It's been a tad too long...

Sorry fellow bloggers and readers! I know it has been over a month since I've written on here. I'm horrible.

Let's see if I can remember everything since I last posted...

Well Dan left for a few weeks from mid-July to the beginning of August I think. He got to go to Vegas for recruiting then back home to FL to visit friends and family. While he was gone, I started being crafty and turned our apartment into a home. I learned all about crackle painting frames and block letters, wreath making, thrift store furniture buying, and many other random crafts/decorating ideas.

The day Dan flew in, I got to drive to Billings, Montana and explore (ahem, shop) lol But I am excited that a 'big' city like that is only two hours away- it has most of the stores we have been missing.

We've settled into our grown-up life roles and routines now. haha so weird to have joined that club.
The college students/basketball players are all in town. It's good to walk into the gym and see all those guys hanging out- brings back a sense of familiarity. Work for me is full of all the finalizing details for our Barn Dance. We have 2 weeks til the 2011 Barn Dance! I will def. have to post pictures for you all to see!

The distance from friends/family/Georgia is really starting to sink in. I wish I could see some familiar faces or run down the street to a friends house to hang out... Our door is always open for anyone that travels out west! I'd love the company!! :-) Let's start a contest, who will be the first person to visit us in Sheridan?? Whoever that is, will get an awesome prize haha (the biggest hug ever from me)

Hope this update provides you with some insight on our life, thanks for reading and I promise I'll update again soon!

Love to you all!

Rodeo & Birthday Week

Thursday was my birthday! I am now 24 years old, what an age and year of transition. I've discovered that I'm in an awkward age stage. I dont quite fit in with the college girl lifestyle anymore but I'm not to the wanting to stay at home with the babies stage haha But I'm sure there are other ladies in this town at the same place- I just gotta find them! While I was at work, a B-E-A-UTIFUL bouquet of flowers showed up on my desk. Dan did an amazing job and I certainty wasnt expecting him to do that for me. The picture doesn't do it justice, and more flowers have opened up now. Every time I see them I still gush about how pretty they are lol During a meeting for work, they pulled out a mini cake with a candle lit, sang happy birthday, and gave me a card with a DSW giftcard in it!! I teared up as they were singing to me... so embarrassing, lol but I just wasnt expecting it at all!! It was seriously the sweetest thing they could have done for me! I'm so thankful to be able to work with such great people!! After work, Dan had made reservations at the Wyoming Rib & Chop House. We had the most delicious steaks ever!! When I got home, there was a very sweet card from Tracy and Mike (Dan's parents) waiting for me. And of course I had the hundreds of facebook birthday wishes to read as well. It was a wonderful birthday!!

Wells friends, Dan and I can officially say that we are seasoned vets of the Wyo Rodeo!

All week I worked on VOA's float for the parade. I'll have to get a picture from someone but it looked awesome! Everyone did such an amazing job helping out! From my co-workers to clients everyone gave so much time and creativity to make it a success! Friday morning was the parade and I was definitely nervous about marching down Mainstreet not knowing a single person in the crowd. When our clients arrived, their excited energy helped take away all my fears. It was an amazing experience getting to see them participate in the parade. They truly had a blast! Next year, I'll have to see if I can incorporate some of their ideas into the float from the beginning planning stages!

After the parade, Dan and I got some delicious food from a local downtown restaurant called Samfords. We've been trying to make our way through all the restaurants in town, but we cheated and had our second meal there. Sooo good!! Friday night we met up with ppl Dan knew who were town and we went to the Street Dance. Nights here are so beautiful! The zero humidity makes it wonderful to be out at night without getting gross! I ran into Brittany from work and she attempted to teach me how to two-step and do the whole western dance thing. I had a wonderful time and hopefully I'll get the new dance style down pat soon!

Aaron gave us tickets so we could actually get to go to the rodeo last
night! I was so excited! I love rodeo's! When I was younger I always said I wanted to marry a bullrider, lol! Dan had never been to a rodeo, not really his type of thing, but he graciously took me. The Indian Horse Races were soo cool!!! That is something that is definitely not in our rodeos back in Georgia! It was so exciting when the gun went off and they raced around the track and then jumped onto the back of the waiting horse. They also had these stunt ladies who rode on their horses while doing gymnastic type moves. Their heads seemed as if they would scrape the ground as their horse galloped around and they held on just by their feet! CRAZYNESS!! Their upper body and leg strength was incredible. I wondered how ppl get involved in something like that and Dan confirmed that you had to have been in gymnastics while growing up on a ranch, lol brilliant! They saved the bullriding for the end and everyone did well, no injuries. I think the bulls are bigger in the PBR events we see back home tho. Overall, it was a wonderful rodeo and Dan was a saint for letting me enjoy it! After the rodeo we met up with everyone at the Street Dance.

Tonight we are going to see Harry Potter!! I just realized that while we have watched movies every night of our relationship thanks to netflix, we have never been to the theaters to see a movie... (sry, if we have and I just dont remember lol) The movie theater is in an old building downtown so it should be another wonderful Sheridan experience!

I hope each of you had a fabulous week and thank you all for the birthday wishes! It meant a lot to know that ppl still thought of me back home! Love you all!

workin, campin, and dancin

I have officially completed my first week of work! It is such a good feeling to be able to start a routine and be able to work for a company that I admire and have a job that I am passionate about! I have already learned so much about the organization and love how many lives they touch on a daily basis!

