It's Official...

...I suck at blogging. Like really, really bad at this! In order to catch up, I am going to do the reader's digest version of what should have been the next post and then catch you up with our first week in Texas. (I started this post a few days ago)

To recap my last 6 weeks:

• Babysat a 3 year old
• Went to Richmond for friend's birthday/bridal shower
• Went to Waco to find somewhere to live
• Girls beach weekend in Topsail
• Paul and I got engaged
• Packed for a cross country move
• Paul finished his research, thesis, and presentation to complete his MS
• Took a 3 day drive and moved to Texas

We finally arrived at our apartment on Monday. As I was picking up our keys, I noticed they didn't give me a mail box key.  When I asked about it, the realtor said that we have to go through the post office to get a PO Box....? What? There is not a mailbox? So where is all my forwarding mail going?? On the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised to find out our moving company was going to be delivering our stuff the following day. We honestly did not expect them to deliver so soon! As great as that was, they only accepted cash or postal money order upon delivery. Since we were now in a different state, Waco did not have either one of our banks locally. Immediately we have to hunt down a post office.  Once we found the post office and got our money order, the lady told us that yes, there were mailboxes at our condo's, we just need to request a key for them from the PO. Apparently, it's up to the tenants to let the PO know that the locks need to be changed... this was something new and different to me, but I was just happy we were able to figure it out - even if it meant it would be a week before we could get our mail!

Next, we were on to find a Target! I don't know about most people, but there are certain things you don't bother packing when you move - you just toss out and will buy it new later.  Well, for us, one of those things was a shower curtain.  We make to Target and go up and down the aisles  looking for things that we may need.  Once we get back and unload our cars, blow up the air bed for the night and relax, we realize that the condo/apartment (I still am struggling on the proper term for our location...what's the difference? anybody know?) does not come with a shower bar AND we decided that we should go ahead and buy some thermal curtains for the big balcony window to help keep it cooler, since our AC seems to really struggle with battling out the heat.  We decide to go BACK to Target for a shower rod, curtain rod, and curtains. Upon our return, we remember that we not only don't have our screwdriver to install the curtains, we don't even know where it would be packed when the movers DO come with our stuff!

Tuesday:  TWC comes to set up cable, internet, and phone; except we don't yet have our tv or a phone to connect. As the TWC guy is pulling out, the movers pull in.  There were two men, one older gentleman that Paul was worried we might kill with a heart attack or heat stroke.  They happen to come during the hottest part of the day, we live on the 2nd floor, and Paul has a lot of books. I mean A LOT of books. We made sure they had as much bottled water as they needed, and they (and Paul) had everything unloaded within 2 hours

Wednesday:  Paul and I begin to unpack

Thursday - Day 4:  I wake up not feeling very well. I decided to go to Target and get a humidifier since I am in a drier climate than I am use to. I also finally make it to the grocery store. I could do a whole post on the grocery store here! They only have one grocery store here, but it is amazing!  It's HUGE! It has a bigger variety than Harris Teeter but at Food Lion prices. I can get a loaf of bread for $.88!! Love it! By an unfortunate coincidence though, I happen to go around 5:00, on Thursday. Turns out, Thursday is their triple point day for their customer loyalty program! So I was already overwhelmed at being in a new and massive grocery store. Now add tons and tons of people.
My goals were to:
1. Get home out without having an anxiety attack from sensory overload
2. Get home without yelling at anyone
3. Get home without ramming my cart into any small children. This one was a tough one. After a while you really begin to rationalize this. "Nobody knows me here...I can just bump him just a little." "I am really doing a community service. If I go ahead a bump him, then he would stay out of other people's way as well..."

As tough as it was, I did make it home without yelling at anybody, bumping any small children with my car, and not a cripping anxiety attack.  Success!! :)

Once I got home, I did what anybody would do after doing a large amount of grocery shopping around dinner time... go out to eat! We have really loved exploring all the wonderful food places Waco has to offer. There are surprising more than I had originally thought!

