Summertime

Summer is my favorite time of the year! I love the weather, swimming pools, BBQ’s, the 4th of July, vacations, etc. This summer definitely did not disappoint. Dave and I were able to do so many fun things! It went by fast and was very busy. I remember looking at my calendar in May and realizing everyday of the summer was planned out. If we were in town, Dave and I were both working and on the days I had off, we were pretty much out of town. It was a summer of living out of a suitcase, coming home to do the laundry, and then packing our suitcases back up. I wouldn’t choose to have it any other way though. We were able to spend lots of time with family and friends and make many great memories.

This summer has been bittersweet at the same time. We knew it was our last summer living in Utah and tried to take advantage of it. I made a bucket list at the beginning of the summer and we were able to do a lot of the things on the list. It’s been crazy to think that some of the people that we see on a regular basis, we will not get to see as often after we move.

This summer has also been one of the most stressful times of my life. I am definitely excited for Dave and I to start a new chapter in our lives as we move to California, but the logistics of moving were completely overwhelming at times. Between finding somewhere to live, finding a job, figuring out how to afford to live somewhere so expensive, arranging a moving truck, etc. The job hunt definitely topped the list. I have a job that I absolutely love and feel very lucky to have. I do something that is very rewarding and I have the greatest co-workers. I realize my career is not my life, but a full-time job ends up being where I spend a lot of my time and so it’s great to do something I enjoy so much.

I began applying for jobs in California in May and quickly realized how hard it was going to be to find a job doing exactly what I wanted. I would get so frustrated applying for jobs that I didn’t really want just because I was feeling so much pressure to find a job within a deadline. Poor Dave had to deal with me when I would get so frustrated. I was definitely in a bad mood on more than one occasion. This made it hard to be genuinely excited about any aspect of the move. I would associate this frustration with the whole moving process. I am also a planner as my mom pointed out. I function much better and more productively when things are planned out. I think this was the root of my frustration. Having this huge piece of living in California up in the air majorly stressed me out. I am not very patient at times and this process definitely required patience. Dave would always reassure me that things would work out, but I just didn’t see that happening a lot of the time. He was right though. Everything fell into place at the end of August. I ended up getting offered an excellent job that I’m excited about. It will be different than what I do now in a lot of ways, but I think it will probably be good for me in the long run. We found somewhere to live that Dave and I are both very excited about. My generous aunt and uncle offered up their home to us for a month while we didn’t have anywhere to live. I finally think about moving and am 100% excited about it.

Dave and I are enjoying our last couple of weeks in Utah, but are looking forward to the new place we will soon call home. It’s crazy to think about leaving somewhere so familiar to go somewhere completely unfamiliar, but I am excited for the adventure. We are planning on settling down in California and living there long term or possibly forever. We’ll have to see what the future holds. I am really excited to live somewhere where I don’t feel like it is a temporary phase of my life. That is definitely how I have felt for the last 7 years. So to Utah we say goodbye.

The next few blog posts recap our amazing summer and all of the memories we made.