Driving Us Crazy

The song "This is the Stuff" by Francesca Battistelli has been our theme song for the last week.  If you aren't familiar with the song, here are the first few lines:

I lost my keys in the great unknown
And call me please 'Cuz I can't find my phone

This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff that's getting to me lately


Micah and I had a week of mishaps after moving into a new rental house last Saturday.  We knew it was going to be stressful and exhausting as moving always is, but we didn't count on having so many problems.

On Sunday night I decided to cook again since we had been spending a lot of money on take-out with the move.  We decided to make quesadillas, which fortunately can also be made in a microwave, because we quickly found out that the stove didn't work.  The landlord came over the next day and determined that they had plugged the stove into the wrong outlet so it wasn't getting enough voltage, so it now works.

On Monday evening Micah decided to try to raise the shower rod while taking a shower.  Usually shower rods are easy to move, but this one snapped in half!  Since I take a shower in the morning and the other shower did not yet have a rod, this mishap resulted in a late night trip to Target for a replacement rod.

On Tuesday we went back to the old house to load up a trailer with more of our stuff and to start cleaning the house.  We left the old house around 9:00 pm and Micah drove his motorcycle to the new house and I drove the car pulling the trailer.  I do not know how to back up a trailer, so when I got to the new house Micah ran out and hopped in the driver's seat.  I brought my purse into the house and came back out to direct Micah.  When we tried to bring a load of stuff into the house, though, we realized the house was locked and we didn't have the house keys or our phones!  The front door has two doors and one is a self-locking security door.  You can flip a switch so it doesn't automatically lock, which I thought Micah had done when he ran out to back up the trailer, but he actually just propped the door open which I didn't realize in the dark.  Fortunately, I have been to our landlord's house so we decided our best option was to knock on their door and ask to borrow a key.  By the time we got to their house it was 9:45 pm, and all of their lights were out.  I felt horrible waking them up, but we didn't have any other option!  We finally got home a little after 10 pm to unload the trailer.

On Wednesday morning one of the toilets clogged.  When this happened in our old house, we let the toilet sit for several hours and then we could usually flush it without a problem.  When Micah came home from work he flushed the toilet, and the water rose higher and higher until it started pouring out all over the floor!  I ran around getting towels and buckets, and we finally propped up the bar in the back of the toilet with a ruler to make the running water stop.  Our plunger was still at the old house so we went back to finish cleaning and get our last trailer full of items.  Micah tried to plunge the toilet when we got home without success.  This resulted in an embarrassing phone call to the landlord Thursday morning explaining what happened.  They were able to fix the clog but we are a little weary of using the toilet.

Thursday and Friday were without mishap, mostly because we were off having fun running and climbing instead of doing stuff around the house.  We thought this meant that our mishaps were behind us...

On Saturday we decided to go to Lowe's to get items we need for the house and make copies of our keys to hide outside so we don't get locked out again.  After we went out to the car we remembered we wanted to bring the old bread maker along to donate if we saw a drop-off place.  Micah went back in the house and grabbed the bread maker and tried to lock the inside front door but realized he needed both hands to lock the bolt.  He set the bread maker down and by the time he turned around the self-locking door had slammed shut with the house key and car key inside!  This time we at least had my cell phone, so we were able to call our landlord and ask them to bring over the key.  We are lucky they are really understanding and gracious people!  The irony of it was that we were really on our way to make copies of the keys!

All week I have had Francesca Battistelli's song in my head since our mishaps would be nice additions to her lyrics.  But I have to pause and remember the rest of the chorus:


In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use


She is right.  Although we had a very frustrating week, we are VERY blessed as these mishaps are minor in the grand scheme of life.

Moving AGAIN!

