Goodbye For Now

Due to the comments from 50% of the readership of our blog (my mom), I've included pictures of Sarah and me in front of our new apartment.  Please disregard the blue at the bottom of the first picture - that is from our car, which was nice enough to hold the camera for us.

  

 On a more somber note, I took Sarah to the airport on Wednesday so she could go back to Provo to finish up her research.  We're not sure how long this is going to take - it could be six weeks, it could be a few months.  All I know is that it's going to be hard not having her around.  I've been trying to keep myself busy so I don't have to think about the fact that she's not here.  I'm hoping that strategy will work and that the time will fly by.  If the time doesn't fly by that probably means there is something we both need to learn from this that will strengthen our character and our relationship.  Writing about it makes me a little sad and lonely, so I'll end on a happy note.

Here's Sarah at the airport: 

 

 Here's Sarah at the airport after I told her that she didn't want that sad picture on our blog:

 

So, despite the difficulty of being separated, I'm sure that we'll be able to find that happy silver lining.

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Home Improvements

On Tuesday, our new kitchen table and chairs arrived at our front door.  Sarah tried to get the box into the apartment, but unfortunately either the large shape of the box or the fact that it weight over 140 pounds precluded her from getting it inside.  (In case my dad is reading this and thinking Why didn't she use that new hand truck you just bought?, the answer is that she did try but some combination of the size and weight yielded her efforts fruitless.)  After texting back and forth, we concluded that Sarah would go outside and periodically check to make sure no one had stolen it until I got home.

Luckily for us, the thieves were also unable to move the box because of its size and weight, so it was waiting for me when I got home from school.  Then the building process began.  First we put the table together and then I started on the chairs.  The reviews online had complained about the difficulty of assembling the chairs, so I was expected vague instructions and hours of assembly.  As it turns out, it wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating and I think the whole process was done in an hour or so (it's kind of hard to keep track of time when you are doing manly things and you get really into it - ask Einstein, it's the whole theory of relativity thing).  

I think we were both pleased with the end result.  (I know that I definitely prefer eating at a table compared to eating on the floor or sitting on a folding chair and have my plate on my lap.  As for Sarah, I can't speak for her, but I think she enjoyed her two meals on the table.)

  

  

  

 

 Since the new table and chairs weren't enough, we decided to add more to our apartment.  The next day, we had our new stackable washer/dryer delivered.  (To be clear, it's not "new" - we bought it from an appliance repair shop that sells appliances they have fixed.)  I know what you're thinking, which is the exact same thing the lady at the appliance repair shop said when we talked to her: Why would you want a stackable washer/dryer when you have the space for a full-size?  The answer:  The space for the washer/dryer in our apartment only has a 220v outlet, and Sarah wasn't too keen on the idea of an extension cord running along the floor to the washer.  Plus, the cost of the washer/dryer was about the same as renting one for a year, and we can keep it longer than that, or sell it on Craig's list and more than break even.

So, without further ado, here are a few pictures of our washer/dryer:

  

 

 This last picture is to give you an idea as to where the washer/dryer is in our apartment - next to the shower in the other bathroom.  (It is on the other side of the wall with the clock, wedding picture, and mirror on it in the last picture of our new table.)

The final home improvement to our apartment this week was curtains in the bedrooms.  (We've ordered curtains for the main room - they just haven't gotten here yet.)  I'm not sure how exciting this is, but it was a home improvement nonetheless and hopefully I was able to hang both of them level enough.

 

 

I finally got the set of blinds for our main room in the mail the next week, so I got those put up as well.

 

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Norman Highlights

 Here are a few highlights from our first week or so in Norman:

Highlight #1: Somehow we have managed to go to Walmart almost every day:

Friday: Milk and strawberries

Saturday: Cable modem for internet

Monday: Mustard and salad dressing

Tuesday: Towel rack (apartment didn't have one in bathroom)

Wednesday: Return towel rack (maintenance installed one for us), picture hanging hardware

Friday: Redbox (located inside Walmart)

Saturday: Mop

So, in the ten days we've been in Norman, we've gone to Walmart on 7 of them (and that includes two Sundays).  Lucky for us, Walmart is just around the corner.

As a side note, on one of those Walmart trips, I saw a lady walking in with a hand full of one dollar bills and a smile on her face.  I mentioned to Sarah that if we were in Vegas that lady would either be walking into our out of a casino, but here in Norman when people have a few extra dollars, they run to Walmart with a grin on their face.

Highlight #2: Oklahoma doesn't have a DMV.  

