Moving in - San Marcos!

So, why the move to San Marcos?  When we met, Danny was going to the community college in Bryan and was prepping/planning for where to go to continue his education.  He knew he wanted to go military and go through the ROTC program, and also get a degree in history.  When it came time to apply for schools, the top choices were either Texas A&M University in College Station, where I graduated and has a long history in military and ROTC with the Corps of Cadets, or Texas State University, where Danny did his freshman year.  (He also applied to University of North Texas, as plan c, just to be safe).  By November, all three schools had accepted him!  So now it was just picking A&M or TX State.

Since both had decent history programs, we talked with both schools' ROTC programs (at this point we weren't sure which branch he would join).  A&M has a navy branch (which also is marines), whereas Texas State only has Air Force and Army.  We were figuring either Marines or Air Force, so after talking to them, we realized that both would require Danny to complete the full four year ROTC course.  A&M's Corp of Cadets isn't exactly family friendly and is a much more involved program.  TX State's Air Force would also be a tough time getting in as the branch is making more cuts.  So, not sure what to do, lots of prayer and a trip to the temple, Danny told me, "We should talk to the army branch."  I was a bit surprised, since neither of us had really considered the army.  But we figured why not.  After talking with them, TX State Army ROTC would let Danny finish in just two years (he would have to take a 4-week summer course to catch up), with opportunities for scholarships as well.  The more we researched, the more it just felt right, as well as to go with TX State's program.

And so, we planned to move to San Marcos between semesters.  It was a little tricky at first (we had to break our apartment lease and find a new place in just two months) and I miss College Station at times (like having a Kroger, or flat roads), but the more things moved along, everything has been falling into place.  We found a nice decently priced apartment close to campus on a bus route with lots of space and ample parking (yay!) and a dishwasher (yay!!) and on a bus route and just a lot of other things that we were wanting.  Not even two weeks after we moved, I found a good job on campus in the Financial Aid Department (whereas I hadn't found anything in College Station in months).  Danny fit right in at school and in the Army ROTC and we both agree this is where we need to be.

So, here's our new place!  (... I think moving in is always a work in progress, and I still haven't gotten a lot of decent pictures of our place, so most of these are the pictures from the apartment complex's website)

We have a 835-sq ft, two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment, all on one floor this time (thankfully).  It's so nice to be able to have an office, and the numerous closets are wonderful.  We don't have a washer and dryer anymore, but we got an apartment just across the parking lot from the complex's laundry, so it's really not that bad - plus, it's kinda nice to be able to do three loads at once.  And the windows let in lots of sunshine! :)

the entrance... we live right on the highway, not too bad, but sometimes annoying since it's the access road and only one way.

We live on the first floor, very nice for moving in, plus it keeps the electric bill pretty low (well, anything would seem really low compared to our last place, lol).

(obviously our kitchen before we moved in... now the counters are covered with toaster, microwave, toaster oven, and knife block)

... one picture of our place currently, one of the few days the place is actually clean, haha.  *eventually* I'll get the place looking how I want and I'll post pictures, or maybe a video tour...

Now that we've moved, a few things I'm learning about moving:
 - always plan on taking twice as long as you think, with twice as many boxes and twice as much tape and ten times as much packing paper.  I never realized how many oddly shaped a/o breakable things we had.
 - labeling is always good (I did do this fairly well), but label the sides, not the tops, because once they're all stacked you can't see the tops anymore
 - double check when the aparment office closes on the day you move (we got in a lot later than planned, so I didn't even think to check that... thank heavens our new landlords were really nice and left us a key, since we got in three hours after they closed for the day)
 - pack a box of essentials ready to unpack first at the new place, including toilet paper, a change of clothes, the shower curtain, soap, bedding, etc. so you're not opening dozens of boxes trying to find them when all you want to do is take a shower and go to sleep.
 - don't be afraid to recruit lots of help (most of our recruits bailed last minute) ... but make sure you're actually ready for them when you say you'll be (Nick had to help us pack a lot of last minute boxes, and then we weren't even at the new place for over an hour after we told the new ward to meet us and help)
 - take pictures of the new place before any boxes even come in - it seemed sooo big and clean back then, it'd be nice to actually remember that.