Yes, that's right, for the THIRD time since we moved to ABQ less than six months ago we are moving.  Our current lease is up at the end of April and we had the option to continue month to month, but we were motivated to find a less expensive house closer to the mountains and we succeeded!  Originally we thought we would want to live in Nob Hill in ABQ, which is an older neighborhood with a newly revitalized shopping and restaurant area, but we quickly discovered it is not really our style.  We like to get outside and go for runs and hikes or go climbing, not stroll down a street poking in random stores.  Luckily, we did not have the funds to buy right away so we've been renting, otherwise we would be stuck in Nob Hill!

My commute will go from 7 minutes to 25 minutes, but I do believe it will be worth it.  The new rental has the same number of rooms as this house (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms), although the rooms are slightly smaller, but well worth the location and savings.  We are mostly excited for the background as it has a great patio for grilling, right off of the kitchen, and beautiful views of the city below.

At first I was dreading the thought of moving again, and then I remembered how much I LOVE to get rid of things and get organized.  Yesterday we received our copy of the fully executed lease and today I began going through our closets to prepare for the move!  We will have a two week overlap between houses, so I probably don't need to prepare this much, but I just love to fill up bags for Goodwill.  Even though we went through this routine last summer when we moved from Colorado, we have already managed to fill up 6 bags with stuff we don't really need!  Understandably, Micah gets a bit nervous when I start looking through his things....

It's funny that we were so ready to get into a routine when we moved to ABQ, but now I feel exhilarated by this upcoming change.

Lizard

I am not a fan of reptiles, but as long as they are small they usually don't bother me much....until today. This morning Micah and I went climbing outside. At the start of my second climb I noticed two lizards on the wall right in my path. I flicked the rope at them to try to get them to move and I accidentally hit one of the lizards with the rope. I was SHOCKED that the lizard's tail came off and jumped around on the ground for awhile! Meanwhile, the lizards, one of them with only a tail stump left, did not move out of the way and I was too freaked out to climb (do lizards bite!?)! It turns out that lizards actually release their tails as a defense mechanism, but I felt so bad that I had knocked his tail off. Guess I have a lot to learn about desert creatures!

Here is a video I found on You Tube - pretty creapy...

It's beginning to feel a lot like....SUMMER!

Technically it is not even spring until Sunday, but it feels like summer in ABQ!  The ABQ forecast shows mid to high 70's for the rest of the week and I am thinking I will need to invest in many more short sleeve shirts for work as I will definitely be tired of the ones I have by next October.  At work women have been wearing skirts, dresses and sandals and I am about ready to join in.  After all, my office gets quite hot in the afternoon with the sun beating in through my window.  I honestly have to keep reminding myself that it is only March as it feels like May!

Beautiful! 

Wed
Mar 16

Sunny

78°
45°

0%

0%

Windy Driving Tips

Thu
Mar 17

Mostly Sunny

78°
48°

0%

0%

Fri
Mar 18

Mostly Sunny

75°
45°

10%

10%

Sat
Mar 19

Mostly Sunny

75°
46°

10%

10%

I know I shouldn't brag as I realize my Michigan friends and relatives are very tired of winter, but I guess I couldn't help myself ;).

February

February has been an extremely fun and busy month for us.  This morning was the first time in at least a month that I have been able to really take advantage of sleeping in (granted I only slept until 8:30 but it felt awesome!).  I am not complaining, though, as we have been having a lot of fun with new activities and hanging out with friends - both new and old.

The first weekend of February we went ice climbing in Ouray, CO.  Micah has every other Friday off which is great, but it also means he wants to do fun things on those Fridays so I have been taking days off of work as well (I'm hoping to get on the same schedule in April but we'll see).  We left Thursday evening after work and drove 3 hours to Durango, CO to spend the night.  On Friday morning we drove about 1.5 hours into the mountains to Ouray for our first day of ice climbing.  Although Micah ice climbed years ago, he had never been to Ouray.  We spent Friday and Saturday in the ice park (in the area called the School Room which is great for beginners).  I'm not sure I was completely sold on the sport, but we had a fun weekend nevertheless.

