15 weeks today

Apologies for the long blogging lag... there doesn't seem to be too much to write about. Brian and I have both been getting settled into both of your jobs, starting to become more familiar with the city, and starting to get used to the idea that we will not be seeing any snow except for on the tops of the nearby mountains.

The holidays are coming up and we are looking forward to spending some time with my family. My Mom and Faby are both going to for sure be spending Christmas with us, and hopefully my Dad will be able to make it after all. The owners of his hotel have been talking about opening at the beginning of January, which would make a two week vacation to the U.S. impossible to pull off. We're hoping they change their minds, but for now, are planning it this way. The Christmas tree is up, and Brian and I both will have a couple of days off after Christmas, when we plan to go to the Grand Canyon.

The pregnancy is progressing well. I'm 15 weeks as of today, and am basically in the clear for morning sickness. We've already had our first two ultrasounds and everything is looking good. We have our anatomy ultrasounds scheduled for December 28th, where we will hopefully be able to find out the sex (ad narrow down that list of names). All of a sudden, sometime during the weekend, my body decided to switch from pudgy-stomach mode to full on pregnancy belly, so I leave you with a picture of my pregnant self.

Officially Nevada Residents, but Chicagoans at heart.

As of last week, our cars officially became Nevada residents. Yesterday, both Brian and I received of Nevada Driver's licenses! The license is NOT pretty, not even taking into account the fact that my picture was taken between my trip to the bathroom to lose my breakfast and my trip to the bathroom to lose my lunch. Although we were too late to vote in the Midterm elections, we are now officially Nevada Residents.

The apartment is finally starting to feel like home. We'll post some update pics soon, although I'm trying to put off taking any pictures until all of the boxes are gone (they aren't!), which should be soon, because I'm finally starting to feel better, and I'm starting to feel like I have the energy to do more than just lie on the couch when I get home from work.

We are both really liking our neighborhood. We have found that the Rosati's pizza that they have in Las Vegas is the closest thing to decent pizza we are going to find. Our first attempt at pizza delivery from a place called "Pie in the Sky" turned out to be much too similar to Papa John's - bad news. Rosati's actually cuts its pizza into squares, something not usually embraced outside of Chicagoland. We were very happy.

First Vegas Post

Apologizing for my extended absence, but only now that our belongings (most of them, anyway) are firmly sitting in our apartment do I feel back into a good enough state of mind to post again. I am not going to get into the awful details of what this moving company put us through, but if you would like a full account, I might eventually put up a link to Brian's terrible review that we are planning on posting at every single Relocation website, Van line website, and the Better Business Bureau.  A semi-brief rundown of the past two weeks.

We officially moved out of the Cornelia apartment on October 3 and spent the night at Brian's Dad's place. Although not until ideal circumstances - moving company stress + morning sickness - Brian and I were able to get to know Iryna quite a bit before moving across the country. I think both Brian and I would have liked to have the chance to do a bit more "Chicago things" before leaving, but at the time, we were just so overwhelmed and tired.

Sunday October 10th at 3:30am, our alarm went off and we were able to get on the road at 4am, to Brian's delight, totally on schedule. Brian got us smoothly through Illinois, Iowa and into Nebraska and even made an exception to the no-sleeping rule, and let me take a hour long nap. I relieved Brian for about 3 hours in Nebraska, where the speed limit is 75, incidentally, and Brian finished the day by taking us into Colorado, where we stopped for the night at a lovely pet friendly Best Western. The dogs were surprisingly quiet and cooperative the whole drive to Colorado, but they were happy to stretch their legs and run around the hotel room. We went to sleep so early, and slept in until 6am. We didn't want to get into Las Vegas too early, since we weren't (supposed) getting our furniture until the next morning, so we weren't going to have much to do in our apartment yet.

The next morning, Casper (the White Honda Insight) struggled up the Rockies, but throroughly enjoyed the downhills. We were able to take in the spectacular views driving through the second half of Colorado. Utah is equally as breathtaking, but so desolate that it gets a bit spooky to drive by exit after exit with signs indicating "No Services", and having no cell phone reception.

A quick drive through Arizona (more canyons!), we were disappointed not to see the Luxor's beam of light, but we made it to Las Vegas around 8pm.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend our vacation week unpacking and getting to know our new city, since we didn't have any furniture, had limited amounts of clothing, and were in generally low spirits (sleeping on air mattresses for 5 nights will do that to you).

