New Identities

This story begins last Friday. Caleb and I decided that before school got crazy we better go and get our Virginia driver's licenses. The Virginia DMV has what seemed to be the coolest thing ever - you can go online and see what the average wait time is at all of the nearby DMVs. When we checked the website, it said that Arlington was 45 minutes, Springfield was 40 minutes, and Alexandria was 18 minutes. Obviously we chose Alexandria.

By the time we made it to the DMV in Alexandria, which I should mention here is a very diverse area, the line was literally out the door. We waited 20 minutes just to get our ticket and sit down. We also waited behind a girl who I have affectionately been calling "jammies" because she was not only wearing her pajamas and slippers, but looked like she had JUST rolled out of bed and smelled like she had last showered I don't even know when. Anyways, that is beside the point.

When we got out tickets, we were 37C and 38C. The board showed that they were on 28C. The 18 minute wait came and went. After about 20 minutes we finally found seats together. We quickly learned that there were MANY categories of people being called, in fact, there were A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, M, N, P, R, T, and X. Ridiculous right!

We sat, and sat and sat and saw some REALLY interesting things. Let's start with the girl who sat 2 rows behind us with her mom. She was there for her first license. We didn't hear anything out of her until another young guy sat down next to Caleb. Apparently they went to the same school before she got kicked out and sent to juvy.... o, and by the way, her mom won't let her out of the house until she gives birth to her baby. Whoa....

Next, we'll turn to Mr. Anger Managment. The DMV was set up so that there were about 12 counters at the front and then the rest of the room had chairs sitting and facing the counters so you could see what was happening. This guy was wearing work boots, shorts, a tshirt and a nationals vizer. He had been at the counter about 15 minutes and finally got through all of the paperwork to take his picture for his license. I guess the lady asked him to lower his chin but didn't take the picture fast enough for his pleasure. He voiced his displeasure rather loudly and rudely. The frightened worker then refused to serve him any further. This infuriated him. The manager then got involved. She explained the process to him and asked him to calm down. He was still mad that the other girl would not serve him. As he mouthed off about it being his tax dollars that kept the DMV open to serve him, a US citizen, the manager called for security. Things got really real really fast. As security touched him on the arm, it was like a bomb exploded. Obsenities, racials slurs, I mean EVERYTHING came out of his mouth. I actually remember judging the distance between me in him in case he tried to escape from the security officer/pull a gun. In retrospect, I was overreacting, but it was still incredibly scary and yet entertaining. I think the guy is a moron because he waited 1 1/2 hours, got all the way to the point of taking his picture, and just ended up getting escorted out by security.

We continued to wait. At the 2 hour point, they called my number. Unlike in Texas where all you have to do is show them your driver's license and a local piece of mail, Virginia seriously does a full background check. I had to have: my Tx driver's license, my social security card, my passport, my marriage certificate, and a piece of local mail. Ridiculous. PLUS, once I got to the window, the girl decided that my Verizon service order with my full name and address on it wouldn't work! Luckily, I had prepared for the worst. I brought an old pay stub with our forwarding address on it. She still wouldn't accept it! Because I had done a family forwarding and so it only had "Osborne" as the forwarding name, she couldn't verify it was mine.... EVEN THOUGH IT WAS A PAY STUB WITH MY NAME ON IT! I was about to pull a Mr. Anger Management and freak out on them, when the girl said she would ask her manager. Like I told Caleb, I had waited for more than 2 hours, I wasn't leaving without my license (ironic that is the same phrase that got Mr. Anger Management kicked out).

Luckily, the manager was a reasonable woman and said my verizon work order would work.... either that, or she saw the look in my eye and figured she didn't want to have a repeat and have to deal with Mrs. Anger Management. Next interesting thing about VA licenses.... you aren't allowed to smile! And, they're black and white. At that point, I didn't care. I gave them my best "neutral expression," paid my $30 and walked out the door. Caleb and I are trying not to spend money, but after that we had to go out to lunch and go shopping for a bit.

Anyways, all that story to say that our licenses came in the mail today. I seriously laughed out loud for 5 minutes when I opened them. I don't know if it's that they are black and white, I don't know if it's because we weren't allowed to smile, or if it was all the stress of 2 hours in the DMV, but they look like mug shots. Seriously. Ready to have a laugh?

