My life as a novel....or so it seems

The Josh Groban concert was pretty much one of the best things ever

It was a nice date night for us

We don't go on much of those lately since Hubby lost his job and school started

(let's talk...Ethics and Values? Really?? Who came up with that idea?!)

Josh is AS amazing in real life if not even more

And he's hilarious to boot

I was going to share some videos I took...but I can't email them to myself from my phone because the files are too big, and for some reason my card is all messed up

So, just pretend I posted videos of Josh singing beautifully, crooning softly in your ears....

I can do pictures though

*sigh*

Such a wonderful night....

***

In other news, Hubby has found us a house!!

If I'm going to be perfectly honest, there are a lot of things about the house and the situation that I don't love

BUT

Beggars can't be choosers

And at the moment we're closer to being beggars than not

Moving across country + Hubby being jobless for a month + neither of us being independently wealthy = a lot of money spent and not had

Once we get settled it won't be as bad, but we have to buy a washer and dryer and living room furniture (aka couch, love seat, etc)

Hubby is going to be getting a sign on bonus, supposedly at the end of the month, which will be a HUGE help, so at least there's that

But anyway, the house is within our budget and will allow us to finally get completely out of debt

So I will take what we get until we can afford something else

We only plan on being there 5 years (hopefully), but neither of us want to rent the whole time because we both feel like it's a waste of money

We'd both much rather build our equity and try to make some money

Plus, having my own home and not having to worry about a landlord (that isn't family....family as a landlord is nice) hanging over our heads will be nice

So anyway, Hubby sent me a few pictures of the house that the landlord sent him

The new flooring that was just installed not too long ago:

The kitchen

The bathroom

The living room:

The bedrooms:

And the basement:

I'm most excited for the basement because it gives us a lot of space

AND there is a LOT of cupboard space in the kitchen, more than I've ever had in my adult life

It's not a bad house, I know, I'm just super picky

I'm trying to get over that, but I just don't see that happening :)

The Padres and I were going to drive a U-Haul across the states, but upon further investigation there are companies that come, drop off a trailer at your house, and then they drive it across the states for you

Umm, yes please!!

It does make my life a little more complicated because all of the sudden I have to pack my stuff for an airplane and not a BIG truck and all of the sudden I have send it away RIGHT NOW and not have it until I'm ready to leave

Like my computer

With my two monitors

Where I prefer to do my homework because I have two big screens that I can have multiple screens up and not have it be such a big deal

Instead of this itty bitty tiny laptop screen

Yes...I know, first world problems

Anyway, in all of the ways that it's way easier, it's also a little more stressful

They delivered the trailer last weekend and we had until Monday to pack it up

And I am just me and cannot pack a whole trailer for myself, especially our fridge, bed, treadmill, etc

Hubby is in Iowa, which doesn't help much

But to be perfectly honest, as much as I love him, he wouldn't have been much help anyway

I don't really like to talk about Hubby's health problems on here because it's depressing and the more I think about it, the sadder it makes me because it makes me stress over his future health and what could happen and...yeah...I try to be positive about it and not dwell on the negative

Anyway, he would have been able to help for maybe 10 minutes, and then he would have had to take a 30 minute break, and that would have continued the rest of the night with his working rounds getting shorter and shorter

So I did the only thing I could do

I sent out an SOS to the entire Platt family

And boy did they come through

Minus a brother who is sick and a sis-in-law who was watching chillens

And because of all the awesome help we got it done in a decent amount of time

Just a few hours, I believe

And it's not easy for them

Most of my siblings have children

One of the little ones has health problems and is fed through a feeding tube, so it requires some work and extra hands to tote all of the necessities around

Two of the little ones that were there are still quite young and not able to be independent

They all have lives and responsibilities and are quite busy

And yet they all came out to help me load this truck

The men did all of the heavy lifting (thank heavens for the men in the family who are all pretty dang tough)

The women, the older children, and the men handled all of the boxes

(the guys did like quadruple duty...they are just awesome)

And we all took turns helping with the babies

And we got it all packed in and ready to go in the space allotted us so we didn't have to pay more

(well, unless you count the 4 items I forgot...there always has to be something forgotten, right? luckily the company removed the paneling in front of my stuff and let my sister and her husband throw them in before they hauled them off)

And it was awesome

I started out the day with a pretty serious headache that turned into a migraine and was sent home from work early so I could try and sleep it off and just prayed that it would go away so I wouldn't be useless at my own "party"

