We got internet!!!

The past couple weeks have come and gone, it seems. Let's see if I can do this recap justice...

We ended up deciding to go the Rhema Bible Church, the church that's associated with our school. We absolutely love it! Every service we've been to so far has been life-changing! It's a wonderful church and we are so excited to have met some great people so far! Next week is a big summer conference they put on every year called Campmeeting, and both Brent and I have the entire week off and are stoked! One could say that we both ended up getting the week off by coincidence, but we don't believe in coincidences... ;)

Brent got a job at a bank and he couldn't be happier! He starts on the first - that's when he goes to "teller training" - and we can't wait to have two incomes again, hehe.

We just so happened to get a flat tire the night before my first day of work - I started at 8:30am! So I took a cab to work my first day while it was being fixed. Classy...

We go on a walk through the park across the street almost everyday. We fed the ducks yesterday, plus a squirrel ate out of my hand which was great! Today was incredibly hot (104 degrees, plus humidity!) and we were glad we took water with us for the journey.

Me getting ready for our walk today!

Look at the high for tomorrow...LOOK AT IT!!! How do people even live in 108 degree heat? If our body temperature reaches 105 degrees don't we, like...die? ;)

We had our first encounter with a huge locust-y bug on our back screen door.

We're also eating sort of well...

Brent eating beans and toast. We do "poor college student" right!

I made pasta and Bisquick cheddar garlic biscuits...which were better than than the main coarse.

Teriyaki chicken & rice!

Teriyaki meatballs! Which we also ate over rice.

Keepin' our knock-off brand Honey Nut Cheerios safe from any potential bugs!

We saw this little gem...

We went to Barnes & Noble...it's a big'n!

I found this for Courtney!

And this!

And speaking of Courtney... ;)

We finally hung up some pictures!!

(Confession: I have another one of these frames that my mom got me as a wedding gift, but the plastic coverings got ruined in the move. Praise the Lord the pictures were ok, and the Target here has the same frame so we're going to get a new one as soon as we can!)

Also, we got internet! I think I forgot to mention that, so that's awesome news.

Well, that's about it for this week. I'm getting ready to check out Writer's Bloc - a Rhema writers' group. Actually, they call them "Link Teams" - it's basically like a club. They have a ton of them for all different kinds of hobbies and interests. It's a great way for people to get to know others with similar interests and to feel connected in such a large church. So I'm off to do that...have a blessed night! :)

P.S. - I promise this will be the last time I post random food pictures, unless of course I cook a masterpiece. I know no one really cares about what we had to eat. It's just kind of fun for me because it's the first time I've really ever cooked, or...you know...had to. ;)

Our 1st week in Oklahoma comes to a close...

Tomorrow marks one week that we've been in Broken Arrow. Crazy to think that last week at this time we were somewhere in Kansas. This is what's happened since I last posted:

Because we don't have internet or a TV yet, at night we've been watching a lot of Seinfeld on our laptop to stay entertained, haha! Our first night I just made chicken nuggets, but our second night I made chicken and rice. We went out for dinner the next night at Carrabba's, which was pretty good but a bit more pricey than we thought it would be. Besides Chipotle our first day here, we've only eaten out three other times, just to try a few different places: Carrabba's (which was decent, but we think Olive Garden is better - though they did have excellent soup!), Chick-Fil-A (best chicken sandwich either of us have ever had, no joke!), and Panera, which is a cafe-bakery-soup & sandwich place and our favorite so far. Also, because we're in the South, sweet tea runs rampant! Every time we've eaten out, I've had it. I'm definitely in love with it...

Here's my attempt at a real dinner.

I got a job at the YMCA as the front desk person! I start on Tuesday.

We decided not to get internet with AT&T, even though they're the cheaper company because they didn't seem to know what was up. Seriously...it took them four days to tell us that they don't have service in Broken Arrow. *sigh* We'll be getting internet on Tuesday instead!

