I have been TERRIBLE
about keeping up with our blog the last few months. We have been busy,
busy, busy... I'll have to do a bit of catching-up in this post :)
We have been in Rexburg,
Idaho since January 5th. After both of us were accepted to attend
BYU-Idaho beginning winter 2013, we began looking for housing and sending in
applications. After about a month of absolutely no luck, I started to get
a little stressed. Most of the apartment complexes were full by the time
we were actually accepted. We were checking Craig’s list, the BYU-I
bulletin, and asking friends in Rexburg to keep an eye out for us. We
were on our knees in prayer all the time, trusting that the Lord would help us
find a place. We both knew we were supposed to be in Rexburg and that
everything would work out like it was supposed to, but it was still a little
stressful. We looked for months with no luck, and by the time Christmas
came around, we packed all our stuff and made arrangements to move to Idaho not
knowing where we were going to live. We were thinking we may have to camp
out in our car for a couple weeks until something turned up, or maybe find some
friends to stay with until we could secure a home. FINALLY, 5 days before
we were supposed to drive to Rexburg, we found out we had a basement apartment!
This news was seriously the most relieving news in the world. We
moved in the Saturday before classes started, and we got our moving truck with
all our belongings on the Monday that classes started. It was definitely
not ideal, but we were just happy to have a place to live! I was super
nervous about it, since we had never seen pictures of the apartment at all.
I was hoping it had enough room for us and that it would actually feel
like home. When we arrived, I was SO happy - it is the perfect place for
us! The living room and kitchen are so big for a basement apartment, and
there are two bedrooms, so we have an extra closet for storage and room to have
guests stay here. We knew that the Lord had His hand on this place for
us. We love our little home, especially
since it is our first one together :) I will post pictures soon.
When we applied to live
here, they said it was furnished, but when we got here there were couches, a
kitchen table with chairs, a computer desk, and dressers. No bed.
For the first month living here, we were on our air mattress.
Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but I still couldn't
complain because we had a roof over our head! We visited the mattress
outlet in town and bought a mattress and box spring, and I was extremely
excited to finally pull out our new sheets and beautiful quilt we got from the
wedding. Grant is going to build a bed frame for us this summer, which he
is super excited about.
Grant and I had 4
classes together during winter semester, which made transitioning so easy. We got to spend a lot of time together that
way, and we saved lots of money on books because we were able to share for the
classes we had together. The semester
just ended a couple weeks ago, and Grant and I both did really well. He ended with a 3.9 and I got a 4.0. Definitely a good first semester in Idaho!
Grant was officially accepted into the Business Management program after
passing his presentation with the board.
He had to complete a portfolio, which was about 15 pages long, and
present to the board, consisting of members of the Business department. He has decided that he wants to be a financial
advisor, which is perfect since he is a business management major with an
emphasis in finance. He has already had
someone contact him about doing an internship with their company. That is really exciting after just being here
for a few months! He is applying to do
fast grad, which allows him to go to school all three semesters to finish
faster. He really loves finance, and it
is fun to see him so excited about his career plans. He reads finance books like you wouldn’t
believe and is really good about helping us be smart with our finances and
budgeting. I am so blessed to have him!
Both of us had been
looking for jobs since before we moved here, but it is SUPER hard to find jobs
in Rexburg. I got really lucky when I
walked into Da Pineapple Grill, a Hawaiian/Asian restaurant here in town with a
sushi bar, to turn in an application at the end of January. The owner interviewed and hired me on the
spot. I have been working there as a
waitress and sushi roller since February 1st. I really love it, and it is certainly nice to
work in a place that feels like home to me.
The comfort food isn’t bad either ;)
Grant applied at literally 20 places since we have been here and just
started last week with a property care company.
He has been donating plasma for a couple months to bring in some extra
money.
Grant and I love our
ward here, although we only have a few couples that we actually know well. We like being in a married student ward a lot
more than being in a family ward. There
are a handful of babies and kids in the ward, so I do get a little baby-fill on
Sundays. I have two callings in the ward
– ward music chair assistant and activities committee member. Grant doesn’t have a calling yet, but I keep
telling him that Heavenly Father is giving him a break before he is called as the
Bishop ;) We were also called to work in
the temple, which we had wanted to do for a while. We have been working in the baptistry every
other Saturday for two months. It is so
wonderful to get to the temple even more than we usually do.
Now that we are both
off-track, we will just be working. We
have quite a busy summer ahead of us, with a few weddings, a baptism, and a
niece on the way. We are looking forward
to having visitors this summer as well. Grant’s youngest sister, Carly, and my
little sister, Serafina, are coming in August to attend EFY here at BYU-I. My mom is driving them down and bringing my
little brothers the week before to visit, and then Grant’s mom is coming down
to pick the girls up and drive them back home.
We have not done a whole lot of activities here yet, so we are excited
to have them come and join us in exploring Rexburg :)
