All Story, No Pictures...

So, Steven and I went to Los Angeles this weekend to look for a new home. We had a lot of potential places from looking online, but we wanted to go see them in person to get a better feel for the neighborhood they were in and what they really look like. You can never trust the pictures online. We get to California and the first two people we had the pleasure of dealing with were totally rude and the traffic was a bear. I was not feeling great about things thus far. After picking up the rental car and getting things settled for Steven's residency, we started our apartment search.... Oh goodness! The first day we saw a lot of, what I thought to be, scary apartments. Steven didn't seem bothered as much as I was. I decided it was female intuition. We had like 5 different apartments marked all in the same area so we headed over there to get a bunch knocked off the list....We knocked them off alright. The area alone was enough to scare us away for life. I told Steven if we got an apartment there we would have to take his mom the back way or she would have a fit. ha ha No joke, it was like the type of ghetto you see in movies where they are trying to make the area seem super GHETTO. It was bad. At the end of the first day I was feeling pretty anxious that we wouldn't find anything. Everything was either way too expensive or way too scary. The next day was a little better. We ran into some nice people, saw some AMAZING cars...and I'm not even into cars that much. We saw a couple of places that appeared clean and safe, but they still seemed to be above and beyond our comfort zone in price. At least there was hope though. That evening we went to Santa Monica pier. It was super cool and really relieved some of the stress. The pier itself is way cool. Someday when we have money, I'd like to spend some times there eating fry-bread and riding the rides. The ocean was so beautiful. There's a spot on the beach with all these different exercise thingies. It's where the buff guys go to show off. It was funny to watch. There was one girl doing some crazy acrobatic stuff on the rings. She wasn't fooling me. There was no exercising to this routine. It was all for show. It's going to take some time to get used to all of the hot headed, show offs. Steven climbed a super high rope. I was pretty impressed. He made it look so easy and we all know climbing the rope in gym class is no easy task. The next day was Sunday. We were on the hunt again. We passed one of our church buildings and I talked Steven into going in to talk to one of the bishops. He didn't want to because we were not dressed for church. To be honest, I felt weird too, but I was so over our unrewarded searching efforts that I got over it pretty easy. Everyone was sooo nice and the bishop kept trying to convince us that that was the ward for us. Steven thinks he has callings to fill. :0) Turns out, one of the bishops counselors lives in and manages an apartment complex not even a block away from the temple! What are the odds? Anyway, so Sunday was a great day. We found some potential places and met a lot of really nice members and felt some of the weight lift off our shoulders. It really does pay to be a member of such an amazing church. I'm so thankful. I am a firm believer that blessings come from being a member of this wonderful gospel and paying tithing. Even though it was a little stressful at times, it was a great trip. I had so much fun just spending time with my amazing husband. My companion, my navigator...my best friend. I love you so much Steven!