We Are Rolling Stones

In the almost year and a half we have been married, we have already had two major moves. In July 2011, we moved 1,876 miles from Bluffdale, UT to Pensacola, FL. Then with a change of job came a change of military assignment in May of this year. We packed our bags and drove 888 miles to San Angelo, TX for Zane to complete his Intelligence Officer training at Goodfellow, AFB.

Zane's dad helped us drive the moving truck down to Florida but he was unable to join us on this past move. It was a scenic drive along the Gulf Coast that we turned into a mini trip by stopping for two days to explore Houston. Long story short on our way to visit the Houston temple, we almost got hit by a car not checking their blind spot on the interstate and spun out across four lanes of traffic by overcorrecting to avoid the collision. It's truly a blessing of going to the temple that we were not hurt. Once we arrived, I passed out during the temple work from who knows what. Needless to say it was a crazy day. 

We drove on from Houston to Austin where my aunt and uncle live and got to enjoy Mother's Day dinner with them and my cousins. After dinner we began the last 4 hours of our trip driving through the beautiful Texas hill country. After 2 days of seamless driving (with the moving truck) it all came to a halt when on one of those hills Zane's VW Rabbit decided it didn't want to stay on the ramp anymore. Imagine getting a call from your spouse saying, "Stop! We need to turn around and try to find my car." We got to experience another miracle that day when the car, rolling backward down a steep hill, do not hit any oncoming traffic and just rolled into a median.

After a long day we rolled into San Angelo around 1 AM where we checked into the Air Force lodge. They accidentally assigned us a room with a double bed but we were too tired to care. With an early wake up time the next morning to meet our new landlords, we started our time in west Texas.

Zane has done very well in his training program. In September he was selected to represent his training squadron as student of the month and was treated to a lunch by the base commander. He has studied incredibly hard and been a leader in his class. I have been busy working two jobs and learning a lot. I was promoted to be the Family Services Manager at the domestic violence shelter in August and have been busy ever since.

At the end of September we had what is called "job drop night". Two weeks prior we had received a list of the upcoming available jobs. From this list we created our "dream sheet" where we ranked the jobs and turned it in. Based on academics, area of interest, military performance, students are assigned their next assignment. We had been praying and fasting for a job in the DC area and when one showed up on the list, we were ecstatic. Fort Meade is the headquarters of the National Security Agency, the field that Zane is most interested in. We put it as the number one slot on our list with the next four being the following:

-Buckley AFB in Denver

-Fort Gordon, about 2 hours outside Atlanta

-Bealle AFB in Sacramento

-and another Bealle AFB

On job drop night, the leaders pulled up powerpoint slides that showed the base assignment and then filled it with pictures describing the student who was getting that job. About halfway through the class, Fort Meade showed up. The first picture that popped up was the DJ Skrillex. Zane like what I deem to be weird music and knew that had to be him. I squealed (unintentionally) and everyone laughed and wondered how I had guessed so fast.

Zane with his two closest friends, Michael and Reed, at drop night.

Zane graduates from his training program in January. We will be moving then be moving 1,619 miles to Odenton, MD, right between Baltimore and Washington, DC. We are both extremely excited for our next adventure and plan on being settled there for around 3 years. I was able to go out and look for a place to live a couple weeks ago and it looks like we have found some good options. I am incredibly excited for all of the job opportunities in my field as there are many non-profits, government programs, and health programs to choose from. We are so grateful for the love and support of our families during all of these growing experiences and ask that you continue to pray and think about us as I will be looking for a job and Zane will be busy with his new job.

In three weeks we will be heading home to Utah for Christmas. Writing this has helped me to reflect on how truly blessed have been and to recognize that though there have been many trials, we really have grown from them and received blessings ten fold in return.

Living Spaces

The back door that goes out into our private courtyard and covered parking.

I am still in love with my kitchenaid more than ever.

We gave each other the canvas wrap of our favorite wedding picture for our one year anniversary.

Baby latte bowls - in an effort to eat only baby amounts of ice cream.

I love our built-in shelves and storage. The condo has five huge closets in addition to these cabinets which is great.

Pictures of the bedroom and office to come... once they have been cleaned!

Shop 'Til You Drop

It is no secret that I love to shop, especially when there is a good sale or outlet mall nearby. My love for buying has made it so that I now need to make some room in my closet. I am selling some clothes from brands such as J.Crew, Shabby Apple, and Banana Republic on ebay and will be listing some more items over the next few weeks.

Click here if you're interested in taking a look.

Note: I may or may not be coming up with ways to earn some extra cash before our Thanksgiving trip to the Big Apple later this year...

