Welcome to LA!

We are finally here! After a month in Nova Scotia and another month in Boise (we had so much fun!) we finally made the 15 hour drive to our new home. We stopped for a night in Provo, loaded up the Penske truck, then drove ahead in our car to Vegas where we stayed another night (Thank you again, Gma and Gpa for the night in your time share.) and then finished the last leg to LA.

A BIG thank you to my dad who was cramped in our small car with us to Utah and then drove the truck the rest of the way. He had a crazy experience in Vegas when a car of Mexicans drove up next to him on the freeway and were yelling at him. Thinking he might have something wrong with the truck, he eventually pulled over. The car of Mexicans also pulled over and then were jumping all over the truck!!!! They were looking for work! Ha! Oh, the things that happen to my dad. :)

I had booked a hotel for us to stay in while we looked for an apartment near the airport since my dad would be flying out and Aunt Ranee would be flying in to help us in our search. Needless to say, I should have researched my areas a little bit more because our hotel was in the dangerous neighborhood of Inglewood. It was definitely one of the shadiest hotels I had ever stayed in.

God was really looking out for us because we ended up moving in to a new apartment within a couple of days of arriving in LA. It was the first apartment we toured. We filled out an application and then found out that we had not been approved because they like to have their tenants earn more than 3 times the monthly rent... and we made less than twice. Luckily, the lady who ended up approving our application was LDS and even though she had no idea that we were also, I know she was lead by the Spirit to make that decision. :)

Moving in was a breeze. We had stopped in St. George to see my dad's childhood friend who ended up selling us our couch and bed. We had so little stuff from our tiny basement apartment in Provo that when the ward showed up to help us move in, we were done within minutes. One thing we learned about apartments in California is that most of them make you provide your own fridge, weird. That was a cost we didn't expect but ended up getting a pretty good deal at the Sears Outlet.

Our apartment is great. We have a dishwasher, 2 bedrooms, nice carpet, and a large cement patio out front which is just beckoning for Ethan to come and play. On the other hand, it's REALLY expensive and it's forced us to live on more of a tight budget than we already were as poor college students. At least in Provo we could eat out every so often, here it's out of the question. That's the trade off for the nice weather, eh?

Our city of Torrance is beautiful, we live minutes from the beach and across the street from a park. We've been to the beach twice since moving in. Our ward is also great. We were automatically introduced to some other great families and invited to all kinds of get-togethers.