El Paso

So we made it to El Paso, TX around 4:30 in the morning on September 1st. On the 31st the military had the packers come and spend 5 hours packing our apartment and storage unit then load it into the truck. After they were finished I had to turn in apartment keys, drop cable gear off at Comcast and donate the food we couldn't pack into the car to Courtney. We didn't get on the road until about 6:30 that night, trunk full and Lili and dogs in the back seat. I drove about half way and my mom drove the rest. We were tired and so happy to finally get into our hotel beds, but of course that only lasted about 4 hours thanks to Lili the early bird. We met with the landlord that morning and got the keys to our house. It's definitely not as nice as I thought it would be. It's an old house with a lot of the original build. Tiles in the kitchen are cracked, falling apart and lifting off the floor. We have tiles in all 3 bedrooms, those aren't too bad minus the paint since someone apparently doesn't know how to cover the floor when painting. The carpet in the living room, hall and dining room is old and hideous. All the windows have cranks and open like a door, almost all don't even open. We also have bars on all the windows, except the big living room one (its huge and divided into smaller sections by wood...if that makes sense). We have 4 doors to the outside world...3 of which have barred security screen doors....which I actually like since they lock and I can leave the door open. One door leads to our screened in back porch, which has an uneven brick floor. The yard is full of weeds and sticker bushes which sucks because they get dragged in by the dogs and embedded into the carpet for us to step on. It has a swamp cooler that I absolutely hate. I can live with it, but never again will I rent (or buy) a home with one. We had to wait over a week for my stuff to arrive, so sleeping on the floor at night (we actually bought $1 pool floaties to use as mattresses....not that they worked well since they deflated so we caved and bought mattress pads, which didn't help much either) and sitting on the floor all day didn't help enjoy anything either.

It needs a lot of work. But you know what? I don't care. I've seen worse houses before, but I've seen much better. The fact that I have a yard for the dogs to run around in (which is completely fenced in so they can run in the front and back. Minus the sticker bush pricklies being dragged in, it's the best thing ever. They don't whine and when they start rough housing in the house I kick them outside so they don't trample us anymore. Honestly it'd be a fun project house. If we like the area enough, I'd love to buy it and fix it up.

El Paso so far isn't so bad. The drivers are HORRIBLE though. It's actually really scary. We are in a decent neighborhood though. Quiet, older neighbors. I had to translate Spanish in a Chinese restaurant. I feel like I'm in another country when out and about, they even do two announcements in Macy's....first in English, second in Spanish. Which is just irritating. We are in the United States, learn the damn language. I don't care if we are right on the border of Mexico (so close I've seen several Mexican license plated vehicles).

Lili and I fly a week from tomorrow to my dad's. I'm excited to go visit, see family and friends I haven't seen in about 18 months now. Adam gets done with AIT at the end of October, just in time for Lili's 2nd birthday. Holy cow.