Moving date

My little cozy condo in La Jolla is soon be switched out for a cozy little home in my same ward, just on the other side of the canyon. My landlord gave us notice that they would not be renewing our lease at the end of July, so we were on a frantic 2 week search for our next place to hang our hats. It's been a little bittersweet. It's always nice to call a place home and settle in. I've been settling in this place for 7 years! But the life of a renter hit me full force as we were on the lookout for a new place.

Our new abode is a cute little house on a corner lot surrounded by families and other cute homes. There is a backyard that we can plant our garden in and have flowers and new carpet and paint. The kitchen appliances are also newer and the cabinets were all refinished with new hardware. It's a cute house that has a charm to it. It didn't get us anymore bedroom space, but it is a 4 bedroom so the three of us will have a room to expand at least (craft/project room?!) and the kitchen is good size, with a dining area that is large as well. We have some good storage in the garage too. So, it's a nice set up, in a nice neighborhood that I definitely feel comfortable running in and closer to the local grocery store that we like to frequent. I will miss my little condo area. A lot of the young families and couples live in the condo area of our ward and they are a fun crew, and we see them often walking around, at the grocery store. The temple was pretty much a hop, skip and a jump from our place. We could see it from our patio. Our little house will be kind of tucked back into a neighborhood, which is great when you don't want to hear the crazy student parties that were held in our complex, or not hear all the cars driving through our parking areas at crazy times of night. I won't miss the guy who locked himself out of his car at 2am in the morning, and proceeded to talk for an hour on the phone while he waited for AAA to come unlock his doors. That was fabulous conversation eaves dropping (though I can see how folks would rather SLEEP DURING THAT TIME OF NIGHT!). So there are things to not be missed.

So cheers to the new housing adventure, cheers to the new neighborhood and to ingratiating ourselves into the good graces of our new neighbors. Our little western corner of the ward will hopefully be better because we moved there. Hey, hope the neighbors like cupcakes.

Fast and Slow

Remember those days when you couldn't wait for the next Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings film to come out, not caring that a whole year at least, would go by in the meantime. Life could be measured by the yearly Harry Potter installment, when we'd age another year with Harry. What's crazy is, I didn't really care that all that time went by. But now, it's all I can to to keep up with the fast paced speed that life is flying by and yet all I want it to do is slow down.

One of the best things my friends and I were able to do while we took a trip to Austin, was to float lazily down the Guadalupe River, down near New Braunfels. We rented tubes, and slipped into slow moving current, that propelled us at a snails pace down about a mile. It took us about 1.5 hours to get down the river. And yet, those 1.5 hours were just fabulous. I haven't sat for that long, with no distractions, no pressures, no social media buzzing from my purse. Time stood still.

When we returned, it picked right back up. Work, church, family, friends, all need my time and I am more than willing to give it. What's crazy is how fast that time gets filled. This weekend, one of my friends is getting married and last night was her bridal shower. Her sisters threw a fabulous garden dinner party and then gift opening and games into the evening. The best part was, many other friends who once lived here and moved away came back for the weekend. While standing with a couple of friends, all we could say was how amazing that about 1.5 years had gone by since the first one moved away and got married, then a couple more followed and here we were today, with my group of girlfriends splitting up. This is the ebb and flow of single girl hood. You make friends, close friends, who become your stable table, since you are most likely away from your families. And then those friends start to move away to other things. That table starts to wobble a little bit until you steady it with more friends who move into your circle. Throw in the added bonus of having to move to a new place when your landlord calls to say they are not renewing your lease at the end of July and your table legs rock a little more. But those moments of wobbly instability cause you to consider where you are in life and if what you're currently doing is going to steady your table enough. I haven't yet figured that part out, but I do know that these moments where the legs feel worn down, don't stay that way forever and they can be good motivators to make those sturdying changes. So I guess we'll see where this moment of upheaval takes me, whether it is here or there, or anywhere, the days move on and you end up where you're supposed to be.