Goin' Back to School

Ahh. Where do I even begin? I've been putting off talking about school because it seems like it would take a novel to do this whole thing justice, but I'll just give a few little tidbits and call it good for now.

So Jeremy is at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He hasn't even started class yet. Classes start on the 29th (Monday, also his 30th birthday! Woot!).

"Wow. What has he been doing for the past 4 weeks" you ask? Well, I'll tell you!

Here's basically what he's been up to:

• Basic orientation-type stuff (Welcome to CMU! Welcome to Tepper! Welcome to Pittsburgh! etc., etc.)
• 6 Math Workshops to dust off those good old Linear Algebra-and-other-math-skills I don't have or ever wish to have :)
• "Verticals" on several different branches of business (basically an overview of what this is and an alumni panel with people in those fields) including Operations, Marketing, Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Consulting
• Sessions on conducting an internship search in each of those areas
• Sessions on networking, sessions on how to talk to recruiters, "elevator pitches" (basically what to say in less than a minute that will make them remember you), etc.
• Community Service Day and an outdoor Ropes Course day (very important for business ;)
• Business Etiquette, Ethics, Job Search Tools, Interview Skills, etc., etc.

Good stuff, eh? We're really realizing what a GREAT school this is and how well connected it is. It seems crazy that he's already working on finding an internship when he hasn't even started classes yet, but that's how it is. Almost everyday in the school year they have recruiters coming to give presentations, so he needs to already be doing research on what companies he's interested in and what exactly he wants to do. A lot of these big companies won't even talk to you if you're not from a school on their "list" so we're glad he's at such a great school.

That's also what makes this program so intense! It's so much more than just coursework (as if that's not hard enough). He's constantly going to be doing research on companies, going to their presentations, meeting with recruiters, preparing for interviews, etc, etc.

But Jeremy has been loving everything so far, and we both have just felt over and over since being here that this is EXACTLY where we should be and what we should be doing. He is a perfect fit for the program and the school and it's exciting what this will mean for his future. He has met some amazing people already and loves how diverse his class is. The class size is around 200 and they represent over 30 countries, 170 undergraduate universities, and a very wide range of professional and educational backgrounds. He has people in his class who were physicists, architects, investment bankers, consultants, engineers, teachers, and many more I can't think of right now. :)

We're both a little nervous for the rigor of the program - and what that will mean for our family time - but we'll survive! We've spoken a lot to several of the 2nd years and they told me to just think like you're going to be a single mom and never see him, and then when you do it's like a treat or a bonus. Oh boy. It's going to be a challenge, but we're just going to get more creative on finding ways to see each other. Thank goodness for Sundays! At least I know he'll see the kids once a week. :)

Anyway, I'm really excited for Jeremy and even though it will be hard, it will be so great for him. I just think he is going to thrive and excel in ways he never even imagined. I'm already seeing how his strengths are such an asset to him (his humility, fearlessness, and people skills at the very top of that list). I'm proud of him already! (okay so humility is not at the top of my list) And I absolutely love all of the wives I've met so far, so I think I'll be okay. And I've got my two cutie boys to keep me company, so we'll make it through.

See you at Christmas honey! :)

I Have a Secret

We LOVE it here! Okay so it's not a secret, but it's the truth. We are lovin' it in the Burgh. Don't worry Mom, I don't want to stay here forever - a lot of the things I love about it are not permanent things, so if we stayed it would be lame - but we're really happy we're here right now!

After we got through the first week of deathly heat and humidity (I guess it was a heat wave) the weather has been really great! Sure we've had flash floods, an earthquake, and lightning storms that keep us up all hours of the night, but other than that, the weather really has been nice! Haha. Seriously though, most days have been clear with mild temperatures and warm breezes and it's just really nice.

And the people! The people are great. Pittsburghers are just really friendly. It feels like everyone's watching out for each other, even when I drive through the ghetto (which I've had to do a few times) and the culture here just seems really open and neighborly. After all, Mr. Rogers is from Pittsburgh, so I guess he rubbed off on every one. :)

We've met a lot of great people in Jeremy's class and at church too. Jeremy came to me the other day and said, "Honey, we live in a party town!" I'm like, what are you talking about? And he showed me several email invitations to parties he'd received (not drinking parties - although we've received plenty of those too). But it's so true! We have been so busy going to dinners and barbeques and play-dates and play-groups and get-togethers since we've been here. It's insane! But it's so fun. We feel like we have a great group of friends already and I think we've been to more social activities in the last month than probably in the last year.