We did manage to take a quick trip to the Hoover Dam, though.

Sunday, our furniture finally arrived! At least we were able to sleep on our bed the night before we were both to report to work for our first days. Too bad this is what we have to come home to:

The Dates are Set!

After wading through the estimates, we have finally decided on a moving company. They are coming on Monday, October 4th to Cornelia to pick up OUR ENTIRE LIFE. I will take the morning/day off of work to coordinate the movers.

We will spend our last week in Chicago at Brian's Dad's house. We will then leave on Sunday very early in the morning, on October 10th. We should be arriving in Las Vegas very late on October 11th and will spend the first night in our apartment on aero beds. Our furniture should be arriving in the morning on the 12th, and then... that's it! We'll be in our new home less than 2 weeks from today.

A Plethora of Estimates

I have basically spent the past 5 days on the telephone with men and women who work for companies with various incarnations of American Moving Company. They all want to talk to me for at least an hour, they all want me to go through everything that I have in my apartment, estimate the number of boxes that I anticipate boxing, want to know various zip codes and parking situations etc. It's EXHAUSTING!

As if packing all of one's belongings into cardboard boxes, plastic bins, and suitcases isn't difficult enough, there aren't any companies who will come out to your apartment, look at your stuff, and give you a price that doesn't make you want to claw your eyes out (there are companies who come to your house and look around, but they give you prices that make you want to claw your eyes out).

Most people who find themselves in this situation will have their move sponsored by their company. Ours is only partially sponsored, since they are giving me a nice pay increase. In the end of course, it's worth it because our way of life will be much easier out west (no shoveling snow! no driving in the snow! no walking in the snow!), and you know, the potential for growth within the company is much better, yada, yada.

But this part SUCKS. We've decided to make a decision by the end of the week. So I have 2 more days of dealing with estimates and picking a company, etc. Then, the real fun begins!

Birthdays!

It's Brian's 29th Birthday today! In lieu of gifts (movers are expensive!), Brian has requested that I prepare beefsteak tagalog and apple pie for dinner tonight. So that is what he will get!

Vegas Apartment Hunt

Brian arrived in Vegas very late on Thursday night. I had to work for at least a few hours in the morning, so we went straight to sleep. The next morning, Brian and I were ready very early (thanks to the 2 hour delay), so Brian decided to drive me to work in the borrowed '96 Montero, and then drive down to see the strip until I was done.

We had an appointment with a rental broker at 11am. He drove us around and showed us apartments that were Condo rentals in the vicinity of my office. We really liked the first place we saw. The apartment looked relatively new, the complex had a very nice pool, but we were afraid it might not fit all of our stuff, and all of the stuff that we needed to store. At 900 square feet, it was significantly bigger than our old place, but didn't have any storage areas other than the closets. The broker took us to a few more condos which were bigger, but were total dumps. I mean, stained carpets, dead cochroaches everywhere, and even one place that still had food in the refrigerator from the former tenants. None topped the first apartment.

Then, we stopped for lunch at the famous In-N-Out Burger. I had texted Fabi the night before to find out that if you ask for your burger "Animal Style" you get it with grilled onions and a special sauce. It did not disappoint. Brian loved it. We had it for lunch both on Friday and Saturday!

Finally, we went around to the various apartment complexes that Brian and I had found on Apartments.com. It is difficult to find an apartment complex that allows dogs. So many said online that they allowed dogs, only to find out when we arrived that they only accept dogs 25 lbs and under. Total! The first totally dog-friendly place we went to had a dog-run and some swimming pools, but the tenants seemed a little sketchy. I hate to be judgmental, but I saw someone moving in who definitely looked like a stripper. Brian didn't mind (duh!), but I don't really want to share my pool with a stripper.

Finally, we came upon Hampton Garden Apartments, a beautiful gated complex 5-10 minutes away from my office. It has two pools, one indoor and one outdoor (swimming all year round!), a little gym, barbecue areas, doggie pick-up stations, some very nice apartment managers, low pet deposits, a nice balcony, two bathrooms, a walk-in closet, a in-unit washer/dryer and 1100 square feet! We are very excited about our new home and are really starting to look forward to setting up our new life.

Plus, 1/2 mile from In-N-Out!