Don't we make an attractive, happy looking pair? Best part... these will be our IDs until 2017. Whoop!

Grocery Store Appreciation Day

I am declaring today grocery store appreciation day. Most of you probably don't know, but to help Caleb and I earn a little bit of money, I am doing retail work for Crossmark. What exactly is retail work? Well, I'm glad you asked. There are 2 types, resets and projects work. Project work is where you go into individual stores and do a task by yourself- example: this week I have to go to 9 CVS's in the area and

a) measure their gastro intestinal section and report back its size and
b) set up sunscreen displays and make sure that everything is stocked.

Not bad, especially because it is flexible. You get assigned tasks and have 2 weeks to go do it. Perfect for a student. Alright, then there are resets. Let me preface this by saying, STEPHANIE HATES RESETS. These are where you go into a store as part of a team and do a HUGE (usually 4-8 hour) project. Last week, I was assigned to my first reset. I met with 10 of my new "friends" in Mclean, VA at a grocery store. We proceeded to take EVERY box of cereal off of the rack, change the aisle from being 4 shelves to 5 shelves and then completely reorder, restock, tag, and stock all of the cereal. You can imagine how fun it was.

Now, on to why today is grocery appreciation day. Today I started day one of a three day, 8 1/2 hour a day project. Fun, huh. I was told it was a reset in Centreville (45 minutes away). When I showed up, I found an ethnic grocery store under construction. But to my surprise, this was not so much a reset as much as it was a set up....

Have you every wondered how all of the food in a grocery store got put in its place, how it all fit correctly, how it was organized, continually stocked, etc? Drum roll please..... yes, that was me today. I walked into an empty grocery store with 25 pallets of food that were taller than me. We had to lug the boxes down the aisles to their general "food group." Then we had to build all of the shelves. Next, we had to organize and figure out how to fit everything nicely on the shelves, then place all the price tags. Next we had to unpack all the boxes and stock the shelves. There were 20 of us there and we worked 8 1/2 hours. We finished 1 and a half aisles..... ya.

So, in honor of all my hard work today I am declaring it grocery store appreciation day. The next time you are in the grocery store, take a moment to appreciate the food you are taking off of the shelves. Say a silent thank you to the people like me who get up at the crack of dawn and kill themselves so that the food is so nicely organized for you. If you take something off of the shelf, put it back in its spot and make sure its facing forward. Because you know why.... when you don't.... people like me get up at the crack of dawn and come back behind you and spin it back to face forward. : )

Anyways, enough of that. Tomorrow is Caleb's first day of law school orientation, so if you get a moment say a quick prayer for him tomorrow. I know he's going to great! Well, I better start heading to bed... I have to be in my car on the road at 6am tomorrow. Ah, a day in the life of a grocery store resetter.

WE MADE IT!!!!

WE MADE IT!!!! And it seems like so much has happened since I last posted I have enough info for 100 posts! Here is the brief version.....

Micah and Kelsey are married!!!!!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful and the reception so much fun! I officially now have my 4th sister! Sunday after the wedding, we had one last family lunch with Caleb's family before my parents picked us up to hit the road. We thought it would be a good idea to leave the uhaul at the church and just have them pick us up in the 4runner and then go back to the truck because Caleb's street is so hilly. However.... we didn't think about that the car would have the seats down in the back and be completely packed with stuff. So..... this is how me and my mom road back to the uhaul

It was interesting but at least it distracted us from crying as we drove away. Our first stop was Nashville. I should probably stop here and say that the only pictures I took between here and DC were of Scarlett. By the end of each day, having driven/rode in the 4runner with the dog or in the uhaul I was so tired and so gross I definitely didn't want to take pictures of myself so......

Here is Scarlett at the hotel in Nashville

Here is Scarlett in the hotel in Harrisonburg, VA

Here is Scarlett in our new place saying please don't put me in the car anymore!

We finally made it in to Arlington, VA around lunch last Tuesday and the moving craziness began. The initial plan was for us to live here for a year and then move somewhere else. Let's just say that after moving everything in here, we won't be going anywhere for a long time.

