the semester so far

Eeps!  I have been putting off blogging since there's been so much going on the last few weeks, it's been crazy!  I subcategorized what's been up with us the last 4 weeks so it's easier to navigate, haha.  I got impatient and haven't taken pix of the new apartment so that will have to be a different post.

New Apartment and New Furniture 

The Sunday we came back from California we got up at 3:30am, got picked up at 4:15am to go to the airport, our flight was at 6:15am, and we got picked up by our friend Brendon at the SLC airport at 9am, went to breakfast and then had to wait til noon for Ikea to open.  Then we headed there to pick up our couch, dining room table, and 4 chairs.  It was quite an ordeal trying to fit it all into our SUV and a pretty uncomfortable ride back to Rexburg that night.

i wish i'd taken a picture of the amazing pack job we did

We were supposed to be able to get into our apartment that night, even though there would be no managers working, but we weren't able to get a hold of them so we drove back to Rexburg not even knowing if we were going to have a place to stay!  Luckily, they had left the door unlocked, which was their plan anyway.. they just didn't let us in on it.  So we moved a bunch of stuff in praying that it was in fact the correct apartment number, haha.

Jed sitting on the sofa, lol

We spent days building furniture, moving stuff from our storage unit to the apartment, and unpacking while also trying to sort out Jed's getting ready for school and my job fiasco (see below).  After Jed put together the dining room table, we discovered that I had picked up the correct color table top and incorrect legs, but everyone seems to love it so we just kept it as is..

The next Monday we took a crazy trip to and from SLC to go to Ikea to get the rest of our furniture that we needed.  We left Rexburg right after Jed got out of class at 2pm, drove down, grabbed a desk for Jed, bed frame, dresser, 2 bedside tables, and a lounge chair with the help of our friend Matt and then stopped by Whole Foods to stockpile veg substitutes that I can't find in Idaho and got home around 1:30am.  That was a doozy, but now we have all the essentials.

We still want an entertainment system (we're using a $15 Walmart coffee table right now for an expensive tv, lol), coffee table, book cases, an armchair, curtains (we just have plain venetian blinds now), a vacuum, and wall monitor mounts for Jed, but we're waiting on those because we're pretty broke after all that furniture buying!

The new apartment is super nice and spacious.  It took me a little getting used to after the old place!  I remade the comparison chart so you can see how much of an upgrade this place is.  Unfortunately, we decided we wanted to keep a storage unit so we don't have to push all our clutter in closets.  We got a 6x10' for $26/mo a block away from us.  We also decided to get renters' insurance since there are 24 units in our building, it has built in water sprinklers (which wreck absolutely everything if they go off), and we have more stuff to protect!  So I got it through our auto insurance company for $10/mo to cover $25k worth of stuff, among other perks.

click for larger view

We have a new ward for church since we moved apartments and have only been able to go once, but it seems pretty good!  The members seem pretty active (which may be a product of our entire ward being in only half the apartment complex) and there aren't too many small children. 

School

Jed started school again April 17 and is taking 12 credits of Communications courses.  He would have taken more except for he's taking all the prereqs this semester for basically everything else so everything was locked down, lol.  He's been kicking butt and working hard.  He has 4 more semesters after this one and is planning on graduating December 2013 if the school doesn't hold him up and lets him do fast-grad, etc.

Work

When I came back from our San Diego trip, the director at my work had hired a new PSR worker (behind the actual PSR supervisor's back no less) and given her all but a couple of my clients, leaving me with around 10 hours of work weekly.  Not exactly sure what the reasoning was behind that other than that she has a track record of driving people out of the agency, so I applied for a new job and got an interview and was hired the day after I sent my resume!

So I started my new job working as a PSR and Case Manager at a new agency in Idaho Falls.  It's been good so far, though I'm not up to a full case load yet, but they matched my pay from my previous agency and have been really welcoming.  I have only kids right now, which is fine by me, and will have about half my load in Rigby (10 min south instead of IF's 30 min), which is fantastic.  When they have more clients there I will hopefully eventually only work in Rigby/Rexburg and not have to commute as far.  I'm pretty excited about that for sure.  Also, my boss is totally into getting me as credentialed as I can be as an LSW so I'm studying for the CAFAS/PECFAS cert and maybe the GAIN assessment cert soon too!  I've been slowly building my childrens' PSR "toy box": a large tupperware container in my trunk with board games, card games, and now sidewalk chalk and a whiteboard, among other fun things.  Playing = learning!

Social

My mom came to visit us and see the new place for a long weekend.  Unfortunately, I still had to work and Jed had to go to school so she was stuck on her own in the daytime a lot.  We made lasagna, watched a few movies (Wall-E, Airplane, yanno the goodies), showed her around IF, took a circuit around the Greenbelt and Snake River so Ma could see the "falls" of Idaho Falls, did some shopping, and went to the Cellar in Ammon.

Greenbelt

Cellar dinner!

Jed's filet mignon

We had our semesterly fish taco party on Cinco de Mayo and unfortunately had not as many people as we'd hope show up (maybe 20ish when we prefer 40+).  There was regional stake conference that night and it wasn't the very beginning of the semester like we usually do it so people had school work to attend to, so that was a bummer, but we had fun with those who came!  I really didn't take any pictures because I totally spaced it, but here are a few.  A couple of our neighbors came so that was nice to meet them and they seem pretty chill.  :)  Thanks to Daniel, Maddy, and Justin for your help, too!!

We got an LG Soundbar for the party and ourselves!  It's really nice - affordable, sleek, powerful sound from such a small speaker, has a bluetooth sub, and we can stream music through our phones via bluetooth too.  Legit!

jello shot prep

salsa and Jed label ;)

And that's about it for now.  We're pretty much just gonna be in the loop of work, school, and occasionally hanging out with Daniel and Maddy when we can for now.  Hoping the weather picks up again so Jed and I can get back out walking and geocaching and soon backpacking and camping!!  Can't wait!