New York trip

I realized that I left something out of my big summary post earlier.

Aaron and I took a weekend trip up to Clarendon, New York a few weeks ago!  Aaron's brother, Brent, is now in Brazil for a 2 year religious mission.  So we went up for his open house and farewell talk.  It's a LONG drive for just a weekend, but I'm glad we did it.  I was able to leave work early that Friday and we got on the road right away.  That night, we had a bonfire in my in-laws' back yard.

The next day, Aaron's parents and brother went to a baptism.  We didn't know the person, so we decided to go up to Lockport (near Niagra Falls) since I hadn't ever seen the locks of the Erie Canal.

So after we spent the morning at Lockport, we went back to Clarendon to help get everything ready for the open house.  It had a really good turn out.  Aaron got to see a lot of people he hasn't seen in a really long time and I got to meet some people so it was good.

This was also the first time I met Aaron's grandma.  She wasn't able to come out for our wedding or reception, but now she lives in an assisted living place near Aaron's parents.

On Sunday, we went to church with Aaron's family, ate lunch, and got back on the road.

Overall, a pretty good weekend.

Hurricane Irene

Not only did we have an earthquake this week, but a hurricane too!  What excitement!

I guess I could have been more prepared for this storm, but I was convinced that it wouldn't be as bad as everyone was saying.

And in a way, I was right.

The worst part was being without power for about 20 hours.

It was a pretty violent storm, but not a scary storm.  The wind was blowing hard and the rain was coming down fast, but Aaron and I were safe and warm in our apartment.  We spent Saturday evening watching a movie and playing on the Wii until the power went out around 11:00pm.  After telling each other a few ghost stories in the living room, we went to bed.

We slept in on Sunday, knowing that church had already been cancelled because of the storm.  We worked on decorating the apartment a little bit, but that got boring quickly.  It wasn't raining anymore by noon.  There was still some light wind, but the sun had come out, taunting us for not having electricity.  There were leaves all over the parking lot, but no real damage that I could see.

After much boredom and dissatisfaction with the food available, the power came back on at around 6:00pm, just in time for dinner!

My facebook status after the power came back: "I have never been so happy to see a lamp turn on. We have power!"

Aaron's facebook status after the power came back: "The worst part about Irene was the melted ice cream =("

My office doesn't have power right now though, so I'm sitting at home wondering if it'll come back anytime today.  Those of us in the office are very limited without access to our computers so we're just waiting it out.  Aaron's work is still going on though, so I sent him off with the car.  If the power comes back and I need to go to work, my coworker Heather is going to have to pick me up.  I have a bunch of things I'd love to get done while I'm home, but I can't go much of anywhere without the car, and I don't feel like I can do anything that I couldn't stop right away and leave if I need to go to work.  That means I feel like I can't work out because then I'd need to come home to shower and everything really quickly if I need to go.

So I guess my shopping is going to have to wait until Aaron gets home tonight.

Earthquake

Can you even believe we just had an earthquake here?

"A magnitude-5.8 quake centered in Virginia rocked the East Coast, with tremors felt as far south as North Carolina, as far north as Buffalo and Boston, and as far west as Detroit. " USA Today

It was on August 23, 2011 and it was terrifying.  I haven't seen any real damage from the quake, but it was still scary.  Having never felt an earthquake, my coworkers and I weren't really sure what was happening.  I was with 2 of my coworkers- we had ordered an edible arrangement for our boss, whose birthday had been the day before (but took the day off) and it had just arrived in my office.  We were trying to decide how/when to give it to him.  Suddenly, we felt the room beginning to shake.  Heather's water bottle rippled, much like the glass of water on the dashboard in Jurrasic Park.

Paul opened the door that leads out to the warehouse and it looked and sounded like a tornado was in there- the stacks of baled and boxed metal scrap were swaying, near the tipping point.  The shaking suddenly stopped.  We looked around a little bit and saw the guy who was installing new lights- he was standing as still as he could at the top of his swaying scissor lift.

Heather: "Are you ok?"
Guy on scissor lift: "Uh... Yeah..."
Heather:  "I think you should come down now!"
Guy on scissor lift: "Okay!"

Immediately we were all calling our families to make sure everyone was fine.  Some of us got through, a lot of calls didn't go through.

Aaron was in orientation for his job- they ended early because of the quake.  Since I had the car, I left work just before 3:00 to go get him so he wouldn't be waiting until 5:15 for me to get to him.  I had planned to just drop him off at home and then go back to work for the rest of the work day, but traffic was so bad that we didn't get back to our apartment until about 4:20.  It takes me about 25 minutes in normal traffic to get to work, so I knew that if I went back, I wouldn't even get there until almost 5:00m so I called in and just stayed home.

