Our plans were for Justin to go to school at Arizona State University to obtain his Masters degree. We had everything lined up he had a summer internship with INTEL, we had a very cute apartment, and I was to move to Arizona at the end of the summer once my job in Idaho was finished. The first thing that happened was that we found out I was pregnant the first week in August. I quickly quit my job two weeks early so that I could fly down to Arizona to be with Justin. I told everyone I needed to go down there for some "job interviews". I got to Arizona and it was hotter then hot, but we were able to be together during this happy/scary time and that's all that mattered to me.
Our plans quickly changed after one phone call on Monday, August 13. Justin was called while he was at work by a Professor who works at the University of Utah asking what his schedule was and what kind of experience he has in different programs engineers use. From what I understand Justin had used the magic words and knew the programs well enough that the Professor was impressed. By Wednesday (Aug 15), Justin had received an official offer from the University of Utah to be a Teacher's Assistant (TA) for the Professor. This meant that his tuition was paid for, he would receive a stipend for the semester (that will pay for our rent), and he gets to teach a lab 2 times a week on material he is excited about. It also meant that Justin had to be in Utah to start school and be ready to teach by August 20 (less than a week!).
By the weekend we had made the decision that this was going to be the best for us financially, and also for Justin's education. The TA position is a subject he is really interested in and excited to pursue, and the University of Utah has a better robotics program which is what he would ultimately like to make a career out of one day. We had to wait for Justin to finish up his internship on Friday, and then we were trying to decide if I should join in him Utah or wait and come up later with all our stuff once we had a place to stay. But at the very last moment, and I mean very last, we decided I would go to Utah with him. I had had some scary pregnancy/miscarriage complications that week and Justin didn't want to leave me alone in case I needed to go to the hospital. Which I was okay with, I didn't want to be alone and without a car. The doctor I saw on Saturday (Aug. 18) said the baby was okay (we got to hear the heartbeat!), but I had ripped my uterus behind the placenta somehow, so no lifting or anything for me for a couple weeks until it healed up. So Justin packed up the U-haul and we set out for Utah on Sunday. We stopped to sleep for a few hours in Page, AZ at the cheapest hotel we could find. We got up early and hit the road again so we could get Justin to his 1:00pm meeting on Monday, August 20.
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| This is the only photo I have from August. In the U-haul driving out of Arizona to Utah for Grad School. |
We got to Utah and stopped in at Kendell's place so Justin could spruce up and change his clothes. By the time we left the townhouse, it was 12:30pm and Kendell was driving us to the college. Justin only ended up being a few minutes late. While he was at school, I began apartment searching. Justin would go to school everyday and I would camp out in Kendell's room and look for apartments and make phone calls to see about the earliest day we could move in. Kendell was a good host and was very patient with us but I desperately wanted my own place again so I wouldn't have to hide the "morning sickness" that would come and go throughout the day. We hadn't told anyone but our parents that I was pregnant because we wanted to make sure everything was okay before we started telling family. But a week into staying with Kendell he started noticing different things so before he could put it together I got my parents and Alyssa on Skype to have a family chat since half of us were in California and half in Utah. After chatting a little bit I just threw it into the conversation that we were expecting and it was so fun to see their expressions and excitement.
On one of Kendell's days off he went with me to all the appointments I had made to tour different apartment complexes. There were a few that were in the running we liked, and then there were a few that went straight on to the NO list. So we picked Justin up that day from school and he informed us that he had received an offer for a TA job at ASU! So on the car ride to dinner he and I talked about the pros and cons for both schools and before we got out of the car we had decided that it would be best to stay in Utah since he liked the programs the school offered here better then Arizona and it was closer to family. At dinner we made a decision on what apartment complex we thought would be best for us and called them up to see if it was still available. There was another woman who looked at it today and said she was going to bring the deposit by that day or the following day, but they informed us they can't hold the apartment until they get the deposit (and they closed in 20 minutes). So we quickly got our bill for dinner and drove as fast as traffic would allow to put down the deposit before the other woman go there. When we got there there was a lady putting a deposit down and I thought this perfect apartment was taken from under us! But come to find out she was taking the last available 3-bedroom apartment! So we put our deposit down for the last 1-bedroom apartment and got the paperwork to take home and fill out. I was so excited we finally had a place of our own, the down side was that we had to wait until September 5th to move in.
So Justin and I found a storage unit to put all of our things in so we could return the U-haul with out having to pay for extra days. So we bunked with Kendell for about two and half weeks and tried to stay out of the way as much as we could. We would even leave for the weekends so he could have some extra space.When moving day finally came it was moving day for all of us. We were getting into our new apartment and Kendell was going back to school in Idaho. He and one of his friends helped us get into our apartment since I was still not able to help much and Justin needed help moving the big items us the stairs to our place. We treated them to breakfast before we got going and gave them lunch money since it took longer then expected and they had their own schedule to keep. Once our stuff was in the apartment I had Justin put our bed together for me so I could nap if I needed (I was so sick of sleeping on an air mattress). We then took the U-haul back that we rented for the day and I took Justin to school and came home to unpack.
Since then our lives have fallen into more of a routine and our place is coming together very nicely. We still need to get a few things to get it the way we want but its our own place to relax and be ourselves in. As soon as it gets to a decent place I'll post some pictures of the apartment. I actually like it better then the one we had found in Arizona. It is in a great area, I feel safe here, and anything and everything we could want to eat/shop for is with in a 10 minute drive. There is a Trax train station at the back of the apartment property that Justin can ride for free up to the school too! I think we are going to enjoy our time here while Justin goes to school.
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