Fortunately for the most part it did

(the ironic thing? as soon as we were done and my adrenaline had calmed down...the pain started to come back. not as bad, but it was definitely there)

And the whole time I had to focus on other things so I wouldn't break down in tears because, number one, come on, my family is awesome

And number two, I'm leaving them

For a very long time

Sure, there will be trips home and hopefully some, if not all, of them will be able to take a break from life and come out and visit us

But it's just not the same

We are a very close knit family

We were all raised working together, especially once Papa Smurf started the family business

We're always together

To be truthful, I think we're a bit of an oddity

Most of us live within 2 minutes of each other, if that

The next closest is MAYBE 8 minutes away, depending on traffic

And the farthest two are 15 mintues, maybe 20

We work together every day

And we eat Sunday dinner with everyone usually every other week

And the odd weeks we eat with what we call the "small group"

(which is really becoming not so small)

We go shopping together, we go see movies together, we hang out

We're friends and family

And I love that about my family

No, I'm not a perfect sister/daughter/aunt

And some days I'm ornery and some days I'm a brat and some days I'm probably a little ungrateful, but seriously I have the best family in the world

And I love the fact that they all sacrificed a night of their busy lives to come help me pack up our life and get it ready to ship out

And I'm having a really hard time accepting the fact that I can't just fly them all out to Iowa to help us unpack the truck

For which I am sure they are all very grateful

:)

Anyway, I'll get off my tangent now

I just needed the world to know that my family is awesome and they are some of my favorite people ever

And with that I'm going to bed

I have tomorrow off and I have to read about 11 weeks worth of material for my class in a month to be able to finish it all before the semester is over

May I recommend to never have a major life change, like a move across country, while in school?

Especially when your husband leaves you alone for almost 2 months to do it all on your own

It's just not a good idea

Because school is ultimately the one that gets neglected...and yeah

No bueno

So if anyone wants to volunteer to do some reading and quizzes for me, I would totally let you

Could you just let me know by...yesterday?

Gee, thanks :)

Oh, and to clear up something...I am moving, but my blog is not going away. In fact you might be hearing more from me in the near future as I'll have more time on my hands. Anonymous left a comment on my last post that sounded like they thought my blog was being retired, but it's not. Just for the record :)

Farewell, adios, tchau, sayonara, good bye, adieu...

Well, he got the job

We're moving

To Iowa of all places

Which just seems so random to me

But hey, he has a job that pays well

I hopefully will have to work very little at first, if at all, which means I can focus on finishing up my school and moving on with life in that direction

So at least there's that

Now comes the stress of moving and all of that mess that I feel like we were still in the process of

And now we get to do it all over again

He's leaving tomorrow

We found out a week ago that he starts on the 28th

Seriously?

Not a good way to start out with this wife

"Okay, we expect you to be able to move in a week and a half"

Yeah...that isn't happening

So Hubby is leaving tomorrow, he'll start work and stay with a friend until he can find us somewhere to live

And then I will follow behind with all of our stuff

With Papa and Mama Smurf who are going to be helping me drive the ginormous truck/s filled with our stuff

I'm not a big fan of him leaving and me staying, not gonna lie

But it's really the only way we can make it work

Happy, happy, joy, joy....

(sorry for the lack of quality...Hubby's phone camera isn't nearly as good as mine)

That is the state our house was in as of last night

It is now D-Day and Hubby has now left

I was fine all morning until he dropped me off at work

He helped turn on all the lights and I busied myself getting the rest of the store ready to open

Unfortunately, there was nothing left to distract me with after that

And that's when the flood gates opened

(and they still are just thinking about it...)

It was awful

Hubby and I don't really spend time apart

We like just being together, doing things together

Even if I'm doing homework and he's playing a game, we're in the same room

Even on the same couch if possible

I know, we're a little silly

So this is going to be rough

I'm hoping it will only be a month

Long enough for him to start work, and find a home for us to rent

And that will give my family a little more time to figure out their schedules and how they're going to make it all work without me

But it's going to be a long month

Hopefully I can get a lot of school done

Until then I'll just be hanging out with a box of tissues next to me

If you see a river full of salt, I'm sure it's from my tears

Just look for me, floating along

I'll be sure to wave hello in between all of my tears

I'm awesome, I know. You're jealous, I know.

