Life seems to never stand still for too long in our house, and every time that it does decide to stop and smell the roses, a life changing event happens.

For the 7th time in our 5 year marriage we have moved yet again, and this was the 2nd 1200 mile move for us... in a 12 month period!

We have LOVED Texas! Seriously, I consider it to be home. We love our friends there, we love the people and the culture there. And I LOOOOVVVVEEEEDDDD the humidity! I know, I know. No one likes humid hot days, but this girl sure does! 

However, we have been waiting for this job opportunity in Las Vegas, NV to present itself to us for a long time. Brett has had his eye on this job ever since he started flying helicopters, so there was no doubt in our minds when it came to deciding to take it and move again. We will miss Texas and everything we have come to love here, but we are excited to be taking this step in our lives. 

Anyways like I said this was another major move for us, so I thought I would share some tips I have learned the hard way along the way. We have used moving truck services 4 times now and feeling pretty comfortable in the system. All of our other moves were close enough that we were able to make a few smaller trips back and forth. EXCEPT for the time we had to move in a matter of days and we literally threw everything in boxes and stuffed it all in a 16 ft horse trailer! ( I do not recommend this method )

Here are some tips that hopefully you find helpful:

Moving Tip #1

Start gathering boxes and start packing the moment you know you will be moving. Having plenty of time helps ease the stress and gives you time to purge, sell or throw away all the junk that you no longer use or need. Which will decrease the amount of stuff you take with you.

PURGE!! If you have the time, have a yard sale! Even if you sell all your items for a dollar, that's a few extra dollars you have to put towards your moving costs. I have done this every time we have moved and its been a great way to get rid of my items that I have a hard time parting with. The last time we moved we sold our old bathtub (vintage clawfoot) at our yard sale that we had leftover from our bathroom makeover. We got $250 bucks for it!

Moving Tip #2

Try and negotiate a price with the moving trucks, but don't be pushy with it. No one likes to deal with a pushy customer. But when we were getting ready to move from Utah to Texas we had called up all the moving truck companies to get quotes. We were limited on our budget and ruled out the companies that drive your stuff for you because they were way too expensive. 

Now mind you that this next part all came about unintentionally but it worked out for the best and we tried it out again this time around. 

We had made a reservation with Budget Rental because they seemed to be the best overall deal (that and I was getting an employee discount from my boss who owned a few trucks).

We were offered a 16 ft truck, a travel limit of 1200 miles for 3 days for somewhere around $1800. We thought this was a pretty good deal. Then we called Penske to see what their best deal was. At first their offer wasn't going to be able to beat Budget, but when we said we were going with someone else, they asked what we had been offered, Penske turned around and offered us a 24 ft truck with 1200 miles for 4 days for $1400. Great! We thought.

So we called up Budget Rental to cancel our reservation, when they asked us why we wanted to cancel we told them the deal we were offered. They then offered us a 24 ft truck with unlimited miles, for 6 days and they would give us a dozen moving blankets with a moving dolly for $1000. SWEET! 

So we called up Penske to cancel our reservation. When they asked us why we wanted to cancel we told them the offer Budget made us. They then offered us the golden egg! 24 ft truck, unlimited miles, 6 days, 2 dozen moving blankets, a furniture dolly AND a car carrier all for $900 +tax !! 
Budget was not able to match it so we stuck with Penske. We were able to knock off almost a $1000 off the original price!! And because we are only a family of 3 right now this worked perfect for us because we were all able to ride together in the rental truck while towing our Jeep Grand Cherokee behind us, saving us money on our fuel costs too!

We negotiated the same way this time around between Budget and Penske and the offers started out with Budget offering us a 24 ft truck and car carrier for $1256 + taxes. Then we called Penske and they were able to offer us a 26 ft truck, car carrier, hand dolly and 4 dozen furniture pads for $1034 and that included taxes. So it wasn't a screaming deal like last time but its still a good deal in my book.

Now we learned a few things while we were unintentionally bargaining. 

