We got to our apartment
Sunday night at 9 and Justin's cousins who are here for the summer met us there as well as the friend who had picked up our key for us. His wife had made us dinner and gave us ice cream bars, and cereal and milk for breakfast. What a saint!! I had been so anxious to see our apartment for the first time to finally know what I would be living in for the next 6 months and I was definitely disappointed. The apartment just wasn't what we had been hoping for; the layout was different than we had expected and there was no living space. But the real kicker was that it smelt horribly of smoke. We knew right away that we didn't want to stay there. But we put on our happy face until company left and then started talking through our options.
Monday morning we went and talked to the office and that nasty smoke turned out to be a blessing. They let us just walk away from the lease, gave us our rent money back, and half of our deposit back. However, we now needed a place to live. So we loaded the kids back up, which they were not happy about, and started looking for an apartment. We came to the Lynwood townhouses and I immediately loved it. Sometimes I think that perhaps we should have kept looking and found something that was cheaper and smaller, but the deed is done now and there is no going back. Spontaneous big decisions stress me out but so far we are loving it here. They had a unit we could get into that afternoon and so after signing the lease we headed back over to the old apartment to gather our things and turn our keys back in over there. Matthew was pretty sad to leave because he happened to really like the old apartment. They had a window opening on the stairs that he really took a liking to and he often asks to go back to our old house in Texas. We stopped by there to check our mail yesterday and Matthew got so excited. Silly boy, we were only there for 12 hours and he got attached.
It worked out nicely because we hadn't unloaded the truck yet and we just had the people who were arranged to come help meet us at our new apartment. So at 2 o'clock on Monday we unloaded the truck and started sorting through the boxes to find some of the essential things. It took us a few days to find everything.
By
Tuesday afternoon we finally found the shower curtain, only to discover there were no shower rods. I had the bright idea to just try showering without a shower curtain...it was really not a good idea. We ended up just splashing ourselves from the faucet. We didn't want to take a bath because I hadn't cleaned the tub yet and the apartment was pretty dirty. But it was day 3 and we were desperate to get clean before going out. So after sprucing up a bit we headed off to get some much needed things for the house.
Wednesday was the first day of orientation and spouses were invited. Lindy watched the boys for us so I could go with Justin. The first part was just a basic welcome and they gave us some information. Then I headed to the Medical Alliance group which is basically spouses of med school students. Justin got his stuff done really fast during that time so he ended up coming to the meeting with me. It was a very interesting meeting. I don't think it was their goal to scare everybody but we all walked away wondering if we were really ready for the next 4 years. They had people talk about their experience during each year and the girl who was doing 2nd year totally broke down in tears talking about how hard it had been. At least they were honest. But I met my new friend Brittany there so the meeting did turn out to be a good thing. Justin knew her husband Brad from BYU and we just became instant friends. We have seen them a lot already and even had them over last night for ice cream! Anyways, after the orientation stuff we went and picked up Lindy and the boys and went to the Community Fair thing. There were a bunch of booths set up from businesses and school clubs and we got a bunch of pamphlets and free stuff, etc. Then we dropped the kids back off at home and I got to go with Justin to see the simulation center where he will be doing a lot of his learning. It was really neat and they have some pretty awesome technology. I was so glad I got to see where he will be spending all of his days and to meet some the of the people he will be working with.
Thursday Lindy and I worked on unpacking more while Justin was at orientation. That night we went out to get ice cream, well frozen custard actually. We discovered this place from the business fair and it is so delicious. Already one of my favorite places here.
Friday Lindy and I took the boys to the Science Expo in the morning. It was a lot of fun. There was a children's museum that the boys loved. They even had a whole section just for crawling babies. They had little houses to crawl into that had mirrors or videos of animals playing. Koyle was a little leery of the tunnels but he enjoyed the rest of it.
Then we picked Justin up and headed to the White Coat Ceremony. I thought I was excited for it, but really it was basically a really slow graduation. They read the name, walked across the stage and put the coat on, got a book and then walked off the stage. Koyle was not wanting to be there especially since it was nap time. But we survived and then they had food afterwards. We were going to go out on the town Friday night but it has been a long day and we were all pretty tired. So we just drove to the temple and walked around it, and called it good.
Saturday we had to take Lindy to the airport. We were sad to see her go. Not only was she a huge help and we are so grateful for her, but it was just fun spending time with her. I wish her trip could have been a little more exciting but moving is what it is, and Lubbock just isn't that exciting. That night the school had a scrubs party. We only stayed for a little bit, but Justin got some free scrubs out of it!
Sunday we went to church. It was our little secret that Matthew threw up Saturday night, but we really wanted to go to our first week of church and Matthew was excited to see the new nursery. He seemed fine so we just told him not to tell anybody that he was sick : ) Koyle kept "spitting up" and were just like, oh he does this all the time. Anyways, the ward seems very nice. There are a lot of young students and I look forward to meeting new people. We had combined Priesthood/Relief Society so I didn't really meet anybody but plenty of people came up and introduced themselves to us.
Monday was my first day home alone in quite a while. We did just fine. The kids are loving the space and having all of their things back. We have especially enjoyed our books and blocks. Koyle is just exploring everywhere. Monday evening after running a few errands we went to the TTUHSC SOM (Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine...that is a mouthful) talent show. Matthew loved it, Koyle was cranky and tired.
Today is Tuesday. Justin is doing an early clinical experience for school right now and then we have our last night of freedom. Classes start tomorrow. I guess we will see if things are really as bad as people say they are. I am not worried. We're going to be just fine. We are getting settled in and while there is still a lot to do we are in a good place and ready for this next adventure to begin.
Borax is my new best friend. I bought some this summer to make homemade floam (which turned out AWESOME). Well, we have a little bug problem, a.k.a. cocroaches and ants, but never fear...Borax is here! I heard about some homemade ant and roach killer and I thought I would try it out. Why not? I had a box of Borax laying around just waiting to get used. I just mixed Borax and Sugar together and sprinkled it around in some key locations. It worked awesome! It got rid of my ant problem in 2 days! I haven't seen ants in my house since. It kills the cockroaches that find it (because I have watched them die) but since I didn't sprinkle it thoroughly around and throughout my house I am still having a bit of a cockroach problem. This afternoon while trying to put the boys to sleep I found a cockroach crawling across their bedroom floor! EEK!! If you know me, you know that such a find was the last straw for me. Tonight the boys and I made a little trip to Lowe's a bought a very large bottle of Ortho Home Defense Max, and I plan on using a LOT of it ALL OVER. I do not tolerate bugs in the house and definitely not in the bedroom. I should have exercised some self control and just spread more of my borax mixture around, but my phobia got the best of me...and I really needed a trip out of the house. But I digress.