What am I doing?
Oh, just sitting here with Hubby waiting for Josh Groban to come out.
I know, you're jealous. It's okay, I understand. I would be jealous of me too. I just can't contain my awesomeness very well.
We didn't really love the opening act. She was really loud and didn't seem to fit Josh's style, so we're glad that's over. Now just to wait for the man of the night!
If you need me, I'll be here buried in the awesomeness and beautifulness that is Josh.
I might not come of that cocoon for awhile.
But I'll try to contain my awesomeness.
Just for you.

I'm alive!

Well, school started

and is already kicking my trash

Hubby is still waiting for word on some of his interviews

And I AM SO READY for summer to be over

(yeah....I started this post a few handful of weeks ago...)

We don't have A/C, and our house faces west

Needless to say, we're a sink hole for heat

It's awful

I put up some blackout curtains, and that helped a *little*, but not enough

I have literally lived in basketball shorts this whole summer 

And we stick a fan out in our living room to help cool it down a few degrees

I can't even sit on my couch without getting all hot and sweaty

First world problems...

Hubby had an interview with a data center up near Salt Lake and is waiting to hear back from them, and also had an interview with IBM...up in Iowa

Needless to say I'm hoping for the Salt Lake one, but we'll see

(and he didn't get the job in Salt Lake....they didn't have the niceness/respect in them to tell him themselves, he had to find out from someone else...which is not cool)

Not that moving wouldn't be an adventure, and fun, but we're just starting to get settled into our apartment hear, so moving again isn't really a thrilling idea to me

Plus I'd be far away from my family, and I've only lived in Utah, well, besides the brief Brazil stint with my parents and my mission, but I just don't count those

I was with my parents in Brazil, and...well, the mission just doesn't count

So this would be hard for me

But, really, I'll go where the job takes us because I just need him to get a job

There just might be a few tears if there is a move involved

****

So, we have 3 tomato plants just outside our front door

We didn't have a space for a garden, but I wanted something, so we brought home 3 pots and planted the tomatoes in those

We planted them a little late, but I was still really hopeful that we'd get enough to make it worth it

The Roma that we planted had a little bit of a rough start, with a lot of blossom end rot

ie

image via

We sprayed it, got it taken care of, and waited for the little babies to grow

Finally, a cluster of 3 started to grow on the back of the plant

No problems were seen, so I watched them every day when I left for work and came home, just waiting for them to start turning red

And then they were just gone

Vanished in thin air

I don't know what happened to them, but they did not exist anymore

Some little tomato gremlin must have come and stolen them when we weren't looking

Rude

So imagine my surprise when I get back from taking Hubby to work and I saw this

What the bite?

Seriously? 

And that was still on the plant, if you can't tell

It was this huge, beautiful tomato that we were waiting to ripen so we could dig in and eat it

And it has been desecrated

Destroyed

So sad....

My wondering is if it's a deer, but I haven't seen any around recently, so I have no idea

(for the record, it was a deer....they have since eaten more of the beauties...not cool!!)

I just know it's not nice

****

Once upon a time Oreo came out with a new flavor for the summer

Watermelon

A Target exclusive

And the nearest Target is about 15-20 minutes away, depending on traffic, so we don't go very often

Which is sad because they get a lot of the exclusive Oreo

Anyway, I didn't find out about this Oreo until a little late in the game, apparently, because by the time I found out about it they were already out at both Targets near me

I was so intrigued by this flavor and wanted to try it so bad that I called the Target up near Salt Lake and they had some, and poor Hubby I was going to make him go with me all the way up to Salt Lake to buy some, but I was venting about it on Facebook and Hubby's sister came to the rescue

They had them at her Target

So she went and bought me 4 packages and mailed them to me

How awesome is that?!

 Anyway, I had some friends that wanted me to tell them what I thought about them, because they were intrigued as well, so I told them I would

And I had these grandioso ideas about creating this elaborate review for them on my blog so I kept waiting and waiting and waiting to say something...

And then my life kind of blew up in my face and it has never happened

But it has been hanging over my head like a ridiculous 50 ton brick, and the rope that is holding it up keeps fraying more and more...

So I figured I'd review that, and all of the other Oreo cookies that have come out this year that I have been able to try

I will try not to bore you

I promise

To start off with...

I am not a huge fan of lemon flavored food

Some of it is okay, but I don't love the tang

Give me chocolate over lemon any day!!