I'm just glad there was no damage for anyone I know.

Long Post- to Catch up

I'm going to apologize in advance, because I think this is going to be a loaded post.  I keep meaning to go back and write individual posts about things that have happened since we moved here, but I just don't think that's going to happen.  The only reason this post is even happening is that my office doesn't have power at the moment, so I'm at home for the day (or however long the power is out).

So we moved in at the beginning of June.  We had driven out here with as much as we could fit in the car and everything else was left in a storage unit in Provo, knowing that Aaron's work would be moving all of our stuff for us.  So here we were, in this grand apartment... with no stuff.

Ok, we weren't entirely stuff-less.  My parents were generous enough to give/lend us a bunch of stuff.  So in addition to the stuff we could fit in the car (mostly clothes, food, computer, wii, and basic cleaning supplies) we had a couch and chair (about as old as me- I grew up with it), an entertainment unit and TV, a round folding table, 4 really uncomfortable metal folding chairs, a desk, 3 old bookcases, and the bedroom set that we bought cheap.  The china cabinet didn't come until later.

A week after we moved in, Aaron left to spend a month in Utah, working at his old job and hoping the movers would come get our stuff.  We didn't know it was going to be a whole month, but that's just how long it ended up.  Meanwhile, I was starting work at a metal recycling place, handling the exports for the company.  Also during that time, my parents came up to help me paint the apartment and I spent pretty much every weekend down in Manassas.  In mid July, hubby came home, just on time to see Harry Potter with me!  (I'm going to have to write a separate Harry Potter post, to say goodbye.)

2nd bedroom- "Quiet Rain"

 

 

Living Room- "Dapper Tan"

 

  

 

Master Bedroom- "Muted Sage"

No painting party is complete without root beer floats

At Harry Potter

However, Aaron came home... without our stuff.  The movers were apparently super booked and super understaffed, so they wouldn't be able to get our stuff moved until the beginning of August.  UGH.  So Aaron was home for a couple of weeks and then he went back out there for a few days to get our stuff loaded and turn in our storage keys.

The movers came on August 21st to deliver everything.  Let me remind you that we didn't have all that much stuff.  We lived in a furnished apartment in Provo, so we had almost no furniture.  Well, the movers came in a big tractor trailer.  We were the last ones on the load to be delivered, so it was our 4 feet of packed boxes in a 53' trailer.  Nice.  They were supposed to be there at 8am but they didn't end up at our apartment until like 10:30 or 11:00.  Anyway, it all got unloaded and carried up to our third floor apartment in a few hours.  And then the mess began.

That was a week ago.  Aaron started work on Monday, and we've spent every evening and all weekend this past weekend unpacking everything and trying to figure out where it all goes.  Well, we're finally done!  The only stuff that still needs a place are the decorative things and our board games.  Oh, and my sewing/craft supplies, which needs a desk.

Phew.  Congrats.  You made it.  Next up:  Earthquake and Hurricane.

New Apartment!

So right after Natalie's wedding weekend,  Aaron and I moved into our new apartment in Odenton, MD!  I love it.

Let's compare and contrast the old and new apartments, shall we...

Old apartment:

• 1 bedroom
• 1 bathroom
• 2 windows
• Icky paint color that we couldn't change
• No soundproofing between units
• loud upstairs neighbors
• Oven 100° too hot
• Swimming pool

New apartment:

• 2 bedrooms
• 2 bathrooms
• Lots of windows- corner apartment
• Paintable walls
• Completely sound proof
• No upstairs neighbors
• Properly functioning appliances
• Several outdoor pools, indoor pool, 2 weight rooms
• Private balcony
• Vaulted ceiling in living room
• Separate dining room
• Laundry room

Is it just me, or does the new apartment sound WAY better than the old one?  :)  I'll have to put up pictures sometime.  We painted and it looks awesome.

My parents gave us some furniture, and let us borrow other furniture to hold us over until we buy new stuff.  Aaron will be starting his new job next week and we'll be able to start getting some nice new stuff soon!  We already got a mattress set from Costco, a complete bedroom set from the ReStore (only $180!), and  a china cabinet from the ReStore.  I'm so excited to get the rest of the furniture- too bad the good stuff is so expensive!

Anyway, it's definitely an upgrade from our last place and it's great!