Texas

So ya, we moved to Texas a week ago. 

Rob's college friend recruited him to join the company where he works, and his first day on the job was Monday of this week. 

Back in March we flew out to checkout the area and so Rob could interview, and after what felt like a crazy whirlwind of a decision, we accepted the job! Rob feels it will be a step in the right direction for his career, and will give him more opportunity to use his MBA, so here we go! 

Some yummy Texas barbecue from our interview trip in March.

We spent way too long Monday-Thursday loading the truck and cleaning our house before the move, then we drove to Colorado on Friday to visit Rob's sister partway through the drive to Texas. After two more days of driving we finally arrived at our destination in Texas around dinner time on Sunday night, had dinner with our friends (the same college friends who recruited Rob for the job), then Rob started his first day on the job the next morning! We are living in the Dallas area, about 40 miles North in a town called McKinney. We were sad to leave Utah, and will miss living near family and friends, but we are excited for this new opportunity for our family. 

Thanks to everyone who helped pack or load the truck or watch the girls while we were getting everything packed. It was a crazy week. 

Here are a few photos from our last week in Utah. 

 Sara and Ava on the empty truck.

Sara loading the first box.

All our stuff packed as tight as we could get it!

Sara at her last day at Ms Julie's dance class. (insert sad face.) She has really loved this class and all her friends there, especially Isabel and Ladawn from our neighborhood and church. 

Dancing to "Let It Go"

Hugs for Ms Julie. 

Ava and Sara ready for daddy to pull them in the sled across the front lawn. And our pretty pink-blossomed tree in the background!

Goodbye little house (duplex). You gave us some good memories over the past two years.

Goodbye beautiful mountains and Sugarhouse park! 

I loved having this just a 10-minute walk away from home. 

We crossed the border into Texas after two days of driving; one day's drive to Colorado and some time spent with Rob's sister, and then another day's drive to get to the state line. 

We stopped at a Dairy Queen just a bit after crossing the border into Texas and were amused to see the whole restaurant decked out in Texas decor! 

Texas flag booth seats!

"That's What I Like About Texas"

Small, Medium, and TEXASIZE

Texas Cattle Brands poster on the wall at DQ.

Lone-star popsicles....

....blue teeth and bright red lips from eating the popsicle!

We stayed the night in Amarillo, TX and enjoyed a nice hot breakfast at our hotel the next morning. I was surprised to see Texas shaped waffle irons!

Everything's bigger / shaped like Texas in Texas. 

Cowgirl hats and stick horses at a gas stop!

After three full days of driving we finally arrived in McKinney, our new home for at least the next few years. We could have done the drive in two days if we really wanted to, but we decided to stretch it out into three more leisurely days instead. Our friends have been generous enough to let us crash at their place while we get our house in order. Rob has been busy at his new job, the girls have been busy playing with their new friends (our friends have three girls of similar ages to our girls), and I have been busy trying to get some boxes unpacked in our new house. We are just renting for now.

I'll try to post updates on here more frequently to let you know about all our new adventures.

If you are ever in Texas, come see us!!

You can also find me on Instagram (annakins17) and Facebook (Anna Bryan Hinckley). 

just kidding

Ok, so after all that hullabaloo about finding a yellow rug for Sara's room, I ended up getting one with only the tiniest bit of yellow in it. Silly me. You see, I realized that a mostly yellow rug wouldn't really work, because I was adding a yellow dresser to Sara's room, so a yellow rug and yellow dresser would be too much yellow. After that realization, I branched out to other rug colors and finally decided on this one.

I got it in the 5x8 after realizing that an 8x10 would be way too big for the room, and the smaller rug size came with a smaller price tag also, so that was a plus.

The rug is in her room new room now and I absolutely love it! The colors are perfect and I like that it is not too "little girl" feeling -- in fact, I got it from Pottery Barn Teen, so it is meant for someone much older than Sara. Hopefully we will still love the rug as much as we do now by the time she hits her teens and it can stay in her room longterm. Time will tell.

Oh, and by the way, did I mention that we moved? 'tis true. My aunt and uncle moved into my grandma's house in September, and they were kind enough to let us continue to stay there as long as we needed. We were able to take our time to find a great place, and now we're living in it! Our new place is a side-by-side duplex in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake, and we love it! There are some crazy quirks about the place, like really squeaky floor boards in the hallway, light switches in weird places, and tiny closets in the bedrooms, but overall it is really great. In addition to the two bedrooms upstairs, we have a full basement with a playroom for Sara, an office for Rob, a laundry room, and a storage room! Plus there is a decent sized backyard that will be really nice when the weather warms up. And we are within walking distance to parks, restaurants, and other shopping. It's a great location!  -- a big thanks to everyone who helped us move, especially to my uncle who let us use his truck and trailer, helped us load it, and then drove it to our new place to help unload it, and also to my mom who flew out here for a week to help with the move. Thank you!!