Mainly these things have been with our ward and with the other LDS MBA students & their families. There are four 2nd-year MBAs in our ward and one other 1st-year. They are all so great and we love getting together with them. All but one have kids and 3 of them have boys close to Eli's age and 1 has a boy almost exactly Connor's age. I really like all of them, which is great, because I think we'll be doing a lot together!

Our ward has a lot of students that have come from far away, as I mentioned earlier, and everyone just supports each other. A lot of the women are husband-less a lot of the time (as I will be), so there are a lot of things going on for the moms. Everyone is really supportive and there's this "we're all in this together" kind of mentality that I really love. I missed that living in Utah the past 6 years where everyone does everything with their families and they don't really come together as friends much.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. Jeremy and I tell each other almost everyday that we love it here (I think we're still so surprised that we already love it here so we keep saying it!) and it's just nice to be where we're supposed to be. That's all. Amen. :)

(In the park just south of CMU and north of our house - we drive through here almost everyday. Beautiful!)

These boys are growing up!

This past week has been an eventful one. First off, we are potty-training Eli! And surprise of surprises, it is going amazingly well. I am pleased as punch with how quickly he's picked it up and he seems to be pretty proud of himself too. :) I've thought for a few months now that he's probably ready, but I didn't really want to get started until we were settled. I bought a "potty chair" months ago, so he'd been familiar with it, but finally last Friday I thought, "let's just do this!" So with the exception of a few times, he's been in underwear ever since! I got a lot of helpful advice from people over the last few months and I think that made it go a lot smoother. He's not 100% potty-trained yet, but I'd say we're at least 80% there already! I'm proud of the little guy.

He also is constantly entertaining us with the things he says. Like at 4 am this morning when he woke up (we had CRAZY lightning and thunder last night, so we were all awake), Jeremy took him to go potty and he had a diaper on (we've been doing that at night as a precaution), but when Jeremy went to put it back on, Eli said "I NOT wear diapers anymore. I wear underwear". Okey-dokey. So he wore underwear and was fine the rest of the night. Then he said "I supposed to be asleep" and went back to bed. Then when he woke up for good at 7:30 he said "I supposed to be awake!" (he hears that he's supposed to be asleep a lot whenever he wakes up in the night). :) Also the other night he was in a "mood" and Jeremy was trying to tickle him and he says "Leave me alone! Don't touch me either." (pronounced eeler). Oh boy. I need to write down the other funny things he says because I always forget!

And Connor is starting to move a lot more! I usually always set him down on his tummy now and he rolls right over onto his back. Just the other day he was laying on his back and I went in the other room for a minute and came back and he was on his tummy!

He looked pretty pleased with himself. :) He also scoots around a lot and I don't think it will be too long before he's sitting up. Time sure flies. I also started giving him rice cereal on occasion. The doctor said it might help with his acid reflux, but I'm not sure if it's agreeing with him. He loves it when he's had it and eats like a champ, but it seems like the few times he's eaten a good amount, he's woken up with these terrible blood-curdling screams in the night, so I'm not sure if that's connected or what. Sigh. This poor child has had a rough go of eating and sleeping his whole life, so I'm hoping something will work for him.

Anyway, just a little about what we've been up to! Oh, and here are a few picture from last weekend. Jeremy's school had discounted tickets to a baseball game (go Pirates!) so we decided to go. It was fun! Connor spent the 1st hour screaming anytime there was an uproar of noise, but eventually he zonked. I'm not sure how, because it was so loud, but it was much more enjoyable after that! We had fun. The park is right on the river, so that was fun to walk across the bridge and have a great view of the city.

(sorry about the underwear/no pants, but I think this picture is so cute!)

Haircuts

I cut Connor's hair. I know he's not even 5 months old yet, but his hair was SO (unevenly) long! It just looked bad, so after I cut Jeremy's and Eli's last Saturday, we decided to give Connor a little trim too. It looks so much better! He just had this strip down the middle where it was really long and it looked ridiculous.

I tried to get a before shot to show you how long it was, but he was being wiggly. Here it is anyway:

And here are the boys after: (not the best shot, but whatever)

Much better! I took a picture of Connor the next day after church too. He's a cutie pie.

