More pictures, please.

Wow. I was just looking over our blog and I realized we have a lack of pictures! So, here are some for all of you =)

Audrey - The Cookie Monster!


Audrey in a Bath (Yes, yes, those forever-embarassing naked bath pictures).


Audrey loves to giggle, but you have to know how to make that grin come to her face. She can get the whole room laughing in no time with her personality.

And here's a couple of pictures from graduation!


This one was taken in Station Square before graduation. We enjoyed a beautiful day there shopping and seeing the sights!


This is at the Pirates game that we went to. It was a ton of fun (even though they lost). For a couple of people there, it was the first 'pro' sports game that they've gone too! It's a great memory and I'm glad we could all have fun there.



Here's a picture of Grandma Judy and Papa Dean on the top of the incline. Those lights behind them are the skyscrapers of Pittsburgh.


I can't believe that we're actually done there! The whole day had an almost surreal feel about it. We definitely had some good memories, but we're really looking forward to the future.


So, we're walking away from Carnegie Mellon now. We learned a lot there and it will always be part of our lives. Will we miss it? Probably parts of it. But right now the future is so exciting that I think we'll be kept busy enough!

A Little Time at Home

Ashlee here, writing from home in Wyoming. I've been pretty busy over the last week that I've been here, though my time home has been restful as well. I've enjoyed seeing my family and catching up on things with them. I also stopped by my old highschool and saw some of my teachers there. It's always nice to chat with everyone from Sheridan My family and those teachers are the ones that built such a strong network of support for me and I owe a lot of my dreams to them and all they've done for me.

I have a lot of reading still to do before institute. And mom wants me to go through boxes of my stuff that she has stored in her garage. She wants to start transferring that stuff to Todd and I, now that we're thinking of getting a house. I guess this means I'm really growing up - I get to store my own stuff at my own place. 

Like I said, it's been a whirlwind here since I've been home. There are so many people to see and talk to and spend time with. My friend from High School, Hillary, is coming up later this week. It's going to be good to see her again too. 

One of the things I've thoroughly enjoyed while being home is being able to spend some time with my adorable niece, Audrey. She's grown up so much over the last couple of months! 

Brandon and Mallory are such good parents. I've really enjoyed seeing them and watching them play with "Moogums" (phonetic spelling). Yes, Brandon decided that Audrey's official nickname would be "Moog" and any derivative thereof. No one knows why, but it's stuck. Poor Audrey is going to be called that until she's at least 18.

Of course, Brandon also decided that I would be "Aunt Moe" instead of "Aunt Ashlee." Moe is a childhood nickname that my family had for me (since my parents had three kids they tried to nickname us after the 3 stooges. Of course, only my name stuck). 

With less than a week left at home, there's still people I want to go visit and things that I need to do. Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done though! 

I have to admit, I'm looking forward to going back to Phoenix. I heard it's nice and warm there, whereas it's cold and rainy here!

Checking out accounts

Along with moving come many annoying chores that most Americans have probably dealt with a few times. Moving across the country increases the number of such tasks, but also provides a chance to rethink things and avoid previous mistakes. I (Todd) am talking about changing bank accounts, internet providers, cell phone companies, etc. This post is about finding a new checking account, and how it seems to have paid off to take some time to find the best option for us.

First, some history. Last fall I spent a good bit of time searching for a decent savings account. All the accounts I had before offered pathetic interest rates. While the best rates obviously came on account with minimum balances several times our savings, I wanted to find something better than 1.5% interest. I quickly discovered that our traditional four walls and a roof bank couldn't compete with online only banks, who obviously cut overhead costs and pass the savings along with better interest. I ended up finding an account that boasted 4% (at Shorebank.com). Of course, the rate has gone down since then, but we're still much better off.

Learning from that experience, I've now researched and selected an online solution for our new checking account as well. In Pittsburgh we chose the most popular bank, mostly because it had several ATMs on campus and throughout the city. Also, it was free for students. This time around, we're going a different route. As far as checking accounts go, I wanted almost every feature you can ask for: no minimum balance, at least some interest, if not a decent amount, no monthly fees, overdraft protection, fraud protection, free atm/debit card, online access and billpay, and lots of ATM access, both in Phoenix, and back in Sheridan. Wells Fargo was the only traditional option, as it was the only bank I could find with ATMs both in Phoenix and Sheridan. However, online I found a bunch of choices, and am 95% sure that Schwab (yes, Charles Schwab, the investment firm) will be home to our checking. The amazing feature is that they cover all atm fees, making it free to use any atm anywhere we go, in the US at least. Also, they have all the other features I was looking for, including 0.75% interest. Deposits will be a bit of a hassle, but the other advantages make up for it.

For those of you who would like to learn more, http://www.checkingoptions.com has a good run down of some of the best choices.

Albuquerque, take two

While Ashlee flew to Wyoming to visit friends and family for a couple weeks, I packed up the car, and drove to Albuquerque. This summer I'll be working at Sandia National Laboratories again, presumably doing similar work.

I arrived two days ago, but stayed one night in a motel, and moved into my summer sublet yesterday. Thanks to the awesomeness that is craigslist, I found a great place to live. A couple rents 2 of the 3 bedrooms in a house here in ABQ but will be in Australia for the summer (or winter). I'm renting one room, and a friend is renting the other. They have no problem with Titus living here, and it has a fully equiped kitchen, wireless internet, cable TV, and easy parking. I get along with them really well, so much so that I'm a bit bummed out that they'll be gone most of the time that I'm here. Oh well, I'm sure they'll have a great time down under.

