Settling In

This week we have been getting settled in to our new apartment in our small town. I have to say we've been dragging our feet on this one. I think it's because after a second move in one month we aren't as motivated to decorate as before (or we just don't have any energy left). We were worried about putting a house's worth of belongings back into an apartment, but everything seems to be finding its place.

We were both worried about living in a small town after living in Austin. It has it's ups and downs but we are finding little things to do. It does have a mall (not a good one) and a movie theatre. We discovered Lake Belton yesterday and took Boss. We really enjoyed that.

The only time I think to myself "Oh my gosh, I'm living in a small town!" is when we are trying to decide where to eat out and we realize our limited choices. Also, in a packet he received from the school was a list of advise from previous med students. One's advise was "BJ's has a great happy hour." BJ's is like a Chili's, but a little more upscale. That was another "Oh my gosh, we're living in a small town!!" Another downfall, is the job search. I haven't heard good things from other spouses and haven't had much luck so far. I will definitely be having to open my search.

We find ourselves riding in the car making jokes with heavy Texas accents... "Busier than a one-eyed cat watchin two mouse holes." The funny thing is we've been making jokes so much that sometimes the heavy accent comes out when we aren't making jokes... Ooops! I wouldn't be surprised if we "tawked" funny when we left this place.

Because we decided to attend A&M last minute, we've been playing catch up this past week. We weren't able to attend Welcome Meetings and Pre-Orientation days to get our feet wet on what to expect. To my surprise there were a few things that were different from school to school... medical insurance for students (TCOM was covered by the tuition and TAMUHSC you have to seek out on your own and show proof of), ordering laptops, books, and equipment, schedules, and so forth. It's do-able to play catch up but a little pain doing it last minute. With all these Type-A student doctors running around, I'm sure their staff has their work cut out for them.

This past week we also attended a good friend of ours' wedding out in Marble Falls. It was a good weekend away from the week of chaos we are currently living and was a great time to visit with old football friends.

For July 4th, we were brave and went to a party hosted by 2 ER Drs at their lakehouse with other students and residents through a local church. We didn't know a soul but knew it was something we could only benefit from. We had a lot of fun meeting everyone and they were all kind and very welcoming. Most of them were in their residencies. We walk in and the room was filled with 5 month old babies! Someone mentioned that all of their babies were due around the same 6 weeks. Pregnancy pact?? Most of the couples were both doctors. I cannot imagine being a resident, as well as my husband, being pregnant, giving birth, and having a new born to take care of. They all looked so tired! haha. I think we will be taking on a few babysitting jobs soon. One piece of advise I received from a spouse about our new small town was it really is the people (and no traffic) that makes the town great. Being there and meeting all of them really did make that true.

Small town's aren't that bad,
B

Change of plans...

While in Boston for vacation, we received a phone call from a second med school. After lots of praying and evaluation, we decided that the last minute move was worth it professionally. Comparing the two schools, one provides more resources for surgeons. Although during our decision we received a lot of opinions from others (good and bad), it was important that we made our deciscion on our own as a family and for all that right reasons. It has been hard to explain why we have lived in this city for just a few weeks and are moving again, but we trust God in this adventure and that he will provide the means for us to follow his path. God has exceeded our expectations and everything has quickly fallen in to place. We were able to find a last minute apartment below our price range and only a block away from school, in less than a week we have someone set to take over our lease here and even sooner than we were needing, and he has provided someone to support us financially through this move and quick transition.

We appreciate everyone's support and understanding through this decision. Where we are now is a great city and we would recommend it to anyone. Now we are off to "small town" living....

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways, submit to Him

And he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Going Away Parties

Our last few weeks in Austin were filled with lots of going away parties, get togethers, saying a goodbyes...

1. We were able to have dinner with our newlywed group's mentors before we left. We went to a restaurant on South Congress called HopDaddys - the best burgers ever, and milkshakes too! At that time they were a few weeks away from having their first child, so it was great to hear everything they were doing to prepare. Since then they now have a healthy little boy named Gabriel and we wish them the very best!!

