I know, I know, I know...

I've been torturing myself for months now when I look at other's blogs (and Mom's given me at least 2 guilt trips) and remember mine has been so neglected for such a long time. It's like so many other things, I do really well for awhile and then life gets busy and I slack. Then I get so far behind that it seems overwhelming to ever catch up. I take pictures and funny things happen that I think, I need to blog this...the title would be...the pictures would have the following captions...then I just don't get it done. Between work, spending time with my cute hubby, church, facebook, emails, producing plays, preparing for a patriotic celebration, laundry, time with Amanda & Sid, and anything else that comes up, more time has gone by and my blog still sits there neglected. Not sure how exactly I'm going to solve this dilemma but I'll do my best to improve. I just have to figure out how I can keep up on this, and everything else, and not feel like I'm neglecting anyone, especially my husband.

So, even though I started this MONTHS ago, I'm going to move ahead with the story of Dan & I. It needs to be recorded somewhere so in years to come (who am I kidding, anytime in the next couple hours is very possible) I have proof enough to say, "I told you so, Honey." :)

One of the biggest things on our to do list was to find a place to live. We searched the paper for listings of places that were available. Based on what was in the classifieds, I was very hopeful we'd find something great with more space and pay as much or less than I paid for my 1-bedroom in Salt Lake. We narrowed down the options and set a few appointments, then headed out to look at the places...suddenly I felt very hopeless about our prospects.

The first place we looked at Dan was really excited about but I wasn't super thrilled. The landlady lived across the street from us. Not a big deal except that during our tour she commented on how we'd need to sweep the porch weekly to keep to free of debris. Well, I'm not exactly the most obsessively clean person, but I'm also not some teenager who needs mom to hang over my shoulder telling me how to clean and I suspected that's exactly what would happen. No way in my opinion.

We went to a couple more places and suddenly the first place wasn't looking so bad and the picky landlady seemed livable. The other places were trashed, small, dark, low ceilings (a 6'6" husband requires high ceilings in the whole apartment), smelly and way overpriced for what we were seeing and what they were asking for.

I was beginning to get a little nervous since I only had 1 day in Pocatello and it was looking like we weren't going to find much success on our trip with time ticking away very quickly.

We looked at the place we later chose but left still somewhat unsure. We headed back to Dan's sister's place so Dan could go back to work in West Yellowstone. I visited a bit with his sister and nieces before I returned to Salt Lake. Before Dan was far on the road and I left, we both called each other saying we needed to take this place:

The kitchen

Living Room

Extra bedroom

(All of these pictures were taken the day we looked at it. Not our things.)

Now began the process of packing up 8½ years of stuff in my 1-bedroom unit to sort, give away, toss, keep, pack and move to my new place in Idaho...

My old kitchen; mid-move

Living room; mid-move

Bedroom; mid-move

Current/Temporary bedroom, yes, it's in the living room.

(I gave way my bed and the bedding so I had to use what was still available.)

My stuff in our new place, safe and sound (living room).

More of my stuff (living room).

Yes, even more of my stuff (extra bedroom). Now which box to begin unpacking...

Well, time for FHE, guess that's it for right now....