A Day in Dallas and My Herb Garden

We've been so busy lately! It seems like time flies by now that I'm working part time; thankfully Billy and I both had yesterday off so we took a little trip to Dallas for the day!

We went to Village Church in the morning hoping to listen to Matt Chandler preach, but unfortunately he was on vacation. We still enjoyed the service though.

I found a groupon deal a few weeks ago for $19 to get professional pictures taken in a park in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that included printed pictures and a CD so we decided to take advantage of it and ended up having a lot of fun! We went and got lunch from whole foods and had a picnic before we were supposed to meet our photographer. It was nice because it was only 30 minutes and someone that was with me doesn't have fun doing things like that unless they're very short and sweet :) So we both had a good time and hopefully our pictures turn out well!

After pictures in the park we went to this little winery/wine bar for some fancy wine tasting. They had a gorgeous patio and grassy area and mellow live music. I tried 3 texas wines: a sweet white and a red and a dry rose. Billy tried wines from all over: a fruity red, a sweet sparkling wine and some mead from Ireland, which we couldn't really make up our minds about.

We rounded out the day with some shopping at Verizon (a new phone for Billy) and the most glamorous mall I've ever been to! (For some shorts for me).

And last but far from least, dinner at In N Out!

Practicing our smiles while we waited...

La Buena Vida

Yum!

During summer it seems like I always spend ridiculous amounts of money on fresh herbs so this year I decided to try my hand at gardening and plant a little potted garden!

I have two types of basil (for anything and everything), thyme (for roasted veggies and pastas) and mint (for mojitos of course!). I'm notorious for killing any type of plant in my care but I have high hopes for these! And if my green thumb doesn't appear, they only need to last a few months!

Adjusting to Texas

Well, it's safe to say we've adjusted into our new home. Billy's first week of work went great, I love that he has regular hours!! He leaves and gets back home at the same time everyday and he gets off early on Saturdays :)
I also got a job at Logan's Roadhouse! Billy and I have decided that no matter what his income, and whether or not I'm working, we will depend SOLEY on his paychecks ALONE for living expenses. This is because we both want me to be a stay at home mom, and although we don't have a mortgage or anything now, we want to prevent becoming dependent on my paycheck in the long run. So our budgeted expenses have gone waaayy down since he took a pretty substantial pay cut for this job and we plan to keep them that way. But I am excited to have a little extra money to save, feed my minor addiction (clothing) and go to dinner if we want, which are the places we had to cut the most. I'm also just excited to get out of the trailer and be around people, and dare I say it... make friends! I'm also planning on signing on as a sub with the school district here but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Other than that we are just settling into a normal routine of work, taking walks, playing pinochle and reading. It's amazing what a number the sun does on your mood and outlook on life! I can't believe I was missing it for so long!

Our first day here, walking to a Tex-Mex restaurant!

It didn't seem much different from regular Mexican food... it was actually pretty much the same.

It's really blurry but you can see there's a cat that roams around our park, and Olive is absolutely fascinated.

It doesn't get much better than sangria on a sunny day :)

Hope you're enjoying your Spring!

<3

Crazy, Crazy Week

Soooo I should probably do a better job of explaining what exactly is going on. Billy went to school to be a lineman (the manliest of men that work on power poles) in Summer/Fall of 2011. So in November of 2011 he took a job working as a groundman for a company setting telecommunication poles that was supposed to lead to an apprenticeship with the NorthWest JATC (Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee) the following spring or summer, which obviously ended up falling through. Since then Billy has applied to several other JATC across the U.S. as well as utility companies, both of which are the best places to go for your apprenticeship. An apprenticeship is something that's different from line school (line school basically just makes it easier to get an apprenticeship) which you must complete in order to become a journeyman lineman. As an apprentice you're still studying, taking classes and tests, your wages are lower, and you're basically learning about all the different areas of linework. You're required to complete so many hours in several different areas. It usually takes about 4 or 5 years to complete your apprenticeship, at which point you get your journeyman's card and it is much easier to get a great paying job, in one permanent location.
So Billy got an apprenticeship! Yay! And it's a really great one, through a union: the SW JATC. So what the JATC does is basically acts as a mediator between the apprentices and linemen and the contractors. The JATC will hire Billy out to different contractors throughout his apprenticeship to make sure he gets all his hours in the right areas. So the first contractor he's working for is in Sherman, TX, he's building something that has to do with transmission towers (I'm honestly not quite sure, it's kind of confusing).
Some other good news, there are several different steps of your apprenticeship (I want to say 6? but I'm not positive) based on how many hours you've completed, and your wages go up with every step. Billy is starting at a 2nd step! The JATC has given him 1,000 hours for the telecommunication work he's been doing. So not only does he get higher wages, but he probably shaved about 6 months off his apprenticeship!

Ok enough of all the technical stuff. Now you can celebrate with us! We'll be in the same place for the length of each job (some last a few months, others last over a year) which means we can build relationships, be a part of a community and I can get a job! Hopefully substitute teaching and/or working in a coffee shop :)

Last Wednesday we left Champaign, IL and although we we're trying to make it to Fort Worth in one day, we decided to spend the night in Malvern, AR. The park was very humble, shall we say, and we just pulled up on a patch of grass. Of course, it rained on us all night and we were stuck in the morning! Thankfully the trucker staying next to us was able to pull us out :)

We got to Fort Worth (where the SW JATC office is) on Thursday and stayed the night outside of Arlington. Billy went in to the office on Friday to sign some paperwork and to find out where he'd be working: Shermon, TX (about an hour north of Dallas). So we looked up some RV parks in the Sherman area and they were all full! Eventually I found a mobile home community that had 3 RV lots, with 1 available! I couldn't believe our luck! Until we pulled up... It's definitely not the nicest of places we've stayed but it's crazy cheap and only a few miles from Billy's job site so I'm telling myself it's worth it :)
Billy went to work for a few hours this afternoon and everything is looking good! Everyone's pretty relaxed and they aren't working with anything energized (which makes me really happy).
I haven't really seen any of Sherman yet, but it's pretty big and it's close to the Dallas/Fort Worth area which is nice.

Our gypsy life is about to slow down A LOT compared to what it was but we'll still be moving more often than most people and I will continue to update this blog in the meantime!