• In order to get a screaming deal like we did, it matters where your truck is coming from and where it is headed. Now all these types of moving companies are linked together as a franchise. So if there is a location that is in need of the size of truck you are using they are going to give you a better deal because they need more trucks where they are at. Does that make sense? We made our original reservation through our local dealer but it wasn't until we called the customer service line from the website that the deals started rolling in. We feel they were able to give us a better deal because they were the corporate end and not 3rd party. 
• Book online from the very beginning, online offers already discounted rates. That way your bargaining starts off at an already discounted price.
• If you are a AAA member you automatically receive 20% off.
• Ask your customer service rep flat out, "Is that the best you can do?" or tell them that your are shopping with a certain budget in mind and tell them what it is. They will try their best to accommodate your needs. 
• Also, call every week until a few days before your move and just double check to make sure you are getting the best rate possible. Prices may drop depending of the inventory of trucks and equipment.

Moving Tip #3

Use towels, blankets and sheets to wrap your picture frames, mirrors or anything of the sort in. It saves you money from having to buy bubble wrap I have bought bubble wrap in the past and I have always saved it for the next move, but it is expensive! So sheets and towels are what I like to use best because you have to take them anyways, so you might as well make them useful.

For the larger items I like to use this method and I wrap them by laying out the blanket and putting a frame down at one end of the blanket fold over like a burrito and add another frame. I keep doing this until I have used the entire blanket. Making sure there is enough padding in between frames. I then duct tape it like this to secure it and make sure that no sliding occurs. I then place them in boxes to keep them from getting smashed. It works well and I have yet to have a damaged picture or mirror.

Moving Tip #4

Do not buy boxes!!! I think it is such a waste to purchase boxes. I find all of mine at Liquor Stores, Grocery Stores and all my wonderful friends who gave me tons of boxes that they had. Craigslist is also another great way of finding boxes, I was able to pick up over 50 nice moving boxes for FREE from a women off of Craigslist who had purchased all the boxes and then wanted to get rid of them!

                     Azure was buried in there somewhere ;)

When we made the trek from Utah to Texas a friend gave us some AMAZING boxes from her last move. They are wardrobe boxes and if I was going to spend any kind of pretty penny on boxes it would be for more of these.

You can find these at Staples (online), Home depot or Lowes or just about anywhere that advertises that they sell moving boxes. They cost anywhere between $8 and $15 a box. Now ours were given to us by friends, after we used them we lent them to a friend that was moving across town and we plan to use them again. So they have been used several times but they are in perfect condition. We have 7 boxes and were able to hang all of our clothes in these without taking them off the hangers plus we were able to put some light weight items in the bottom of the boxes.
And I totally scored thanks to Craigslist Cathy who also gave me 4. However, I was a hanger bar or 2 short than boxes and I had been looking to buy a couple new ones (just the bars). Home depot was out, so I went to the Cubesmart and asked if they sold them, the super-girl at the cubesmart storage she said they didn't sale them but that she had a ton of bars and no boxes so she gave me 3 for free!!! She saved me about $10! THANK YOU!

Seriously, I don't know if it's because we have the most AMAZING friends or if we just got lucky, I think it's cause our friends rock, but all of our friends supplied us with boxes, bubblewrap AND packing peanuts!!!! We are so blessed to have people who love us this much... that or they couldn't wait to see us leave so they were trying their hardest to get us out of there! ;)

Moving Tip # 5

Be organized. Now I don't mean you need to go all Martha Stewart crazy here. Just some simple organization can go along way. I like to label my boxes (duh, I label everything) , but I have found that if you use recipe index cards as box labels it makes it much easier to see what is in the box. (it also works in hiding all the pictures of liquor and beer, no we are not alcoholics, no we do not drink, the stores just have sooo many boxes and they are more than willing to give them to you when you ask) 

 

I Label them with the room in bold letters, then the contents of the box under that. If I only put the room on the box I would always forget what box I put what in, then if I needed to find something I had to open all my boxes to find it.

I like to put 1 label on the top of the box and 1 on the side of the box. I also use an index card and write FRAGILE on it if needed. Because lets face it, men (which are usually the ones carrying the boxes when helping) are not gentle unless they see it in BIG BOLD LETTERS (and even then they can be....).

