEARS so if we're at a cheaper place now, we won't be out anything really. And we'll be able to save that extra money from cheaper rent and transportation costs to maybe come home once or twice in the next 3-4 years. Or buy food. :)
We've applied for Star Crest and are waiting to hear back on whether we are accepted or not. Of course, they are hung up on "income verification" because they want 3 x rent NET income (what would we ever do with all that money?!?!) We gave them the info for the financial contact at UWS and hopefully she can send them what they need and explain to them that we will definitely have the funds to pay for rent. I'll let you know how that works out. If we're not accepted, I have no idea who will accept us cuz that rent is pretty cheap. Hahahaha.
As far as hearing back about the potential job, after 2 full days, no one has called me about an interview or a job, so I'm guessing that they, like everyone else, do not want to hire me because I don't live there. And the apartment people don't want us cuz we dont' have a job? It's a catch-22.
Oh man. Life is crazy. We are packing up all we can now and there is still TONS left to pack. It's only a month away!
Nathan, Adrienne, and Elliott moved to Chicago on Sunday and it was very sad to see them go!! I definitely loved having them here for the summer and spending time together playing games, watching the Bachelorette, SYTYCD, and Parks and Rec. And of course, snuggling and kissing little Elliott!! We miss you guys and hope you are having a great time on your adventure in Chicago!
Half-way through August at that. Man, how time flies. 6 weeks til we move? 20 something working days left at StoresOnline? Not that I'm counting down.
The last week in July we got to spend some fun and relaxing time with the Creer family at East Canyon. It's a semi-annually family reunion type deal where all Dustin's family goes up to East Canyon to play together. His Grandma and Grandpa Creer also usually come up and his Aunt and Uncle Teri and Neil family come up too. This year Andy and Amy and kids got to come up for a day and we all had a great time together! It's so nice cuz you can just do whatever... or do nothing at all. There's a lake that the family went jet-skiing on a day before we could come up, they have 4 wheeling trails, basketball, tennis, shuffleboard, mini golf, and a fun pool and hot tub! We always like to play lots of games and last year Ticket To Ride Europe became a big hit. Nertz is also a Creer family favorite and we all just play and have so much fun together!!
East Canyon was the last of our vacations for the year. And possibly ever. Or at least for the next couple years. Now we're packing up and securing housing, which is starting to be a little frustrating. The perfect apartment we wanted won't be open because the tenants extended for a couple more months. lame. And now they don't have any other top floor openings. They have one bottom floor opening, but the bottom floor is $50 more a month!!! Do you know what $50 does to a monthly budget grad school style? I'm sure we can still afford it (we'll have like $300 a month doing plasma... and that's without me getting a real job! Yippee!), but there are a lot of other things we'd rather do with $50 a month (like go on a date?!?!) if we could live on the top floor (which we would prefer anyway). So... blarg. We'll see. We're still going to fill out the application cuz we still really want to live there, even if it will cost a little more money.
On a side note, did I mention yet that I am now on Pinterest? I don't remember if I did or not, but I am, so you should follow me. So I can pin more cool stuff. And find more cool recipes. So that I may someday be a world famous baker. Or something.
PS. Melanie won SYTYCD! YAY!! She was my favorite. Completely amazing and graceful and just the best. :)
The End.
We counted out our weeks remaining in Utah and there are 8 full weeks. This summer has been SO FULL of everything that I feel we're running out of time much too quickly. We went over the calendar tonight and so far, everything is full halfway through August. AUGUST. It's crazy.
To make sure we do EVERYTHING in Utah that we would ever like to do (just in case we don't make it back for like 5 years cuz we're too poor and chomping through school), we've started making a Utah Bucket list. Places we want to eat, Stores we want to visit, Activities we want to do.
The list includes items such as:
Sammys in Provo (good thing we have a groupon for this that we need to use!)
Boondocks (good thing we have gift cards for this that we need to use!)
Trafalga and 7 Peaks (we need to go a bazillion more times until our pass of all passes expires!)
Mt. Timpanogos Temple (our temple!)
Cafe Rio (none in Portland)
Good Wood BBQ (never been, always wanted to go)
The Dollar Theater (it will be sad to say goodbye to cheap dates nights)
Salem Days (best. city days. ever)
Etc. Though this isn't our entire list, can you think of anything else we MUST do before moving far far away? Please share. We may not be back for some time. If you want us to visit you before we go, speak up now. If you want to go eat with us, speak up now. If you want us to babysit your children, speak up now. 8 weeks is not a long time.
Option #2 is a 2 bed/2 bath in Portland only 8 mins away from Dustin's school. Here's the low down of our 2 favorite options.
