Everything happens for a reason

Funny how things change quickly in life. Like, 2 days before my wedding deciding not to move to New Jersey. That happened pretty suddenly. And now my brother is moving away. That happened REALLY suddenly.

It will be very weird not to have Phillip nearby. Tomorrow, he and his wife Alyssa are moving to Texas. A week ago, I would never have even imagined that they wouldn't be here when their baby is born in October. Let alone next week for the Fourth of July. Even though we've been apart before, I am always the one who leaves. He's always here when I come back. Now he won't be. I don't know if it's quite hit me yet. I love moving around and going to new places, but I am always the leaving, never the left. I don't like being the "left."

In light of this new situation, a few things have happened. Diego and I will be "inheriting" Phillip's new used car, a 2007 Hyundai Sonata. That means our search for a car is finally at an end. Just think, if we had been approved for the loan, we wouldn't have been able to help Phillip out with his car. Interesting how things happen.

So much for double dates...maybe we'll move to Texas too :)

Diego and I are still in the basement of my parents' house. We might be there for a while. I mounted some framed pictures of our wedding and a mirror in our room, along with a nice wall decoration someone gave us as a gift. I'm proud of my self for mastering a power screwdriver. Haha. It feels a little more like a home now. Phillip and Alyssa left us their old DVD player, so now we can even watch movies together in our basement "apartment." We bought an awesome 3 compartment laundry basket, with an ironing table on top. Unfortunately for Diego, I am terrible with an iron. Fortunately for Diego, he served a mission and always ironed his own shirts. :)

Any suggestions on how to make our basement more "home-y"?

Peter Pan may have been on to something

When I was a little kid, I never had to worry too much about money, working 40 hours a week, health care insurance, car insurance, life insurance, and any other kind of insurances there are out there. I definitely didn't think about saving up for retirement. I didn't have to worry about being a good wife, or cooking or being constantly worried about another person.

I think I've had a prolonged childhood. I'm 24 years old and I've never had a car. Never. Which has always worked out fine for me, because I didn't have to shell out each month for a car payment, or insurance or even gas. I'm really good at navigating my way around public transportation, and when that fails, using the Route 11 (my legs). See, that works in other countries, but not so much here in the U.S., although I was doing pretty good up until now.

Nearly a month ago, my prolonged childhood ended, and I started my beautiful new little family. I guess I skipped whatever is supposed to go in between that. Don't get me wrong. I've been working since I was 15 years old. I've lived on my own since I was 18. I've lived in Hawaii, Mexico, Honduras, and Peru, and I've done pretty well at surviving. I'm nearly done with my bachelor's degree. I work a full-time job. But things just change when you get married. All the sudden it's like, you are forced to stop being a kid, because any day, you might be making room for new kids.

I'm not complaining. Being a married adult rocks. It definitely has its perks. Diego and I have a lot of fun together. Last night we stayed in and popped popcorn and watched a movie and ate Red Vines. And we can go to bed whenever we want! (Although I pay for it at 5:30 the next morning when I'm getting up for work...)

I'm not going to lie and say we have been having fun shopping for cars. It's horrible! We got a pre-approved loan through our bank. What I didn't realize is that even though WE are pre-approved, it doesn't mean the car we pick out is. So we finally found the car we wanted last week, and a price we were willing to pay for it. A super beautiful 2003 silver Honda Civic. Basically Diego's dream car. We put a down payment on it to hold the sale price and then took all the info to the bank. Unfortunately, the didn't think the car was worth that much because of the year, so...no loan for us. Which subsequently means no car for us.

I'm just going to invent a flying machine.