Austin and Julia: We moved to Moscow!

We've lived here for almost 3 weeks and I'm NOW finally about to blog about it. whew. I'm going to try to remember all that has happened this last little bit for memory sakes.

First, we received a lot of help from the Doutre's who were generous to come and help clean and pack our stuff into the truck in Pocatello and then Rexburg. We didn't get off as early as we liked from Rexburg so we didn't make it to Deer Lodge, Montana till about 11:30PM. We were so wiped out! Austin drove the truck and I drove our little car. We had the tender mercy of having a bigger truck than we paid for (that's all they had) and it was such a blessing in the end! I was able to survive the trip listening to Rich Roll podcasts. :)

We had to wake up super early the next morning so Austin could make it to his 1:30PM meeting. We barely made it in time to get our keys and get inside the apartment. While he was gone with his meeting, I was so tired that I just laid on the floor and looked at places to eat on my phone. Haha. We utilized the big truck as much as we could so we went hunting for a couch and any sort of dining room chairs and night stands. Thankfully we found a decent love seat at a consignment store. They let us pick it up the next day as we had not moved our stuff out of the truck yet. That night was just unloading, unloading, unloading! We didn't know a single soul moving here so we did it on our own but it really wasn't so bad. I only dropped the couch on my toe but it's not broken so we're good!

Our neighbors next door are Russian so that was fun for Austin. They have 3 cute kids. The little girls were watching us from their patio screen as we were hauling everything from the truck. Last week, everyday I had to help the oldest boy open up his dead bolt lock (because he was the first one home from school.) Luckily they switched from locking the handle now. I was getting blisters on the palms of my hands. ;)

Ward situation has been funny because we thought we were supposed to go to one ward, according to LDS tools, but found out that 2 weeks later that we are in the boundaries of another student ward. Oh well! Both of the wards were so small but the one that we're in now is a lot smaller than the first so we feel better about being here even though we already connected with some great people in the other ward. We joined Stake Choir and boy is it intense! The conductor really has a plan for everything but it should be good. I'm excited to perform in a Christmas Festival that the community puts on every year.

Overall, we love it here! Our place is great and quiet, the people are nice, trails are beautiful, and it just seems like a great place to be. One time I was at the Food Co-op and there were two large lines behind the cashier. I had a lot more things than a older gentleman on the other line. As my lane got free, I let him pass me as he only had one item. After standing in line for a second he reaches behind and grabs a few caramel candies and tells me that I should try them because they are amazing. I ended up going to another open cashier lane and as he was walking out, he gave me a caramel and said thanks. It was so sweet. It was so interesting that the whole experience of shopping at the Co-op versus WinCo was such a different experience. I couldn't put my finger on it on why but it just was.

I'm really loving this Fall season of football games (the INCREDIBLE season opener for BYU at Nebraska with the Hail Mary from Tanner Mangum to Mitch Matthews that will never be forgotten) to BYU women's soccer and volleyball to give us something to watch daily. I LOVE IT. Austin is gone pretty much all day so I've been getting plenty of reading time in. I keep thinking, there should be no time for social media when I've got a stack of books in front of me!

Cooking is still one of my favorite things and I just started taking Institute which has been soul-refreshing. Looking for jobs as been my least favorite thing. Yes, Moscow can seem rosy sometimes but lately I've been an emotional wreck. Days when I don't feel like I have purpose or meaning. I really want to be a stay-at-home-mom and that is so hard for me to realize that is not my life right now. I talked to AA one day for 2 hours and I got off the phone and felt like I just had my monthly counseling session. It was so relieving and I learn so much from talking to her that I try to soak it up as much as I can. I didn't realize how hard this would be for me as I'm crying over the phone almost every time I talk to my Mom. BUT the first or second Sunday that we were here, Austin asked me to pray for a blessing on our home. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had in my life. I really felt that it would happen here in Moscow. I obviously don't know the Lord's timetable but all I felt was hope. And I guess that's all I need right now. At institute, we read from D&C 138 about how all of us came to earth in the timetable of the Lord. I always read that and thought of how I'm here on earth at this specific time but also that the Lord knows when our kids are supposed to come to earth. All in His timetable. I love having those ah ha moments when the Comforter speaks peace to my soul.

Austin and I feel so blessed. I know Moscow will prove to be challenging and rewarding but it's going to be worth it. I hope that we'll change as people and as couples (and hopefully parents!) We also feel extremely blessed financially. We are amazed on how much we have saved over our little 2.5 years of marriage and how, if we continue to live within our means, that we can come out of graduate school debt free and a good chunk in savings. That's our goal and we're really striving for it. We feel so blessed that Austin got a job with the Engineering department as a research assistant which is paying for his schooling as well as some income on top of that. He is working with Dr. Xing and Austin is actually only taking 2 classes and they are both from him. He jokes that he works with a Chinese professor and his two graduate associates are from Egypt and Mexico. :) I'm so proud of Austin and all the hard work he puts into school and work. He rides his bike to school everyday, comes home for lunch, goes back, comes home for dinner, and then heads back to his office for evening work. That pretty much sums up his life!

Can't wait to see what's in store for us as we make this awesome journey in the next two years. And hopefully I'll be a little more on top of recording experiences and events a little more frequently.

Saying goodbye to Pocatello

Little sentimental as I took this picture of the front of my office. Goodbye, Rexburg!

On our drive through Montana-beautiful sunset

Capturing the many of many hills that we'll see here

Icing my toe sitting on our love seat that fell on that toe ;)

Can't forget that we stopped by Dallin and Janelle's on Saturday after we moved. They needed some help building their triple bunk bed. So my duty was tending to these cute girls. It was so fun!

Testing out their bunk

Can you tell he's super stoked to start school? :)

First day! Here's to 2 great years.

Haha, this is what Austin found in his desk at his graduate office. You better believe he puts some on. ;)

This is basically in our back yard. Once again, hills after hills. This is what I view every time I run.

So excited for this! Got to finish the book pronto.

Engineering is hard enough but in Chinese? Yeah. no.

Farmers market beauty! Need my weekly FM fix.

Entertainment at the FM. That's a knife on his beard. I was too busy shopping and missed his little routine with Austin. Bummer!

This is what I found one day. The person's face looks like a man. Not sure how I feel about that. Haha

We've been pretty lucky the last couple of months winning prizes like this awesome jacket ($55 value!) Austin says he's now a 'Vandal Dude', whatever that means.

Black out night at the Vandal football game, their home opener. Despite the loss, it was fun to watch!

So glad that Mom and Dad were able to hook up their google chat on their iPad so I can see the BYU vs. Nebraska game. And what a game! Poor Taysom Hill gets injured, then freshman (fresh off his mission 3 months ago), Tanner Mangum, comes in and throws a 42 yard Hail Mary, with one second left to go in the game, into the endzone to Mitch Mattehws who catches it! Unreal. I was going CRAZY. Final score: 33-28.