Our new life and pumpkin carving

We are loving our new place! We feel so at home here. We're almost completely settled in-- just a laundry basket of clothes or two that still need to be hung up in our closet and a few boxes of random stuff we haven't found a place for yet. The last couple weeks have been so wonderful. I didn't realize how much stress and pressure living with Brian's family created for me. I love them dearly, but I feel like I almost turned into a different person while we were there for some reason... and now I feel so much lighter and back to my good ol' self. I know they were reluctant about us moving out, but honestly, I'm pretty sure they're going to like me better now that we're not living with them. I'm pretty sure Brian likes me better here, too. I like me better here. I just really love it here! I feel so very blessed!

Oh, and I have to post about our first couple of Sundays in our new ward... I mean BRANCH. Yeah, we're in a branch... in the salt lake valley... and it's english speaking. No, not a young married branch. Just a branch made up of our apartment complex. Honestly, I was a little bit nervous about it at first, but turns out it's pretty much awesome. It's perfect for me. I'm so much more comfortable in small group settings... comfortable enough to get out of my comfort zone and stretch myself a little... you know... like actually participate and speak the thoughts and insights that come to me during the lessons... and there's not so many people that most relationships are just superficial... Everyone is so close... and real. It's perfect.

Yesterday Brian and I carved the pumpkins that we went and picked on Saturday from the pumpkin patch that is just down the street from us. Brian was so proud of his. It was cute. Haha. I enjoyed gutting my pumpkin then just did a generic jack-o-lantern face on it. Brian thought his all out and did a few sketches before he used the knife. Here are the results:

Moving day

Well, it's finally arrived.

We're moving into our new apartment tomorrow.

On a much less happy note, we have to send my cat Jasper to live with my parents. A $300 dollar pet deposit and then more fees on top of that to have him live with us was just too much. It's going to save us a lot of money, so I guess that's good.

 When Jasper was still a kitten... so cute!

He's really such a handsome cat, don't you think?

I've already cried about it. I adopted him 2 years ago and he's become a big part of my life. Laugh if you must, but he's my baby. It'll be a lot lonelier in our apartment without him... and I might have to buy a fish or something so I have something to take care of... yeah, I'm weird, but it's therapeutic for me.

Yeah, that's about all. I'm sure I'll have more to post about after we're all moved and settled in.