 

Moving Tip #6

When packing your dishes, buy a package of foam plates from the dollar store and put a foam plate in between each dish. Liquor stores have great sized boxes for dishes.You should also ask them if you can have some of the box dividers that comes with some of their wine bottles.These work great for glasses, vases, Christmas ornaments or anything small and breakable. You also want to wrap each item in newspaper or tissue paper just for added protection if you have really nice dinnerware.

When packing kitchen platters or pyrex dishes, I wrap them in bathroom and kitchen hand towels, with a sheet of bubblewrap in between each dish.

• Use egg cartons for necklace transporting. This works EGG-cellent in keeping your necklaces from getting tangled with each other!

Moving Tip #7

Get one of these Sterilite Clear File Bins (Family Dollar $3 or Walmart $5) and when packing up your food items, set some aside for the drive. Snacks, treats, fruit that won't go bad if not in the fridge, water bottles, and anything your family would enjoy snacking on in the car/moving truck while driving. My MIL did this for us one time and it fit perfectly under the moving truck seat so it wasn't in the way, and when anyone needed a quick fix I could easily pull it out. It was organized and less bulky than any other way I would have done it and since it was clear we didn't have to dig around looking for what we wanted to munch on. I now do this for ALL of our roadtrips and camping trips.
This will also save you money by using what you already have so you're not spending a lot of money on junk food and convenient store food which only gives you a sugar high then slams you into a food coma... which is dangerous behind the wheel ;)

We also use all of our coolers for the cold food and fill with ice to keep them cold. We pack the coolers in the truck last so that we can monitor the ice levels if we need to refill. It also works nicely if we have yogurt or fruit that we want to munch on during the drive.

Moving Tip #8

Find a small box/bin/crate and use this as your supply station. Before you start put things into boxes gather any items you might need for packing. Scissors, Pliers, Hammer (removing nails), nail hole filler, container to put all the nails in, Duct Tape, Packing Tape, Permanent Markers, Pen, Newspaper or Tissue Paper, Bubble Wrap, To Do List, Apron, Recipe Index Cards, and anything else you think you might need.

This helps you stay organized and will make it so that you don't accidentally pack something that you later need. You also won't forget where you put the roll of tape when your hand is holding down the flaps of a box and you are stuck looking for the tape.
Then when you are done taping up all the boxes and done packing you can take the box and put it with the others.

Moving Tip #9

Take tip #8 and do with with all your cleaning supplies. This way you can clean the house easily when it is free of all the boxes and clutter. You also want to put your laundry detergent with your cleaning items in case you need to do a quick load at the last minute. This is also a good idea if you use liquid detergent, if its packed last and loaded in the truck last you know where it is so that it doesn't get smooshed or tipped over and leaking all over your stuff. Trust me on this one. I learned the HARD WAY! 

Another great thing about doing this is that when you get to your new home, the first thing you can pull out is the cleaning supplies in case it needs a quick scrub, then you don't have to dig around the truck to find the box of lysol. 

Moving Tip #10

When you arrive to your new home, put together all the beds FIRST. That way you don't have to sleep on the hard floor when you are too tired at the end of the day. Next, unpack the food.... you WILL get hungry.

Moving Tip #11

Get a folder, binder or clipboard to keep track of any important papers (like rental agreement, hotel reservations, roadtrip games, restaurant coupons for eating on the road, utilities contact information, phone numbers of land lords, internet, electricity, etc.) you might need while driving or as soon as you arrive to your new home. 

Moving Tip #12

If you are driving the rental truck yourself or in our case all together in the rental truck while towing our car. We like to pack the car with all the items we may need to get to at rest stops. Like our suitcases, pack n play for Azure if we are staying the night at a hotel, extra diapers, cooler with cold drinks, blanket and pillow. That way we don't have to open up the truck to get things out when we stop.

Moving Tip #13

Disassemble as much furniture as possible. Our dining table is really easy to take apart. It saves a lot of space in the moving truck to not have a table in the way. We also take apart the crib, take the mirror off the dresser, and take apart our bed frame.

