Progress....

It's been a slow process, what with reserving plenty of time to work on my dissertation and also forcing myself to be somewhat social in the interest of meeting people (I - yes, I the hermit crab - even attended the RS activity last week in my new ward, and signed up for book club). But so far I've gone from this





to this





Aubrey and I are still adjusting to apartment living. I bought several new toys for Aubrey to compensate for no outside time - her favorite is a strip of flannel "ribbon" on the end of a stick - it cost less than $2 and requires that I hold the stick to make the ribbon move, but at least it's something for her to do. She and Bodie both also love this long tube stuffed with catnip, but I only bought one and they don't like to share much. Apartment dwelling may actually be good for Bodie - he no longer runs to hide every time he sees a car/person pass by the window. On the other hand, he still spends the majority of his life under the bed, so....

I still need to hang pictures and finish taking boxes out to the garage, and there are a few things I haven't found a place for yet. The stack of boxes by the door is stuff to haul up to school, but I don't have an office till the beginning of July. (Hard to complain when I don't really work there until the beginning of September....) We're slowly settling in - it still doesn't feel exactly like "home," but it's getting there. The plan is still to hopefully move out in 6 months, though - I drove around after church yesterday scoping out neighborhoods with houses for sale in my price range. (OK, partly it was to fill time until I could stop fasting!) Sioux City has some awesome neighborhoods with adorable homes. Of course, the drawback is seeing houses I like that probably won't still be on the market by the time I can look seriously, but it does help to figure out how all the streets connect and to get an idea of where I'd like to be.

And that's pretty much it for life in South Dakota so far. Insurance is way cheap, but taxes are higher on stuff. The weather is quite a bit more mellow than Tulsa. I hate the way the water tastes. My new ward is very nice, but it still feels like I'm visiting. I think life will be great once I get a calling, and especially once school starts up - it's hard to feel connected to a community when I spend almost all my time with myself at a computer! But it does make it easy to devote enough time to my dissertation, with no other options out there. :)