Here I am on the ice

The next Saturday we went to a rock climbing area called the Enchanted Tower, which is about 2.5 hours southwest of ABQ, with our friends Dan and Val and their two young sons.  We had a great day of climbing on the Mother Goose wall as there were at least 15 "easier" climbs close together and between the four of us we did every climb.  I have been leading in the gym since December, but this was the first time I actually led outside!

Getting ready to climb.  Auggie, Val, me and Micah with Eland.

On Sunday of that same weekend our friends Katie and Ryan came for a short visit.  They arrived Sunday evening, I took Monday off to hang out with them and show them ABQ, and they left early Tuesday morning.  Although I had seen them during my visit to MI in January, Micah had not seen them since we were in Calcutta, India in October!  It was so great to see Katie and Ryan again.  I really miss living close to them in CO!

We didn't take any pictures during the weekend, but this is the four of us at our favorite restaurant in Varanasi, India.

The following weekend we decided to head back to the Enchanted Tower climbing area as there are many more walls to explore in that area.  Micah and I drove down by ourselves Saturday morning and met up with Dan and Val and their boys.  Although the weather was not as great as the weekend before since it was colder and much windier, we still managed to get in some great climbs.

Dan took some great photos of us climbing! Here is an action shot of Micah going for his next clip.

Saturday evening our friends Travis and Amy and their 7 week old son Wyatt arrived for a short visit.  Travis competed in a race on Mt. Taylor Saturday morning, which is about 1.5 hours west of ABQ.  We were thrilled to see them and meet their new baby - so small and precious!  On Sunday we went out to breakfast at the Flying Star in Nob Hill and then went for a two hour hike in the Sandias.  Amazingly, Wyatt slept the whole hike!  After grabbing a late lunch, Travis, Amy and Wyatt left for Taos so they did not have to do the whole drive in one day.  It was so great to see them again!

Amy, Travis and Wyatt during the hike.

And now it is the last weekend of February and I have decided to take it easy.  Although the month has been full of fun, the laundry needs to be done, the house needs to be cleaned, the taxes need to be completed and I should really get a haircut as it has been six months since my last cut!  Micah is climbing with a new climbing partner today (they met through a mutual friend) and I am enjoying a quiet house to myself.  I think Sienna, our cat, is enjoying my being home today too as she has not seen us much this month!

The Church Search

For the last four months Micah and I have been on a wild church search in ABQ.  Admittedly, we have not  gone to church every week since it has proved to be a daunting and exhausting task, but regardless we have been to many, many churches in ABQ.  I hesitated about writing this post as I did not want to offend anyone and I fully understand that different denominations and worship styles exist to fit a variety of people.  I will not go into detail of every church we went to, but here are some highlights:

• Micah and I are accustomed to large churches since the church our parents attend is quite big, but we tried out one church that actually had a campus!  There were different buildings and a stretch golf cart to pick you up from your car and bring you to the building.  That was just too big... 

• We decided to try a mid-sized, more established church.  At one time this church was probably thriving but we quickly realized that the church had not had any new members in years!  We were the youngest people at the service by at least 20 years, the sanctuary was mostly empty and we stuck out like a sore thumb.  On top of that, there was a male soloist that had a very different singing style than we are used to.  Luckily, Micah and I did not realize during the song that we were both trying to hold back the giggles because otherwise I'm sure we would have both lost it right then and there...

• I am a Starbucks addict, so one week we stopped for a grande chai on our way to church as it was on the other side of town.  On our way into the sanctuary I noticed the church had its own coffee shop so I was completely caught off guard when an usher stopped me on the way in and told me I could not take my chai into the sanctuary.  She said security might "tackle me" if I brought it in there.  What?!?  I was so taken aback, and pretty upset that I would have to toss my drink, that I tried to convince Micah that we should just leave.  He wanted to stay since we drove all the way there so we chugged the chai and went inside.  Needless to say, we did not feel very welcome at that church....