Moving Tip #14

When loading the truck... Get your TETRIS on!!! But first be sure to sweep it out, they should be clean and tidy when you pick them up, but you want to make sure you are not harboring someone else's dirt and dust. When you start to load the truck with boxes you want to make sure you pack things tight enough that when you take corners or go over bumps, your stuff doesn't shift and bounce. But don't pack it so tight that you are smashing boxes to fit into a space. The goal is to get from point A to point B with as little damage as possible.

Moving Tip #15

7 dinners, easy clean up & cooking all for under $30.
Plus we have all the food in the fridge that needs to
be eaten before we move. 

A week or 2 before moving day, prepare some freezer meals or freeze leftovers from previous meals; so that the week of moving you can throw a quick dinner in the crockpot or oven so that you do not have to eat out every night. If using your crockpot, get some crockpot liners for easy cleanup; and for meals cooked in the oven, use those tin pans you can find at the dollar store. They usually come in a 2 or 3 pack! That way you can pack up your kitchen, spices and all, and maybe just leave your crockpot out and a hot pad or two. And with the left over foam plates you have from packing your dishes you can just use paper goods for the days leading up. This is also convenient for when you get to your new house, you can easily have dinner in the crockpot or oven. Now I love eating out, don't get me wrong. I am always looking for an excuse not to cook. But when moving money gets tight.... really tight. So by doing this can easily save you a $100 dollars or so by not eating out every night.

Moving Tip #16

Bribe friends, family and strangers off the street to come help you with food, drinks and cookies!

*Other than me injuring my back the week before moving day, leaving me on bed rest. This move went smooth and efficiently.

Goodluck on your next move and if there are any moving tips that you use, that maybe I hadn't thought of or mentioned....
I would love to here them!



BTW HUGE shout out to my Mom and SIL for driving all the way to Vegas with a 1 month old to help us move in, and also for spending 4 hours on your hands and knees scrubbing the nasty floors! You guys are the BEST!

February 2013...

Holy cow balls is it really half way through March?! Why can't time just slow down for a second?

You know the months that are "THE" month? I know you know what I am talking about, every family has a "THE" month! Well February is our month. We have Valentines on the 14th, Our Anniversary on the 19th, my birthday on the 25th and Azure's birthday on the 28th. Not to mention 6 family birthdays mixed in there and everyday craziness that gets thrown into the mix. And I know it will only get worse when Azure is older because then there will parent teacher conferences and presidents day and who knows what else!
So yes, every February is exhausting and draining; especially on our wallets :) But this month was a never ending subway. Going from one thing to the next, leaving us with not enough time to pee! (maybe that is why people pee in the corner.... nuff said)

But WOW was it an AWESOME month!

To start off, my friend Mary called me up at the last minute and invited me to be a band groupie with her, she had won tickets to a private mini concert in Dallas with Johnny Rzeznik (I shouldn't have to tell you who it is, but if you don't know....lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls)!! It was awesome! I have loved the band since Jr. High!! SO we dropped the chittlins off at a babysitter early in the morning (before the sun was up) and we became little giddy girls again!! And man does he have an amazing voice, it seriously sounds sooooo much better in person than on any kind of ipod.

We also made sure we took advantage of the great family friendly activities that Texas always has to offer. We headed down to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.

   

Azure is a naturally born animal lover! It was fun to take her through the stocks and have her see all the animals that Brett and I grew up surrounded by. And I think she would agree with me that Daddy should let us get a pet piggy!! I miss my pigs everyday, they really do make amazing pets!!

I know it sounds funny but whenever I visit any FFA and 4H stock shows, or rodeos or get a whiff of manure I start to get emotional.

My best and favorite memories of growing up were times I spent on the farm with my Dad. I think that is partly why I love pigs so much, it reminds me of the time my dad spent with me one on one teaching me how to raise them.

Brett and I hope to one day have the opportunity to raise our children in a similar atmosphere.

 We finally were able to curve our appetite with the outdoors. We love Texas, and we love Fort Worth but being in such a large city is hard on our recreational desires. But thanks to some good friends who kindly invited let us tag along on a outing to the Lake. We had a great time cooking hobo dinners, and playing in the sand. We can't wait for our actual camping trip that is coming up.

