Making our house a home

Our quick move to Utah may have been challenging, but we have been blessed with wonderful friends and family to help us handle it all! We had so much help from friends in Sunnyvale with packing, unpacking, and packing again. One of our lovely friends even did our laundry! We left for Utah on a Friday after work, and my trooper of a husband started his new job the very next Monday. He really hit the ground running, and has already left for a business trip in the NYC. That weekend, Hayley, Tia Fatima, Maryann, Jonathan, and Adam unloaded our truck, cleaned our home, and unpacked most of our home. Our main living spaces have been largely cleared of boxes, but we still have a "room of shame" full of boxes in the home of our future "office."

We have been enjoying our new home in the heart of the city, and enjoying having our family so close. For the first time, we have both a dishwasher and a washer/dryer! It feels great getting to stretch out in a nice sized home after squeezing into a bay area apartment for the last 18 months. Christopher's office is a quick walk away, and we have been enjoying long walks downtown. Our family lives just a few miles away, giving us the chance to get to know our niece and nephews.

So far, so good!!!

Hello SLC: Never do buisness with Budget Truck rental

Warning: This post is a rant on our Budget Truck Rental disaster!!!

Thursday night, Christopher went straight to Budget rentals to pick up the truck and trailer. Within half a mile, the trailer we rented to tow our car snapped off the truck and ran off to the side of the road. It appears that the man from budget who installed the trailer did so incorrectly. I was on the phone on and off for the next 3 hours trying to get the trailer picked up and arranging for a replacement the next day.

Come Friday, I called budget to confirm our trailer would be ready for us, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Christopher and Brad went to the shop soon after work, and when they got there, there was only an SUV trailer. I called the night before, and the day of, but they still had the wrong trailer. Even though the man at the office (the same one who had installed the trailer incorrectly the night before), they did not have the correct trailer ready for us. Next, the man attempted to install the SUV trailer as my Hubby and Brad watched him like a hawk. Mistake after mistake was caught by my duo, and despite every failure, Brad and Christopher safely got the truck and trailer to the car. It took them over 1 hour to get our modestly sized Subaru outback onto the monster sized SUV trailer.

The next day, after 17 hours of tough driving, as we attempted to lower our car off the trailer, the front bumper was ripped clean off.

Wish I forked over a little extra cash for the Uhaul...
  

So long, and thanks for all the fish

Since we got married in 2008, Christopher and I have lived in 4 cities and 6 different homes. We have become really good at moving, and have even begun storing our everyday items in transparent, color coded, labeled boxes to make the next move easier. Here comes lucky home number 7!

We will be moving back to Salt Lake City in about 2 weeks. This move was not exactly planned, hoped for, or desired, but we think it will be the right thing for our family.We are moving back to prepare to help his parents transition into retirement, and we are hoping to do a lot of good for our own little family along the way. Luckily, we love Salt Lake, and Christopher landed a great job at a Fortune 100 company. We are very sad to be leaving the state we hoped to call home for good, but hope that this transition will allow us to enjoy our family, buy a home, and get my little butt through grad school.

We plan to soak up every last drop of California sun as we wrap things up here, and have made a serious dent in our Bay Area bucket list. I know we will be back! Most of our home is packed up and ready to go, and we should be in SLC sometime around Thanksgiving.

Give us a call if you are dying to help us fill up a u-haul in California, or unload a U-haul in Utah!

P.S. Our phone numbers and email addresses should remain the same, so please keep in touch!

The Raveonettes

We had a great night in San Francisco earlier this month. We stopped off for pizza on the way into town. We spend hours just walking around the city and talking--even bumping in to a couple of old friends on market street.

The show was at a club called Bimbo 365--a name that made me very nervous. To our surprise the club was quite nice, and not the dilapidated strip club I had imagined.

Christopher has wanted to see the Raveonettes as long as I have known him. He finally got to last week! The band was great live, and played all of our favorites. the audience begged for an encore, and after they came back on stage, some geek in the audience yelled out "You guys seem like really nice people." When the Sune tried to figure out what the guy had said, he was to embarrassed to answer. We danced the night away--although most of the hipsters in the club where way to cool to show any interest. It was a great show!

P.S. How cute was my date!?!?!?!

Introducing the Fantastic Felds

For years, our friends have been telling us that we need to keep a blog. We each have our own (neglected) blogs, but no family blog has yet emerged--until now!

By way of introduction, We are the Feld family. We are Christopher and Amanda Feld, or Amandapher as we became in September of 2007. We met through 2 of our mutual friends (who later married each other), in Salt Lake City, Utah, and got married 10 months later in Sacramento, CA. We have been married for 4 awesome years, and currently live in the California Bay Area.

Christopher grew up in Pittsburgh PA,  and moved to Utah with his family while in college. He has a BA in History from the University of Utah, and an MPA from Brigham Young University. Christopher is an avid backpacker and Star Trek fan. He works in HR.

Amanda grew up in Elk Grove, CA, and moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University (and meet her sweetheart). She has a BS in Psychology, and did some Masters work in Marriage and Family Therapy (a discussion for another day). Amanda enjoys sewing, singing, and watching old movies. She is currently looking for work, and creating home goods for her Etsy shop, Precocious Inc. (www.etsy.com/shop/precociousinc).

Well, anywhoo. That is a bit about us. Hope you enjoy following our many adventures!