Our new apartment

Here are some pictures of our new place.  We put up some new artwork and got new bedroom furniture!  Still working on my bedroom, so not posting any pictures of it yet.

View from the front door of our living room. Finally hung up the mask
that Ryan got in Rwanda last year. And got a new lamp for the end table since our
other two broke. I love Kirkland's!

Other view of living room. Finally framed some Mexican art from
Ryan's trip back in 2010. That's above the TV.

Here's a close up of the new art above the TV.

A lot of these are cave paintings from across Mexico and South America.
The black on the middle left kind of scares me! But they're pretty cool. And
I was really happy I found a 16x20 floating frame for $20 at Garden Ridge! Even cheaper
than making my own!

What will eventually be the dining room (comes off the side of the living room) once I get a table.
 Right now it's kind of Blanca's room.

Not a common sight! Yes, Ryan is cooking in the kitchen!  He was making salsa.

Again, Ryan was cooking, so it was a little messy.

The bathroom.  You can't see it but there's a purple shower rug.
Love my new shower curtain!

The new bed we got from IKEA. This is just the picture from their website since my room is a mess.

And this is our new dresser. Again from the IKEA website.  We actually got 2 of the
three drawer dressers and just stuck them next to each other.

And that's our apartment.  Smallest place we've ever lived at, but I'm liking it ALOT better now that things are organized and hung up on walls, etc.  Now just need to tackle organizing/decorating the bedroom!  We also have a little balcony that we will eventually get some chairs and a little table for.

Tomorrow is our first 2nd trimester ultrasound, so stay tuned for news if this baby is a boy or a girl!


*Update: We finally got a table this month! (October)

Awesome Craigslist steal at $65! The girl I bought it from had also bought it
from Craigslist, so it's kind of a "hand-me-down-hand-me-down"! But it works!

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!

Disney World 2012

Remember my Christmas post about getting to go to Disney World? Well our trip finally came! We left last Sunday at 4am for the airport.  That is right 4am...my in-laws apparently like early flights because we are ALWAYS at the airport before 6am it seems like.  But that is okay, because we were on our way to Disney World!  We got to Saratoga Springs Resort mid afternoon where the rest of the family was relaxing in our amazing villa.  My one sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and little nephew could not make it, but their two oldest were able to come along with Ryan's other sister, husband, and two kids.  

After settling in we headed to the Contemporary Resort outside of the Magic Kingdom for dinner at Chef Mickey's.

Laura(niece 21 yrs old), Zach (nephew 16), Mom, Dad, Andrea(sister-in-law),
Will(nephew 18), Bruce(brother -in-law), Me, Ry, Mickey Mouse, & Lexi(niece 8)

Then we headed to Magic Kingdom!

 Can you guess the first ride I dragged the entire family on??? Yep, Pirates of the Caribbean, featuring Captain Jack Sparrow. So much fun! I even got a pirate medallion.

The first Jack Sparrow we saw looked so
real Ryan kept insisting it was an actor!

The second day we went to Hollywood Studios and guess what? It poured the entire day! We all had to get overpriced Disney ponchos.  I did not take too many pictures there because I did not want my phone to get ruined.  My favorite thing by far here was Fantasmic which is an amazing fireworks/light show.

Getting ready to watch the Muppets! And get out of the rain.

The third day we went to Epcot.  And it rained some more.  Ryan and I were the only smart ones and had our ponchos with us.  I enjoyed this park a lot more that I did when I was little, but my feet were hurting so badly I got tired of walking around everywhere anyway.  My favorite things here were Soarin' & the Finding Nemo ride.  Our little niece Lexi loved this ride so much!  She rode it twice and could not stop talking about it and bouncing up and down!  I was kind of the same way...

I love my sister-in-law & niece!

I think Ryan was trying to hold the ball up?

The fourth day I was just about dead.  It was also so much hotter and sunnier than it had been when it was raining. We went to Animal Kingdom early and everyone did Everest and the Safari Ride.

Have to love Ryan's face in this picture!

The jeep had to stop for giraffes in the middle of the road.

The Animal Kingdom was pretty neat and I liked how they had it themed by regions.  The Festival of the Lion King show was awesome and amazing!  Loved it!  I was really excited to go to the Finding Nemo musical, and while it was really cute, the songs were a little cheesy.  Oh well.  It was 40 minutes of sitting in a blissfully cold, dark theater.  We left late afternoon and then hit up Downtown Disney and ate at a good Irish place complete with Irish dancers and band.

This picture was not taken at the Animal Kingdom.  It was outside our room!  Maybe it is not a big deal to anyone that lives in Florida, Louisiana, or a swamp, but come on, we only have rattle snakes and cactus in Austin!

Ryan said it was easily five feet long.  But don't worry.  The resort says
they move them once they get to be about six feet.

I guess boys will be boys.  What do we do when there's a gator  next to
the sidewalk?  Run down to the water and take pictures of course!
*No animals (or humans) were harmed or injured in the making of this picture.*

The fifth day we went to Blizzard Beach.  I have no pictures as of yet because I did not bring my phone with me, but my niece should have some for me later.  While the water park was refreshing and relaxing, it was not very big and paled a little in comparison with Schlitterbahn.  But it was still fun, even though we all got sunburned.  Later that evening we headed back to the Contemporary Resort for a nice dinner at the California Grill.  The food was so good at this place!  Highly recommend it to anyone going to Disney World.  Hopefully you have a dining plan like we did because otherwise it is REALLY expensive.  We also got to watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom out on a private balcony.  The restaurant was up on the 15th floor of the hotel.  Awesomely magical fireworks show!  I felt like a was five years old.

Our sixth day saw us back at the Magic Kingdom.  We ate breakfast up in Cinderalla's Castle and it was so cool!  

We got to take a picture with Cinderella before breakfast.

My little niece's favorite princess is Jasmine, but I guess they do not allow minorities at Cinderella's Royal Table because the only princesses there were Cinderalla, Belle, Aurora, & Ariel, haha.  My nephews were totally checking out the princesses and wanted to be in the pictures for obvious reasons.  When Zach asked Belle if he could be in the picture too she said "Certainly, every picture needs its Beast." HAHAHA!  Zach looked stricken and said she was mean.  Belle responded "I consider it a compliment.  My beast is kind and gentle."  Zach was not pacified at all and decided he did not like Belle anymore.  Too funny!  Will did not ask permission.  He just creeped in behind us.

Zach has the dark hair and Will is the creeper in the background.

Ryan and I stayed till about one in the afternoon and decided to go back to the room to escape the oppressive heat and sun.  The park was opened until 2am that night, so we went back with Laura, Will, & Zach at about 8pm and stayed till about 1:45am.  Long night!  But it was nice because the lines were not nearly as long.  The Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh rides were really cute!  And of course we did Pirates again.  We also watched the fireworks show again, this time right in front of the castle.

Saturday we had to say goodbye and head back to real life.  It was so much fun to spend time with everyone.  We keep trying to convince his sisters to move to Texas (Andrea, if you're reading this- Move to Texas!).  We will miss them (& Disney World).  Sorry if I made anyone insanely jealous of our awesome trip!  Thanks for reading!

Back In Austin

After a very long drive today, I am reunited with my hubby, dog, and the great state of Texas!

The 24 foot truck Ryan successfully drove 500 miles through three states.

Blanca did not like being a trucker dog so much.

Finally crossing the state line!

At the Texas Visitor's Center

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We will miss everyone in Arkansas! Keep in touch and come visit us sometime in Austin.