Well it's now November and so many things I never thought would come, have. We had my parents out last week for a visit. We got to see so many parts of Lubbock and the history behind it. We ate at a bunch of places, some AMAZING that I will go back to, and others not so amazing but it's always nice to finally get to venture around your new home. They also bought us a stand up freezer :-) It's SO nice to have some freezer space and actually be able to save money by buying things in bulk!
Sadly Nick could not come down with mom and dad but that was fortunate for me as I reach my next subject. I submitted my thesis on time and it was officially accepted! I needed someone to pick up my signature sheet from the Animal Science building and hand it off to the Graduate School before I could electronically submit my thesis and Nick stepped in and took care of it for me! I only have a few more details to wrap up by the end of the semester but then I'll be officially done with every aspect of my masters and can concentrate solely on my PhD. Perfect timing really because it appears my PhD project will be starting up after the first of the year. Everything was a bit anti-climactic but I'm glad to have it done and over with.
Chris and I are getting to spend more time together and loving it. We are really liking our church and we found a Sunday night group that meets for dinner and a discussion that we really like. Oddly enough we found this over the summer on our cruise in Greece. I was wearing a Texas Tech shirt and a lady came up to me in the dining room and shared that she lives in Lubbock and would love to meet up with us once we moved down. As such, it's not associated with our church and Sunday nights are bad times when Chris is traveling but it's great to have for now.
I'm still not happy with the apartment complex we live in. We're the last building to get painted, half the fences in our little grouping are not going to get fixed because the fencers were not getting paid and they walked out, NOTHING that was on our list of broken things when we moved in in August has been fixed and they have had multiple visits from us, including a new list. While mom and dad were here we stumbled across some houses that are well maintained and decently priced at 59900 and I'm not sure how long we're going to be here but even over 4 years it would EASILY pay for itself... I don't know, it's just a thought. Any of the places to live around here that aren't sufficiently ghetto and run down are EXPENSIVE, it's ridiculous! This is supposed to have a lower cost of living but rent is huge and food is more expensive (there are no stores with loyalty cards) and honestly most of the city is in poverty. I guess I just don't see how it's so sustainable that way? OK, vent done.
I know Chris will have to spend more time in CO now that he has less races but with our bikes making the trip back with mom and dad he will have a constant mode of transportation around Fort Collins. We have great friends in Fort Collins who just bought a new house and have offered their new guest room as a place to stay. It will be nice that Chris doesn't have to crash only on the couch at Nick's place. However, I'm looking forward to more time on the weekends with him :-)
The weather is finally cooling down and I'm looking forward to a winter here :-) I'm looking forward to truly making Lubbock our new home and embracing everything it has to offer us (at least for the next couple of years).