Oh, and another on the floor the other day (before the haircut):

And here's a video of him enjoying the sound of his voice the other day. He likes to make these sounds during quiet moments - like at church, or when somebody's sleeping. It's great. :)

I found my camera!

I happened to misplace my camera for a couple days, which is why it's been a little while. But I found it this morning! We've been busy doing some fun things lately anyway, but now I'll share a little more about this new place.

Up today, our house! As I said, we live in a duplex on the first floor. We have a little basement, just big enough for a washer & dryer and some storage space (for which we're very grateful), and then through the basement we have a little garage. It's a tight squeeze even for our Camry, but we're glad to have it! Our house is small, but it's perfect for our needs. The main level is about 900 square feet (only 500 less than our Sandy house, haha) with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. We've got the boys sharing a room and then the 3rd bedroom (which is very small) has our desk/computer and will have our piano (if I can ever find one on Craigslist!), assuming it will fit. Hehe. We also have a family room (obviously) and a dining room and kitchen. It was hard to find a house with a kitchen/dining area big enough for a kitchen table! So I was really happy when we found this.

(Thank you to my good-looking models)

(AC coming out of the window)

I mentioned that we took a little trip to Ikea, which really saved us. We love our little house, but there are a couple things that have made it difficult. One, the kitchen. I have acquired a lot of kitchen stuff over the last 6 years of marriage and this kitchen is pretty teeny. I mean, it's not the smallest kitchen ever, but it doesn't have much storage space. But I'm grateful it has a dishwasher!! (Although no disposal, which I didn't even realize or think of until we got here. Oh well. Still better than no dishwasher). So anyway we went to IKEA and got a couple (very inexpensive!) things to make our life easier.

See the kitchen here:

It may look roomy, but trust me, those cupboards are small. They were barely deep enough to fit my dinner plates, so forget about appliances or even my pots and pans! Yeah, none of my cupboards would fit them.

So we got these awesome rails ($1.99 for the small one and $2.99 for the big one!!! Can you believe it?) and I now hang the majority of my pots and pans there.

(We also got the big jar thing to hold utensils because, as you can see, I only have 4 drawers. And one is ridiculously small).

I also deemed that little counterspace where I have the utensils un-usable, because you pretty much have to stand in a hole to use it. (see above photo) So it's just another shelf.

My big pot lives on top of the fridge, my big skillet & griddle pan in the oven drawer, and my super big stockpot in a box in the basement (along with some other kitchen stuff that just couldn't find a home). Oh, and my Bosch, blender, and waffle iron are in our little linen closet. Nice. :)

Jeremy also put up this nice shelf to make use of this wasted space above the sink. Now I can actually fit all my dishes and a little bit of food in the kitchen! It's a miracle.

We also have a shelving unit thing that we've had since our days in Wymount (water heater closet, remember Wymount friends?) which has been very useful to have just down the stairs in the basement. It makes for a great pantry.

We also got a little bookshelf thing for the boys room for all the toys! The bedroom closets here are all very small with just a rail and one shelf above, so figuring out where to stick all the toys was tricky, but this works perfect! The shelves are really deep, which is super.

So that's basically it. The other rooms aren't totally done, so I'll wait to put up pictures. I have a stack of pictures/wall hangings in the office room that I need to figure out where to put and I have my blackout curtains just pushpinned into the wall over the windows in the boys' room, so that's not so cute. :) I must say though, in terms of decorating, it's really easy going from big to small. When we bought our house in Sandy, it felt so bare because we'd been used to a teeny space, but now we have all sorts of things to fill the spaces! :) There's always a positive I guess.

Hopefully this week, I'll get to talking about Jeremy's school and program. I told him he should, but he just gave me a "psh" and a shrug, so I guess I'll do it. Haha. Until later then! Thanks for reading.

Next Up: Greenfield

Another post??? I know. It's a miracle.

I was so confused when we got here with all the neighborhoods and boroughs and what was what and all that. So I finally think I figured it out. In the city of Pittsburgh, there are 90 neighborhoods (which I showed you yesterday). Outside of the city there are a bajillion (yep) boroughs which are their own thing but they make up the greater Pittsburgh area. We have a bunch of people in our ward that live in these "boroughs" - Homestead, Forest Hills, Wilkinsburg, etc. etc. But we are in Pittsburgh, in the neighborhood of Greenfield.

Let's zoom in to the map, shall we? Haha.