Storage and Phoenix (long post!)

Well, it's almost the end of our little jaunt into Phoenix. We've been here since Saturday and have enjoyed every minute of it...almost.

We got into town on Saturday and went straight to the storage unit. We were pleasantly surprised by the security and upkeep of our storage facility. Todd found it and liked it because it was the cheapest place around. I liked it because I feel confident that our stuff is going to stay safe, dry, and secure there.

As we arrived, we had some ideas about unloading part of the moving van on Saturday. We were warned by the storage facility that we couldn't be inside the gates past 9pm or they would close on us and we wouldn't be able to leave (at least not without disturbing the owners, who live on-site). So, we thought we would do a little unloading that afternoon (it was in the 90's there, with a pleasant breeze), and then finish up Sunday morning.

After a while and a lot of efficient moving, we realized that we were closer to being done than we thought. We finally finished unloading the entire moving truck by 8pm with only one minor interruption. Or rather, a major one.

We lost Titus.

We had been unloading the van, allowing Titus to stay outside on his little leash. We didn't want to keep him in the cab of the truck because of the heat. Well, after a while, we let Titus off his leash out of a feeling of pity. He kept trying to jump into the back of the truck to be with us...only to be pulled up short by his leash. It was really pathetic to watch him continue to try to jump and be suddenly halted midair.

He was fine for a while and mostly stayed in the back of the truck with us. We kept an eye on him and things were going great. And then...we discovered that one of our boxes full of cleaning supplies was soaked in some sort of fluid. So I began the process of unpacking the box, looking through everything to find the culprit (in this case, a bottle of ear piercing cleaning solution), and repacking everything into a spare box we happened to have along.

It was after all of this that we noticed that Titus was missing. We called his name, looked around the car (which was being towed behind the moving truck), and finally started looking up and down the storage isles. Then, in the back where a bunch of cars were stored, I caught sight of him. A black back on a truck, racing off before I had a chance to call out his name.

I yelled for Todd, who came racing down the nearby isle. He caught sight of the cat...right before it jumped over the fence.

Now, this wasn't an ordinary chain link fence. This was a 7 foot brick wall with another 2-3 feet of fence on top of the wall. Over the top was some sort of bread warehouse, full of bread trucks. There was no other way to get in there.

By this time, I was becoming frantic. My poor baby cat, new to the city, was over this huge fence. We couldn't see where he went. Todd quickly hiked me onto his shoulders where I navigated my way over the fence and found a quick way down. I hopped down, my hand almost black with dirt and grime from the fence. I began to look under trucks, calling out for my cat. Minutes passed and I was near tears. I yelled over the fence for Todd to go find Titus' treats, so that maybe we could coax him out by the sound of a shaking treat bottle. As Todd went back to the truck, I continued to look.

On the other side of the fence, Todd called my name. I hurried towards him and as I did, I caught sight of a little black tail!

"Todd!! It's Titus!"

"Ashlee....Titus is right here..."

I looked up and there was a little kitten, held up just enough to peek over the fence at me.

Titus had been sleeping in the back of the truck this entire time. Todd and I were chasing some other cat.

...

We laughed afterwards and it makes for an interesting story (maybe), but it's not something I want to go through again.

*****

In any case, it's now Monday night. I fly home tomorrow. I'm excited to go home and see my family again, but I'm also sad to be saying goodbye to Todd for a couple of weeks. We've had a lot of fun here in Phoenix (with a mall that we spent ALL day at - it's over a mile in circumference is what one vendor told us, great food, and beautiful weather).

We also looked at some houses and contacted a realtor down here. We're nervous about buying our first home, but also extremely excited! We'll keep you updated on what we find out. Right now, we're realizing the value of location. We might look for a house outside of the "college" area just because it will be a lot more cost efficient.

Anyway, it's time for us to head to bed now. I fly out in the morning - so I'll see many of you soon!

-Ashlee

We made it!

Ashlee and I made it to Phoenix yesterday, arriving at about 3 p.m. local time (which is the same as P.D.T. during the summer because daylight savings time isn't used here in Arizona). We went straight to our storage unit so we could sign the lease and get access. Drawing from the energy that came with the excitement of arriving, we started unpacking the truck right away. Aside from a bit of a break to try to find an escaped cat (who wasn't actually Titus), we worked non-stop until 8. Amazingly, in that time we emptied the entire truck and packed it all into our 10x10 foot unit.

And yes, it's a little "warm" here.

Arizona, here we come!

Hello everyone!
It's been a while, hasn't it? Yes, we know it has. We heard all about how everyone was tired of reading about Thanksgiving on our blog. So we're updating it. And you can expect more regular updates in the future (since we'll be on a more regular schedule).

So, for our first order of business...We've graduated! That's right, we're graduates now! Here's a picture of us together at our graduation. Todd graduated with a B.S. and an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Photography and Digital Imaging. I graduated with a B.S. in Political Science with an additional major (B.A.)in Psychology.



We had great time over graduation weekend. My mom flew in on Thursday with my younger brother, Cameron, her boyfriend Willy, and my grandparents (Grandma Judy and Papa Dean). Todd's parents flew in on Friday.

The weekend was beyond busy. We ate at delicious restaurants, went to a Pirates game, and attended the numerous ceremonies hosted for graduating Seniors.

Right now, we're all packed up and driving across the country. I'm posting this from Henryetta, Oklahoma. We're hoping to get pretty close to Phoenix tonight so that we don't have far to go tomorrow.

I'll be posting more when I can. And I'll be flying home on the 26th!