Happy in St. Louis

A little Ian update: We were on a role getting Ian potty trained back in February, then we got the news that we had to put together a move to St. Louis in two weeks and we all fell of the potty horse. Ian is now completely uninterested in using the potty. Otherwise, he continues to be active and fun. We got a dog this week; Ian and Gizmo love to run all over the backyard exploring and searching for treasure. Sometimes they just sit together in the sandbox and play.

A little Lily update: Lily seems to have good pitch. She can match whatever tone that I hum or sing at her. She started saying ‘I love you’ this week and loves to scream at the top of her lungs and run around in circles, especially if Gizmo is around.

A little Matt update: My new job seems to be great. My coworkers seem very nice and extremely competent. The work seems like a lot of fun, we basically do the same kind of things that I did in graduate school, but on a much bigger scale using automation and robots whenever possible.

Our new ward (the St. Charles Ward) has a lot of really nice people, I’ve never showed up new in a ward and had so many of the members introduce themselves to me. I was given a calling, second counselor in the young men’s presidency, on our second week before our records had even been transferred.

I’ve had a fundamental change of attitude since moving to St. Louis. Up until this point of my life, I’ve always been working to get somewhere else; to graduate, publish, or finish something so that I could get a good job at some point in the future. Now, I have a 'good job' I find myself much more inclined and happy to do workspace or social maintenance, meaning that before I have always resented the time that I had to dedicate to common lab chores, now I am perfectly happy to think about and do routine things like thinking about safety or thinking about ways to make my workspace a more enjoyable environment. Whereas I have tended to resent the time that church calling have taken out of my family or social life, but fulfilled my obligations out of a sense of duty, trade (if I serve the Lord then he will bless me), or fear. Now, I am actually looking forward to working with the young men, going to the activities, the campouts, the dances. I guess you could say that I’ve finally arrived at the place that I’ve been trying to get my whole life and now I can start giving more focus to living my life.

"Meet Me In Saint Louis, Louis..."

Yes, we are here! We arrived yesterday. The move has gone pretty smooth so far. Of course, that is due to the two awesome men who were hired to move us. Marvin and Abel from New World Van Lines did a great job. They have a giant truck with the coolest horn. Ian had fun getting into the cab and pulling on the horn. 

It was really hard and sad for us to say good bye to "RandyGen" and other good friends we made in Houston. We will miss them so much. But we are happy we arrived here safely and hope to sign a lease agreement tomorrow so that Abel and Marvin have somewhere to bring our stuff. 

Monsanto generously provided an agent for us to help us locate a home. Joann is very knowledgeable and has been so helpful. We saw a lot of dumps today and figured out pretty fast we had to up our price or move further from Monsanto. We're staying in an awesome hotel, also courtesy of Monsanto. We really appreciate all they have done for us thus far and are very excited about our new relationship with them. Below is a little video of us at the Marriot Residence Inn. Hopefully we will blog again soon with a video of our new home!