We are learning that the 9th floor has its advantages and disadvantages. It took a couple of days but we have finally convinced Scarlett to use her puppy pad on the balcony. We still try to take her down to the park out front at least once/twice a day, but for the rest of the time, the balcony it is!

We thought it would be nice that we are facing the park and not the busy street and mall, which it is, BUT the park has a public soccer field and I promise you people are out there 24-7 playing. We like to leave our balcony door open for some fresh air, but then you have to listen to them hoop and holler over there. Caleb thinks we should find the schedules, pick teams and actually start following them.

Alot of people have been asking, and where we live is technically Arlington, VA. We live in an area called Pentagon City which is right on the metro. We live just down the street from the Pentagon, just across the river from DC, and just North of Alexandria. If you walk out our front door, you walk straight to a park. If you walk straight out the back door, you walk about 20 feet into a Nordstroms (HEAVEN!!!!) Attached to the Nordstroms is a Ritz Carlton and a 4 story mall full of EVERYTHING you could ever want. The metro itself is actually beneath the mall so its SUPER close. Across the street from the mall is a California Pizza Kitchen, Best Buy, Costco, Nordstrom Rack, and a Mexican food restaurant that's not too bad (yay!) If you walk the other direction, there is a nice area called Pentagon row. It's got lots of shops/cafes on the bottom floors and then apartments above. There is a Champs, Bally's fitness, Bed Bath and Beyond, Smoothie King, Harris Teeter (our grocery store), etc. etc. So we basically live within reach of anything we could need. It took about 2 days to find but if you drive 2 miles we can get to a Target and a movie theater.

Even though our apartment is not that big it has taken FOREVER to get everything put away. We also had to wait a week once we got here for them to come set up cable and internet (which is why this blog post is so delayed). It is just now finally starting to feel like a real house. Here are a few pictures of the more "finished" rooms:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this kitchen. The one in our first place (which I from here on will refer to as "the hole" was so old and nasty. This kitchen has stainless steel appliances, and an oven that actually works, a nice microwave, a sprayer connected to the sink, the dishwasher actually cleans the dishes, and there is counter space! AHHHHH I LOVE it! I drug Caleb to Whole Foods with me to load up with good food (his comment is that he approves of the food but doesn't feel very manly in there so from here on out I have to shop by myself). My mother-in-law also makes the BEST chocolate chip cheesecake, so to honor my new kitchen, I made one:

Here are a few pictures of/from our balcony.

Our view of the soccer field

My plant and Scarlett's puppy pad

Scarlett LOVES her new home

Ok, this is the last room I'm posting for the night. When you first walk into our apartment, there are two closets immediately to the right. One is our linen/trash/cleaning supply/junk closet and the other is the pantry. The kitchen is to the left and the living room walks straight through to the balcony.

Yes, I know. We have alot of books..... We also want to put a few pictures on the wall but we can't seem to find any good ones... like old black and white or DC landmarks etc. We're still looking but its a good start. Our "entertainment center" is actually 4 different pieces from ikea (Caleb hated me for making him put them together but they were cheap!) and then our tv. I LOVE it! It makes it look like an entertainment center even though its just bookcases and dvd shelves. As you probably noticed, no, we do not have a dining room table. Sadly, it was one of the pieces of furniture that did not make it out of College Station when the trailer was too full. Sooooo, until further notice we are eating on TV trays. I kind of like it. I think it fits us... two poor students living in the big city haha. O well.

Well, I better turn in. We tried a church last weekend that we liked and are going back to visit a Sunday school class there tomorrow. I'll update again soon and show off some of the other rooms! Also, if there is anyone else that you think would enjoy reading this or keeping track of us, feel free to pass it along! Goodnite!

Another Long Update

I know I know! I've done a TERRIBLE job of keeping the blog updated. I tried the excuse on my mom that we didn't have anything exciting enough to blog about and she listed off several things that I had forgotten to write about.

First, Caleb is no longer going to George Mason. YES, he is still going to law school, but he will be joining me as a fighting Colonial at George Washington University! Initially, he had been waitlisted and GW was his dream school, so when he found out that he had been accepted from the waitlist, he flew out to go on an official visit, and that was that! It will be nice that we are now both going the same place on the metro.

