Things That Go Toot in the Night

Well, we have survived a week in the heat- we are still alive! All of our stuff finally showed up Friday night. We were given a window of between 1 and 5 of when it would show up. 6:30 it finally showed up. Good thing I sat in an empty house afternoon.... Anyways, Saturday my dad and Uncle Warren came and helped us get everything unloaded (huge thanks to both of them!). So we are now getting semi-settled in our little rental house. We are trying to unpack as little as possible since it's only until we buy a house. The rental is pretty good-probably the best we've had in our married life. Pretty clean and enough room. There's just one problem-just over the backyard fence we have tracks-railroad tracks to be exact. The train comes by a few times a day, and every night we get startled in our sleep and wake up to the sound of the tooting train shaking our house as it goes on by. The other night trains went by twice. I think they purposely wait until they get to our house to whistle. They must know we aren't from here. We've been told we will get used to it.... It just taked a while. Ben and I don't think (or possible hope?) we will be long enough for it to happen. This will be a good place for a little while though. Now if we could just find some of the stuff we need without having to open every box.

Just in case you were dying to see, here are a few pictures from Ben's graduation:
Baylee decided she wanted to graduate too:

Graduation and Goodbyes

I don't have any pictures to go along, but I have a few minutes while Baylee is in a little coma watching Little Einsteins and thought I better do an update.

We had a long past couple of weeks.  We got everything all packed up and into our moving containers Thursday, and a last little bit on Friday morning.  Ben spent Saturday running all our throw aways to the dump and doing last minute errands.  Baylee and I lucked out and got to go to the Farmer's Market with his mom and then swimming with Anna and kids (Ryan was there with Garrett for a little bit).  We also had our last meal out with Ryan and Anna and kids at Chevys.  Sunday Ben got to walk.  So he officially graduated, I guess, in case the diploma he already had gotten didn't make it official enough.  Either way we are so proud of him.  Afterwards his mom threw him a little graduation party, where we also had to say goodbye to some of our friends.  We are going to miss everyone in California-thanks for making it a good three years there!

The hardest goodbyes came Monday morning.  We loaded up the car and then had to say goodbye to Ben's parents and brother and his wife.  Ben's mom cried, which makes it even harder.  She's really going to miss Baylee, and it will be sad not living just a fifteen minute drive from them and seeing them almost everyday at work.   Next we drove over to Ryan and Anna's to tell Anna and the kids bye.  Baylee loves her cousins so much and has had so much fun playing with them.  Ryan and Anna have been good friends for us too.  We are going to miss Ben's family.  After all that, we drove back to our house (we had been staying at Ben's parents) to get Maddy.  This brought another really hard and unexpected goodbye for me.  Baylee started freaking out with Maddy in the car, even though she was in the very back of our CRV, so we had to leave her behind.  We tried to take her to an adoption center but they were closed, so Ben's dad took her yesterday.  I don't know why I am so attached to that dog.  We got her when she was a puppy a couple of months before we got married.  I went through a lot of hard things before Ben and I started dating, and Maddy made me feel safe.  I knew nobody would bother me with Maddy there, since she was a barker.  I know it'll be better for her though, since she should be going to a home where she will get more attention.  Still my heart can't help but hurt.

After a busy morning, we finally left 2 1/2 hours after what we were trying for.  But, we finally made it to Arizona, with a few bumps along the way.  I got the keys to our rental place yesterday.  It needs some cleaning, and we are waiting for the gas and water to all be turned on.  So, we are saying at my cousin Brooke's.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to Brooke and her family who are so great about letting us stay at their house, even when Brooke is at Girl's Camp (she's there for a couple days).  Our stuff is on the way, but it looks like it might be Monday until we get it.  :(  So, we will see what happens!

House Hunting

We spent this past weekend in Arizona trying to find a house. I think we have pretty much decided on building a Shea home in Chandler. Here is the one we are leaning towards:
I LOVE this house! One of my favorite things is that the turret (the round part) is a little room that Baylee and whatever other kids come along can play in. The community is super cute with a couple lakes and a lot of greenbelts and some parks. I think it will be a great area to live in, and is a 20-30 minute drive for Ben to work. The only problem is that the price is a little higher, so we need to see how we can tweak our money a little since we will need to put in a yard and will need to buy blinds and more furniture and we also need to buy Ben a car. So, we are still a little undecided, but this is what we are leaning towards. We are trying not to rush into things as far as houses go. We need to make a decision soon though since we move in two weeks! We are planning on having to rent for a few months since there are so many options and if we build this house it will take six months. Love this house though!