Fast Forward a Year

We're back! After almost a year in our studio apartment, we're still loving it. Our camera broke, so we've been unable to take pictures of the inside to post, but the basic floorplan is a dumbell with the main room on one side, the kitchen on the other, and the bathroom in the middle. We just bought some curtains to hang in the main room, but we estimated on the size of the curtain rod and it's a tad too short. In the meantime, here's a picture of the front of the building that shows the courtyard we look out to. It's kind of difficult to tell, but there's a little fountain there. The cats love sitting in the windows and watching people as they come and go.

For some personal updates, Noah's updated his career plan to be a nurse. After speaking with people who had worked in the Biochemical Engineering field, he realized that it was not going to be the right fit for him. We're super excited because he's going to participate in the CNA program this summer, so he'll get his foot in the door. He gets to buy his first pair of scrubs!! He wants them in brown so they can hide all of the... well, you know. He's going to be a CNA. I told him blue would go better with his eyes. ;) I am now working full-time at DeVry and just received an award, which was really cool. My first work-related award ever!

The past year hasn't been all fun, though. Noah worked for 6 months at a card shop, which he enjoyed, and was recently let go. That combined with his struggles in school has led to some depressed days. Especially this last quarter he put forth so much time and effort into school that it was a huge disappointment that his grades didn't reflect that better. We've made him an appointment to hopefully see about getting him on some ADD meds and we're hoping that will help. For me, my depressed moments have been feeling like everyone else is moving on with their lives and making progress and specifically having babies while we keep pushing our timeline to have babies back. I know we're doing it all for all the right reasons, but when almost all of our married friends and family members are having kids around us, it's hard to be rational.

I almost forgot one of the biggest changes this last year - we have gone carless. Although we only recently sold the Geo, which was our only car, it's been out of commission since the Fall. As a result, we are now virtuosos of the Pierce Transit Bus System. It's allowed us to save and pay off thousands of dollars in debt. Unfortunately, they will be removing the route that takes me to work with the nearest stop being over a mile and a half away, so it does look like a car will be in our future again this autumn.

If only a 1955 Chevy Bel-air were more practical!