Baby Campbell, New Job, Moving (Again)!

This summer has been full of change!  In May, Ryan graduated.  In June, we moved back to Austin.  At the end of June, we took this!

 

Ryan photoshopped it with the due date, framed it and gave it to
his parents and sisters to announce the baby when we were at Disney World.
 

I took the test the morning we were actually headed out to the temple and we couldn't have been more excited and grateful!  Yes it was planned, but it was still a surprise to see the positive test! We had an early ultrasound at 6 weeks and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time.  I had a 13 week visit last week with my new nurse midwife and got to hear the heartbeat again!  So we officially made the big announcement.

 Back to our life changes...In August Ryan got a job offer in San Antonio and we decided to move!  We had about two weeks to find an apartment and move again.  Can I just say I NEVER EVER want to go through a move and new job change while being pregnant? 

We had a terrible time trying to find a place to live.  It started out with a guy trying to scam us with a house for rent on Craigslist, followed by looking at several ghetto apartments.  We had originally wanted a two bedroom apartment or even better a duplex with a yard.  Apparently with our budget that was totally unrealistic.  Moving from Fayetteville (population 75,000) to the 7th LARGEST city in the U.S. I guess was kind of a shock as far as rent costs went.  Just within the city, SA has a population of 1.3 million. The greater SA metropolitan area has a population of  around 2.2 million.   

We decided to head over to the neighborhoods near the temple because the church doesn't build temples in bad areas.  Well no one had one bedroom apartments available and the 2 bedrooms(which were unavailable too) were all over $1200.  If I pay $1200 on anything it will be on a mortgage.  

We finally found a one bedroom apartment in a decent part of town about 20 minutes from Ryan's firm.  They had one unit left, so we took it.  It's small, most of my appliances have one problem or another, the maintenance has yet to come look at anything after four phone calls over a week, the water tastes terrible, and we're on the third floor.  

Moving was a headache as usual.  We had crickets in most of our boxes and I could not deal with dumping them out of my pots and pans.  I have never seen so many dead crickets! Ew! At least it wasn't rodents or roaches.  

Going back to the moving while pregnant, everything seemed tons worse than it really was and I have been way more emotional than circumstances have merited.  Yes our apartment isn't nearly nice as our townhouse in Fayetteville and we pay over a hundred dollars more here.  But this is where we're going to bring our baby home and where we'll spend the first six months of his/her little life.  So it's home for now and I know that once all the unpacking and decorating is done, things will get better.  And San Antonio is a pretty cool city that we get to explore.  We have been incredibly blessed with Ryan getting a new job and having a baby on the way.  And I have an amazing husband who copes with my random, frequent pregnant meltdowns and supports me 100%.

I'll put up pictures of the new place when we get settled in.  I'll be having an ultrasound in another 5-6 weeks(end of September/first part of October) and we should be able to find out if we're having a boy or girl, so stay tuned!

Fourth Wedding Anniversary

I realized the other day that I started this blog in 2009, almost a year after we'd been married.  So, I've decided in honor of our fourth wedding anniversary, I'm going to write about Ryan and I.  How we met, when we got married, and where we went on our honeymoon.  

I had just graduated high school and decided to attend Girls' Camp one last time, even though I thought I was too old.  I met a girl named Casey at camp who I quickly became friends with.  I was bemoaning the fact that all the boys I met seemed to be pre-mission and how I wanted to date a more "mature" boy.  She told me about this cute guy that lived in her neighborhood that had already come back from a mission.  We decided that we'd plan a group date so I could meet this mystery boy.  Perfect!  Well time came for our group date, only to discover Ryan had a girlfriend at the time.  So Casey quickly found me another friend to go with so I could still come.

When I got to Casey's house, they introduced me to my date and I thought "Ok, he's pretty cute.  This won't be so bad."  Unfortunately the boy I was busy looking at was not my date, it was Ryan.  My mistake was quickly corrected and we went on with our date.  Of course I was still checking Ryan out the entire night thinking of what could have been.

Fast forward to the end of the summer.  Ryan was now single and after what seemed like forever, he asked me out on a date to go to Austin Parks and Pizza with him.  We went on a bunch more dates, but the summer was ending.  I really liked him, a lot!  But I was going to school in Nebraska, and he was going back to school in Arkansas.  So we parted ways in August with the promise to keep in touch, but nothing more.

We kept talking and eventually, I convinced Ryan to come see me in Nebraska!  After that, we decided to officially have a relationship.  We eventually decided that I should transfer to Arkansas and in February, I got my transfer accepted.  I was moving to Arkansas!  Then in March 2008, I went to visit Ryan in Fayetteville for Spring Break. We went on a climbing and camping trip with some friends to the Buffalo River.  While we were caving in Copperhead Cave (well more like wading through a freezing underground river), Ryan took out a ring and proposed!

Immediately after getting out of the muddy cave.

We went back to the cave entrance and took "fake" proposal pictures.

One of our engagement pictures.

We were sealed in the San Antonio Temple on August 2, 2008.  It was also the hottest day of the entire summer!

Wedding Party

San Antonio Temple

Ring Ceremony & Reception

Adorable flower girls! Niece on the left, then two of my cousins, and my two little sisters

Ring bearers. Red head is my brother, tallest is Ryan's nephew, and the other little two are my cousins.

My amazing Granny made this dress! 

 Despite it being hot and some hiccups at the reception...such as my cake falling over... it was a great day!  Ryan and I headed down to the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin to start our honeymoon.  Then we headed to South Padre Island.

At the Driskill

Our "snorkeling trip" consisted of looking into cloudy water. 

We ate at some amazing restaurants, lounged on the beach, went para-sailing...

And my favorite... we went on a two hour pirate cruise on a pirate ship with a pirate crew and got pirate tattoos! 

We had a great honeymoon and it was awesome to be able to get away before school started again.  After we got back, we moved to Fayetteville, AR to begin our married life together.  And most of you know the rest.  

I can't believe we've been married for four years!  We've gone on all kinds of cool trips, moved a total of 1000 miles, driven way more than that in our little Pontiac, earned two bachelor's degrees, and are hopefully ready to jump start Ryan's career soon.

1st Anniversary- In Austin, TX. Went downtown to see the bats, had dessert,  saw a movie.

This is the only picture I have of us together on our 2nd Anniversary.
Ryan had just gotten back the day before from spending almost three months in Mexico
for an architecture trip.  We had a lovely dinner at Fonda San Miguel. We're at Rita's Italian Ice in Austin in this picture. Great Anniversary!

3rd Anniversary- Spent this one in Fayetteville.  Went to Turpentine Big Cat Refuge, swam
at Beaver Lake, and had a wonderful dinner at James at the Mill.

4th Anniversary- Again, back in Austin, TX!  Went back to Fonda San Miguel for dinner.

Thanks for reading my overly long anniversary post.  Just wait for what I'll write when we hit 10 years!