Two weeks in New Mexico

We've been in New Mexico two weeks now. We're finally all unpacked and "settled in." We took  all of our boxes to the recycling bin last night and feel very much less cluttered now. The weather has been decent, but very windy and it snowed (a light dusting) last night. Ryan's been hard at work visiting the branches, answering emails and getting things done. He's been without a laptop, which hopefully he'll have Tuesday, so he hasn't been able to do his full work, but has been getting by from his phone. His new schedule is great. He just mosies out the door in the morning when he pleases. He doesn't have an office and does most stuff from his phone. His schedule is super flexible so he can meet me for appointments during the day if necessary and come home early, which I'm not used to.  Since his boss is in Colorado, he really doesn't have anyone to report to, which is nice. Since we have no friends here we just hang out together and that's been great. This weekend we've been married 5 1/2 years. So very lucky to have him! I started looking for a job this week. Now that we're all unpacked I'm super bored. There's not much to do with 3 cats.

Moves are stressful (I pulled out a gray hair this morning) and expensive. There are so many little things we had and still have to do that I didn't even realize. We still don't have any mail, I guess it takes 7-10 business days to forward. Registering our car has been a huge headache. I don't even want to think about getting a new driver's license when mine expires next month.

Went grocery shopping at Albertson's, which was a breath of fresh air. Wal-Mart is closer, but I hate shopping at Wal-Mart and now I'm so glad I don't have to go there every week for groceries.

Before we left Utah we got to see a lot of our friends and family and say goodbye. I was doing ok until I walked into my parent's house and my mom started crying. My sister is now the only sibling living in Utah still. We got together with friends Saturday morning for breakfast then went back to our place to clean. My mom, sister and Ryan's brother Devin came and helped. We went to lunch afterwards then to my parent's with Syd to spend one last evening with them.

Dinner with our YW

Breakfast with friends from the ward

Goodbye to Syd

My parents 

 

Peggy &

Paul (our gamers)

"my dog" lucky

Ryan helping with cleaning our empty home after the movers came

This was our trial run with the cats. We had them in their carriers when the movers came and when the carpet was getting cleaned. They did great and we made sure they could see each other. HAHA

This is where they hid while we were cleaning

Lunch with my sister, Toni

The drive...

The cats did great. They cried until about Spanish Fork canyon, then only for a few minutes at a time every hour or so after that. Once it got dark we didn't hear from them until we got to our hotel. Our vet  suggested we use Children's benadryl to "knock them out." We tried it a few days before but they just spit it up and it ended up foaming out of their mouths, so we opted not to use it, and they did great!

We stayed at La Quinta Inn with our cats for 4 nights before our stuff got to our house. Thanks to my sister's recommendation. The cats loved it and really lounged around, like they knew they were on vacation. They were in heaven. 

We found out they have a Rudy's BBQ here. Of course we went! If you've ever lived in Texas you know how good this place is.

We also tried another recommendation, Quarters BBQ. Yummy as well.

While exploring our city Ryan stumbled upon this and took me later to show me. That's a rattlesnake folks, made of stone, in the middle of the road. Crazy. It was huge, and rather creepy.

Wal-Mart. Packed. That's the checkout line. That day, swore I'd never go back.

First home-made meal in our new house. After eating out for nearly 12 days straight. Yuck.

The cats love our new place. They like to lay upstairs in the sun.

We're enjoying it here so far. Our neighborhood is quiet, and our ward seems great.  We'll keep you updated.

Lady A Concert

Ryan surprised me with tickets to the sold out Lady A Concert for Valentine's. We took his sister and her friend as well, this was her first concert. Ryan's such a good sport for coming because he doesn't like country music. Thompson Square and Darius Rucker performed as well. I saw Thompson Square over the summer here too. They all put on a great concert. Darius Rucker sounds really good live, his voice is amazing. Lady A had just won some Grammy's the Sunday before too. I love their music.

New Mexico Visit

We flew to Albuquerque on Feb 9th.

(love his face)

(rio grande)

Once we landed we visited a property management company that we had been in communication with and went to see a house we saw online. It was right on the golf course and we loved it. We weren't sure about the pet policy and the property manager said she would check with the owner and get back with us. We looked at 14 houses in 2 days. The last 3 houses we looked at on Friday we loved. We still hadn't heard back on the first house, but we had to make a choice, so we chose another one we loved just as much. We submitted the application and deposit and turned in all the paperwork we could while we were there.

(our house)

On Saturday we spent the day driving around to each of Ryan's branches. We also drove up to Santa Fe, Espanola, and Taos.



When we got to the airport on Sunday the flight was overbooked. We had the chance to take a voucher but I just wanted to go home. After waiting a few minutes I decided it would be ok to take another flight but it was too late. Oh well.

We got some great recommendations from friends about places to eat. We had some very good food. The city has wonderful food. We're excited about that. We ate at Garcia's Kitchen, Standard Diner (Food Network), Blake's Lotaburger and Dion's.

(squash with quinoa)

Funny note: there are so many Walgreens and CVS there. Literally they are both at every intersection. I wonder if people use it to grocery shop.

(cute little houses)

We really enjoyed our time there. It was sunny and warm and we got to drive around and see a lot of the state. The temple is beautiful.

We had heard Rio Rancho was a nice city so originally we looked there for a house, but we found that it was so far away from everything. Once we started looking in Albuquerque we found our home, so I'm glad we did some more searching. Albuquerque is basically split into quadrants. NW, NE, SW, SE. I-25 runs North and South and I-40 runs East and West.

Albuquerque is one of the oldest cities in America. Land wise, Albuquerque is a little bigger than SLC and has about 1200 more people. It's definitely a desert, most people have no grass, just rocks or dirt. The homes and neighborhoods remind me a little of Las Vegas or St George. All the houses are neutral colors and they're all stucco. No brick or siding anywhere. Albuquerque has a higher elevation than SLC so even though it's farther South, it still get's snow. They had to de-ice our airplane Sunday before we left because it was starting to snow.

We only saw one LDS Chapel as we were driving around but that's only because we knew where it was. Our chapel is just a few blocks from our home. There are only about 11 chapels in the whole city. VERY different from Utah. Lots of work to be done!

*We arrived in ABQ last night. I have lots more to post soon*