Brent had an interview at Sears, but for the life of us, neither of us could find it. Luckily for him, the HR lady totally understood and rescheduled (not to mention, gave us better directions, haha!). Brent now has two interviews on Monday. He also applied to a few other jobs, including one with our new bank - the lady who opened our account with us told him to apply, so we hope that's a good sign. We're believing for an interview with them AND the job. This whole time, our prayer has been that we'd get jobs that worked with each other's schedules and the fact that we only have one car. My YMCA job and the bank job fit beautifully together, so again...we're believing for it!

Brent all dressed for his interview! Schnazzy...

We did up our fridge.

Here's our little "command center" - it has our weekly meal plan, our weekly cleaning schedule, our weekly regular schedule, our to-do list, and our shopping list.

And on the bottom door, our little pieces of home! Two drawings from Branson & Owen, as well as one from McKenzie that she gave to us on our Oregon trip.

Remember this, Kenzie? ;)

We walked to Rhema Bible Church Wednesday night. We didn't realize there was a service since it was July 4th, so we missed it. But the usher let us walk around and check it out. It was super big inside! We're actually planning on getting plugged into a different church (we found one that we personally feel is a bit more "us" and lines up a bit more with who we are and where we feel God is leading us in our lives) but it was still cool to go check out Rhema, and of course we'll go to a few events and services. It is our school's church, after all! ;)

One view of the sanctuary.

Haha! Brent and I thought this was kind of awesome and also kind of awkward all at the same time. Want to pay your tithe? Just swipe your card! And I thought paying it online was weird... ;)

We went to the big movie theater to see The Amazing Spiderman. It was a big theater, with an IMAX as well as a little restaurant thing that sold burgers and fries and pizza and such, in addition to the regular concession stand.

On our way to the movie! By the way, my hair looks a little crazy here, but only because I washed it at like, 4 in the morning that day so by the time I took this photo, it was 5pm and my hair was kind of...dead. But I absolutely love the humidity! It feels awesome, and I see good things in the future of my hair, skin, and nails. ;)

They do this cool thing - not sure if it's just for the summer or all year long - where they show an older movie every Monday. For example, last month they had The Exorcist, The Wizard of Oz, and a John Wayne movie. This month it was Cabaret, a Paul Newman movie, and I can't remember the rest...but still, really cool!

The big IMAX. We're hoping to see the new Batman movie here. They're showing the entire trilogy the week it comes out!

This morning we finally did our laundry at the student housing laundry facility. I loved it, haha! We also stopped by the Salvation Army to check out TV prices. They just so happened to be having a TV sale and we got one for $10!

Now we can watch Seinfeld on the big screen! ;)

We're super excited for church tomorrow - we already have a lunch date with the college group people, so that should be fun! We know once we get plugged into church, start meeting people and working, that it will make things seem a lot more real and make Tulsa feel a lot more like home, although it's definitely began to sink in a lot more already.

A few final notes...

• We bought all of groceries at Walmart because we assumed they'd be the cheapest. WRONG. Walmart is really not all that cheap. Like...at all. We'll definitely have to shop around for the best grocery store prices. Besides our friends and family back in Idaho, we miss Winco!!! ;)
• Holy smokes, the rain here is intense! When it rains, it pours. Also...it's very, very hot here. It's crazy to think that when winter rolls around, it'll actually get cold. That seems really impossible, not going to lie... ;)
  
• We're starting to learn where everything is, but it's made really easy because everywhere we go is on our street pretty much (it's a really, really long street), but we are definitely going to have to invest in a GPS. We borrowed Lisa's for the trip and will be sending it back to her soon, but honestly we don't know how we'll make it in a big city without one!
• I got a library card today! There are like, 25 locations in the entire Tulsa area and they're all interconnected, so I can drop off books at any location and any location can get any book for me from another super fast - it's awesome!

MOVE-IN DAY!!!

