Sunday, September 20, 2009

House update!




It seems that we may actually get a house! We've got a closing date set for September 30th. All of the loan documents are in, and we're just waiting for the final "yes" so that we can move out of this apartment and into our new house! Woohoo!

Now that being said, I just want to encourage one and all to KEEP TRYING. Settina and I failed on getting 4 different houses...all of which accepted our offers before this one finally went through. It could still fail for all we know. In this housing market one just needs to keep going and trying! We're happy and nervous and excited all at once.

just testing something










Sunday, August 16, 2009

Church!

So today was our first Sunday here that wasn't stake conference. We both really liked the ward and made some friends already. The bishop told us, a direct quote,
-bishop "so did you have callings in your other ward?"
-us "nope"
-him "we'll definitely change that."
-1st counselor "we've been waiting for you....we just didn't know it was you we were waiting for!"

It's nice to feel wanted...lol. We also wrote down some addresses of possible houses and went on a drive. I think we might have actually crossed into Mexico by accident. It was a little scary, but we were able to quickly eliminate several houses from our shopping list.

Tomorrow I continue training, and Settina continues working. We'll also keep looking for houses I'm sure. Very exciting!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Just another day in paradise

Today was my first day as an "official" Ph.D. candidate. It's also our last day with Brigitte here. She leaves tomorrow. Settina is very sad to see her go. I'm sad that Settina will have to be alone during the day when I can't be here. The good news it that I'll only be at school from 9-6 throughout the next two weeks. Hopefully she can find a job within that time so she won't be at home all day anymore.

As for school....it's quite exciting. There's a lot to do and a lot of things that I have to learn and get accustomed to within the next few weeks. Everyone I talk to says that the first semester is the worst so if I can get through this semester.....I should be home free!

Out of all of the graduate students that ASU took on this year (42 new ones if I recall correctly), only 14 of us are North American. I'm hoping to get a chance to learn some Indian and some Chinese during my time in graduate school. That definitely wouldn't hurt my portfolio at all.

We're still waiting to hear back about the condo that we put an offer in on. The agent that listed it is on vacation (I guess they don't have a way of filling in for eachother?) and so we should hear back tomorrow. All in all....life is good! I'm nervous and Settina is sad, but tomorrow's another day!

Here are some pictures of the apartment:







Here is our dining room table













This is Settina's least favorite spot....the rust stained gross bath tub.














This is pretty much the whole apartment....except for the small kitchen and bathroom.














That's the welcome mat. It adds variety and color to the room.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Home is where the......heart is???

We officially arrived in Arizona on Friday night. We walked into the apartment manager's office, inspected our beautiful studio apartment, and signed the paperwork. Let me give you a picture of the apartment:
  • 480 total square feet
  • A queen air mattress for our bed
  • Two camp chairs for our front room furniture
  • Most importantly - A picture of us on the wall right when you walk inside

At least we'll have some motivation to find a house as quickly as possible! We actually submitted an offer on one today, and we'll see how that works out. In the mean time....life will go on. Settina has interviews all week for jobs and Brigitte is with us until Tuesday.

All in all....we're happy, excited, nervous, sad and MANY other emotions all at the same time. We'll miss our families....but we'll also establish our own.