Let me just say I love this hat so much that it was hard not to buy it in every single color. I bought it in two and I love it! Let me just add I am NOT a Yankees fan. Everyone thinks its funny I wear it but it was one of the only ones that didn’t say Yankees on the back and since I love NY I had to have it. It will be nice for all the lazy mornings in the city when I don’t feel like doing my hair! Skirts and dresses are what I live in in the summer. I absolutely hate wearing pants/jeans. Maybe I am thinking about our super hot humid Texas summers and how you don’t even wanna wear clothes! I also find it easier to be modest that way. Oh and finally if you take one thing from my blog, own a plain tee in black, white and nude. They go with everything and this is my favorite tee ever. P.S. this hat will go fast, they just brought it back in stock after being sold out! P.P.S this jacket is $25 off with code VIP25 for a short time!
| Jacket | Hat | Jersey Skirt | Adidas | Tee |
Here is the update I promised! Just a warning, it’s a lot of random and probably boring fluff. We have lived out here in Jersey for almost 2.5 months I think? The first part was a blur since I spent so much time with my family those first few weeks. Lyle was already into his new job and our moving trucks hadn’t arrived so I got to enjoy the new babes! We have gotten NJ licenses, decorated, set up our home and loved living out here so far. I thought I would catch everyone up on our life out here. We get lots of questions so I hope this answers them.
Lyle
He now works for Vivint Solar and is doing really well. He has the most AC’s in the whole office as of lately. Being the new guy, he has been trying to work really hard. He is still in the company wide competition at work and has even ranked pretty high in it some weeks. His group at work just won us a trip to Six Flags, which we could not be more excited about! He is now consistently scheduling and getting installs and I seriously couldn’t be more proud of how great he’s doing. (He will never tell you any of this, thats why I think its a wife’s job to brag about her cute husband!) Sorry if its annoying, but he is the hardest working guy I know. Well, him and my dad. He is so much less stressed now and I am so happy for him. He loves all his coworkers and loves how much “easier” things are now. I won’t ever bash on Summer Sales because I think it has made it possible for Lyle to do any sales job in the world. It has made us financially stable, given us great opportunities and amazing friends but this “normal” schedule and lifestyle is much better for us. We did so much long distance and let’s be real, we suck at it. Lyle has a really close group of friends from High School and they recently started a monthly newsletter which is awesome. I think everyone should do this, its fun to read what they are all up to rather than just short updates on FB. Sometimes I get sad that they have all started scattering and don’t see each other as often…I think remaining friends through moves, missions and marriage is hard and these guys still try. Friendships like that are hard to come by. He is SO excited about all the sporting events and concerts we can go to out here. I swear he has like 6 concerts marked for July…and the fact that we get to see the Packers play several times this year is enough to make this guy the happiest person ever.
Me
Even though I was a huge advocate for us moving out here, it has been an little bit of an adjustment. The job I had last before moving out here was my favorite job I’ve ever had. I miss those girls and how chill it was all the time. Not having a job has been so hard and boring. Let me emphasize, SO BORING. I ran our eBay business, cleaned, cooked, watched pretty much every episode of How I Met Your Mother and The Office, which btw if you are ever having a bad day I promise these two shows will make you laugh so hard, been catching up on travel posts and starting to scrapbook. I have really fallen in love with cooking and baking. I’ve branched out into homemade fruit pies, pizza crust and hopefully soon pasta! I want every dessert and meal to be completely homemade. I sound so domestic but I’m not even mad about it! I’ve had a lot of time to think about the type of person I want to be and the hobbies I want to cultivate. I am thinking about running another marathon this Fall or maybe an Triathlon type thing. I have been working out twice a day which really wasn’t benefitting me until recently when I remembered I needed to eat healthy too and Summer is basically here. But back to my job, luckily, after shots, finger printing, interviewing and tons of paperwork I was finally approved for substitute teaching!! What a relief to no longer be a stay at home mom to Murphy…our dog. Now that we are both employed again I am pretty excited. I wanted something flexible so Lyle and I can still come and go as we please. I have loved having a group of friends we already knew out here. Friends to shop with, have over for dinner, see movies with and so on. It has helped to make things easier! The best thing is I get to be here for things like Easter, Connors baptism, Mothers Day, birthdays and other family things. Being an aunt is one of the most important jobs and I love that we get to be around more.
Our Life
We rented out our place in Utah for now. We love our place here but seriously miss having a fenced in yard for Murphy. Speaking of Murphy, he has tons of dog friends, probably more friends than I do out here ha. He loves going to the dog park and we take him every week, sometimes several times a week. He loves going to visit my parents and their dogs, except Pennie who although half his size, is a bully. Anyway, our place here is cute, its got almost a loft feel and a spacious kitchen. NJ is a lot prettier than I thought it was. We are planning on going on some hikes here soon and they have some truly beautiful parks and neighborhoods. We don’t live in one of those neighborhoods haha but I like to go visit them. We really love visitors so if anyone wants to come stay with us we would absolutely love it!! We have a spare bedroom and bathroom for the taking!