Yesterday (July 2nd) was our move in day! Now, Brent and I took a video of our new place and I've been trying to upload it for almost half an hour and it's just not wanting to upload for some reason. This happened last week when I was doing my "Last Week in Twin" posts - I thought the problem would be fixed now, but I guess not. So until I can upload videos again, I have only pictures for you. My apologies. But in other news, here's a look at our new home! I have to say, even though it's smaller than our old apartment, I like this one so much more - it's so cute, bright, and homey! Love it...

The bottom apartment is ours, the little building on the left is the laundry room, I'm taking this photo from outside the apartment office, and behind me is the pool. So there's a look at our location!

Part of our living room and our dining room - the open door is the coat closet. The vertical blinds in the back are hanging over a sliding glass door, which leads to our patio and a grassy area. Our back door faces a fence with a residential area behind it.

The view of the living room from the dining room.

One view of our kitchen.

The other view of our kitchen!

Bathroom!

Another bathroom view!

Linen closet!

Door on the left is the linen closet, door on the right is where the water heater is. On the right side of the hall is the bathroom, the left is the bedroom.

Our bedroom!

Walk-in closet!

Other view of the walk-in.

We found a futon at the Salvation Army, so we bought it and rented a U-Haul for an hour!

Eating our first dinner in our new place - chicken nuggets and grapes - on our new(ish) futon!

Our fridge full of edibles!

For my sister, McKenzie - look, I'm using it!

1500 miles later...Part 3

Day 3: Salina to Broken Arrow (July 1st)

Next morning, we hit up Steve's house in Salina and he looked at our car again. Turns out we needed a new...something with the word "tension" in it that messes with the pulley...I don't know. Anyway, he said if we didn't get that fixed too, we oculd lose our belt and that would be really bad news. So he let us drive his truck back to O'Reilly's to get that part, and he fixed the entire thing for us. It took about 30 minutes, and the car drove great!

We drove the four hours to Broken Arrow from Salina, though it took us about 5 hours with stops. I enjoyed the toll roads, and enjoyed more Kansas scenery. All of a sudden, without warning, we were in Oklahoma! No sign, no anything. They just assumed we'd know we were in Okie. Anywho, Oklahoma is beautiful! It's sooooo green! So many trees and the Arkansas River - just gorgeous. We got into town around 4pm - I loved seeing the tall buildings from afar; we checked in to our hotel, ate an early dinner at Chipotle, and hit up Rhema's campus for the firework show, Rockets Over Rhema.

Unfortunately for me, I had drank more coffee than water throughout the day and with it being my first experience with humidty, I was struggling a bit! So we didn't stay for the fireworks, but we went back to the hotel and swam in the outdoor pool which was great. Then we just relaxed the rest of the night.

It was so weird to be driving down the street we knew we would be calling home from that moment on. West Kenosha Street is a very, very, very long street - any and everything we could ever want or need is on that street, and it's where we'll be living and going to school! Too awesome.

Passing through Wichita.

My first toll ticket!! I know it's not that exciting, but...it sort of is, right? ;)

Sustanance! At a Kansas toll road rest area - the coolest kind!

Beautiful Oklahoma.

We thought that cloud looked kind of like a mustache. That's all.

The Arkansas River, about 30 or 40 minutes outside of Tulsa.

So proud of myself for getting this shot!

Our new street!

Rhema Church.

My first experience with Chipotle. Please don't hate me fellow Butlers, but...I think Cafe Rio is better. ;)

We drove through the student housing complex and found our building. We're the bottom one with the door showing! It may not look like much, but we ADORE our new place! Pictures of the inside will be coming soon.

In Rhema Park. I actually don't know if that's what it's called, but it's a park that's owned by Rhema, so I figure it works.

More of the park.

Rhema's administration building.

So that was our journey in getting here to Tulsa! Stay tuned for pictures of the apartment and more anecdotes from our new adventures here. Be blessed!