{p.s. - photos of Sara's room are forthcoming}

FREE

Let me just say that if you have something you want to get rid of but don't want the hassle of loading it up and taking it to the nearest thrift store, all you gotta do is put it in the online classifieds under the FREE section! We wanted to get rid or sofa and first tried selling it online for $100. No bites. Then I switched it to FREE and got 8 phone calls in one hour, and now it's gone! Somebody came and picked it up just a few hours after I posted the ad! Awesome.

So long fella. You've been a good place to sit for the past 5 years or so. Thanks for that.

So perhaps you (my dedicated readers) are wondering why we got rid of such a wonderful sofa. Well, it's because we moved. Did I forget to mention that?! Hee-hee. Well we moved in with my Grandma to help take care of her, and we didn't want to move the sofa because 1) it's really heavy, 2) there's no room for it in her basement, and 3) we'll just buy a better, more comfortable one the next time we move!

So there you have it. Online classifieds are the best. We had better results with KSL than we did with Craigslist, but it doesn't really matter because the couch is gone! Three cheers for a job well done!

In Bloom

Ok, so perhaps my little pity party was slightly unjustified. I may have over-reacted just a tad. (Me? Over-react? Never!)

Admittedly, I am sad about not living downtown anymore. I really enjoyed having restaurants and shopping and Trax, etc. within walking distance. But our new apartment really is pretty great. I'm not so excited about the location (kinda in the middle of nowhere) but the apartment itself is nice--has a washer/dryer in the unit, has a second bedroom so Sara doesn't have to sleep in the living room anymore, has vaulted ceilings which help make it feel more spacious, has a nice large covered patio that we can enjoy when it's not freezing outside, has a pool and weight room and covered parking, has a great view of the mountains, and is close enough to Rob's work that he can come home for lunch. How's that for a silver lining? I guess I just got worked up for nothing. I am still sad about moving away from friends and from the location, but I can't let my sadness about that ruin the possibilities of our new place or keep me from enjoying our life as it is now, no matter the circumstances. "Bloom where you're planted." That's my new motto. It may not be perfect, but I'll do my best to make the most of it.

p.s. -- Thanks to those who gave words of encouragement during my pity party. I needed it!

pity party for one

We moved into a 2-bedroom apartment in North Salt Lake last week. I miss our condo. I miss being downtown. I miss owning. Renting sucks. I'm pretty bummed out about the whole thing. There are still lots of boxes to unpack but I just don't feel like it. Trying to find the silver lining....

Goodbye 12th Ward!

Today was our last week going to church in our ward that we've been in for the past 3 years! We said our goodbyes to most of the people we've been friends with, but I know there are several of you who we didn't see or didn't get to say goodbye to. So GOODBYE ALL! We will miss you! I'm serious when I say I want to keep in touch with you, so if you feel the same way, let us know! We won't be moving too terribly far away, so we can still get together occasionally for a fun night out or in. So to those of you who also want to keep in touch, we hope to see you soon. Goodbye 12th Ward! It's been swell.

Can't Sleep

It's 2:18 in the morning. I can't sleep. All I can think about is the fact that we have to move out of our condo (soon to be somebody else's condo -- sadness!) on Thursday of next week and WE STILL DON'T HAVE A PLACE TO MOVE INTO YET!!!! Seriously, what the heck are we doing? Did we think a place to live would just magically appear out of nowhere? Are we just going to be homeless? I hear sleeping on a park bench is quite pleasant this time of year...

So here's the deal....Up until this point, we've been thinking we'll buy another place and have been frantically looking for something with an agent. BUT, as it turns out, because of Rob's student loans and because I'm currently not working, we don't qualify for a home loan anymore!! So now we're just looking for a decent place to rent. I've been scouring Craigslist for leads, but now the real question is:

DOES ANYBODY KNOW OF ANY TWO BEDROOM PLACES FOR RENT THAT ARE AVAILABLE ASAP?? If so, please let us know!

p.s. -- Is it really worth trying to go back to bed now? I'm sure Sara will be up any minute. ... This is going to be a long night.