2. The in-laws had a BBQ for us the Sunday before we left. It was nice to eat, lay out by the pool, play with the doggies, and enjoy some family time before we left. Yum! :)

3. At work we always had a monthly potluck for birthdays, anniversaries, and anything else we can come up with a reason to celebrate. This month we had a potluck for my going away and another girls baby shower! We both got gifts and it was a great way to say goodbye to the team. One of my friends at work is an amazing baker. We always ask her "Why do you work here? Go start your own bakery!" Hopefully, one day she will be able to fulfill that. I have to show off her amazing cupcakes for the mama to be!

and yes she made those little duckies from scratch. She melted starbursts and formed them her self and added eyes with frosting. Talented, eh?

4. We also went to Gloria's at the domain with more friends from other departments at work. At work we were constantly emailing others in another department or floor and it's rare to get a chance to put a face to the name. It's always a pleasure to hang out with the people you constantly email outside of work too.

5. We also got to do some last minute dinners and hang outs with some other friends as well! And we are ready for people to come visit us!!

God puts friends in your life for a reason, even if it is only for a season.

Check out our Fortune Cookies we got at dinner the first week in our new home...

...And on to the next season of our lives! :)

Updates

Car Shopping...

To make a long story short, we came to the decision that now is not the time for us to buy a car. The main thing holding us back was that we recently got the title changed for my car and it is still in the temporary status; it will take 4-6 weeks for the paperwork to go through. As much as we brainstormed, we had too many expenses coming up for the big move, vacations, and med school. We also made the point that it is more important to us to not be even more stressed each month for money. We would rather enjoy going on outings with new friends, than driving around in an older car for one more year. We are happy with the decision we made and have reflected back on the decision multiple times with great contentment.

A few good things - one reason we didn't want to buy a car during a semester of med school, is because this med student wouldn't be able to give as much time, energy, and research for car searching. So I am grateful we spent that time diving into this process and being 'so close' to buying, that we know what to expect and prepare for when that time does come. It is very important to us to live within our means (we will save that topic for a later post). It is definitely hard to budget a car payment when we don't know the full income we will have.


Moving...
Well, both of our parents ended up moving on the exact same day, and then us a week later. Busy, Busy, Busy! We ended up inherting a lot of furniture that we are very grateful for.
PS: I would just like to take some time to show my appreciation for having such a strong husband. He makes moving easier on me and more affordable and he definitely put all those muscles to good use! Lets just say I came home from work early ready to fill our Uhaul and when I got home he had it ALL done. By himself. Couches, kitchen table, dressers, beds, everything!

We are now getting settled in. We love our new house and there are definitely some adjustments we are making. More to come.

Love,
the Bs

Austin, Texas

Things to do in Austin before we leave...

- Running at Town Lake

- Alamo Drafthouse

- Driftwood for Salt Lick BBQ

- Float the river in New Braunfels

- Zilker Park

- Taverna for breakfast

- Watch the bats on Congress bridge

- Habanas

- Vivo's

- Amy's Ice Cream

Any other suggestions?

We have grown up in Austin, attended college nearby, gotten married in Austin, and spent our first married year in Austin. It will be sad to go, because no other city compares, but we are ready to leave and start this new chapter in our life!

We will begin moving to our new city on May 13th and our last day of work in Austin is May 27th. We have been saving up for quite a while to spend the month of June in our new city, going on trips, getting settled in, and spending time together before med school starts. The sad realization is we won't be spending this much time together for decades to come. The lifestyle of a physician, even after med school, is very similar to med school itself. They say med school prepares you to live on less sleep and master time management. So it isn't going to get easy anytime soon. I know that the month of June will be a month that we will remember forever - our last hoorah!