Now we don't typically celebrate Valentines Day because we choose to spend our money on all of our other adventures of the month. But our stake was putting on an Adult Valentines Dance and since its been so long since we had gone dancing, and since Brett was going to be gone on Valentines to Virginia ferrying a helicopter back to Texas, we decided to hit up the dance floor with some friends. And of course we couldn't just go as our normal boring selves... so we went as flappers and newsie boys :) It was fun to act like we were back in high school. Except we are much cooler now ;)

 
This was Brett's ferrying trip, I think this is the Mississippi River?! A trip that was supposed to take 2 days turned into 5! They got weathered out, and the heli was a smaller one so they couldn't go as fast or as far on a tank of gas. But he at least was in good company, and not flying alone.

And Because Brett was gone on Valentines, that meant that Azure and I were able to party it up ;). We went to one of the millions (literally millions) of donut shops here with our awesome friends and got us some pink donuts! I'm not even a donut eater but man these were........MMmmmmm...........

My friend Mary's husband was also out of town on Vday so we made the kiddos a fun dinner, and we watched a good ole chick-flik. Took me back to my college days of never having a date on Vday. Haha. But I didn't feel left out, Brett still came through and got me some of my favorite flowers!!!!

 





And thanks to our wonderful friends Matt and Telicia who took Azure overnight so that Brett and I could escape for a much needed anniversary trip; where we were able run away to Dallas. We stayed at seriously the coolest hotel I have ever been to, if you ever visit Dallas, I highly recommend staying at the Le Meridian!!
We also went out for sushi, made it to the Dallas Temple and then we pampered ourselves with a couples massage! It was a much needed vacation for the 2 of us. Since moving away from family a year ago we haven't gone on a childless date!

*sorry for so many pictures, but as we were reminiscing all of our past anniversaries we realized we didn't have #4 documented in any form, and we cannot remember what we even did. So I made sure to not to let that happen with #5.

We also got to see downtown Dallas, and where JFK was shot. It was cool, I must admit I never realized that he was shot in Dallas. I always thought it was in d.c. for some reason. Shows you how great of a student I was. I even did a report on Jackie Kennedy in the 5th grade.... 

Brett also was so sweet and got me an anniversary ring with Azure's name engraved on it with her birthstone! I love it! 5 years has been a roller coaster of all kinds for us, but it has made us stronger and has taught us many things. Can't wait to celebrate the next 100!

And if you are wondering who has the best hubbers in the world, look no further because I snagged him up 5+ years ago! He rocked the house for my BIRFday this year! First off I have had my eyes on a particular pair of boots for over a year now but the price tag gave me a brain aneurysm every time I dreamed about what it would be like to have them on my feet. But thanks to the Fedex guy that showed up at my door carrying the most B.E.A.UTIFUL box I have ever received, I no longer have to dream about these boots... I can now sleep in them!!!
                                                        
To make it even better, Brett told me on the morning of my bday to make sure that I was dressed and blindfolded by the time he got home from work..... Now if you know Brett at all you would know that he is AWFUL at keeping secrets and at lying. So for him to be able to keep anything from me about what is up his sleeve is nearly impossible. But he was able to get me in the car blindfolded and pull off a 2nd surprise of the day. Seriously, a record for him! I had no idea what to think while we were driving, he was either taking me to the middle of nowhere to make me find my way home or he was just pulling my leg and driving around the block just to be funny. But we arrived to an unknown place, he got me out of the car, made me trip over a curb, ran me into a pole right after I asked him if we were in a public place (which we were); then to walk into a room full of singing friends :) It was a fun and pleasant surprise :)

                            

After my birthday was all over with, Brett took a quick little trip to Las Vegas for a job interview with Papillon Helicopters.... which turned out to be a very successful trip :) He came home on Azure's birthday with a new job!!!!! So yes we will be moving cross country yet AGAIN 1 year later. But I will blog about that another time, I'm not ready to face the fact that I will be leaving Texas. I LOVE TEXAS!!!!!
But anyways, we are super excited! This is the job Brett has been wanting for a longtime! Ever since he began flying he dreamed of how fun it would be to fly tours over the grand canyon! So to finally have reached this dream in our lives is such a blessing and almost too good to be true! We truly are excited! And to finally know that we will be in one place for a long time is a comforting feeling. I am sick of leaving friends :(

