The car

Here are some pictures of the our new car.  For those of you who didn't know, Sam and I HAD to purchase a car.  We broke our car pulling our trailer while we were moving.  Really what luck.  But the truth is we were really blessed to not have the car break down at all during our trip. 

Here it is.  We are officially a Buick family.  It is the same type of car but 3 year newer.  Mind you that still means it is 12 years old. :) I just love the space for 3 car seats, the extra front seat in the middle, and the huge trunk. We might of got a really good deal, but at the same time I am not sure.  I am scared to take it to the mechanic because I am afraid to find out how bad we got ripped off.  As much as Sam and I try not to be, we really  are suckers.

 
The inside.  It is nice. It is all electronic.  We have controls the radio and a/c controls from the steering wheel.  It really is a luxury car.

So what is the matter with the old car.  Yes it still runs, but we have a cracked engine head block, so it is not going to last long, and now it isn't worth anything. 


We decided that we would keep the old car and run it into the ground and then sell it for scrap.  It will be Sam's to and from work car.  But we bought this car for right now because it is so hot and the other car doesn't do well now in the hot weather so we are saving it when it gets a little cooler, and right now we can't afford the two insurances and the two gas tanks. We needed to be a two car family now anyway so this will allow us to save up for awhile.

  

What I miss

There is something about Utah that makes you hate it when you live there, but you miss it so much when you leave.  I tried not to complain about Utah when I lived there, but who can help it. :)  But I can say now, how much much I miss it.  Here is what I miss.  (not in any particular order)

•   I miss my brother and sister-in-law Felipe and Krys.  I always gave them a hard time for not hanging out with us.
• I miss Sam's brothers.  They always bailed us out.
• I miss my Aunt Sandra and cousin Tiffany and even though we didn't see each other more I miss not being able to see them if I want to.
• I miss my ward.  When I moved it I wanted to move out but that ward ended up being so awesome.
• I miss my nursing room friends.  They always knew how to solve my problems.
• I miss my job.  I loved my students.
• I miss that if my mom does come to Utah I can't see her, or if there is an emergency she can't come.
• I miss my apartment.  It had it's problems, like it being so hot the thermostat was maxed out at 90 at 10pm, or that you couldn't hear the t.v. if the windows were open, but it was ours.
• I miss my friends who helped me, beyond belief, when I moved.  They were there for me.  I wish I could name names but then I would go on forever.  You know who I am talking about.
• I really miss my sister Sally and always begging her to come and visit me.  
• I miss her kids.
• I miss my stuff, it still is in Utah.
• I miss the cool nights.
• I miss people going outside.  People don't do that here.
• I miss BYU.
• I miss my friends and family.  Yes I repeated it.
• I miss my neighbors.
• I miss all the women in my ward who had babies the same time I did.  There was A LOT.
• I miss the security of being a student.
• I miss Good Earth's bulk prices.
• I miss the local bread that comes from Utah.  There was always some really good bread at any store you went to.
• I miss the fact that the health food stores are close.
• I miss the fact that the  raw milk could be bought at anytime if I wanted to, or I should say when I had the money too. :)
• I miss knowing which generic items are good and which ones weren't.
• I miss knowing which items usually went on sale, like western family medium cheddar for $4, and kroger $1 cream cheese, cottage cheese, and sour cream.  
• I miss the mountains.
• But mostly I miss the people.

There is one consolation of being in Texas and that is I entered the 13 fattest state (leaving the 44th fattest state, or the 6th skinniest state).  I went to the mall today and I have to say I feel pretty darn good about myself now. :)

Another change!

Despite all the changes that have already been going on in my life I needed one more.  A new hair cut.  This is the most extreme I have done in a while.  Yes I did get the annoying bangs that you have to fling to one side or the other every 5 seconds, but I had to have a change.  Okay so it is not that extreme, but for me it is a little shocking since I haven't had bangs since I grew them out in 8th grade.  Oh well I love it, so what do you think? 

Thank you for your comment!!!