However, these cookies were actually not too bad

The lemon flavor wasn't too strong, and the cookie helped balance it out

All in all, it's Oreo and I should never doubt them

It's not even close to being my favorite, but it was decent

I give it....a 5/10

Next on the list....

This flavor is not new, it came out last year

But it is one of my favorites

I don't know what it is about the ice cream flavors, they're just sooo delicious

Oreo always does such a great job at blending flavors

I give this one a 9/10

Coming up next...

So this one if by FAR one of my favorites

I'm a big strawberry fan

And I'm a big fan of fruit and creme mixed together

Soooo yeah

The strawberry flavor is not overbearing, and the cream with the chocolate cookie just adds the perfect touch

Needless to say, one of my favs

10/10 for sure

Next?

This one had me a little cautious

Because, banana split? In a cookie?

BUT....it was actually pretty good

The flavor was really good

And I love that they did both cookies

It just seemed appropriate

Anyway, I think they did a pretty good job at pegging the flavor

So I think I give this one an 9.5/10

And last, but certainly not least...

Oh where do I even start...

I was both very skeptical and intrigued to try the watermelon

I knew if anyone could pull off watermelon it was Oreo

But still.....watermelon?

Luckily, because Hubby's sister is awesome, I was able to try them

And let me just say...

I LOVE THEM!!

They are now one of my new all-time favorite Oreo's

The flavor is perfect

The watermelon is not too strong, and while I normally don't like the "golden" Oreo's, they really did pick the perfect cookie combo

In fact, most of the specialty Oreo that have the golden cookie are pretty well paired

Anyway, I love the Watermelon

My favorite of the summer collection

I'm really sad they didn't bring out the Creamsicle Oreo that they brought out 2 years ago, that is one of my FAVORITES!!

They better bring them back next year, or else....

I'd say that one and the Watermelon are my definite favorite limited edition Oreo's

And there you have it

The summer limited edition Oreo cookies brought to you by yours truly

So, if you ever find a new Oreo, you are more than welcome to send me a package or 4

I promise I'll give them a good home

I know life isn't supposed to be easy...but seriously...

I know, two posts

Within a short amount of time

Try not to die of shock, please :)

It's been a rough, long month here for Hubby and I

We found out at the beginning of the month that Hubby and all of his co-workers will be out of a job at the end of September

Apparently Convergys, who his company (NetApp) runs their UT location through, doesn't want NetApp anymore and is closing it's doors

MEANING....everyone that works there is toast and out of a job

Unless they want to move to South Carolina or something like that

Because NetApp has another location there

But we don't necessarily want to move to South Carolina

And Hubby doesn't necessarily want to continue working for NetApp

(and we don't even know that they're hiring right now)

Because even though Convergys is pushing them out and it's their fault that Hubby will be out of a job, NetApp is not the best company to work for

And he would like to move on with his life and find a better working environment

Hence the reason he decided to find a job outside of NetApp

There was a company he wanted, really wanted, to work for called Pure Storage that had great benefits, great pay, great everything to be honest

Too good to be true, truthfully

He applied, got selected for an interview, went in for the interview

Interview was great, we both felt good about things

He was probably 90% sure he was going to get the job

Fast forward to 2 days ago when I was talking to him at work and asked him if he had heard anything from them

And that's when he told me that some of the people he knew that had applied had received emails from the company with a job offer

4 of them

And there were only 6 positions available

And one of the guys who got the email told Hubby that his friend who had also applied also received an email

Meaning that the 6th person probably did as well

And we know that at least 4 of them accepted the offer

1 of them is on the fence, waiting for the company to counter the offer that his current job gave him to get him to stay there

And we have no idea who this illusive 6th person is

So unless one of those two people turn down the offers, and the company offers it to Hubby, he will not be getting that job

And let's just say I didn't handle that very well

I had to go and hide in the bathroom at work for a minute because all of the sudden all of the pressure of the world was on my shoulders and I became stressed to the max and what were we going to do?!?!

I don't make enough money at work to support us

Not even close

He's definitely the breadwinner in this relationship

And even if my parents wanted to they couldn't afford to give me a raise

So I sat in the bathroom for what felt like an eternity crying because I didn't know what we were going to do and this job was the answer

This job that he probably didn't get

This job that was too good to be true

He had another interview set up with a different data center

Which isn't a bad job either

The only major problem with it is it's only contracted out for a year

And then what?