Our current work schedules have prepared us for med school. I work 8-5 and hubby works 2pm - 11pm (including the weekends). We are constantly missing eachother because of work. As frustrating it is, the silver lining is maybe med school won't seem so bad right off the bat. Yesterday, we had our first day where both of us had the same day off. I took the day off so that we could go to the dentist together. We haven't had a day off together and spent more than 24 hours together in months! We had a lot of fun, even though we just ran errands all day. It was just a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in June...

Our first med school challenge!

This week has been absolutely crazy! A roller coaster to say the least. Everyday we get excited about something, and then we run into a speed bump. We can't stay too excited around here too long...

We have found out our first med school challenge - Student loans for cost of living can not be used as proof of income.

During this month we had 3 things to do: sublet our apartment out for the last 2 months of our lease, find a house in Ft. Worth, and find a job.

1. Sublet our apartment - this task had to be done before all the others. We have saved financially to have to pay 2 months rent (our apartment here and our new rent in Ft. Worth) for the month of July. It was important to us to move weeks before med school started so that we would be able to get acquainted with the new town and have some fun before medschool books was all he saw. In March and April we posted on Craigs List to sublet for June and July and got no bites. We finally decided to post May, June, and July and see if we get any bites for people who want to move in the end of May. We got some bites alright! Four people called/emailed in the first four hours and we are still receiving emails and phone calls. But everyone who called was asking if they could move in the last week of April?! That would be fine minus the fact that we would be homeless for weeks! We did weigh our options before we turned them all away - living with parents/inlaws until a home in Ft. Worth was ready. Next speed bump - both of our parents (who currently live in/near the same town as us) are in the process of selling their houses and buying new ones. Yes, all three of us are moving within weeks of eachother. Talk about bad timing. Then, God gave us some random guy from Wisconsin who wanted to move in the very last week May. He was happy he found a place and we were happy with the timeline. Yay!

2. Finding a new home - Our last blog was about buying or renting. And this is where we found out about our first medschool challenge. We talked to a loan officer and they found out that we would not be able to buy a home unless I (the non-student) could prove 3 months of previous income. Well, that is not going to work out because I have to quit and find a new job. Normal families move because of a spouse finding a new job and can/will provide income. In our case, we are moving because a spouse is becoming a student again. Good information. Now we know for the future. So moving right along...
We found a house to rent that was within our budget. The only downfall is the distance from the school. This was at first our number one priority. But we quickly learned that we were forgetting other obvious priorities - like safety. Our budget was reasonable, however the campus is downtown and within a cultural district. So all the houses we were looking at were over budget or in a rougher area. Kid you not, my husband said he didn't even feel safe leaving Boss (our dog) there, let alone his wife.

We finally found a house within budget in a great safe area that immediately felt like home. We didn't have our realtor with us since we were just paroozing after orientation on Saturday, so we weren't able to see the inside. We came home, told our realtor we were interested, it was still available, and we drove back up there last minute on Wednesday using our vacation work time to meet our realtor. We liked it. It fit. The end. We came back home to fill out the application. Next speed bump - the house was not listed with the application like the realtor had said. We were in contact with the realtor and he emailed us "Hm, that must mean it's not available anymore. I'll get with the realtor tomorrow and let you know." Seriously? It was available this morning and I wasted a vacation day for this. Awesome. So the agent said there was a mistake and it IS available (whoo!) and he gave us the application. We filled it out and good to go. Now here's the next speed bump: the application processor asked us if my job will be continued in Ft. Worth. Uh, no! - I'm in the process of quitting and job searching. So, buying OR renting - student loans is not proof of income. Good to know.

