The Armstrong's Go West: Day 1 and Penn State

FINALLY the long awaited photos from our road trip. Some of them, at least. After working an absurd amount this week and handling exams, quizzes, and a big project on top of it, I've decided to take a "half personal day" and not worry about anything but taking care of me after I got home from work today. It was much needed. 

Admittedly, I was on the verge of a minor nervous breakdown. I was scheduled to work 9 days in a row, on top of having a lot of school work that was time sensitive, and then got roped into staying in Santa Barbara for a full day shift after I was only supposed to be there until 1. I ended up pulling late nights on Saturday and Sunday to get my work in on time and with decent grades, but it was a long weekend and it's going to continue to be a long week. I needed a period of time for just me, a period of time that was more than just an hour. 

So, I spent the afternoon taking a nap, cuddling with the huz, and editing personal photos instead of client photos with New Girl on in the background. 

Hence, I present to you some of the photos from our trip home. 

Of course, in true Armstrong fashion, it was POURING the day we left. Poor James ran back and forth, inside and outside, loading up the u-haul so we could be out by 10. Between the two of us, he's the puzzle master (even though I AM pretty good at that myself) and took on the project of making as much of our stuff fit as possible. He was absolutely drenched by the time we left, but luckily he only had to deal with it for an hour. We drove down a little past Syracuse and stayed the night there before diving into the insanity we had in store. 

The next day, we woke up and loaded everyone back into the car. If you recall, that's the day Mo kicked Talos out of his bed and banished him to a tiny corner in the back seat. Mo moved from there after a while, but not after his tiny self slept in the dog's huge bed for a little. The five of us and our u-haul made our way down south to Penn State. It didn't feel right to go west and leave the east coast behind without visiting the campus and actually seeing where I go to school. I'm so glad we did. I can't stress that enough. Sometimes I am bummed that I don't get to go to a campus like everyone else, that I don't get to go to lectures and buildings, and that I don't have the traditional experience. It's occasionally hard, but then the moment passes. Things like campus visits, help, though, and it gave me more pride to be going where I do. 

The visit was short, though, and we had to keep moving. Our 10 hours of driving ended in Cleveland and we were ALL done by the time we got there. Mo was, by far, the most upset and I think he was the one who was most relieved to see a hotel room. I'm pretty sure that was the one time in his life that he was happy to be somewhere other than home. 

All the photos below are copyright of Danielle Armstrong and are not to be altered in any way or claimed as another's work. 

What are the Armstrongs Up to These Days?

It occurred to us the other day that even though we're in California now, our lives are still very much separate from that majority of our family as we live a few hours away from everyone. Don't get me (or us) wrong, we love where we live/go to school/work. Lompoc is the perfect suburb for the two of us and what we're looking for right now. Somehow, we've been blessed to live in a home with more space than we truly need, but enough space to give us what we want in a home. We're not squished into 600 square feet of apartment, we have a yard for Talos, and we have space for our own individual needs. I have room to workout and do homework upstairs and away from the television and commotion that occurs in the living room, which is something that I greatly need for my own reasons. It's quiet, too, and we have a relaxing place to come home to everyday after the business of everyday. 

And don't even get me started on Santa Barbara. It's perfect and I've easily fallen in love with it. My commute in every day is about an hour, but it doesn't even feel like it because I get to stare at the ocean for a good portion of the drive. Everything is easy to get to, the people are unbelievably laid back and friendly, and it's so well kept up that it's incredibly aesthetically appealing. It has a great community to it, the schools are excellent, and traffic isn't even bad (which for someone with my anxiety, you have no idea how much of a bonus that is). I can see us living here for another year or two in great ease and comfort. 

Aside from location, what's going on in our life? A lot. James and I are in full swing of school. We're both going full time with four classes each and it takes up the majority of our week. James spends 5 days of the week at school, and then we spend some of our weekend studying for things we have coming up such as exams, papers, and projects. 

On top of that, I work 4 days of the week and spend somewhere around 20-25 hours there, depending on if I pick up a shift or not. Since the holidays are coming up, I'm anticipating that, that number will increase as I have an open schedule. I really love where I work, though! I work as a sales associate, but it's not sales in the traditional sense. I don't fold clothes or have a quota to meet. I just help people find things they're looking for, whether it be maternity clothes or toys, and it just clicks. I fit into the environment really well, my coworkers are awesome, and it's so mellow that I look forward to going every day. I truly have been blessed in this area of life. Plus, Free People is literally right down the street and I don't think I could stress to you enough how much this excites me. James... not so much.

Back to that number I mentioned, it also doesn't include time I spend editing photos from sessions or events. I've finally finished editing wedding photos, which has taken up a huge chunk of time in general, and I'm just about done with the session I shot two weeks ago, which is going to free up time for me immensely. James is used to me being either at work or on the computer, at this point. That's just how days are for us. If time's not spent in Santa Barbara or driving, it's spent doing homework, trying to get in some extra sleep, or working on side jobs. I've gotten to edit some AWESOME pictures, though, which I'll post below:

We haven't even come close to finishing unpacking because of all this. If you've been feeling like we've been avoiding spending time with you, we're not. We're just incredibly busy and adjusting to life as a completely civilian, college-student family who just moved across the country. The grind is real, folks. We're working on getting settled in, still. Our house is a wreck and half in boxes. We're not avoiding, I promise. The cats are pretty happy about this, though. Penelope has claimed 10 boxes, or so, as her castle and she sleeps on the highest stack everyday, as if she's sitting above her kingdom and looking down on all her peasants.

Because of this insanity, my lack of blogging has continued, which saddens me. I'm going to try to increase it, though, especially since we both are lacking in the "friends" department. It's weird not having our normal group of friends from New York here with us and it's been... a challenge to find people similar to our lifestyle considering our environments. James doesn't quite mesh in with the "just out of high school" crowd and I work in a kids and maternity store, meaning my coworkers all have kids and are in a slightly different phase of life with different priorities for their time. Because of that, I'd like to utilize this and talk, so to speak, through this. Air things, document things, etc. We both know that this will change at some point, it just can take some time. It took me over a year to really find friends in New York, so I know this won't be much different. That's just how life goes, though. Things are slowly, but surely, starting to come together and it doesn't feel so uncomfortable here, now. 

Though, I'm still depressed that it's 75 degrees in the fall and that we won't get to go to a "real" Christmas tree farm and have a white Christmas like we did last year. I'm still trying to cope with that.