Keeping on, Keeping on

We went mountain biking this morning since Thomas didn't have to be to work until 3pm.  This time we went to a different part of the foothills called the military reserve.  OH MY GOSH! The first part was sooooo hilly.  My lungs were burning so bad, my throat got that metallic taste in it, and my heart was seriously pounding out of my chest.  I haven't felt that tired since running sweet 16's at basketball practice in Junior High.  Mountain biking is such a cardiovascular challenge.  I used my Garmin watch and timed and measured the distance and I really could run faster than I can mountain bike :) I love having a new workout to do and a new challenge for my body.  We are planning on going up again tomorrow after yoga in the park. 
In other news... I am trying to not go totally out of my mind by being at home every day by myself while Thomas is at work.  I will bike to the library which is like 6 miles away or to Albertson's which is only about a mile away.  I'm reading a lot and I have became entranced by HLN's coverage of the Casey Anthony trial.  I keep telling myself I need to stop watching it because it makes me upset but I can't stop.  As Thomas and I have been discussing that trial as well as other things that are going on in the world today, I have come to the conclusion that common sense is not used any more.  People are all about the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law and so common sense is just disregarded.  It's kind of a scary thing. 

Last week I noticed that there appeared to be little flecks of dirt on the stove.  I wiped them off with a clorox wipe and then an hour or so late I noticed they were there again.  As I looked closer I saw they were moving! So I called the office and they said they would have maintance look at it.  The maintance guy came and didn't really do much but he sent the pest control guy.  Apparently they are bird mites!!!! A bird nested in some airway and when it left the mites tried to find someplace else to get food and came through the fan/vent above the stove! So gross! They are little parasites that live on birds.  I could hardly eat for two days because it grossed me out so bad.  They sprayed something and cleaned out the vent of the bird next stuff and if it doesn't get better in a couple days they said to call again. 

New Home

We found an apartment!! It has been stressful trying to find one when we aren't actually in the same city where we will be moving.  Luckily we have friends who live in Boise and were willing to go check out places to see if they were okay or not (Thanks Tess and Ryan!).  Some apartment complexes have really great pictures on their site and then you go and look at the actual place and it is totally trashy and in a bad part of town.  So we found a place that is only a half mile away from the school that I will be teaching at (it's a k-5 magnet school that has an emphasis in the performing arts). It is bigger than what we have now as far as square footage but it only has one bedroom.  But it has a pool and a theater and a gym :) It was built in 1999 and was remodeled in 2008 so it is pretty fresh and new. We will be paying a little more than we would like to but you can't beat the location.  And we are only signing a 6 month lease so that once I am done with my student teaching and if I get a job in another district we can move closer if we want. 

Another paint job

Since we have an extra bedroom we needed some furniture to fill it with.  So we bought a cheap bookshelf that we found on craigslist and a desk at a garage sale.  I'm really liking finding cheap things on craigslist and that was the first time I had been yard/gargae sale-ing.
We sanded and painted the bookshelf and desk and they look pretty darn good.  Now we just need to buy a futon and t.v. stand for in there and it should be complete.

This is the pic of the bookshelf as posted on craigslist.

After we sanded and painted the bookshelf.

Desk after being sanded.

The desk after being sanded and painted.

Da Bears

There is a AAA baseball team in my hometown called the Bears.  I worked there for three years starting the summer after my sophomore year til the summer after my senior year of highschool. The first year I was a ticket taker, the second a ticket seller, and the third concession stand manager.  Working at the baseball stadium was a perfect summer job.  I loved the people that I worked with and the working environment was fun. 
My parents have season tickets and I usually go with them a couple times. 
This was the first game we went to this season and we met up with one of my best friends, Jessica, from highschool and her mom (who my mom is friends with).

Thomas, Me, and Jess at the game.

Dad, Mom, and Jess' mom.  It was so windy and cold.

 Jessica's grandma hosts some of the baseball players so she kind of has in in with the people their.  She left a little bit early and on her way out told someone to have me be in one of the games they play in between innings. 
So around the 8th inning I got to "Guess the attendance."  They have four people holding numbers and I had to arrange them so that it was the number of people who had bought tickets to that night's game.  My parents had been to the previous nights game so they told me an estimate and the guys holding the numbers told me that if I messed up they might just help me out if I was quick.  I had my first guess and it was wrong, so I switched two numbers and got it right.  I won a US Bank baseball hat and two tickets to the next weeks game.

Yes, I CAN guess the attendance!

The Move

We are in Idaho!! We arrived last Friday night extremely late.  It usually takes about 11 1/2 hours to get from where we live in Washington to here in Idaho.  Because we had the U-haul trailor it took 15 1/2 hours!

Lucky that I had this funny guy to keep me entertained the whole way, even while he was driving.

This was after about 14 hours of driving. 

 Such a long drive.  I had been hoping to unpack that night because I thought we would get there around 9pm but we ended up waiting til the next morning.
We spent Friday night at my sister Briana's house.  Saturday morning I was anxious to go on a run after being cooped up in a car for 15 1/2 hours.  So I want on a little 5 mile cruise around campus.  While on my way back to Bea's house I was running down mainstreet and felt like I was running a race because the street was lined with people waiting for the 4th of July parade to start. 
We really like our new apartment.  The bathroom is bigger, kitchen is bigger, we have two bedrooms instead of just one, and there is a washer and dryer! My favorite part is the washer and dryer.  That was a must while we were searching around for apartments. 
Also, we no longer live in a ghetto neighborhood with a drug dealer neighbor. 
Since we are no longer living there I will share.  We lived in a four-plex in a part of town that had really old small houses and was pretty close to where the gang action would go on.  There was a lady who lived two apartments down from us who ALWAYS had people coming and going from her apartment at all hours of the night.  This became a problem when they would park in our and other tenants parking spots.  Our landlady put up towing signs to get it to stop but it continued.  I called the towing company a couple times (although I was a bit scared whoevers car got towed would find out it was me and come shoot me).  One particular time the tow truck was just down the alley way to get to our parking.  Drug dealer lady sees the tow truck and gets in the car to move it.  She rolls down the window as she passes and asks him what he's doing and tells him he can't tow the truck cause she lives in the apartment complex and it's her truck.  First of all it was not her truck, she didn't have it registered with the land lady, second of all even though she lives there it's our designated parking spot. 
So our landlady tells us she is trying to evict this lady and she should be out by the beginning of January.  I don't think the actually was out till the middle of February.  Our landlady is the sweetest person and was telling me when I turned in our keys that she has had to take this lady to court and it's just been a big mess.  She kept track of some of the license plate numbers of the cars that were coming and going and one of them was involved with a homicide!
There was a lot of shady stuff going on with this lady.  She had cameras in her windows to watch for people.  One time late at night she knocked on our door and asked me if I had seen anyone come because her door was ripped of of its frame and her apartment and been broken in to.  Scary stuff!
So that was our first apartment.  We are happy that it can and will only be better after that.
I was never really scared but I made sure that our door was locked and deadbolted all the time.  I remember two nights in the middle of the night, where I kept hearing someone ring the doorbell over and over and I was praying that I remembered to lock the door.  (Thomas slept through it both times!)
So I would like to now present our very first apartment that we not so sadly said goodbye to.

We were the apartment on the very end.

The alley to get to our parking in the back. 

Living room (my mom peaking through the door).

Our tiny little kitchen.

Dad with all our gear loaded up in front of our old apartment.

The view down the street.

The view down the other side of the street.