Christmas in Burlap

All of our Christmas decorations are in my in-laws attic, and since we will be in New Jersey for Christmas, I couldn't exert the effort to make a four hour drive to go get them. I went to my aunt's house last weekend and her house is so merry and festive! I felt like such a grinch! I knew I had to get on Pinterest and fast. Two yards of burlap and a walk to collect sticks, our apartment is slightly more festive.

On another note, anyone else find it impossible to have a Family Home Evenin or scripture study go according to plan? This was in the middle of our's this week.

Rylee was alternating between banging a metal bowl on Ryan's face and the coffee table while Blanca was licking his ear and Ryan was laughing.

Blanca is so good. She lets Rylee do whatever to her, including using her as a couch/pillow.

Arkansas 2013

The weekend after Thanksgiving we got to go back up to Arkansas for my friend's wedding!

With my two besties from college!

I might be biased, but she looks like a little doll!

After getting back to Fayetteville and having some Damgoode Pie pizza for dinner, I got some long awaited Andy's pumpkin pie frozen custard.

Mmmm good!

We stayed with our good friends Jon and Kara and their three boys. Kara and I are plotting the marriage of our children. We'll see which one she picks. Her and Spencer got a long great!

Our friends, Tyler and Deborah gave us a tour of the new architecture building.

Up on the new rooftop terrace.

Ryan is so scared of heights. Deborah offered him a dollar to press himself up
against the glass and he couldn't do it!

We love these guys! Their 5 year old took this picture. Pretty skilled!

They didn't want to take a "manly" picture.

Maybe Rylee will be an architect like Daddy!

After looking at the new architecture building, we went hunting for our names. Both classes of 2011 and 2012 are over by the greek theater.

 

Then I got carried away taking pictures of Rylee. There are lots more of her on her blog. But these are two of my favorites.

I love the front of Old Main and the way the leaves were scattered over the years.

We didn't have anyone to take our picture in front of Old Main, so we took turns holding Rylee.

Who knows, maybe one day we'll stand in front of Old Main with one of our graduates! 

Our trip went by really fast and I already miss our friends! Till next time Fayetteville!

Homelessness Over!

Yay we signed a lease yesterday! And we get to move in to our new apartment on Friday!  Pictures to come later when all my boxes are unpacked and things are organized. So maybe in a few months!

But here's a cute picture of Rylee and Ryan.

Halloween 2013

Halloween is a BIG deal around our house. It's Ryan's favorite holiday and we always decorate the house, carve pumpkins, watch Hocus Pocus, go to a Halloween party, and have a "spooky" meal. This year, since we're in between apartments and our stuff is in storage, we hardly did anything! But we did dress up and we took the baby trick-or-treating for the first time.

Rylee was a baby owl. Ryan's mom made the wings and the ruffles. I made the leggings and I bought the hat off Amazon.

All my time has gone into apartment hunting, so I put off mine and Ryan's costumes to this afternoon. I was going to go to Hobby Lobby, but I didn't have a car today. So instead, I went and foraged for our costumes in my aunt's front yard.

Can you guess what we are?

Ryan and I are trees holding our owlet. "Owl in a tree."

My aunt's street was crazy tonight! I have never seen so many trick-or-treaters! There were golf carts and hay rides, minions and princesses galore. We joined in on the chaos, hoping no one would think twice about giving a small baby candy. Some people asked me what candy the baby would prefer(like I would give my 7 month old candy). I of course always answered chocolate. After a couple houses, I felt too bad to continue. We were after all literally stealing "candy from a baby!" I just really wanted to show off Rylee's costume.

The loot. My cousin James got a ton!

Our little trick-or-treater all worn out.

Barring any disaster next year, the Campbells will have amazing costumes!

Now to hit up after Halloween candy sales.  Happy Halloween y'all!

Dallas Trip

Ryan is working for this pretty cool non-profit design firm based out of Dallas called bcWorkshop.  The firm won the Rudy Bruner award for their really cool project called the "Congo Street Initiative." You can check out the details here.

Not the biggest picture, but here is another article about the project and award.

We got to go to Dallas last weekend for the awards ceremony, bcW's five year anniversary party, and a Ted conference.

It was cold enough to wear her giraffe hoodie!

Ryan subjecting our daughter to Dragon Ball Z. And taking pictures at the Ted conference.

Neat map of Dallas based on neighborhoods.

Overall I was really impressed with the firm's work on the houses on Congo Street and I'm excited to see what they'll be able to do here in Houston for underprivileged neighborhoods.

Our Homeless Woes

It's really not fair of me to keep saying we're "homeless" because there are many people across the world without a roof over their heads or warm food in their bellies. We, on the other hand" have wonderful family and a whole room and bathroom to ourselves. My aunt and cousin have been more than happy to watch Rylee so I can get things done or so we can go on a date.

But I really miss my doggy(she's with the in-laws for now) and I miss having our things, and I dislike living out of suitcases. And it's weird to not have our own place.

I LOATHE apartment hunting. It never seems like we have quite enough money to find something we really love(I couldn't justify spending $1200+ on a rental anyway) and it's always hard to tell what your actual unit is going to end up looking like.

I hate reading apartment reviews, because just as I find something I like, I read lots of terrible reviews about cockroaches, etc, and then I doubt our decision.

Let's not even begin on actually signing a lease. I feel so TRAPPED when we we sign that piece of paper! There's so many "what if's" and you're really limited when you sign a lease with a big complex.

I know many of you have little dogs that you love, but my dog is 42 pounds, and I do not appreciate places that advertise as being "pet friendly" and then only except cats or rat dogs. 

Or places that seem to have an awesome rent price and then you find out there's lots of additional fees(like $45 cable you have to pay for even if you don't want it? We watch netflix for a reason!)

For whatever reason, it seems harder and harder to find apartments that we can do our own laundry in our own unit. In San Antonio, it was hard to find anything that included a washer and dryer in the unit. Here in Houston, we've been lucky to even find connections in a one bedroom unit.

And the most annoying semi-illegal thing we've run into here? Lots of properties won't rent us a one bedroom because Rylee is 7 month old. From what I understand about fair housing rules and Texas laws according to the Keating Memorandum, we could sue these places for discrimination, but that requires time and an attorney. Here's an interesting article on new standards in Texas if you're interested. 

http://www.reiclub.com/articles/occupancy-standards-policy

A leasing agent, when I asked about rylee staying with us in a one bedroom, told me that they had a two bedroom for an additional $100 and that we were really going to want our own space and I wouldn't be nursing for that much longer anyway. Um excuse me??? One, how is that any of your business, and two, yes, I do plan on nursing her for sometime to come(following AAP & WHO recommendations which I'm sure she knew nothing about). 

I've looked at at least 15 different properties and called many more. I've been working with two apartment locators. I think we've narrowed it down to two, but we'll see!

I know this post seemed pretty whiney, but I've been under a lot of stress. And yes, I could go back to work full time and we would have some more options, but I'm not quite ready to leave my sweet baby. We have many, many things to be thankful for and I trust that this move to Houston was part of the Lord's plan for us and we'll find an apartment soon.

Bleh...Houston

So gas is really cheap here. That's the only good thing about Houston I can think of off the top of my head.

And Ryan really likes his job, so that's even better!

We still don't have an apartment. So far I've kind of despised Houston. There are way too many dumpy areas, driving is terrible and confusing, and it takes FOREVER to get anywhere.

I miss San Antonio and Austin.

But this kid makes me happy!