After a busy week of learning so much at work, Dan and I joined Steve, Nikki, and Aaron 45 minutes away in Montana at Tongue River for a quick night of camping! The boys jumped off cliffs into the river, gathered trees to use as firewood, and constructed sturdy tents. We ate s'mores, and survived a quick thunderstorm during the night. I was definitely impressed that everything in the tent stayed dry!

Saturday evening, Dan and I joined the gang out at Sheridan College and attended the Rodeo Kick-Off Party. This coming week is Rodeo week and it is a VERY BIG DEAL in this community! The Kick-Off was so much fun~ we got to dance to local musicians on the front lawn and meet many more locals. We are convinced that the people out west must be born how to dance to country music! Dan and I just watch as they all seem to know how to do all these fancy steps with their feet! haha Maybe we'll learn one day! After this week and weekend the number one rule I've learned is to keep warm clothes to put on at night in the car, the temperature drops fast at night!

Like I mentioned, this week is Rodeo week so next weekends blog post will be full of news about cowboys, street dances, float making, and parades!

Love you all and thanks for reading! :-)

2,000 miles later...

WE MADE IT!!!

After a three day trek across the United States, we finally made it to our new city! The journey was one I'll remember forever!

Wednesday June 22, my sister helped Dan and I load the u-haul trailer, the back of Dan's truck, and the back of my car. We had no clue if all of our stuff was going to fit, but thanks to Dan's amazing packing skills we managed to stuff it all in. We then went to my moms to spend the night before we headed out for good on Thursday morning.

Thursday we sad our goodbyes and headed out for our new life. Thursday ended up being what felt like the longest day of my life! After getting through the Atlanta traffic we encountered the TN mountains. Dan's truck did not appreciate having to go up those steep hills while pulling an overstuffed u-haul. We ended up sitting in the emergency lane on the side of a cliff trying to get the engine to cool down. After some googling Dan discovered that if you turned on your heat then your engine wouldn't overheat. Poor Dan had to drive with the heat on in 90 degree weather the rest of the way! We finally started putting miles between us and home and called it a night in Columbia, Missouri.

Friday, while making our way through Missouri/Iowa territory, we saw the most beautiful farms! It seemed to be the perfect day with the blue sky, sunshine, and rolling hills/farms- and it was until we entered the flood zone. We kept seeing farms and houses underwater and eventually the interstate just ended and we were ushered off the exit. We ventured off the exit and drove around this farm land trying to find another route only to find out we made a huge circle and ended up right back at the highway and it was still closed. We eventually figured out the right way and what should have taken 30 min's took us 2 hours with the detour. We drove a little ways to find out that the interstate will have another detour so we used our trusty atlas (that I thought my mom unnecessarily bought us) and figured out a new way to get across Nebraska and into South Dakota.

Saturday came and we were so excited for our final day of these 12 hour long car rides! We were not stopping again until we made it to Sheridan. Words cannot express to you all the gorgeous scenery that we went through by crossing Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. We saw all kinds of wildlife and the most incredible hills, canyons, mountains, rivers, etc. I tried to take pictures as I was driving but they dont even do it justice. This part of the United States is absolutely beautiful!! (Once I unpack the box that my camera cord is in I'll get some pictures on here) As we were about to cross the border into Wyoming, I called Dan because something looked funny with the tire on the u-haul and before we could pull over to the side of I-90, the tire blew! We then sit on the side of the road for two hours waiting for someone from the closest u-haul place to come fix it. Around 9:30 Mountain Time, which would be 11:30 PM back home, we finally pull into our new town.

Sunday our wonderful friends, Steve and Nikki drove us around Sheridan, showed us where we will be working, helped look at houses, and showed us the town. Monday morning Dan and I decided on a place and the landlord gave us the keys right then and there, and by 2 PM all our stuff was in our new home! Today (Tues), I got to go into my work and meet everyone, fill out HR info, and go to lunch with the people I'll be working with. I CANNOT wait to get started working at Volunteers of America!! I start July 5th (next tues) :-)

For now, I need to go unpack the millions of boxes and see if we have any dishes left after all those wonderful adventures we encountered along the way.

Love you all and thank you for all your prayers as Dan and I made this crazy drive out west!

WE'RE MOVING!!!

The ten day countdown began yesterday to our moving day! Dan and I are moving to Sheridan, Wyoming on June 23rd and the apartment is full of boxes, bubble wrap, and packing tape. Our new life together is about to begin and we are excited, anxious, and ready. The drive is 30 hours long and we plan to make our cross-country trip into an adventure by making stops in towns that we want to visit.

It will be bittersweet to say goodbye to Milledgeville. I moved here in August 2006 and love my 'family' that I've found here! My Milledgeville family has helped me grow and shown tremendous love and support to me throughout these past years!

I can't even begin to type out words to describe my feelings about moving away from my family. Living two hours away in Milledgeville doesn't even compare to how it will be to live 30 hours away! I'm thankful we have things like Skype and Facebook to help ease the pain and keep some of the homesickness away.

The difference between Georgia and Wyoming I'm sure will be enormous. As I sit here sweating from a triple digit heat wave, the weather will be something that I know for sure will be a huge difference. I'll be able to experience real snow in the winter and cooler days in the summer. I know some of these differences will be a challenge but I'm excited to experience a completely different lifestyle than the one I've been living these last wonderful 24 years in Georgia.

To all my friends and family, I promise to keep up this blog and fill it with all the details from our new life! I cant wait to scroll through the pages of this blog and see where this journey has taken us!

We thank all of you for all your love and support!!

~Angela