Our weekly routines are pretty simple. Lyle has the mornings with me so each week we pick one of the days he doesn’t have meetings and venture to one of the many cities so close to us! We usually go to NYC since its so close (and my favorite) but last week we went to Philly and this weekend, Boston! It’s been fun having so many different things to do. I can’t imagine ever being bored out here. We live close to several different beaches too which will be fun when it starts getting hotter. In the evenings, I make dinner and we watch The Vampire Diaries. Believe it or not, Lyle even likes it!
We honestly don’t know how long we will be here. It could be 2-3 years or until February. If this isn’t a longterm thing, we plan on seeing and doing everything, the sooner the better. We’ve mapped out all the New England and East Coast trips and adventures. Our whole year is planned, partially because I have had a lot of time on my hands and I love to plan every little detail. Long term, we would love for an office to open up down South… but with no little babes yet, its been fun to live in so many different places. This is the first Summer since I met Lyle that we actually get a Summer together. If only you knew how excited this truly made me! Lyle will finally get to go to FL for my family vacation and all the best activities, fairs and festivals are in the Summer and we get to do it all TOGETHER!
Traveling
Whenever I run into people from home they always ask where we are headed next so I guess I will address that. We are excited because a lot of the trips we want to go on this year are cheaper from out East. We are still working out flights for some places so I guess you will just have to stay tuned on specific locations but I will say we want to make it to South America this Summer and later on Europe again. You never know what is going to happen so until we have flights booked I won’t say anything. Most of our adventures will be local though. How can you live this close to NE and not see Niagra Falls, the church sites, Cape Cod or all the leaves in Fall?
We are also trying to plan a trip to Utah this July to see Lyle’s parents. Yes, we miss Utah. Well, I think I miss Utah more than Lyle! I miss the mountains and the food a TON. There are days when I just want to have conversations about Utah food (I sound so fat). I miss the food so much that for my birthday I may have asked my MIL for containers of the Green Sauce from Betos and if it was possible to get Zupas Lobster bisque over nighted to me….but luckily we are already falling in love with food places out here. The crappy part about moving is always missing things from places you’ve lived.
Babies??
Babies? Nope not yet. I still get this question frequently. I’ve thought about wearing a sign…or posting it to my forehead but I just keep getting more creative with my responses so I changed my mind. I know I know, we are Mormons who have been married almost 3 years and no babies yet?! What is going on over here. Are we okay? Do we even like kids? Do we still have our testimonies? Yes to all the above. Matter of fact, the problem is we are so good I don’t want babies. I love spending every minute with Lyle, I don’t like to share him actually. I’ve heard a baby only enhances your love and I’m sure seeing Lyle love our little girl will melt my freaking heart (and I secretly am so excited to see this) and as I’ve seen all over Instagram, being a mom is the “best job there is” but I love where we are right now. We want kids, matter of fact, we want lots of them, but as much as I stress that I am getting older, I remember that all my non Mormon friends aren’t even married and I’m doing just fine. We have time and those babes aren’t going anywhere.
I also know that being a mom is hard work, really hard work actually. I’ve been around for the births of all 5 of both my sisters kids and in their lives for a lot. I’ve seen and know more than I would like to admit. But in reality, it all comes down to being ready. Everyone tells you that you will never be 100% ready…maybe so, but I want to be 95% ready and I think you can. We have friends who struggled with conceiving a baby and when they finally had a baby, who is absolute perfection might I add, they are the best parents and their whole lives revolve around that child. I have never heard her once complain about her child or being a mother or needing a vacation. That is “goals” to me. I do believe being a mother is one of the most important callings you can and will ever have. I feel like knowing the plan of salvation makes a person appreciate families so much more and I wish everyone had this knowledge and understood just how divine this calling is. I have overheard people, who at times have told me to have kids saying negative comments about coming back to see their baby after a long weekend or complaining about seriously everything and it makes me sad. I never want to resent my child, I want to wait until we want a baby so bad we can’t even handle it anymore. I think this will help me be a more selfless and devoted mom. You only get one chance to raise a baby so I sure as heck don’t want to mess it up.
I also don’t feel like I am good enough to be a mom yet and I want to be the best mom. We have been making sure we are where we need to be spiritually, establishing good habits for our future family, and not even saying words such as “stupid.” Yes, I am going to be over the top I know. I read articles on all things baby so I know what to feed, how we want to raise them and more. Setting up funds and being financially read was very important to us as well. We still have some things left on our list of things to do before baby. Some more traveling (trips that will be hard with a baby), volunteering abroad, getting another car and finishing school all of which isn’t too far off. I just wanted to add I fully plan on traveling with baby too, if Amber Fillerup can do Europe with two babies for a month I sure as heck can and will too. 😉 It’s funny this is the longest post but I guess its something we talk about all the time and now you all know far more than you needed to or wanted to.
Anyway thats about it for now! I love seeing how successful and happy all my friends have been and are in their lives. There is not enough energy and time for negativity, jealousy, cattiness or unhappiness. Life is so much better without it, I promise. Thanks for stopping by, I love you all. I will be sharing tons of our pictures from our little city trips here soon!
love cait.
