The Big Move

In October, Paul flew out to San Antonio, Texas to interview with a company for a Project Engineer position. The interview went well (although very rushed) and they told him that they would be in contact by Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving came and went and we didn't hear anything from the company so we started looking for part-time jobs that we could supplement Paul's income with to get by until we found a full-time position.  Paul was getting ready for finals when he finally heard back from them on December 2nd.  He negotiated an offer with them and it was full steam ahead.

Our apartment complex required that we give at least 30 days notice so we gave it right away as his starting date in San Antonio was slated for January 7th.  I started packing furiously, but the HR department took a long time to get the paperwork Paul for the physical and background check (because we were approaching Christmas vacation I assume).  Paul completed the physical and paperwork and sent it back but we didn't hear anything back.

I found a place to live on the 21st, which was a huge stress-relief right before Christmas.

At this point I had to reserve the moving truck in order to get our things delivered by January 7th. We waited and waited. We were completely moved out of our apartment and were occupying my parent's basement before we found anything out. On December 28th he finally received an email that the paperwork looked good and that they would overnight a check on Monday the 31st and that it should arrive on the 2nd due to the holiday.

On December 31st our truck was picked up and began transit.  Then we got a call from HR saying that even though the Dr. at the clinic had cleared Paul for work, there was protein in his urine and that he would need to have tests done to get to the bottom of the problem before officially hiring him on.

Enter major freak-out. enough said.

After talking to the safety division of the company, they decided to have compassion on us and just clear him anyway...seeing how our stuff was already gone and we had paid a deposit on another place and had been told previously that everything looked fine.  At some point we will have to figure out what was up with his test though.

Paul went to work at the school for the last time on the 2nd, came home and slept, and the check arrived.  After some very tearful (I mean, wailing and gnashing of teeth...it was quite dramatic) good-byes to my family, we got into the car at around 8:30 pm.  James fell asleep within 5 minutes.  I fell asleep after a few hours and apparently missed a few blizzards and boring towns.  

We had breakfast in Roswell, New Mexico at a very odd McDonald's (but what isn't odd about Roswell?).  Can I just say that New Mexico is the most boring state? Not a very interesting drive other than the snow. The drive was very long and James didn't whine at all, didn't have any toilet accidents, and was pretty much an angel. 

I can't really remember what time we rolled into San Antonio, but we stayed with our friends for a few days and they had hot food waiting for us. We went and signed our lease and got the keys to our new place, but the heat wasn't working and it was 50 degrees inside...which just isn't bearable.  It took us a day to get a repairman out and get it fixed.  Our friends took us to the Alamo and the Riverwalk, which we just loved! We will be going back there soon, I'm sure. We moved in to our townhouse on the 5th and went to our new ward (which is awesome) on the 6th. James went to his first day of primary and LOVED it.

View from our window. You can see Paul's work in the distance. He's working on a major medical center out here.

First day of Primary

Stocking up on some much-needed supplies

Not so sure about this Davy Crockett thing

Frighteningly in his element. No one buy him a sling shot. Seriously.

At the Riverwalk

Our living room. It's so pretty!

Alamo

On the 7th, our stuff arrived (and our mattress!! At this point we'd been on the air mattress for 15 nights). Paul was at work so I didn't even bother opening it up until he came home. Miraculously nothing was broken. We unpacked about 2/3 of it with just one other person.  I stacked a ton of boxes in the dining room.  Around 3am I got a weather alert on my phone warning of flash flooding. I didn't think much of it.  In the morning I was unpacking boxes when I stepped in a huge puddle which had saturated many boxes of canned food and narrowly missed the large box of books right next to the puddle.  

The next day I noticed a leak under the sink in the second bathroom.  I put a bucket under the sink and it was such a slow leak that I didn't think it could do much harm, but I called up maintenance. Apparently maintenance was very busy with roof issues from the crazy rain and they never got around to me.  An email had been sent out to the ward to come help unload the trailer, but we had it all taken care of other than the piano by the time they all arrived.  It was nice to see missionaries again. I honestly haven't seen them other than passing by the MTC since I moved to Utah 7 years ago.

I woke up the next morning to find at least a gallon of water on the floor in the bathroom! I had checked the leak the night before and there was maybe a tablespoon of water in there so this was shocking!  Called maintenance again, and apparently my case was dire enough to show up for this time.  Turns out the entire pipe was cracked on the seam, but how that much water got on the floor is a mystery to me since none of us used that bathroom and water would have to travel down the drain to overflow.  Very odd.

We haven't had any problems since and I'm hoping it stays that way! 

We have a few more obstacles to get through before we can put the move behind us, but that will come with future paychecks.  I will catch up posting about the holidays later.  Our New Year starts in February (since we just couldn't put any of our goals into motion with all the craziness going on this month!). Most importantly, we are safe. Missing family, but grateful to have a job! It's a tough job market out there right now.  Just ask the girl who applied for 175 jobs for her husband and only got one job offer.  It must be where we're supposed to be.