Cascade Park in Vancouver:
Specs: 2 bedroom, 1 HUGE bathroom, 1029 sq feet, completely recently remodeled. And by recently I mean that the apartment we would like to move in to is going to be remodeled as soon as the current tenants (of 10 years) are moving out by the end of the month. The whole complex started remodeling last summer and this is the last apartment to be redone. The current tenants did not want the remodels while they were living there so once they're out, everything will be redone-- granite counter tops, new appliances, new flooring, new paint, new cabinetry, the works. We will be the first people to live in this basically new apartment. Washer/dryer is included, wood burning fireplace, large deck with outside storage, they even have a spice drawer in the kitchen! I'm kinda in heaven.
Added perks: tennis court and basketball court, big pool, year round hot tub, WATERFALL by the pool/hot tub that lights up at night, gym, tanning bed, yeah, it's a great place. The price is right and utilities are in the right price point as well.
Cons: It's farther away from Dustin's school and for a one car family, that poses a little problem. We're trying to come up with solutions as distance to the school is REALLY the only con. The neighborhood is actually really good, and grocery stores, restaurants, everything basically is close and we'd still get the same kind of "hometown" feel like what we have in Spanish Fork/Salem. We really like the idea of that.
Solutions..... A) Convince my parents to let us use the extra car that wouldn't be used until Dallin gets home from his mission in March. Which at that point, my dad should buy himself a new car and let Dallin drive his old car. Brilliant.
B) I won't get a job when we move and Dustin can take the car. That's right, just kick it at home doing fantastic things with my day all day. We figured out that if Dustin decides to do school year round aka continue during the summer instead of taking one quarter off (thanks for this idea Julia, it's PERFECT, AMAZING, LEGENDARY really), we'd have enough money to pay for life instead of having to save some money from each quarter to fund the quarter off summer break. The reasons this would be so great: Dustin would finish in 3 years instead of 4! We'd have money to live! Afterall, we're going to be getting student loans for the same amount of school time, just might as well finish earlier. I'd be able to stay home and be a happy wife to make a happy husband! Honestly, this plan is very doable. Dustin's quarters are each 10 weeks long with 1 week of finals and then TWO WEEKS OFF. Which means he gets a decent break between EACH quarter. If I wasn't working, we could spend those two weeks TOGETHER. We could come home and visit family. We could take little trips to the coast or Seattle. If I was not working full time outside of the home, I could do all the cleaning, cooking, laundry, exercise, EVERYTHING. So Dustin could wake up to a hot breakfast, have his lunch packed lovingly with secrets loves notes inside, then come home to a clean home, and dinner ready. Then he could spend the evening studying and ending the night with a game of tennis or a soak in the hot tub. Happy wife = happy life.
Now just to be clear, it's not that we couldn't do this same setup if we lived in the Portland apartment, but the Vancouver apartment is so much better and we would feel so much SAFER. The area, community, and features are just so much more US. That's how we roll.
Also, before anyone starts thinking that I'm completely LAZY and INCOMPETENT because I have zero desire to work when we move out there, I will still find a job, at least part time, if not something full time. I was just starting to freak out about how much life would cost and that I'd HAVE to get a job if we want to eat. But with this set up, it wouldn't be mandatory and I could find a job that I enjoyed. I did interview with Accountemps while I was in Portland and they have my resume and had me do skill tests so they can place me somewhere. I'm just not going to keep actively looking for a Portland job right now because I keep getting the same response--you don't live here so we won't hire you. This plan just makes more sense to me. Dustin and I have both decided we can sell plasma twice a week (I should be a pro after the 9 blood draws this year!) for extra income and I would love to teach a bunch of piano students. Vancouver would also be a better area for this because there are more families instead of city living adults. I'm still voting for employment at Costco.
Option #2 for apartments I'll be brief on since this is turning into a long post and I'm sure you'd like to see pictures. I'll include other trip details in another post :)
Star Crest Manor in Portland: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 980 sq feet, good location in relation to the school and decent neighborhood. Washer/dryer in apartment, functional floorplan, gym, no pool though :( It was nothing super special, but it was decent and well under our price point. Problem is that there aren't a lot of grocery stores nearby. It's city living, just not downtown city living. But since the school is close enough, I could drop Dustin off at school and take the car to work, wherever that will be. Perk: It is close to the plasma bank.
Basically we want Cascade Park. So here are some pictures of it :)
Big bathroom. Yes, that is a DOUBLE vanity. I'm a fan.
Wood burning fireplace in the family room.
Big pool. Can you see the waterfall? It's not super clear in this picture, but it looks really nice in real life!
Hopefully we'll be putting out a Welcome mat there soon!
