Moving Day is Scheduled

Goodness, I go away for a while and come back to a whole new blogger. If you don't use blogger, you don't know what I am talking about. The screen where you type the blogs is totally different. Ok, I will adjust to this.

I have had so much going on in my head - so many things I want to say.

The Move -
Dean found a house he liked a lot. He was just driving around town and found it. We got to see it just as I drove into town. I like it so much. It has just been redone - all new paint and flooring throughout. So nice.

Here is a link to the pics http://www.austinhomesearch.com/Search/AdditionalPhotos.aspx?id=294324&mlsid=8050955   Not sure how long they will stay up, since it is on the realtor's site. I really think it is going to be nice.

Dean is going to move in tomorrow. A blow up mattress. He went to Walmart today for a few basics. May 6-7 will be the packing and loading days. I will leave on the 8th. Our stuff should be there on the 10th - hopefully. It could be as late as the 14th. I hope it is quicker. I will be back here on the 18th or 19th for Joy Anna's shower. I will then be here for 3 weeks before the wedding.


more to come - I am too tired tonight for more. 

Austin Bound!

Since it has been two weeks since he had the interview with the other company, and there has been no contact - not even a return call on how to submit the expenses - I guess there is not going to be a job here in El Paso. It looks as if we are heading to Austin.

We have always like the area a lot. It will be different. Not the high desert and not the piney woods either. There are trees and there is green. And so, now we start the next phase - house hunting and getting ready to move.

I think I am going down this weekend and help look for a house. I found one I really liked. It had a doggy door and a cat door, too. Dean, Aunt Bev & Uncle Homer drove over yesterday to look at it. Dean did not like the neighborhood, or at least the street. There was another one in the neighborhood that he liked better.

He has to be in Fort Worth tomorrow for a meeting. I will head down probably Friday morning. I am not sure when I will get home. We will see how things go.

Joy Anna and Jeremy were approved for their apartment. Now, they just need to get an opening, so they can move and we can get her stuff moved into it.

Today, I am going to hit the housework hard! I need to make progress so I can have the moving company come in and give the estimate. on What they will need to pack and move. That means instead of me going through things as I pack, I have to go through them before. Since Dean is gone, I am going to try the 17 day diet again. I know going down there will be difficult, but I will manage. I need to do this so bad.

Here goes - a full day of sorting and separating! Dean is ready for me to get there. 

T-Shirt Quilts

Ashley's mom Angie makes wonderful t-shirt quilts. For Christmas, she made Eric an amazing Texas Ranger quilt and Tyler and equally amazing (if you are a Kentucky Fan) Kentucky quilt.

Her website is http://quilt-tees.com/
She is in Tennessee, but you can send her the t-shirts and she will ship the quilt back to you. This is the perfect way to save all those special t-shirts you just don't want to throw out.

a job is a job, or is it?

Well, Dean has accepted the offer in Austin. He will be back with the company that he was laid off from in February. He will be official tomorrow. That means May 1 we are back on insurance! That will be great. It is a very good thing that he doesn't lose seniority - he starts back at having been there for three years. It is very unfortunate that they did not start him back at his pay level - in fact it is close to 12,000 less than when he left. The cost of living is higher in Austin. Disappointing to say the least.

He starts to work on Monday. In Austin. Or Dallas. We aren't sure yet.

As soon as he gets to Austin, he will be looking for a house. We don't want to be separated for too long. We do have a wedding coming  very soon. Two months from today, Joy Anna and Jeremy will be honeymooning in Hawaii. Do we move before the wedding? After the wedding? Thankfully, they will pay for us to be moved- a moving company will move us. They will even pack us. We plan to have a lot of that already done. We'll let them do the tv, the things on the wall, etc.

Now, we need to so some house hunting, some simplifying, hold a major garage sale, sell the VW, figure out how to cut a ton out of our budget, find a new church, new doctors, new vet, new everything.  And then what do I do? Do I find a job? Do I try to work a photo business knowing that I could only be there for a year? And then what comes at the end of the year? Will they move him somewhere else? Will they find something for him in Austin? Will we be job hunting all over again?

1700 miles around Texas

We have had quite a week! Monday, Dean got a call that he would have an interview in Dallas on Wednesday. He was supposed to get a call telling the details. No call on Monday. On Tuesday, he had an appointment with the state disabilities office to see about reduced price hearing aids. Right as we left for that, he got the call that he needed to be in Dallas 24 hours later. He chose to drive, so I could go. We left about noon on Tuesday.