Instead, they have tag agencies (privately owned businesses that you can get vehicle title and registration from) as well as the Department of Public Safety (DPS).  So, on Monday, Sarah and I got to the tag agency before it opened, thinking there would be a huge line like at other DMVs and there was nobody there.  We drove over to the DPS building and there was a huge line, so we decided to head back to the tag agency before anyone saw us and figured out where the shorter lines are.  We got there just before it opened and were the first ones in line.  We registered our car and got our new Oklahoma title per Oklahoma state law (which we got in the mail on Wednesday or Thursday - talk about efficiency).  Since everyone there was so nice, we decided to ask if we needed to get an Oklahoma driver license or if we could wait until our Utah licenses expired.  They said legally we didn't need to change them but that the Norman police are pretty picky and only give you 10 days from when you move to Norman to change your driver license.

With that warning, we decided we would try the DPS early on Thursday morning since I had TA training on Tuesday and Wednesday.  It opened at 7:00am, and when we got there at 6:30 there were about 30 people in front of us in line.  We didn't find this out until hours later (since it isn't posted anywhere in the building), but apparently the first hour (7-8am) is for scheduling driving tests, followed by people who failed the test and wanted to retake (walk-in basis).  Then, once all of those people are scheduled, they start going through everyone who had taken a number.  (Even though there were about thirty people in front of us in line, we were the fourth one to take a number because everyone else just stood in the line to schedule a driving test.)  They finally got through the scheduling at about 9:00am and we were out of there by about 9:30, but it would have been nice to know that we could have grabbed a number at 7 when they opened and come back two hours later.  Thank you, DMV, I mean, DPS.  I guess no matter what you call it, they are always the same.

(I felt really bad for the guy in front of us in line.  He is a gymnast at OU and had to leave at 8:00am to go to practice.  He traded his number with someone when he was leaving so he could come back after practice and hopefully they wouldn't be past that person's number.  I hope it turned out for him.)

We also met a couple other people who had just moved to Norman for school, one of which graduated from BYU and we're having them over for dinner tonight, so I guess the DPS can't be that bad, right?

So, I guess that's another highlight in Norman: You make friends, not enemies at the DMV DPS.  Oh, and in case you're curious, after you get a piece of paper from the DPS, you take that over to the tag agency and then they actually process getting you the new driver license.  All the wait time is just to get your information in the government database before you go get the driver license from the private tag agency.

Highlight #3:  I managed to beat the individual challenge on Blockus

For our Friday night date, we played Blockus.  After playing each other a couple times, we decided to do the individual challenge together (get all of the pieces on the board, following the rules for piece placement).  Sarah gave up after a few attempts, but I wouldn't go to bed until I figured it out.  Once I was victorious, Sarah decided it was blog worthy, so here it is:

  

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New Apartment

Here is our new apartment.  If you want to know our address, call me, email me or do the same with my mom and I'm sure you can get it.  Anyway, we'll start with the outside.  Our's is the door on the right.  The door on the left is an indoor staircase leading up to our neighbors above us.  All the windows on the ground floor are part of our apartment (yes, even the one on the other side of their door).
 

Backing up a little bit, this is half of the building we live in.  There are eight apartments on each side, so it's this same thing on the right as well as on the back.
 

Here are some pictures of when we first moved in:

  

  

  

  

This is what it looked like for our first night:

  

  

  

  

  

 

As you could see in the pictures from our first night, we didn't unpack our pictures for a little while.  This was mostly because we weren't sure what the complex's policy was about hanging pictures because there were zero nail holes in the wall from the previous tenants.  After checking with them, they said it was fine, so we got all of our pictures hung up. 

  

  

  

  

 

If you can't figure out the layout from the pictures and are dying to know, feel free to give us a call and we can give you a personal Skype tour of the place.

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Look Out Norman, Here We Come

I know my blog followers have been dying to know what's going on with us, so hopefully I haven't waited long enough for any of you to actually die, because that would decrease my followers by like fifty percent.  I could give lot of excuses for not blogging (just ask Brandon because he usually gets them but they are used as my excuses for not emailing him).  Basically, they fall into one of two categories: (1) Nothing noteworthy (or blog worthy) has happened, or (2) I haven't had the time.  One of the reasons I haven't had time lately is because we were preparing for and then actually moving to Norman, Oklahoma, where I am beginning my PhD program in Accounting at the University of Oklahoma.

