Ryan spent two days in Chicago for training. The first night he was gone, Kevin had a hard time falling asleep. I turned off all the lights (kept the nightlights on) and pretended to go to sleep. A little while later, I found Kevin asleep on the bathroom floor rug. Silly boy.
Sunday afternoon we broke out the decoration the kids and I had picked up at Walmart a couple days earlier. The kids got to actually decorate the Christmas tree. Hopefully we'll add some homemade ornaments in the future.
We took advantage of AMEX's Small Business Saturday deal (spend $10 get $10 back) and tried out some cheesesteaks from Texadelphia. Kherington kept saying that it was kind of like a taco an that she really liked it (the Hickory). Kevin couldn't be left out of the picture fun.
We bought our second car! We had looked at it a week or so ago, but it was overpriced so we didn't pursue it. Then Ryan noticed the price had dropped a grand or so on Black Friday. Still over priced, he figured out with his little self-made worksheet how much the dealership actually had put into the car and from there how much he'd be willing to pay. After some back and forth, they left a message saying if we bought it by Saturday (last day of Nov) we could get it for just $200 over what we wanted. Since Jason and Tiffany were here we decided to leave the kids and head out to get it. When we got there someone else was actually out test driving it. Ugh. Instead of hanging around the dealership we made a quick trip to Target across the street then came back to find it ready from me to drive. It drove great. It's a 2004 Toyota Camry but only has 50k miles on it and looks great inside and out so we went for it. Now we are hopefully done bleeding massive amounts of money.
Jason, Tiffany, Eli and Kyah drove up from Houston Thanksgiving morning and we all went over to the Parente's for some delicious food and great company. We were assigned to bring pies which was really easy thanks to Costco. It was a packed house there which made it just that much more fun to be around family. There were 2 little dogs running around that I'm sure the kids will get to know quite well. I find it funny that Kevin follows the dogs around but as soon as it turns and looks at him he gets scared. Kherington just want to sit on the couch and hold them. After we ate, the kids went out to the high school field behind the house, played on the football training equipment, chased balls around then ended with some kickball.
After a week of either running errands or doing research on the computers, we decide to let the kids setup the Christmas tree. We're just doing a small one this year that I picked up at Walmart. The idea is to have this be the kids Christmas tree from now an and next year buy a big one. The love it. Hopefully we'll pick-up some decorations sometime soon.
This week has really been a blur. Really it has been quiet stressful and when I look back we accomplished 3 main things.
Monday through Wednesday we spent finding housing. Monday we drove around and looked at the neighborhoods houses were in that we thought we would be interested in. By the end of the day, we had decided that it would be best for us to live in an apartment for a couple months so we changed gears. The next day we went an toured apartments. I liked our system. We mapped out the complexes we wanted to see, then when we arrived at a place, Ryan would go in and see if there were vaccancies and get the basic info while I entertained kids in the car. Then if he thought we'd still be interested, he came and got us and we would take a tour of the apartment. The kids favorite part was riding on the golf carts. Wednesday morning we went back and actually signed the lease for our chosen one which is in the Valley Ranch area.
Thursday through Saturday we focused on cars. Neither of us know anything about cars or even have a desired to, so this was not so much fun. We went and checked out a couple different ones. We ended up buying a 2011 Honda Odyssey EX-L with 14k miles on it on Saturday morning. This was our first huge purchase but we both feel good about it. To complete the process it took about 3 hours at the dealership (test driving, price negotiation, insurance, registration, etc).
Friday I had my first doctor's appointment. I had one just a week ago in Belgium, but I wanted to get in while Ryan didn't have to work so I wouldn't have to figure out kids. The receptionist, doctor and nurse were all unbelievably nice. Plus the doctor said my fluid levels looked fine and I could resume working out if I wanted (he'd check them in 2 weeks to verify nothing changed). To top this all off, we live only 15 minutes from the office (which is attached to the hospital) I arrived 10 minutes early and only waited for 5 minutes to be seen. I was home in record time...it would have been even sooner if I had got lost so many time (a new gps with updated maps just got bumped up on the most urgent items to buy).
A couple funny stories:
1. When we were touring one of the apartment complexes, Kevin dropped and smashed a goldfish on the ground so he got down on all four and sucked it up like a dog. Not so cool. It get better. He thought it was so fun, every couple step he'd drop another one (skipped the smashing part) and get down on all four to suck it up. Kinda gross.
2. We spent hours and hours and hours on the computer doing research for both housing and cars. The problem with this is that we only have one computer. To help us out, Ryan would go down to the business center in our complex and use their computers. Kevin really liked going with Ryan. One of the times, Ryan had turned on the TV to pbs kids so Kevin could watch while he researched. About 20 minutes later someone else came in, so Ryan looked up to make sure Kevin was still watching the TV. He was....but at some point he had stripped down so Ryan actually turned to find Kevin watching the TV naked. Haha. This is in the business center which has only glass walls and is right next to the main entrance and the fitness center.
3. We talked to a few different sales people through the process of finding a car. Some were a little pushy, some were very nice, but one just had no idea what he was talking about. Even though we were leaning heavily towards the Odyssey, we decided to check out a Toyota Sienna at a toyota dealership. The sales guy there couldn't even answer the most basic questions about the Sienna. He didn't really affect our decision to go with an Odyssey (we just like the inside the Odyssey a lot better), but it made me wonder how in the world he could make any money as a salesman.
4. We went to the ward we'll be in. There are a LOT of younger families..as in there will be 20 babies born between now and the end of the year. There are also 4 different nurseries. Crazy. Well, with the move, I had pretty much promised Kherington that there would be another little girl in her sunbeams class. Wrong. Her class has 7 boys. Haha...at least her teachers are girls.
5. There is dog wash in our apartment complex...people take their dogs very seriously here.