I appreciate all the comments on my post.  I totally expected zero but I had the pleasure of all the comments and two of them that were from totally awesome people that have never commented on my blog before.  Thank you.  Now here is my view.  I have to agree with  Shari, my health food buddy.  I think I can live anywhere that meets my needs.  In all the places that I have lived so far, except one, Hermiston Oregon, my heath food needs were met, which include an affordable health food store.  Now here in Texas I have to start my search all over again, but so far I am not finding the variety and prices that I am use to.


I also want to mention opportunities.  I will be comparing Sam's life of growing up in a city of 2 million, compared to my life growing up in  a town of 12,000.  Sam and I both love sports.  I played city leagues, $20-$40 per sport.  Sam couldn't because they were so expensive, $300.  I played 5 different sports in High school, lettering in 3.  Sam played one because the competition was too great.  My little league softball team went all the way to the world series.  I was in school leadership because there wasn't the great numbers running for office.  We went to the same university.  Sam went to the museums on field trips.  I went to, yes smaller, museums on field trips.  Sam had great teachers.  I had great teachers.  We ate the same fast food.  Sam went to the movies.  I saw the same movies.  So it seems that there really are more opportunities in a small town.  But it does depend on the town.  Good luck to me surviving this really big, spread out, city.  It definitely takes a lot more work to find stuff in a big city.  I feel like a am drowning, and I barely even leave the house. :)

ps Cariña said something funny the other day.  Cariña and Helaman were watching a movie when it was time for dinner.  So their Grandpa said "Cariña press the stop button."  So she got up and looked at this VCR, which was new to her, and found the stop button and pressed it.  Her Grandpa said "Wow, do you know how to read?"  Her reply, "No, I don't know how to read, I just saw S-T-O-P." What a girl.

Small town vs. Large city

Which one is better? I say a small town can have more advantages than a large city.  Sam says that a large city has more opportunities than a small town.  What do you think and why?

We left with . . .

No air conditioning (we had it, but Sam wouldn't let us use it)

No small DVD player (it was in the front seat of the car, but I refused to let m\y kids use it, but they didn't know it was an option so they made it.)

2 kids in car seats covered with backpacks

1 nursing baby

and a trunk loaded as full as we could pack it so that we could last 2 months without our stuff

We drove 1200 miles and it took us three days and two nights.

Maybe two fights and Xenia only cried for the leg of each day, but once you picked her up she was so excited that she didn't make a sound the rest of the night.

Only one road delay and that was for 1 hour for a flooded roadway.

Countless stops on the highway for bathroom breaks.

2 lunch stops which included a stop in a town with the population 394 and the only place was a pizza place located inside the gas station.

3 Amazing children that are the best travelers out there.  I couldn't have asked for better.

Over all it was a great trip. 

4 days, $500, 360 miles later. . .

And we are still in the same place.  This move has not gone smoothly.  We seem to have trouble after trouble.  We took our over loaded trailer to my sister's house 64 miles south.  At my sister's house we had to reload and down size.  We decided to ship all our media through the mail, and redistributed the weight to our trailer.  This added an extra day onto our trip.  So the next morning we left once again on our adventure to  our new life and made it about 120 miles south.  About 3 miles out side of the city the tire  shreds and pops.  Amazing people came to help took Sam into town to find a tire shop.  The place was so busy that Sam had to do all the work.  He put on another tire and it too also started to shred.  The tire  place finally was able to rig the trailer to drive into town.  So we had to call a trailer fix it guy who came but it was going to take forever.  So we had to drive another 50 miles south to rent a hotel room to find a cheaper hotel room because Moab on the 4th of July was running $125 a night.   In the morning we drove back to moab to gather our trailer and realized that it is just too heavy for the small tires.  So we drove carefully back (45mph) to my sister's house to downsize once again and figure out how to get our stuff to Dallas.  It seems that we either are destined to stay in Utah, or have no belongings. :)  Oh what a trip and it is just barely starting.

ps if you are ever going to break down do it around Moab.  The people there are so nice and helpful.