The day that we loaded up our rental truck and cleaned our apartment (thanks to a lot of help) was a day full of waiting for me.  Sarah dropped me off at the Home Depot to pick up our Penske truck at 9:00am.  I told the Home Depot employee that I was there to pick up a truck.  He told me that it wasn't there yet and he called Penske to see when it would be there.  They told him "20-30 minutes".  He told me that "20-30 minutes" in the past has usually meant more than twenty or thirty minutes.  I knew it was bad when another Home Depot employee walked in and said "Let me guess, another Penske truck isn't here?" which received an affirmative response.

At around 9:40, I decided to call Penske to see if I could work out some sort of discount for having to wait for so long (since they had told me that what sets them apart from UHaul and Budget is that they actually guarantee that the truck you reserved will be there rather than simply a truck).  The lady at Penske told me there was nothing she could do, called the local Penske store in West Valley, and told me they would be there in ten minutes.  I was a little disappointed in my bargaining skills, but anxious to finally get the truck.  At 10:30, the Penske guy shows up, hands the keys to a Home Depot employee and leaves.  No "sorry your truck was late", no "here's the keys", nothing.  The Home Depot guys on the other hand, were really nice and gave me an additional discount that saved me $80 on my rental.  I think that wait was worth my time.

I finally got back to our apartment, where my family was hard at work helping Sarah clean.  Sarah's sister Jennie and my Aunt Elizabeth showed up later to help with the cleaning, for which we are very grateful.

 

Brad, my dad and I meanwhile were getting ourselves into a real life game of tetris.  I don't know if everyone feels this way when they are moving, but it made me realize that we have a ton of stuff.  Then I was looking at our stuff and at the size of the truck and I was worried that we wouldn't have enough room.  As we packed layer after layer in the truck, my dad would ask "Is that about it?" to which I would respond, "No, we've still got more."  I'm sure my dad could hear the worry in my voice because he would follow up by asking, "Do you think it's all going to fit?"

I thought What do you mean, 'Do you think it's all going to fit?'  You're supposed to be the moving guru.  You're supposed to tell me if it's all going to fit.  If you think this is helping with my stress level, it is.  Just in the wrong direction.

I'm sure you can understand my relief when we had multiple feet to spare at the back of the truck.  Thanks again dad for your incredible tetris skills and Brad for your man power! 

 

After a good night's rest at my parent's house, it was time to hit the road.  At the advice of a current Accounting PhD student, we took I-80 to Cheyenne then south to Denver rather than taking the steep slopes of I-70 or the heat of New Mexico on I-40.  Brad was kind enough to come along as a one-man moving crew and he kept Sarah company by weaving belts, reading The Hobbit, sleeping and listening to The Hunger Games while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (minus CD 9) kept me company.

Our first day covered roughly 616 miles where we slept in Limon, Colorado.  If you've never heard of it, that's probably because the only people who stop there to stay are truckers (hence the overpriced hotels and multiple gas stations with a few restaurants and not much else).  So, we got ourselves one of the cheaper overpriced hotels and had dinner at Denny's before heading to bed.

  

Since I'm kind of a nerd (I'm getting a PhD in accounting) and I like to save money (I'm getting a PhD in accounting) and I'm curious (I'm getting a PhD in accounting) as well as weird (I'm getting a PhD in accounting), I calculated our miles per gallon throughout the trip and seemed to find that we got the best gas mileage when I was going about 60 mph.  Because I figured it would be worth it to drive a little slower and save the money, we drove about that speed for the majority of the trip.  And because calculating my own mpg on the receipt wasn't enough, I created a spreadsheet after we got here to analyze our fuel efficiency.

The highlights from the spreadsheet:

Total miles: 1,220.8

Total gallons of gas: 141.524 

(25.442* for Sarah's car and 116.082 for the truck)

*We didn't fill Sarah's car up before taking back the truck so her mpg numbers don't include the last 34 miles.

Average MPG: 10.5 (Truck), 46.6 (Sarah's car)

Max MPG: 48.2 (Sarah's car)

Min MPG: 9.2 (Truck)

Truck Rental: $770.91

Gas cost: $539.85

($121.91 for Sarah's car and $417.94 for the truck)

Hotel cost: $185.73 (One night in Limon, Colorado and one night in Moore, Oklahoma)

Total Cost: $1,496.49

I'm sure that's more than any of you cared to know.

Anyway, we made it to Norman in just over two days and with Brad's help got unloaded quickly. To see the inside of the apartment, you'll have to check back soon. 

  

  

 

  

 

 

 Thanks again for all your help, Brad!

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