Friday-Sundayish:  Paul and I were officially out of commission. Friday was when I really started to feel bad, Paul was a day behind me.  We had been in Waco for less than a week and were already sick!  Unpacking and settling in officially were on hold.  To add insult to injury, we still don't have a couch. We (I) had decided that the couches we had in Wilmington, were NOT coming with us to Texas. So we were laying on a palat we had made on the living room floor with blankets, pillows, and the feather bed. I am sure you are wondering "why didn't you just stay in bed?" You see my friends, we finally have digital cable after nearly 4 years of only having the basic, local channels.  We may, or may not, have discovered HBO on Demand and found the Game of Thrones. We watched the first 2 seasons during the weekend.  At times we tried to get out of the condo. We found a park and walked around and between the heat our colds...we didn't last long.

Well.... I am sure there are some fun details I am missing, but again, I am writing a reader's digest version just so that I can give a basic update. Hopefully I will do better at posting in the future!! I leave you with a few pictures! :)

My engagement ring with my grandmother's diamond 

Terra's comfy ride to Texas

A picture from the park in Waco when we attempted to get out of the house

Girls weekend in Topsail!

Life is a highway...pt.1

I realize it has been a long while since I blogged - I did start a post one night though...does that count? :)  To say that the month of July has been busy is an understatement! I am going to do my best to catch up everything as efficiently as possible!

After my wonderful week with Van, I dropped him back off with his parents on my way to a friend's "Dirty 30" birthday/work weekend Bowling Green, VA.  She is getting married on the family farm up there this September and there was still a lot of work to do to get the place ready. Being the campy person that she is, she decided to celebrate her 30th birthday, by having people come and help them on the farm. HOT, HOT, HOT!! With the heat index being well over 100, we cleaned Friday night and Saturday morning, then threw in the towel before the heat was able to peak.  On Sunday, her sisters threw her a fabulous "My Fair Lady" themed bridal shower! There were tea sandwiches, truffles, scones (all homemade), with beautiful decorations to accompany it! Made me with I had seen the movie 

Once I made it back home and recovered from everything, it was time for us to fly to Waco to try to find somewhere to live! I picked up Paul from school on Thursday afternoon, drove to Myrtle Beach, flew from Myrtle to Chicago, then from Chicago to Dallas. By the time we finally landed, picked-up our luggage, picked-up a rental car and found the hotel; it was well after 1:00am (2:00am Eastern). We absolutely crashed! The next morning we checked-out and drove down to Waco.  Waco is bigger than we were expecting. Apparently for Texas standards it is a "small town", but it is very comparable to Wilmington, if not a little larger.  We were fortunate enough to find a nice, quiet condo on the outskirts of town. Knowing we now have somewhere to live was a huge relief! I had been worried about that for months. Once that was taken care of, we headed over to Baylor so Paul could drop off some forms, then just explored Baylor and Waco the rest of the time.  Baylor has an absolutely beautiful campus!! Thankfully, they also have lots of trees around to help provide some reprieve from the intense heat.  Navigating the roads will take a little adjustment. Little things from, horizontal stoplights, to U-Turn only lanes when exiting off the interstate. It's amazing I didn't get a moving violation ticket while trying to get around!  On Saturday, we headed back to Dallas since we had an early morning flight. We stopped to eat at an amazing restaurant called The Ranch. Most of all their food comes from ranches in Texas.  It was amazing!  I did, however, learn the hard way what a fresno pepper is. They came on my sausage and goat cheese flatbread. Being a flatbread, and seeing slices of red things on it, I assumed they were tomatoes. They.Were.NOT! On my second bite, I ate an entire slice and thought I was going to be sick it was so hot!! Even hours later, after my mouth had stopped burning, my skin still had a reddish/tan tint to it from the pepper!  This is a mistake I will not make again! I will always know what a Fresno Pepper is now!

Baylor Bears - with two live bears on campus! (In a bear habitat of course)

Beautiful trees on Baylor Campus!!

Us, on campus, in the heat!

This gets us through the 1st half of July!  I will try to post the rest later today or tomorrow! :)