You're the Target That I'm Aiming At

Warning to Readers: You will see Coldplay quoted entirely too much in our blogs, as Parisa is obessessed. If the blog titles don't always make sense, now you know why, & we apologize in advance. :)

Now that that's out of the way... Quite a bit has happened over the course of the past few days!

First, we got to spend Fourth of July weekend with Parisa's favorite person in the whole world, her little brother Cyrus. We all hung out at home, watching movies & eating waaaaay too much junk food. Then we geared up our picnic basket & coolers & attempted to watch fireworks in Williams Square in Las Colinas. Going to Williams Square for Fourth of July is a Bahrami family tradition. However, we were pretty disappointed by the fireworks display this year (or lack thereof) and how poorly the event was planned. Despite that, we all shared a great weekend together. We even managed to fit in a trip to Yogurtville. Of course. :)

The Buckles family reunion was in Virginia during this same period, & we were sooo sad to have to miss that. We really wanted to go but the expense was something we couldn't afford right now, as the move is our priority. We have heard wonderful reports of how much fun everyone had & the pictures all look so awesome! We're really sad we couldn't be there but have already started planning a trip to visit the Buckles family when we move to NJ, which will be an infinitely shorter drive.

It feels like we made some serious "NJ Move" progress this week (although we haven't technically been able to cross anything off our To Do list). We found the perfect apartment! It's right in Madison, half a mile from Jonathan's school (walking/ biking distance! Hooray!), they have 1 & 2 bedroom units, they're pet friendly, and both units are available on our move in date! It almost seems too good to be true. We filed our application this week, & they will be doing a thorough renter's and credit history check. Please pray that we are approved for this apartment complex. The price & units are exactly what we've been searching for. It would be such a huge blessing to have this major task marked off the list. I know we would both feel a huge sense of relief.

Also, previously (in fact, in the last post I think) we had mentioned that we were praying for a financial blessing or for an opportunity to present itself that would allow one of us, if not both, to return to NYC/NJ once more before we move there. Well, ask & you shall receive. The family Parisa works for has decided to take a family vacation the entire week of her birthday. Therefore, they are giving her one week's paid vacation time. This is huge because we didn't have any days off that would give time or opportunity to leave Dallas for more than a weekend at a time, & most places in NY/NJ are closed on the weekend. Furthermore, Parisa has been gifted a plane ticket to NYC for the entire week!!! This news is HUGE for us. Now, we can take the money we were going to use to buy one ticket & put it towards a ticket for Jonathan, so we can both go! To say we are happy is the world's biggest understatement. We couldn't have asked for this to come at a better time. Now, we can go really get an idea of what is in the area we are going to live in, how far things are from our apartment, get more familiar with the roads, etc. We are so freaking happy & excited about this. It's funny, you always hear the cliche "ask & you shall receive" but I've never had such a blatant answer to a prayer before. God is good :)

Parisa has a few good leads on jobs in Nj thanks to a great friend of ours, Kelly. She was able to provide us with some "insider" information which has been invaluable & we can't thank her enough for all the extra time & effort she's put in to helping out with the job search. Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers, & support, and definitely keep them coming. Like I said before, it feels like we really made some good progress this week but we still have much to do :)

And this random picture goes out to our nieces, whom we miss terribly & cannot WAIT to see in less than 2 weeks! (This is from our last Buda visit, when Uncle Jonathan thought it'd be funny to sit Madeline's princess chair while playing Katey's guitar. It was a hoot.)