But more on that later. We celebrated Azure's birthday in style! We woke her up to a balloon avalanche, she  had a blue bubble bath with balloons and we ate cake for days! She loved getting to open her presents over skype with family.
I can't believe my baby is 2! I wish I could keep her as my baby forever, but she is such a fun easy to love little girl; who is so busy and so smart!! She makes friends everywhere she goes, and she lights up a room. She makes her mommy and daddy happier than we could have ever imagined!

This was Azure's birthday party with all of her little friends! It was bitter cold that day (sorry to all those who had to be there:) ) But it was still tons of fun!!!


So Monday was my birthday, Brett was gone Tuesday and Wednesday  Thursday was Azure's birthday, and Friday my sister Sevana and my niece Izzy came to visit us which was a great cherry to top off the month!! 6 months is too long to go without seeing my sister!! Then Saturday was Azure's birthday party with all of hers and our friends! Then that night Brett left again to attend Heli Expo in Vegas, leaving us girls to have a fun-filled girls weekend!!!! But I will blog about that more later, since it was technically March.

We had so much fun together and like always it went by too fast, and we were sad to see them go.

WHEW!!

that pretty much sums up our crazy month!

Have a happy March and get out and enjoy the sunshine!!!

January

Since I am not very good at regular post updates, I am going to try dedicating at least 1 post a month to an update on our daily lives.

Since Christmas we have been busy between work, church callings, Azure and life in general.

We signed Azure up for a parent and toddler gymnastics class at the local recreation center, holy cow she is obsessed with "nimnastis!!" Everything now is a Ta-Da worthy moment. I'm sorry, but my girl is the cutest thing ever!!!

 

These aren't the best pictures or videos but she is a very busy girl and I am holding her hands in some of the videos. And the class goes bu so fast that its hard to get time to take a good action shot.

We also were able to go to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo this month. It was fun to take Azure to see all the animals. She loved feeding the animals in the petting zoo, she would squeal and giggles everytime they would nibble from her tiny hands. I love watching her discover things for the first time!

This cowgirl is ready to wrestle her a steer!

 

I have to admit it did make me a little homesick. Not homesick in the sense of missing home, but more so in the sense of missing my Dad. I loved working on the farm along side him, and I learned so much from him and from working out in the fields. Every time I see piggys I well up inside. Not only because of how stinking cute they are but because of the bond my dad and I shared while raising my pigs.

I have more pics and more video but they are on Brett's phone, so I will share them when he gets home from Virginia.

 This was our Daddy Daughter Mommy Date night at Texas Roadhouse.... Baby loves her southern Mac n Cheese! we love playing with our friends Jane and Will!


So one day my friend Mary called me and asked if I was a fan of the Goo Goo Dolls... umm who isn't?! Well she had won 2 tickets to a private live studio concert with Johnny Rzeznik! Freaking Awesome is all I can say! We scrounged up a babysitter for our chitlins, and headed out at 6:30 am for our Breakfast and Concert. It was EPIC! I was sitting right next to all of his guitar cases (a different one for each song). And his voice is just as amazing in person!

 

 
AHHHHHH!!!! So excited!!!

Every toddler needs an adorable Sgetti picture, right?!

 

Azure making her Valentine's to send to family. Yes she is outside... in a tshirt.....flipflops..... 70+ degrees! We love Texas winters!!!!


I know this isn't the most entertaining, nor is it the most poetic post. But it's 12:30 AM and Brett is in Virginia right now. So I am in a writers block. But Brett flew down there this morning to pick up a chopper and fly it back to Texas. So Azure and I are having a girls week.

We can't wait to celebrate our 5th anniversary, my bday and Azures birthday all this month. AND we are so excited for Sevana and Izzy to come and visit in 2 1/2 weeks!!!!! YAYYY!!!!