• We did a lot of online research before going to any of these churches so when we went to a church where people were literally dancing down the aisles and twirling flags during the worship I was pretty surprised.  About 5 minutes into the worship I turned to Micah and said, "I don't feel very comfortable here" and he responded with, "Really, why?"  I thought I must be going crazy!  I guess he appreciated the open worship style, but really, we would NEVER fit in!  That is just not us...

• We heard that Fernando Ortega was the worship leader at a local Anglican church so we decided to give that a try.  I guess we didn't realize how different Anglican is from Reformed or Presbyterian (the denominations we are accustomed to) as we were surprised to see white robes and the lengthy bulletin with directions of what to say when, and when to sit and stand.  We stayed through the sermon but we definitely snuck out early as this was not the church for us...

Luckily, we have not had bad experiences at all of the churches and we have now narrowed our search down to our top two choices.   Surprisingly, these two churches are very different from each other as one has about 80 people attending each week and the other has thousands, but we will attend both over the next few months to decide which one is better for us right now.  We are both glad that this church search is coming to an end, although we will miss getting free coffee mugs, bread and other random gifts every week :).

Renting is Amazing

Exactly four years ago Micah and I were putting an offer on our first house.  Since I had been working a whole six months I thought we were in a great position to buy a house, so I convinced Micah that life would be so much better once we were homeowners.  I will never forget Valentine's Day in 2007 as that is the day we had our home inspection.  There was virtually nothing wrong with the house since it had been built in 2005, which was a relief to us as buyers.  And best of all, the home inspector had a gift card to Pappadeaux's restaurant that he planned to give to one of his client's that day since it was Valentine's, and he chose us!  We did not have Valentine's Day plans since we felt broke as we were buying a house, plus I was in the midst of my first busy season as an auditor and wouldn't be home until at least 10:00 pm, so we were excited for the gift!  Although we mostly feel that buying the house was the right decision as we enjoyed being homeowners and we felt really comfortable in our house, we also think back to what we should have done differently as we bought right before the housing market tanked and we did 100% financing (probably not the best decision!).  We were VERY fortunate to sell our house this summer right before we moved to ABQ, and thankfully we didn't lose too much money.

Ironically, four years later we are glad to be renters again.  It is nice to not feel tied down to one spot with a house.  We are really taking our time figuring out where we want to live, how much we want to put down and how much we want to borrow. Recently we have been listening to the Dave Ramsey series and he is changing our perspective on our financial priorities.  It is crazy how most of us fall into the trap in our early 20's, when we have our first full-time jobs, that we have to buy a house.  We feel like everyone else is taking out a huge mortgage and not worrying about the payments they will be making for the next 30 years so why should we give it a second thought?  With selling our house and being renters again, we feel we have been given a second chance and we are really enjoying it.

Not only is it liberating to not have a mortgage, but this house we are currently renting is quite old (built in the 40's I think), and there have been quite a few problems.  For example, I cannot have the hairdryer on if the kitchen and hallway lights are on or the fuse will blow.  Micah cannot print from his computer while I am vacuuming or the fuse will blow.  While we were gone last weekend the water meter froze so none of the faucets worked.  Most recently, the heater in the back of the house went out and it is currently pretty cold in the house.

Here is a pic of our heater.  Most of you have probably never seen anything like this as I know I didn't until we moved here!  There is one in the hallway and one in the living room.  Not the best for heating the bedrooms!

These are all pretty major problems, but let me tell you, we are not one bit stressed over them as they are not our problem!  We can deal with the inconveniences just fine, we just don't want to pay for them and we don't have to :).  Luckily, our landlord is very responsive and he is currently working on the electrical and heat.  He lives across the street so he checked on the house this weekend and determined the water meter was frozen, and he took care of it.  Lovely - no worries for us!

Of course, we will buy again someday as it is a great investment if one is smart about it.  But in the meantime, renting is amazing!