we moved!

This is apparently the year for announcements!  First, we announce we are having a baby...now we announce that we've moved!  As of last Wednesday, we now live in Plano, Texas.

I think most people who read this already knew that we were moving, but many of you might not have heard why we moved or how the move went.  We figure it's time to give the full story. :)

The Explanation
Let's just start by saying that God works in awesome ways.  We had been praying for years that Nathan would be able to find a job in his field (orthopedic engineering) that would be within a day's drive of both of our families.  That's a pretty tall order, especially considering that orthopedic engineering jobs aren't that common in this area of the country. 

About a month and a half ago, Nathan got a call saying that he had a phone interview that day with a company that he'd been interested in for quite some time.  In fact, he'd actually done two previous phone interviews with them in the preceding years, but the jobs never worked out.  As you can imagine, the interview went great (despite prepping for an interview with a different company and thinking the interview was two hours later, thanks to some bad recruiter information) and ended with an invitation for him to come to Dallas and interview in person with the company two weeks later.

Nathan worked hard preparing for the interview - he had to put together a 20 minute technical presentation as well as do the usual research on the company that one does before interviews.  In Dallas, he did his presentation followed by a full day of interviews - the day ended with a verbal job offer! 

Ironically, the day got even more exciting, as he got stuck in the Dallas airport because of a storm.  His luggage ended up in Denver on an airline he never had a ticket for, and he had to take a cab home because Kristin's car broke down. So he made it home around 4:30am.

A week later, he got the official written job offer, and at that point we called our families to tell them the good news.  Our prayers had finally been answered...we were moving to Texas!  The crazy part was, we had just 3 weeks to move!

It's amazing how all of the details worked out.  We found an apartment online that "looked good" and decided to go with it.  Kristin got all of her health insurance for prenatal care worked out and ended up finding an amazing clinic here in the Dallas area through a referral from someone we've never met.  We managed to pack everything up AND say goodbye to most of our friends without losing too much sleep.  And, fortunately, our fathers blessed us by coming up to Sacramento and helping us get moved to Plano.

The Move
We had planned on doing the move in two parts. 

• Part 1 - Nathan and his dad would load everything into a stock trailer and leave Sacramento on late Monday afternoon (the 17th).  They would drive straight to Dallas with minimal stops and arrive at our apartment by Wednesday morning (the 19th).  
• Part 2 - Kristin and her dad would leave Sacramento early Monday morning.  They would stay in hotels each evening and make frequent stops since Kristin has to go to the bathroom more often than usual now.  They (optimistically) planned to make it to Gallup, New Mexico by Monday night, Dallas by Tuesday night, and then they could check into the apartment and prepare it for Nathan and his dad.

Things never go according to plan!  Instead, we all left on Sunday afternoon and made it to Bakersfield, CA by that evening.  After spending the night in a hotel, we once again left separately.  Kristin and her dad took their time and made it to Albuquerque that night.  Nathan and his dad hurried, locked the keys in the car at a rest stop, waited an hour to get the car unlocked, and then ended up spending the night at Albuquerque as well.  :) We once again left separately on Tuesday morning, and all made it to Plano within a 2 hour span.  Unfortunately, we arrived an hour after the apartment office closed, so we had to spend the night in a hotel once again.  We checked into the apartment complex on Wednesday morning and had everything unloaded by lunch time!

The first thing to enter our new apartment - a pumpkin!  Kristin drove into California six years ago with a pumpkin in her car, so she decided that it was only appropriate to drive out of California with a pumpkin in her car.  It's now decorating our mantle.

Life in Plano (so far)
We've finally gotten our apartment in functioning order.  The place is nice with the only downside being the extremely small kitchen (Kristin had to repack some of her kitchen boxes because there wasn't enough cabinet space to hold her stuff!).  We managed to get our driver's licenses and car registrations, although it took several days.  Apparently the process isn't any easier in Texas than it is in California...we spent 2 1/2 hours waiting at the DMV and had to get Nathan's car inspected twice (with an additional 300 miles of driving after the first inspection to get the check engine system to reset).  It was an adventure!

Some fun things about where we live...

• There's a llama farm just down the street!  It's random but very fun.
• We can now shop at Hobby Lobby and eat at places like the Black Eyed Pea.  Chick-fil-A is right down the street!  So far, we're still learning our way around, but we figured out how to get to and from Wal-Mart the first day.
• We're within easy driving distance of at least 4 shopping malls, including the Dallas Galleria.
• Nathan's commute is still just about 25 minutes, and none of it is on a freeway.
• Nathan loved his first week of work.  He got cookies/brownies/cake/ice cream 4 days this week, free lunch 2 days this week, and went to work dressed up like a zombie today.  If he puts on a few pounds over the next few months, don't blame it on Kristin being pregnant.

What's next?  We're going to start house hunting soon (and have no idea what we're doing!).  If you have any tips on how to pick a mortgage banker, let us know.  We'd also love prayers as we look for a church community to get plugged into.  Kristin's main goal is to make some friends - it's getting a little lonely now that Nathan is going to work all day!

Before we left California, we made a "bucket list" of all of the things we wanted to do before we left.  Over the next few weeks, we plan on putting those pictures on here alongside our latest adventures in Texas.  Until then, see y'all later!