Okay. Here'a a little tour. See Squirrel Hill South? That is home to 2 giant parks - each about 500 acres (frame of reference: Central Park in NYC is 800 acres, most neighborhood parks are 5-20) - Schenley Park on the west edge (and a little into Oakland) and Frick Park on the east edge (they're only a few minutes apart). We live just a couple minutes south of Schenley Park - probably around the "en" in Greenfield :), and just north of the park is Carnegie Mellon University (Jeremy's school).

So we get to drive through the gorgeous park to get to school! It's only a 5 minute drive and about a 20 minute bus ride. So CMU is technically in North Oakland, at the corner where it meets Squirrel Hill. The church is also in North Oakland, , about 5 minutes north of the school, so it only takes us 10 minutes to get to church. Woohoo! If we had to go around the park it would take forever because of traffic, but cutting through the park is great.

We feel SO LUCKY to have found our place. There are a lot of shady areas in Pittsburgh - which we were told to avoid - but we really feel like we hit the jackpot with our location. We didn't realize it until we got here, but we are in such a great spot! A lot of the MBA students told us to look in different areas (Shadyside and Squirrel Hill - where most of the CMU students live - undergrad & grad), but everything in our price range there was gross, so we were a little bummed when we found this great house in this location, but now we're so glad! We feel very fortunate.

And I know this is getting long, but here's a little about Greenfield:

• It is .773 square miles in area (it really is ridiculous how many neighborhoods there are - why can't we just consolidate here people? oh well)
• It is called one of Pittsburgh's "surprise" neighborhoods, because you can get great views of the city in unexpected spots throughout the community (like our house!)
• Everyone in our neighborhood is old and has been here a long time. Betty 2 houses down has lived in her house for 50 years and grew up a couple streets down; her sister Marianne lives across the street and has been here forever; Dave next door has been here since the 70s; Pat and her husband (whose name escapes me) have been here forever, etc. etc. They are all so sweet and we love them to pieces. They are out on their porches all the time waving and chatting with us as we come and go. We feel very safe and relaxed in our little spot.

Now for some pictures! I'll get to pictures of the inside of the house later (we're still working on it), but for now, here are some pictures and videos of our house and the surrounding areas. I really want to take some pictures of the park and other areas that we frequent, but for now this will do. Enjoy!

Ok, so this is not our house, but it's kind of next door where our landlord was power washing. It's not the best angle because I was trying to be discreet, but you can kind of see what I was talking about. See the different in color between the top section and the side? Yeeahh.

Here's our house! We're in a duplex, so we have the main level and a basement (there are essentially 2 basements - 1 for them, 1 for us) and a little garage in the back. Our front door is on the left, theirs is on the right.

(And sorry for the weird angle - we're on a hill, so that's why it looks like I was laying down when I took it. I wasn't I swear!)

View of downtown from our front yard.

Zoomed in.

And view to the right. That street has the same name as our street, but it doesn't connect. The roads here are crazy. And yes, there are power/cable lines all over the place.

And a little video. The other night Connor was being so funny. We were out on the porch enjoying a rare clear and non-humid evening, and every time Eli said anything Connor cracked up! It was so adorable. He was giggling harder than I've ever seen. Of course when I brought out the camera he kind of stopped, so I gave a little panoramic view from our porch. (By the way, I love that we have a porch. I feel like I've gone back in time every time I sit out there and chat with our old neighbors. :)

And one more picture of our cute boys. Love these two!

Still more to come if you can believe! I want to share about CMU and share some pictures of the inside of our house - specifically the kitchen and how my awesome husband, with the help of IKEA, helped make it so much better!

Some Facts about Pittsburgh

(photo courtesy of University of Pittsburgh's website)

4th post in 4 days! Wow. I'm on a roll.