3. Job Search/Proof of income - We have been saving up a lot of money to really enjoy the month of June and get settled into the place we will call home for the next 4-8 years. It was important to me to spend time putting together and nesting our new home. One thing I learned from these past few apartments is if I know I am moving in 12 months, I will put off decorating and unpacking. To give you an idea, there are still a few boxes we never unpacked here. So, I juggled around the idea How do I start looking for a job but say I can't start for another 3 months or Find a job and then ask for 2 weeks off? We decided I wasn't going to crunch down on job searching until we got there. This will allow me to breathe a little bit and reduce some stress.
Then my boss at work informed me that she is trying to create a new position for me in their Dallas office. What an honor! Jumping right in, there is one thing wrong with the job - distance from Ft. Worth to Dallas is an hour job with no traffic, with gas prices going up and i'll probably have to buy a new car becasue mine is on it's last few years (which i'm not that upset about). My thought process - it's not like I have anything too exciting to rush home to - my husband isn't sitting at home awaiting my return. He's going to be studying and I'll still probably beat him home. This position has to be approved by our VP, HR dept, and our client so it is nowhere near 100%. But cross your fingers because the drive would be worth it in this economy and I wasn't looking forward to job searching and going through the learning curve again.


So back to our current situation... our application on our home to rent. So the application asks us if we are continuing our jobs in our move. So I say yes, (it's a possibility). Next speed bump: She replies asking me to get that in writing from my company. Crap! I tell her it is still being approved by HR.  So now we are left with having a co-signer. This, I have learned, is something we will need to get used to during med-school. From my research, if you are in med-school you have to co-sign everything. Just think of those single (non-married) med school where all they have is loans and no 'spouse's income'. If they would rent an apartment or buy a new car, they still need a co-signer.

What a week, right!?! I find myself saying I just want to close my eyes and wake up and it's June. We can't wait!


Our advise so far - make sure your spouse has a job BEFORE looking for a place to live and/or have a designated co-signer for you throughout ALL of medschool.

to rent or to buy?

Pros of each:

BUYING PROS:

• Monthly payments are like putting away into a savings account (towards your equity.)
• Job security – we know for a fact we will be in this city for the next 4-8 years if not longer.
• The thought of moving AGAIN in the next year makes me nauseous. I am a bad decorator when I know I am leaving in a few months. What's the point when it might not fit in the next place you live? I would love to finally settle in and buy curtains.
• Great time to buy.
• Sense of freedom to create your own.

RENTING PROS:

• A landlord is responsible. StuDoc will not be accessible to do as many honey-to-dos around the house as he would like (as I would like). Therefore, it would be nice to have someone else responsible and to turn to. I like to think I can do a lot on my own, but lets be honest... I can't even reach the top shelf of the kitchen cabinets without climbing on the counters.
• A chance to figure out what is important to us when we do buy.
• We don't feel comfortable using our loan money given to us to buy a house. For example, using a loan to pay a loan. It is important to us to always live within our means and never take more than we NEED.
• Take the time to get to know the area (communities, school districts, all those things to consider when re-selling).

The ideal situation would be rent the first year and buy it the following year if we really enjoy the property. If the PERFECT house presents itself we will consider. Here are some things that are important to us while we are searching.

1. Close to campus. – at our pre-orientation at TCOM there was one family who lived 2 blocks away and was able to meet and have lunch and dinner with her husband and their little girl on campus everyday. Another woman said that they bought a house in a cute little town outside of the big city and it was the worst decision they made. It took her husband 45 minutes to get to campus. What a waste of time driving.
2. Backyard – a good backyard for Boss. This apartment dog deserves it! He will just need to learn to be a little more independent and not have to ALWAYS be around people. As cute as he is, this gets really annoying sometimes.
3. Three-four bedrooms - It is important to this StuDoc to have a nice, quiet, organized study room. This will help our time management and give him a chance to spend more time at home. Since we will not be able to travel much, we want to have enough space for people to come visit us.
4. Open kitchen - I have realized growing up how important having a large open kitchen is to me. When my brother and I would come home from college or family would visit, it was always the kitchen where we would meet, eat, and greet. It allowed my parents to make dinner provide snacks, but not be secluded from conversation.

It is exciting to think that we will soon be picking out OUR FIRST HOME.