And it doesn't offer as much as the other job did

If he were to get the Pure Storage job, I could have cut back to part time and gone to school more than just the piddly that I'm doing right now and actually finished school

And I was so excited to be able to do that

And now I don't know if I will be able to

His interview with the other data center went well, he thought, but they had more interviews to do and so he won't know for another week or two whether or not he gets the job

And we are slowly running out of time before he doesn't have a steady paycheck anymore

And it's been really stressful

At least for me

It hasn't seemed to phase him at all

But since, a. I don't make enough money to support us, and b. my paycheck isn't always the most stable this time of year, and c. our family business is going through a rocky, who knows what is going to happen, period...it's been really stressful for me

I know, have faith, it will all work

That's all anyone says to me

And that's all I tell myself right now

But that doesn't make it any easier

There will be random times throughout the day when I will just feel the need to break down and cry

And sometimes I do

When I get on Facebook and read statuses of people who "got the job" (whatever job that might be), especially when it was their dream job and they'll be making so much more money and life will be great now that they have their dream job, it's really hard

When I see people have babies, or say that they're going to start trying to have a baby, that's really hard

Because we were waiting until he was bringing in a little more money until we started to work towards kids so that we could actually support the future family we want

And we were hoping to maybe start that in January

And now it looks like we'll have to push that back

And that has been hard for me

And so it seems like all I do is cry right now

That must be my body's way of coping

You'd think with all of the tears it would have been coped enough for the entire United States

Or so it feels

And so that is what we're dealing with now

I have a friend from Arizona that is getting married the first weekend of September and I REALLY want to go down for her wedding, but can we justify that when we don't know if Hubby is going to have a job by the time September ends?

I've been taking this Medical Billing/Coding class online this Summer and I wish I could just sit down and finish said class in one day so that I could get certified and get a job in said field so that I could more easily support us in case he doesn't find a job

Why can't I make 1 day last 168 hours? (a whole week) I could finish it really fast if that were possible

So yeah

Life hasn't been easy on us for the past few weeks

Which is ironic because I've thought that, besides Hubby's health problems, our life was pretty great

And it felt like we were headed down the right track

And then life threw us a curve ball

A nasty, mean, awful curve ball

And I don't even a baseball mitt to catch it with

Rude!!

So we just keep trying to "go forth with faith", as Mama Smurf always says, and I will just keep a box of tissues next to me for the random oceans my eyes are producing

The one where I actually get semi-serious for once

Why is it that with progress there is usually a negative impact?

aka the opposite of progress

We get big box stores, like Wallie World, that make shopping easier and faster and cheaper, but then the "little man" gets pushed out and usually ends up going out of business because he can't compete with all of the perks that go with the big box store

Like in Alan Jackson's song, The Little Man (link embedded to see the video of the song)

Every time I hear that song I think of all that businesses that no longer exist because of a box store

Or in the movie You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks

And maybe I'm just a little sensitive to that point because my business is a little man business

It's something that Papa Smurf built, from a little 2 acre lot to where we are now with what feels like 5 million times the space that we had

and yet it still sometimes doesn't feel like enough room

at least in some parts of the business

Luckily we were here long enough before Wallie World that we're not impacted too much by them

But we still are

Wallie World, Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco...

But we do have a loyal customer following, which is nice

And there still are plenty of people out there that would prefer to buy plants from an actual nursery, which is nice

And it's people like that that keep us "little men" in business

And for those people I am very grateful

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I never shop at Wallie World or those kind of stores

I do

I'm a big fan of Amazon

And I know a lot of times there are no other choices

 I just hate seeing all those business getting kicked out because of another store

S O R R Y...

I'll get off my soap box

That is so not where I was going when I started this post

and I hope I didn't upset anyone with my little rant....

They're doing road construction on our main road in this area right now

It just so happens to be the street our business is on

They're widening the road, fixing it up, etc

And while I'm all for a bigger road because then I don't have to deal with traffic as much 

or at least that's what they train us to think....I really don't believe it makes that big of a difference

I hate what usually comes with it

Lining State Street (the road they're widening) were these HUGE trees

I mean really

They've been there for a very, very long time

...

Well, thank you Google Earth

I can show you what I mean

Big, tall, happy trees that helped shade those houses and businesses from the setting sun

But they no longer exist

And it just makes me sad

It makes the street look naked

My niece was here the other day and said: "Why'd they chop down all those trees? It looks so empty"

And then my nephew said: "They cut down wildlife for roads. Nice"

I get that progress has to happen

I get that it's good and important

I just hate the negative side effects