 

Next, we officially have a new home! We have an apartment in Arlington, VA in an area called Pentagon City. Our apartment is a one bedroom, two bathroom with a study/den and it is on the 9th floor. I'm not sure how Scarlett will adjust to the 9th floor but at least she will have a balcony! We are super excited to have a new, nicer home. Our complex is only one block from the metro and within walking distance of a grocery store, drug store, barnes and noble, starbucks, shopping mall, Nordstroms (yay!), and lots of restaurants. We knew life would be crazy with both of us in school so we thought we would live somewhere easy : ) I don't have pictures of our apartment yet (obviously!) but when I do I'll be sure to share.

We have also officially left College Station for good (thank the lord!) As much as I love Aggieland, it just felt wrong to be there after I graduated. Our apartment was an absolute hole and Caleb said he always felt like he lived in "my apartment" so we are very glad to get out of there! Packing was QUITE an adventure. The original plan was for us to rent a trailor to hitch up to my 4runner. We would load the trailer, clean the apartment, and Caleb would drive the trailer to Dallas and I would drive his jeep. From there, he would drive his car to Little Rock (which we are leaving) and then I would fly to Little Rock and my parents would drive the trailer up. From there, all four of us (and Scarlett) would drive the trailer to DC. WELL...... we did pick up the trailer but it became immediately clear that all of our stuff was NOT going to fit.

Caleb repairing the damage Scarlett did to the kitchen

Attempting to clean the oven/Poison me and Caleb with oven cleaner

Not even half of our stuff/AKA the moment we realized it wasn't all going to fit...

More stuff....

We thought it would be a good idea to just sleep on our mattress on the floor

the last night so we could pack it up quicker. BAD idea. Worst night sleep I've had in

a LOOOONNNNGGG time!

We woke up on Friday morning to go get our trailer and apparently it was too much trouble for us to get our trailer at the Uhaul 2 minutes from our house, or the one 5 minutes, or 10 minutes.... we got sent 10 MILES down the highway to the bad part of Bryan, in the middle of nowhere and had to get our trailer from this SHADY little hut. It was weird.

Our trailer!

Yes, that is the shed we rented our trailer from. The people lived in the camper next to it....

There were extra furniture blankets in the truck and the lady told me to keep them

and use them to keep us warm at night.... scary!

This is the last picture I have of the trailer. Things went downhill from here.

Basically, we ended up loading the trailer to the BRIM, loaded both of our cars, and then threw away some stuff. The worst part is that as we are painfully deciding what to throw away and sadly putting it in the dumpster, people came out of their apartments/drove up and started dumpster diving for our stuff! They didn't even have the decency to let us drive away before taking our belongings! I was offended. Anyways.... the new plan. Once we got to Dallas, we unloaded the trailer in my parents garage and returned it. Caleb still drove to Little Rock in the jeep which is staying here, I still flew to Little Rock. My parents got the bad end of the deal.... They had to pick up the newly rented Uhaul TRUCK, and load back up all of our stuff without us, and drive both the car with my dog and the truck up to Little Rock. THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!!! : )

SO, that brings us to the present. Tonight was Micah (Caleb's youngest bother) and Kelsey's rehearsal dinner. Mrs. O did an AMAZING job decorating the church tonight. We had fried catfish, chicken and shrimp. It was delicious! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from tonight.

The rehearsal dinner

The head table

Aren't the centerpieces so cute!!! She made them herself!

My cupcake!

The kids pretty much took down the rehearsal they were so adorable! Noah is the ringbearer and Mollie is the flower girl. I got pictures of pretty much everyone but Ellie tonight because she insisted that I not take her picture... grr... maybe tomorrow : )

Miss Annie.... the closest I got to a smile

I LOVED her headband!

All set to hold hands and walk down the aisle. SOOOO cute!

I LOVE this picture. Noah is clearly loving whatever was happening, Mollie.... not so much

Here they come!

Noah hanging out. When they asked him if he wanted to walk down the aisle again, he said "YES!"

Here comes the bride!

Practicing the unity candle

Swinging his ringer bearer's gift bat!

