Fry Sauce

Can you believe that this Californian couple found a place to live in Utah? Yeah, me either. We are so relieved and blessed to walk away from this week knowing that we won't be living in our cars for the next few years. We are happy. We are tired. And we are officially moving to UTAH next week.

The last few days Lauren(my organized sister), my red bearded husband, and myself searched high and low for a place to live. We(mostly Lauren) scrambled for appointments and locations to any house that looked suitable for us. Some were very old with crooked floors and original bright yellow tiling in the kitchen, others had questionable basements which Zach was pretty sure he's seen on America's Most Wanted. My favorite was a little white house that looked like an old chapel and had over three acres of yard. Maybe favorite isn't the right word..the garage was behind the house and half open with graffiti all over the walls, and then another great touch was location. Location location location. That was the only house on this very busy main street and within two minutes of people watching we managed to see twenty of the most shady people in the world and counted only seven teeth between all of them. On the flip side we found beautiful homes that had awesome backyards and were refinished inside. One in particular we fell in love with, it was walking distance to the for runner (a train that Zach will need to get to school), the mall, and COSTCO. It also had a huge backyard and old mellow folks as neighbors. Unfortunately the living space wasn't comfortable enough for the four of us. Shortly after that location we went to a little red brick house, one which was on our top two. It was an adorable little old house in a quiet neighborhood with a big backyard, that needed work but had potential. Inside it was just redone. in a way it seemed the remodeling had been rushed. Some rooms felt like they had just thrown up drywall randomly and called it a room. Nevertheless it was still a great house. There were around a dozen places we saw and what felt like a dozen places that wouldn't work for us. It was quite the experience.

We were just about to wrap up this never ending day and catch some Zzz's when we figured that we should go to one last location. It was around 9pm when Lauren and Zach knocked on the landlords house to ask about the place up for rent. It was the house right next to his. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living rooms and the kitchen. It's two stories which means the rooms are evenly split. It has a nice long front lawn and is right off the freeway. And the yard in the back is perfect for us. Anyways it was obviously too late to see the house so we headed over the next day. It was what we'd been searching for. Separate living spaces, affordable, and ready to rent. So to end this long ramble its the place we ended up getting! Sort of. We are waiting for the background check to go through, which it will, then it'll be ours to live in. Home sweet home here we come.

Finding a home isn't easy. In fact it can really suck. I would say that it was fun at some parts but it was stressful overall. And that I don't want to do it again anytime soon. You might think to yourself, how on earth did these poor Californians deal with this bundle of stress? Well here is our little secret...did you know that Red Robins has bottomless root beer floats and fries? Enough said.

Moving on...In between the searching and driving I also had two interviews to get to. Nothing crazy, I was trying to transfer my old job as a shift leader from rancho Five Guys Burgers and Fries to a Utah store. This was the least of my worries this week since I've been with the company for over two years. So the first interview only lasted about 8 minutes when the GM asked me to fill out paperwork to start on the 3rd of June. I was definitely hesitant due to the fact that minimum wage is $7.25 in Utah, $8.25 in California, and her highest paying shift leader is at $9. That's a dollar less then at home where I was making $10 an hour. So she was going to ask HR and get back to me on the pay because she couldn't make that final decision for me. Either way I left knowing that if all else failed I would at least have a job back at the burger joint flipping well done juicy patties. Oh the joy that brings to this vegetarian!

Little did I know that the fry sauce state isn't only at seven and a quarter for minimum wage but also that full time there is 29 hours. Right?! It does suck. So I'll be strapping on my non slips and working even harder then first anticipated. BUT there is some good news to this job thing. I had my second interview at a different store, actually the smallest Five Guys I have ever been to. In fact their sales are less then half of what we make in Rancho. Yikes! It's all good though, I got along very well with the GM, we discussed my concerns on pay and my schedule. He was helpful and excited to get me on the schedule. He called me back later that day and offered me the job at $10 an hour. So I start Monday June 3rd. Another blessing for our stability.

It's crazy to get so much accomplished when you're organized and driven. Not that we really had another option. With a few days of determination I'm employed and renting a house...but I'm not alone in this of course. It's comforting to know that Lauren will be starting her job right away as well.  I realize that this will be a very challenging time for us four and we may even have to get second jobs, but its all part of our growth. I wouldn't want to share these hard and busy times with anyone but the best people in my life, my husband, sister, and brother-in-law. So with all that said, BRING IT ON UTAH!