Manhattan

I don't know if I've really posted about our move to Manhattan. I would say no, since it's been five weeks since the last post!

Moving has been an adjustment. You don't really know what you miss until it's gone. Even though we didn't move far, it was far enough to completely change everything!

Manhattan is growing on me, slowly but surely. It helps having a "work family" where everyone is also new. I'm so blessed to have this job. It's so different from my last job. It is still challenging, but I haven't gone home wanting to cry yet, and I feel so much more balanced (albeit exhausted, but it's still only September!

 Church is growing on me a little more slowly...I think I cried two out of three weeks after church the first few weeks, and made Todd take me home early once. I lovingly describe our ward as a "zoo." There are so.many.kids. Not that our old ward didn't have a ton of kids, it's just that I knew them all and knew their parents and so for some reason, that made it easier? I don't know. Now that I have a calling and feel like I can fit somewhere, that is helping a lot. People here don't know we are struggling in the kid department. Someone had a conversation with me that included the line, "Well, when you are pregnant, you'll know what I'm talking about." Ugh. I hate those lines.

Anyway, like I said, we are getting used to it. We live in a great location, our apartment is tons better, the laundry situation is so much easier, Todd's commute is 5 minutes, I LOVE working on the army base, we have everything we need. We are sacrificing a lot of wants right now, and we are not where we thought we would be at this stage in our lives, but we have so many blessings.

Here's some photographic evidence of us here in Manhattan :)

My first sewing project here was turning regular white pants into skinny mint pants :)  I did my first dying project and then sewed them up. They aren't perfect, but I liked how they came out. Now I just need to lose some "I just moved, so I don't go anywhere, so I sit at home and eat" pounds, and I'll be good :)

My work friends, the 3rd grade team :) I am the oldest person on our team! EESH! They are super fun girls and so so so easy to work with!

My class. After the initial beginning of the year shuffle, I ended up with 22 kids, 13 boys and 9 girls! I definitely feel the boy/girl imbalance! But they are really sweet (AND REALLY CHATTY), and many of them have parents who are deployed (or they just moved here). I love learning about their lives, and their history!

I commented to Todd that in many of our moves, we have lived within walking distance of the football stadium! Provo-check. Boise-check. Topeka-check. Manhattan-check!

We went to the home opener last night against Missouri State. Loved the purple crowd! It was fun to see the differences between this stadium and others we have been to. I do have to say I am more partial to BYU's "B...Y...U...Cougars!" that they "pass" around the stadium over KSU's cheer. But their mascot, Willie the Wildcat, is pretty fun and reminds me a lot of Cosmo the Cougar :)

Here is the marching band! They have a HUGE band. Oh, and they have BATON TWIRLERS! So cool...those girls are GOOD!

This is Todd and I after the sun went down. We had pretty good seats, but it was 90 degrees so we were both a little toasty! Todd said he felt like he should have been wearing purple too! The Cats ended up winning 51-9, and then there were fireworks after the game, which was so cool!

Last night, we went to Purple Power Play on Poyntz, which is a street fair/pep rally where there are a lot of booths, and then some of the sports teams come up, and the dancers dance, and the cheerleaders cheer, etc. KSU had a high jumper that got a silver medal at the Olympics, so he was there too! There were awesome fireworks as well, and so we got our fireworks fix this year (we missed them on the 4th because we were packing!)

This weekend has been a lot of fun so far, and has helped me feel a little bit more like I'm part of the community. Plus, it's a 3-day weekend, and both Todd and I have it off! Woo hoo!