Adorable!

The wedding is tomorrow! And I will have yet another sister! My parents are coming up tomorrow for the wedding and then Sunday after lunch we are heading out for DC. Sunday night we are driving as far as Nashville, then Monday to Harrisonburg Virginia, and then into Arlington on Tuesday where we have to move everything up to the 9th floor. YAY!

I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE I will update more regularly, now that I have things to update about : )  BUT it may be a couple of days due to the traveling. The other night as I was packing up all of me and Caleb's books, a bookmark fell out. I honestly have no idea where it came from but I thought it was absolutely perfect for our new adventure. It said:

Dare to dream

Follow your heart

Opportunity if calling

Now is the time to start

We've been talking about this big adventure for so long I can't believe we are finally on our way! I'll update about our roadtrip again soon!

~Stephanie~

System Meltdown

I know it has been forever since I updated but its not entirely my fault this time! I went to update my blog about 2 weeks ago and I couldn't get my computer to turn on. Well, that's not true. It would turn on but the only thing it would show is the blue screen of death.... you know that one with all of the codes on it and that makes you panic. After 2 hours on the phone with Dell helpdesk, it was decided that my harddrive had died a very sad death and that chances are I was going to lose everything. I immediately packed my laptop off to Best Buy and the geeksquad where it spent nearly a week. Luckily, they were able to salvage my pictures and music files but it was not cheap : ( It was worth it to at least get my wedding and honeymoon pictures back. After that I had to wait a few more days for Dell to come and install my new harddrive, a few more days after that to reload all of my programs, and a few days after that I had completely forgotten I had a blog! Thanks to gran for telling my mom that I never update my blog who passed on the message to me to update it!

We have all sorts of exciting news but FIRST, I'll start with the news we got today. WE OFFICIALLY HAVE AN APARTMENT IN D.C.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finding an apartment in D.C. is a little like playing a game. The communities list the specific apartments online at a price that varies by the day, sometimes by the hour. Each apartment is different so leasing agents have told us that the chances of finding one that meets all of our needs is extremely unlikely. We REALLY wanted an apartment with either 2 bedrooms or a bedroom and a den, a balcony for my dog, newer kitchen appliances, and a washer/dryer in the unit. We also wanted to live right on the metro line and not pay a million dollars. We've been watching the websites of our favorite communities but nothing that met all our needs UNTIL, we found a 1 bedroom, 1 den, 2 bathroom apartment on the 9th floor, 1 block from the metro, stainless steel appliances, a balcony, washer dryer in the unit, and just about our price level.... so we took it! We are going to be living in Pentagon City which is kind of an urban village area just across the street from the Pentagon! It will be super easy for us to ride the metro and everything is super close and within walking distance. I'm so excited!!!! It is starting to seem real that we are really moving. I'm sure the summer will fly by : )

So a funny story I've been dying to share : ) Caleb started working Facilities at the hotel with me about 3 weeks ago. His first night, we had a group of science olympics kids staying in the hotel. They were pretty much everything you imagine when you think of kids who are traveling to compete in a science olympics tournament. They also paid to have an armed police officer patrol our hotel all night to protect them... ya. Anyways, they were semi-obnoxious and demanding and on Caleb's first night, as he's sweeping down the lobby, two girls walked past him and muttered with disdain, "how pathetic!" Poor Caleb, if his self-esteem that he was working facilities at a hotel while working on his master's degree wasn't bad enough, that sure did. I've laughed REALLY hard about that. Overall, I think Caleb likes working the hotel alright. It's really fun when we get to work the same shift and are the only ones where, "the Osbornes run the Marriott."

Everything else is starting to wind down for the summer here. Caleb is done with school except for one last trip to New Orleans tomorrow for his capstone project. I am taking my econ final in the morning and will be done with the worst course in the history of life ever.... online macroeconomics from Blinn. Ick! Caleb graduates on Friday at 2pm and then he is free, he will have his Master's Degree! To celebrate, we are going to Dallas the next weekend to see the Cubs play the Rangers.

Well, I think this update is long enough and I need to count down my drawer and close out my shift so I can get out of here by 11. I PROMISE I will update more regularly (just for you Gran!)

Stephanie