We made it into Dallas late that evening. We checked into a hotel - it left a lot to be desired - basically long enough to sleep. He went on his interview at 11. I hung out at Target and TJ Maxx. He said the interview went well, but there is probably 3 weeks before he will know a final. Oh well. We tried to call a few other places in Dallas where he has submitted his resume to see if he could get an interview. No luck.

We pricelined and got a good deal on a nice hotel. It had just been remodeled. I didn't take a pic of our room, but here is the lobby.

We got in touch with Jordan and Kelly Hunt and met for dinner. Jordan and Eric went to school 2nd grade through 12th grade. They were roommates their freshman year and Jordan was in Eric's wedding. We had so much fun. They just bought a new house. It is so nice. They are very blessed to have such a great space to enjoy.

The next day, we made more calls. He was offered a job in Austin (this one he was offered last week with his old company. The pay was quite a bit less and they were not going to pay moving. He asked for them to reconsider. They called on Thursday and said that was the offer) Because he has a relationship with the company, he made a few calls. That afternoon, he received word, that his salary would not increase, but he would get moving expenses. We are waiting for a formal offer via email - hopefully, they will match his former salary. Austin is more expensive to live, but at least he would have a job.

That day for lunch we met his friend from high school, Doris, at the Spaghetti Warehouse. The last time we were there was the first time we were all together. We talked and debated over and over about which opportunities he should take.

That evening, we met Patra, Paul and their twin boys Christopher and Sean at their house to go take photos of them. Patra worked with Dean in Tyler back before we had Joy Anna. Crazy, huh? We had tons of fun with them. The boys are adorable. Then, we had dinner together. We enjoyed meeting Paul and the boys.

The next morning, we got up late and stopped at an architect's office to drop off a resume. We then headed south to Austin. We got there and checked out some locations of where Dean would be working and the best places to live. We went to the Good Friday service with his family and then to dinner. We hung out over at Aunt Bev's and enjoyed the visit and looked at old pics. Tons of fun. There was a full moon.

  Do you know how good fresh cut grass smells? I had forgotten. I had to roll down the window just to smell. I soaked in the variety of scents and colors. It was beautiful! I was reminded of the book Frederick - where he soaks in the colors and words and then relies on the memories of those in the long cold winter months. I think I might need to rely on the scents and smells if we stay here longer.

I so enjoyed sitting on the back patio watching the birds - listening to their call. Beautiful! Later, we drove around the area where Dean's Aunt Bev lives looking for places that might be potential for us to live. After a while, we headed back toward El Paso. We stopped along the way for me to take a few wild flower pics. Joy Anna likes Indian Paintbrush, so we had to find that.

We were almost back to I-10 when we went through London, TX. I had Dean pull off the main road and do a tad of exploring.

 Now we are back at home. Still debating the best thing for us to do.

Today did not go as planned

We were expecting a job offer today - more of a job confirmation. We were expecting it to be a good job offer. We were really wrong. Yes, there is an offer on the table, but it is a large cut in pay with no moving expenses. Not something we think we can do.

Not long after that one came in, he got an email requesting him being in Dallas on Wednesday for an interview with a different company- the job would be here in EP. We decided we would drive. I could go, we could stay around the area. We could visit some friends and try to get tickets to the see the Rangers' season opener. We saw their spring opener, so we thought seeing the season opener would be good, too.

We had to go find him something to wear. He hasn't had to wear anything but jeans in more than 3 years. We did some shopping and waited on the phone call that never came. Tomorrow he goes to check on hearing aids at 11. We were hoping to leave for Dallas right after that appointment, but we have no set plans. So, once again we wait.

Yesterday, we made some progress on the house as in sorting and packing. Even if he gets a job here in El Paso, we are going to look for a house with real air conditioning.

And so, once again, we wait.

Cleaning up

We have a gas stove here - I really like gas stoves- not necessarily this one. It is difficult to keep clean - part of that is there is no way to use burner pans. Another problems is that there is no counter space here - I end up using the stove top as counter space. I not the neatest chef either. I make a mess boiling spaghetti noodles <sigh>

So, anyway, I have been struggling to clean it up and keep it clean. I have tried almost everything. This week in Walmart I picked up Weiman's Gas Range Cleaner.

This stuff is great! I used it two times and wow, what a difference! No, it doesn't look brand new - there is still some dark around the burners, but the pan part is really clean. If you need help cleaning a gas stove top, I highly recommend Weiman's Gas Range Degreaser.