The Lone Star State

Well a lot has changed since I blogged back in... when was that... March? Oops. Well to start the updates off, as many of you know, Zane left for Initial Flight School at the end of February. While he was there, he decided that being a pilot was not what he wanted to do in the Air Force. After three weeks apart he came back and we started doing something that is very common in the military: the waiting game. We actually only had to wait about 6 weeks to complete the paperwork and find out what our fate was (we were expecting it to take 3 months).

Zane with his flight class at IFS

We had initially requested for Zane to become an acquisitions officer (the business side of the military) but due to the needs of the Air Force, he was selected to be trained as an intelligence officer. This has turned out to be a fun blessing because my dad served in the Air Force for 23 years as an intelligence officer. When I gave the news to my mom she squealed "You are living my life, just 25 years later!" Because of the new job, we moved in the middle of May from our beach side home of Pensacola, FL to our western adventure in San Angelo, TX.

We have been in San Angelo for almost two months now and are really enjoying it. We have made some great friends in both our ward and in Zane's training class. While I was unable to find a job in Florida except for nannying, I landed two jobs in Texas after about a month of searching and interviewing. I am working at the local victims of domestic violence shelter as a family services advocate. I have completely revamped their nutritional program, am helping to reform and organize policy, and will be starting some health education classes (like tobacco cessation) in the near future. My other job is working for my parents' neighbor remotely from my house which is great. I am doing some internet billing and processing for him which is a great supplement to our income while we are saving to buy a home.

Besides work, our lives have been busy with traveling, church callings, hanging out with friends, and school. On our move out to Texas we spent the weekend in Houston which was a lot of fun. We have also gone on weekend trips to San Antonio and Austin a few times (they are about a 3 hour drive from where we live). Zane's brother Charlie came to visit us for two weeks before he left on his mission to Puerto Rico and my sister Sarah was just here last week to visit. We plan on going to Dallas next month for a weekend trip to visit the temple and see what the city has to do.

Zane and Charlie at our favorite local restaurant Cork & Pig

Our new ward here is great. Coming from a small branch in Florida (only 10 people) we are having so much fun being in a "normal family ward". Zane was called to be the ward executive secretary and I am the 1st counselor in young women's. We have started to get our first taste of Zane not being around much on Sunday with all of the meetings he has to attend in the morning which leads me to be in charge of waking myself up. At 9 AM on a Sunday morning that is proving to be a bit of a challenge.

I have started a couple of online classes to build up some skills and my resume. I am currently taking an Adobe Illustrator class and will be taking an Adobe InDesign class next month (graphic design courses). I am also starting an online certification next week through the University of Texas at Austin for NonProfit Management.

We have had some requests for pictures of our new place so after cleaning tomorrow I'll try to remember to take a few. Feel free to come visit us if you like 105 degree weather and no rain!

Tour de South: New Orleans

also known as Nawlins, The Big Easy, NOLA, the City That's Sketchier Than Vegas (that last nickname is curtesy of Zane and me).

In February we continued our exploration of the south by driving three hours to Baton Rouge, LA to visit the mormon temple there and then an hour south onto New Orleans.

I have had a deep love for antebellum plantation homes ever since I saw the movie "The Notebook" when I was 15. My dream is to own a look-a-like (translation: I don't want an old house, I just want it to look like one. Also, no actual living in Louisiana/Alabama/Mississippi for me please.) plantation home one day. Oh, those pillars and wrap-around porches! We visited Oak Alley Plantation where the movies "Interview With a Vampire" and "Primary Colors" were filmed. There was a big group of German tourists there and I was pleasantly surprised when I could understand what some of them were saying.

Can you imagine having your reception here? With white string lights draped across, a live band, and the smell of magnolias in the air... 

Afterwards we ventured into the big city. I had wanted to hear/see some live jazz and had read online that Frenchman Street was the place to go. While we did hear some music while walking around, it wasn't really the jazz I was thinking of. Also, we were kind of distracted by the posters displaying naked women all over. I thought we would be safe because it was only 6 PM and we avoided Canal St. but alas, people were out and about and ready to party.

Since that is not really our scene we grabbed a quick dinner and checked in for the night. The next morning we ventured out to Magazine St. for some delicious pastry, Sucre macaroons and gelato, and thrifting.

I was so excited to see all of that yummy goodness.

On retrospect, here are some of our trip tips if we decide to venture to NOLA again:

-Leave your car in the hotel parking lot and buy a $3 day pass for public transportation (we spent over 50 bucks in parking in a mere 36 hours)
-Skip the tourist trap "Cafe Du Monde" (it's not unheard of to wait in line for two hours) and head down magazine street to La Boulangerie for a raspberry tart
-It was raining when we were there but this would be a GREAT city to see via bike ride. I saw lots of little shops to rent them from all over

It was a fun, quick trip but a place we would be ok with not visiting again. We are very excited to venture north to Atlanta this month and have our fingers crossed that we will be able to score spots as extras on our new TV addiction Vampire Diaries.