The Big D...Welcome to TEXAS!

Well folks....we made it! After talking about this for a very LONG time....we are now residents of the state of Texas (well not officially, but you get my point). I might have mentioned before that my parents drove a car down for us a week before we officially moved and then Bryan and my dear cousin Tyler drove our Jeep down a few days later. Now, I know that we spent five trips to Dallas to nail down the exact spot we would call our home, however everything fell through.....so we moved into a place sight unseen! I can't believe that we did that! However, it turned out to be amazing! I will post some pictures of our new place when I get everything just exactly the way that I want it..he he :) We love it though, we really do. Texas is such a great place...and I know that this is hard to believe (jk)...but EVERYONE is so nice and helpful! We LOVE the hospitality of the people in the South! They are just SO nice! We LOVE our ward! They are just so on top of things. I have literally got four emails of moms in the ward that want to get together for play dates....how great is that? I am however terrified to take my child, meaning Peyton to a play date! He is a little aggressive to say the least (we had to leave nursery after he threw a train car at the Bishop's daughter's head). I was so embarrassed! I guess two year olds will be two year olds! :) I just have to keep telling myself this! It will be great though....we ALL need the play date interaction!

We live in a city just North of Dallas called Coppell. It seems to be a great place to set up for the next few years! We are living in the St. Marin Apartments. It is a really nice complex. We have a three bedroom apartment. We are actually on the second level, but it is so nice because we have a ground level entry. When you walk into our apartment you have to climb a flight of stairs...it is not bad though. It is really nice to have the space, I must say! Although, there is this old man who sits outside on his little porch/balcony (he is on the ground level) ALL day. When I say ALL day....I mean ALL day....and it is HOT I mean really HOT...(I think I have made my point). We are not sure what he does or thinks about ALL day just watching the parking lot. He is really nice...but socially awkward. I always give him a "Hello, how are you today?" and he gives me a, "Just fine. How are you?" I have tried several times to keep the conversation going but he is really dry and never continues the conversation. We did find out that his name is Bill...so we are making progress! I suppose we will just have our little awkward "hello's" for the next three years or so. What can you do? I just hope my life amounts to more than just watching a parking lot ALL day....I'm just saying...how boring is that? He is really nice though, and I do feel really bad for him. So maybe one day I will crack this odd duck and make him talk! Maybe one day I can snap a quick pick of Bill watching the parking lot to show you how boring he really is.....bless his heart!

We did get our taste of a true Texas rainstorm! About a week after we moved in old hurricane Hermine, which I believe was a tropical depression by the time she reached Dallas. We received over six inches of rain in one day. There was a tornado that did some pretty good damage about a half mile from Bryan's school, which is about five miles from us. We were under a tornado watch and warning most of the day along with flood warnings. The golf course across the street flooded, along with the roads. We just hung out inside...obviously. It rained HARD though.

I will not LIE we had a HARD first week. We ran into problems with our financing. Wells Fargo messed up where our check was being sent. Bryan's school messed up his financial aid. After a few trips to his school and a million phone calls later...we got it all worked out! Bryan and his mom made a trip to the local IKEA to buy a bed for our guest room but they didn't have all the pieces, having not realized this until they got home, they had to make another trip back to IKEA. Then they figured out that it was IKEA's fault and that they had ran out of the pieces...don't worry...they wouldn't want to post that or anything...anyways we STILL don't have all the pieces! Bryan was so frustrated (this being only three days of being in Dallas) he just wanted to come home and be done with running around. However, he and his mom got lost. So I had to jump in the Jeep with the Garmin and go find him. They were stopped at a Chick-Fil-A just up the road...so we decided to stay and eat. Before we went into the restaurant, Bryan was joking around and said, "Something is going to go wrong in here, I just know it!" I didn't think much of it and we went inside! I LOVE Chick-Fil-A...and the one's outside of Utah have a playground. The playground at this restaurant was outside in a fenced off area with only one entrance/exit. So we get are food and we are watching Peyton play with a few other kids. I was facing the parking lot and I noticed this car pull up and this kid get out and start to walk inside the restaurant. Then this other kid slides out his backseat and starts to tuck in his shirt. Not too weird I suppose but I thought it was weird that they exited the car at different times. Anyways, about three minutes later I see this cop pull up next to the door and he is trying to peer in the front door from his car. I thought that this was a little strange (not your typical dinner break behavior). I then see him exit the car really slowly watching all the way around him. I thought this was very weird and drew Bryan's attention to the situation. I saw a Chick-Fil-A girl delivering some food so I called her over to ask her what was going on. She didn't know, all she knew is they didn't call the police. So she sat down by us for a second. By this time the cop had his gun drawn and was crouched outside the doorway. I was definitely nervous at this point. I mean we were totally stuck in this play yard. Bryan was like "Oh great! Now we are going to become hostages! I told you something was going to happen here! This is a great end to my day!" Just as I was about to find my child who was playing inside the play toy the officers swarmed the place. They quickly ran to a man and cuffed him. It was the guy that got out of the backseat! I knew there was something fishy going on! However, they were still searching around the store...the other kid was gone. I am not sure how he got away because that place was swarming with cops. I had to talk to the police about what I saw. All I knew is that I wanted to get out of there! So as we were leaving, they had the guy that they apprehended sitting down between the set of doors. We had to walk right past this guy who was cuffed. As we were walking out the entire store was covered with about 12 cops. I am not sure what they did or if they ever caught the other kid. I totally felt like I was on an episode of cops!! :)
WELCOME TO DALLAS!!

All in all we are enjoying Texas. I have a lot of other posts about our big move and settling in! Stay tuned!