New Home

We moved into our new home 2 weeks ago and we love it.  It came furnished, this is it.

The Living Room

Dining Room and Kitchen

Kitchen

Bedroom

Bathroom

I am liking Albuquerque more and more all the time.  I really like our ward and the neighborhood we live in.  I love our apartment.  I really like how there are so many different things so close.  There are a lot of new stores and restaurants.  There are mountains really close that we will probably go to in the next few days.  But I really like how I am trying new things, it's good for me, also Andrew is taking good care of me.

Some less good things about Albuquerque is that it's very hot, but I am getting used to it.   It is also smokey from the big fire in Arizona, but it isn't always this way.  I also miss my friends and family and my job, but that's ok.  I am really am having a good time and loving it.

May

Andrew had his Senior Project Demo Night the Thursday before graduation.  He and three of his friends worked all semester, on their project.  The project was to get a remote controlled car and control it with their smartphones.  Andrew's job was to create the app for his android phone, he worked very hard.  They used the wi-fi connection to transfer the signal.  That's about all I know about it, it was pretty complicated. They had some problems, but the car worked for the demonstration for the teacher, also I got to drive it,  and that's all that matters. :)

Group Picture

Andrew Driving

Car

Andrew graduated on May 7th!  Yay!  I walked at commencement with him because there wasn't a commencement on December, but I already graduated, so whatever.   I got to be with all the engineers, I didn't really fit in, but that's ok.  It was smaller than the College of Education and I am a fan of small graduations!

Andrew shaking hands

Andrew and me on the stage (I was having a hat problem)

Yay!

My Family

Andrew's parents and us

Andrew got his official offer from Sandia National Labs a few days after graduation, it was four days before we were supposed to move to California.  Kind of short notice, but that's ok.

I quit both of my jobs.  It is weird not knowing the next time I will work.  I miss my work friends, but I don't exactly miss working, but I do miss some of the kids.

We left for our exciting Albuquerque adventure on Thursday.  We drove to Cortez, Colorado the first day and stayed there for the night.  The next morning (I guess that was yesterday) we went to Mesa Verde.  It was pretty cool.  I really liked it.

After Mesa Verde we headed to Albuquerque.  We are living in a long term hotel until the 7th when we can move into our real apartment for the summer.  My first impressions of Albuquerque are that it is super hot, dry, and brown.  It is a super big city.   It's different than I am used to but I think I will like it.  Everyone I talked to said, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be."  I think I might agree so far.

Anxiety

In November Andrew applied for a job at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This job includes a summer internship, paying for a top 25 graduate school, a large living stipend while going to graduate school, benefits the whole time (no working while going to school), and then a 2 year commitment with them (well paid).

Well we didn't hear from them so we figured it was a lost hope. Until two weeks ago. They sent Andrew an email asking if he was still interested. It is such a good deal we couldn't not be interested. He had a phone interview a few days ago and it went well and he is flying down to New Mexico on Sunday. One more thing... They would rather pay for Carnegie Mellon than Virginia Tech.

We are supposed to move to Folsom in two weeks, we can get out of it if we have enough time. Obviously we would like to know soon.

Our two choices are California then Virginia or New Mexico then Pennsylvaina. Kind of different places. Believe it or not I have some anxiety.

Oh, and we got an iPad, I wrote this whole post on the touch screen.

TV

Girl: I have a question.
Me: Yes?
Girl: Was there TV when you were little?

Decisions

About 2 weeks ago I came home with a job application for the summer job I had last year.  I love Summer Playground so much.  There are very few jobs where you can be outside playing games with kids and working with some of the funnest people ever.  So I was pretty excited to start filling it out and finding out if I got the job again this year.

Andrew, on the other hand, was not so excited for another summer in Logan.  Andrew has been working at the same job since he was 16 minus two years for his mission.  That makes six years-- that's a long time to be at your first job!  It is starting to be less fun for him and he says he's ready for something new.  I told him if he could find something else I would be willing to give up my job.  That night he applied for 60 jobs/internships for the summer.  He's heard back from both Intel and HP and had interviews with them.  The Intel interviews went great and they ended up offering him a summer internship.  The job is in Folsom, California.  The same Folsom as Folsom Prison.  It's just outside of Sacramento.

We're both pretty excited, there's just one little thing. . . It starts May 16.  That is just over 7 weeks away.  I am working on getting someone to cover for me at work, so Andrew and I can go out together.  It's kind of stressful moving somewhere where you have never been.  Finding an apartment without ever going there is going to be a giant leap of faith for me.

Oh,  also we are pretty sure we are going to Virgina Tech for graduate school.  Andrew flew out there and really liked it.  He has a tuition scholarship and a teaching assistantship to pay for us to live.   That starts Monday, August 15th, the last day at Intel is Friday, August 12th.  That's only 3 days to move across the country, that might be kind of hard.  We are still working on that one, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

You may be asking yourself "Well that's all well and good, but what is Lindsay going to be doing for all of this?"   I don't know, most of the apartments in California have swimming pools, so maybe I'll just get really tan this summer.  In Virginia?  I don't know about that either, but I've gotten all sorts of suggestions from all sorts of people.  My mom thinks I'll get a really intense church calling.  But I'll find something, or we'll have a really clean house and delicious dinners everyday :)

Hair

Apparently my hair looks like Dora the Explorers.

Thank you honest 3rd grader.

Accepted!

The last week has been pretty exciting for us.  I got a new job at Bridger Elementary as a resource aide.  I work there in the mornings helping with reading and writing and I am still at Ellis doing after school club in the afternoons.  I work with some hard kids all day long but I love it.  I know that I am helping them a lot, and it's fun for me.

Our other exciting news is that Andrew got accepted to Carnegie Mellon and Virginia Tech.  We are pretty excited to hear back from them.  The problem with going to Carnegie Mellon is that they would probably have to rename the school once we got there since it is named after Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon.  I think Carnegie Mellon Briscoe has a nice ring to it.  We are still waiting on a few more schools to make our final decision, but I would be happy at either of these two schools.  But I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing at either of these places, so if you hear of any rich people with kids that are hard to work with or need help reading that live in Pittsburg, PA or Blacksburg, VA have them give me a call.  :)