Sandusky Here We Come!

After A LOT of deliberation and waiting we finally found out Friday that we indeed are moving to Sandusky, Ohio. There is a picture below to give you and idea as to where this place is because if you are like me I had no idea it even exsisted until now. We are very excited, although we really wish it was a warmer destination.

It is a small town, about 30,000, but only an hour away from both Toledo and Cleavland. I have to admit I am a little nervous about moving to a smaller place. I have done some research on-line to see if there will be job opportunities like I have now and it doesn't seem likely. I don't make a ton of money but I do make enough to pay the bills so that we don't have to live off loan money. That may not be the case next year. Gotta love student debt! And lots of it! The other thing that makes me nervous is I have never not worked. I am not sure how I will handle being home all day. Don't get me wrong, I love being home with Cambri, and wouldn't want it any other way, but it is nice to have and hour or two a day to get out and do my own thing. Cambri either stays home with Nate or plays in the daycare while I teach so it has worked out perfect.

The great part about it all is we are going to be moving with some of our good friends from Iowa- Annie and Caleb, Jenni and Nick and Liz. It will be nice to have friends from day one.

And rent there is really cheap...I think. The hope is to get a 3 bedroom apartment so that we have room for visitors. And yes you will want to visit! Here are a few highlights to intice you...

1. Sandusky is the #1 tourist attraction in Ohio.

2. Home to Cedar Point the largest roller coaster park in the USA (maybe even in the world).

You can check out the website-http://www.cedarpoint.com/

3. For you fellow church members Kirtland is only about 1.5 hours away.

4. Niagra Falls is just over 4 hours away.

5. "The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities" has chosen Sandusky as the sixth best small city in America in a comparison of 193 U.S. "micropolitan" areas (cities with 15,000-50,000 residents).

6. Lots of fun outdoor activites especially since it is right on the water.

7. And of course it will be home to Me, Nate and baby Cambri. The best reason to come visit:).

The thriving downtown district:) Cute though don't you think?

You know you want to!!!

I may be motivated to pick up running if this is my scenery.

I will do more research to find fun things to do. So start planning you vacation to Ohio:)!

Pet Peeves...

I have had a few things on my mind the last few days so I thought I would use my blog to exercise my freedom of speech:)

1. Dirty people- and what I mean by that is people who litter. I was sitting at the stop light last Thursday when the girl in front of me rolled down her window and with no reservations threw a brown paper bag on the ground. I couldn't believe what I just saw. How could she think that was ok? To make myself feel better I layed on the horn. Probably immature but it made me feel better. If the light would have stayed red longer I would have gone and picked the bag up and put it back in her car.

2. Call me Scrooge...People who leave their Christmas decorations up after the holidays are over. I don't know why it bothers me so much.

3. Strange people (especially at Wal-mart) who think it is ok to touch Cambri's hands and face.

4. The Hollywood invasion of the presidential election and innaguration. Why must we analyze the color of the First Lady's dress? And why do we care that she wore J. Crew gloves? Don't we have bigger issues to be worrying about?

5. The guy who does the Sham-Wow and Oxy-Clean commercials.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest:)

Mommy Advice...

Over the last month Cambri has started to show a little stranger anxiety. It is still mild, and only exhibits itself when she is tired or hungry. So maybe it isn't stranger anxiety. Pretty much she is just a momma's girl. The problem is everytime she sees me she becomes such a whiny baby. But once she has me she just wants me to hold her and doesn't really want my attention. And a lot of the time she continues to be very needy and whiny. You can totally tell she is trying to play me. How do they get so smart? The biggest problem is bedtime. If I try to put her down she freaks out. As soon as I leave the room she is screaming and won't calm down. Nate will then go in 5-10 minutes later to calm her down, and with not much effort can get her to roll on her side and fall asleep. If I am the one to go in to calm her down it just starts the whole cycle again and she won't calm down unless I pick her up. I don't want her to think that I will just give in everytime so I let her scream, but this doesn't always seem like the most effective route. The night usually ends with daddy finally calming her down and me feeling stressed. It is nice that she knows me and wants me to hold her, but why is this also leading to her being such a stinker!?

Any advice?

I know...hard to believe this little one has an evil side to her.

Time to baby proof the aparment.

Mommy and Cambri

Just love this girl...

...more and more everyday!

The decision has been made...

We have known for a long time that we were going to have to make the decision to either stay in Iowa for Nate's 3rd and 4th year of school or move to Ohio. If any of you know Nate you know that he is not the best decision maker in the world. Let us just say he is a little afraid of committment. So although we had pretty much made up our minds as to where we would be spending the next 2 years, the final decision wasn't made until 30 minutes prior to the deadline. So here is to another adventure......Ohio here we come! We won't know what city until the end of the month. The options are Dayton, Colombus, Sandusky, Toledo and Cleavland. I really wish that we had the option to move somewhere just a little warmer (I am just asking for temps above zero degrees), but beggers can't be choosers.

It does make me a little nervous that we are moving further from Utah and Idaho. That makes for one LONG drive home for the holidays! The goal is to eventually make it back closer to the West coast but that doesn't seem to be an option for the time.

I am actually very excited for the new adventure. I have loved being here in Iowa, but I feel ready to experience a new place. I do want to say that we have been VERY blessed with great friends and I can only hope that we find something similar in Ohio.

Get Organized...

...that is ONE of my New Year's Resolutions. I have actually been very proactive with this goal. But why is it that in my attempt to be more organized my home looks like it has been hit by a bomb? I bought some containers to organize my Christmas decorations, which led to pulling everything out of our storage closet and going through every box we own. You would think that being such a mobile family (moving almost every year) we wouldn't hang on to so many useless items and papers. Our closet now looks awesome. Problem is there is a bunch of stuff outside of the closet that doesn't have a home. Which will probably lead to buying more storage containers and unloading more closets, finding more homeless items. What a vicious cycle. But I am determined to GET ORGANIZED. Even if it means getting rid of everything we own.

As for my other goals for 2009-

1. I don't know what to name this one. But my goal is to get ready more often. I don't leave our apartment that often and if I do it is to teach a class at the gym. Therefore I don't put much effort into looking cute. So I plan this year to be much cuter. In hopes that my husband doesn't forget why he was first attracted to me.

2. Play the piano at least 4 days a week. I am loving fulfilling this one.

3. Get our emergency supplies in order. There were a lot of crazy things that happened last year that left people without power, water, food etc. All the natural diasters hit way too close to home. In my attempts to GET ORGANIZED I will find room for our emergency supplies.

Happy New Year!