Alright, so we've been doing our research on Pittsburgh (just a little - mostly on Wikipedia and what Jeremy's learned from various people) and I think we're really going to like it here! Here are a few fast facts about Pittsburgh:

• There are a little over 300,000 people that live in Pittsburgh
• Pittsburgh is known as "The City of Bridges" and "The Steel City" (I mentioned all the bridges and the former steel industry earlier)
• It's no longer a steel city, now its economy is mainly based on healthcare, education, technology, robotics, and financial services
• Pittsburgh is 58 square miles in total area (some of which is water)
• The city is on the Allegheny Plateau where the Allegheny and Monongohela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River
• The city has many neighborhoods that are steeply sloped (like ours) and there are 712 sets of stairs, comprising 44,645 treads and 24,090 vertical feet! (More than San Francisco, Cincinnati and Portland combined! I told you it was hilly!)
• Sports Teams - people are SERIOUS about their sports teams - The Steelers, the Penguins, and the Pirates. If anyone asks - yes, we're fans! :) (we don't want to get beat up)
• Climate: Pittsburgh averages 59 clear days, 103 partly-cloudy days, and 203 cloudy days and "in terms of annual percent-average possible sunshine recieved, Pittsburgh (45%) is similar to Seattle (43%)" We also get a lot of snow. Oh boy.
• Pittsburgh is made up of the downtown area (called the Golden Triangle where the rivers meet) and 4 main areas made up of 90 neighborhoods
(Can you find Greenfield? That's where we are. I'll give you a hint - it's pink)
• Pittsburgh has often been ranked #1 in most livable cities in the country because of its low cost of living and crime, many cultural opportunities, and low risk for natural disaster (yess!) It won the #1 spot by The Economist this year and by Forbes and Yahoo! last year

So far so good! We're excited to do some exploring. There are lots of museums, a zoo, some gorgeous parks, and lots of great people. Stay tuned for more about our little neighborhood of Greenfield!

Our Trek

(3rd post in 3 days - scroll down for the rest)

This will be brief....unlike the actual drive. :)

So as I mentioned before, we flew back to Salt Lake very early Monday morning and then my uncle picked us up from the airport and we headed to his house where my cousins entertained Eli and my aunt and uncle fed us and gave us beds to take naps in. It was wonderful. Jeremy slept most of the day and then we ate dinner, packed up and headed out around 8:00 pm that night.

I don't know how he did it, but Jeremy drove ALL NIGHT LONG through Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska and didn't stop until we just got into Iowa (except for gas - our Camry gets great gas mileage, but not that great). We stopped at a Cabela's somewhere around there and let Eli run around and see all the animals (he was very excited) and then I took over and drove for a few hours and we eventually made it all the way to Iowa City that afternoon. So after driving for 18 hours, we stopped at our hotel, swam in the pool, got some dinner, and crashed into bed at 8:00! It was glorious. We all slept great (praise the heavens for Connor actually sleeping longer than 2-3 hours at a time that night!) and then we got up around 8am, ate breakfast and hit the road again.

The 2nd day took a little break in South Bend, Indiana that afternoon to meet up with our friend Liz at a park and we let our boys run around together. She was so great and brought us sandwiches, carrots and fresh blueberries! It was a nice break and then we had a few hours left until we got to our hotel in Toledo, OH that night.

The last day we only had 4 hours left of driving and so we arrived in Pittsburgh about 1:00pm. I was amazed with how well our kiddos did. I was really nervous for the drive, but it went really well! I brought a lot of toys and books for Eli, which was great so he didn't get sick of them, we invested in a portable DVD player (SO worth it for this drive) so he watched lots of Thomas the Train and Planet Earth :), we had a bunch of snacks, we listened to children's songs and some Mozart and Beethoven, and we enjoyed the hundreds of miles of cornfields. :) It was actually very beautiful and I would even do it again. Can you believe it?!? I can't. But I'm serious. It wasn't too bad.

And now we're here! I'm sad I didn't take a single picture on our journey, but oh well. I'm lame. But I have lots more to share about Pittsburgh and our new life here, so stay tuned. :) More is on the way...

California

(Posted yesterday too - click here to catch up)

We were in California for a few days and it was a great break. Our family is growing quickly but we were able to all fit at my parents' house (minus my grandma and Heidi's fiance who stayed with the neighbor). There are 11 grandkids now and it sure makes it fun! My older sisters and I all had babies within a couple months of each other and we all have 2 year olds too, so it was fun. :) It was also great to see my brother Steve, who we don't see that often, and to have more time to get to know Heidi's fiance Sam. We mostly played in the pool, went down the giant waterslide my parents rented (called the "Big Kahuna"), did some karaoke, played water kickball, ate lots of yummy food on the patio outside, and visited together.

And cue picture overload:

(Last 4 pictures stolen from my mom's facebook page - yes, my mom's on facebook) :)

We had a great time and it was nice to see everyone before we headed out here. More to come tomorrow about our drive to Pittsburgh!