Living out of our car

(sorry our updates as of late are boring... I need to think of interesting and controversial topics to blog about)

As of Tuesday, we officially moved out of our house and the new tenants moved in. It was a bittersweet moment. I was happy to be done with the moving business and the cleaning, but we've loved that house so much it is sad to leave it all behind. We had an amazing summer last year, and the school year has brought a lot of changes, all of which have been great (grad school, Lu, etc). 

We are leaving May 5th for our big cross-country drive (exciting!), and until then we have alternately been relaxing at our friend's mom's house (Jane is the coolest mom ever, no offense to other moms out there) and running tons of errands (dentist to fill my two cavities, chiropractor to fix my messed up post-childbirth hips, REI, Target, playing with friends, eating dinner with other friends). We bought a solar charger, which Tim thinks is the coolest thing ever, and bought Theo a new pair of Keen sandals for our summer adventures (he was complaining of his shoes hurting, though they didn't appear to be too small... so we decided to splurge and buy him nice ones). He loves his new shoes, and they look really cute on him, plus are built to last, so we bought a relatively gender-neutral pair to pass on to Lu in a few years (or maybe I'll pass them to Logan...) 

We went to a delicious Mexican/Salvadorian restaurant last night with the Bryner clan, and enjoyed piping hot, freshly-cooked pupusas with cabbage and chips and salsa. MMMmmmmm. Theo ran around the restaurant the entire time, only sitting to play with the iPad for a minute and eat a pupusa. We were reminded that lack of money is not the only reason we don't go out to eat ever.

Speaking of money, our stipend next year is going to be great. I'm so excited to actually have an income and a budget. Even though we'll be making less than $20,000 a year, to us that feels like A LOT (especially when our rent on a two-bedroom apartment will only be $750 a month including all utilities, internet, laundry). Depending on how my school schedule is, Tim might also find a part-time job at a library or something similar. I've been so ridiculously frugal and obsessive about money, and I'm ready to live simply but not worry about money ever. We will probably still shop at thrift stores and eat lentils & rice on a regular basis, but I'm sick of overanalyzing every purchase and feeling so dang cheap. I did let Tim buy me a Kindle with our Wal-mart gift cards from returning some baby gifts, and geez, I should have bought this ages ago. I LOVE IT. I'm currently reading The Book of Mormon Girl, which I don't highly recommend yet, but maybe I will once I'm done. I love her writing style, and she puts into words so many of my thoughts and feelings as an adolescent girl in a traditional LDS family.