Moving on Up

Apparently we forgot to tell my side of the family that we moved from Utah to Arizona...until we showed up here a few weeks early. So here's the looooong version for them Ü

One last shot of the old homestead

Since Adelaide was so healthy and being such a good baby (and we'd already stopped working and had nothing holding us there) we decided to change our moving date from the end of July to the 3rd of July.

We sold almost all of our furniture before we left, so that helped with loading. Deacon was pretty traumatized by it though. His poor world was turning upside down with a new baby and then we started selling off everything familiar to him. When someone came to buy our couches, he cried, "My chowch, my chowch." He cried again when a lady came for our dining table and again when we sold Nathan's truck later that day. To give him a sense of normalcy, Nathan took him to the local pool on Tuesday. Just the two of them, to have some fun. That gave me some time to finish packing.

This is where it gets stressful. We were planning on packing up Thursday night and heading out first thing Friday morning. On Wednesday night, Nathan went to take his board exam for Nuc Med. He had been going to the library everyday for several hours to study and then would come home and take practice tests on the computer for a couple more hours. On his way to the exam, the car dies! Someone gave him a jump, but it started smoking. He couldn't just call and have them hold the exam for him because they only had the LAST exam time for the day available when he scheduled it. And wouldn't you know, we had just sold his truck so we only had the one car! Luckily, he was able to drive a couple of miles to his Aunt's house. She let him borrow her brand new car (thanks!) and he was able to barely make it to the testing center in time. I told him to just focus on his test and if we had to, we would tow the car behind us in the moving truck all the way to AZ. He had been getting mid 70's on all of his practice tests (you need 74 to pass the exam) and I'm so proud that he got a 93 on his actual registry exam!!

He tried to fix the car that night. He replaced the alternator but that wasn't the problem. So early the next morning he takes it to a mechanic and rents a car to get home. He tells the guy we are moving in 24 hours, so if they can diagnose it and let us know, then we would decide what to do. Then he calls the moving truck company to see how much a trailer is to hook on the back of the truck. They were trying to look up our reservation, but couldn't find it. Finally they found it, but said it was for the next weekend. Meanwhile, everything we own is packed up and we can't wait another week to leave. Luckily, they were able to find a truck we could use that weekend...for an additional hundred bucks.

The mechanic calls back and says they figured out the problem, ordered the part, and we can pick it up Friday morning. Whew! When Nathan went to pick up the car, the owner said he's been in the business for years and there was only one person he knows that could have figured out the problem. It was electrical. Not to beat his own drum, but if we would have taken the car anywhere else, nobody would have known how to fix it and my car would have ended up in a scrap yard. So I guess that made us feel a *little* better as we shelled out a thousand dollars for the bill! The problem? I had an automatic starter put on my car 2 years ago ($150 including labor). When they installed it they didn't ground a certain wire and it finally fried the whole circuit board. I tell ya, if Circuit City hadn't already declared bankruptcy, I'd be sending them the mechanic's bill! So we returned the rental and were almost ready to go.

We've moved 5 times in our marriage, but this was the first time we were moving far enough away that we weren't going to be able to come back to the house and do things like clean or make extra trips for small loads. We had to get it all in one shot. We had most things packed up Thursday night (thanks to our awesome neighbors the Malan's because nobody else showed up!) and we aimed to leave Friday morning. Well, by noon on Friday we still weren't done yet and Deacon was getting extremely cranky. So Nathan loaded him in the moving truck and they headed to AZ. That left me and Adelaide to finish cleaning and painting before we left. She was so good! I had her on a little blanket, and I just dragged her across the floor to move her out of the way as I vacuumed and cleaned around her. We headed out about two hours after the boys did. It was really weird, we've been talking about moving for so long, but now that it finally happened it was sad to leave Utah after 6.5 years!

Deacon was soooooo excited to ride with dad!

Adelaide was only 16 days old and her first car ride (besides coming home from the hospital) was going to be 12 hours long! We were so lucky to be able to break it up and stay and Matt and Ashley's house in Vegas. I love this little pic of Charlie. She was rocking Addy while we loaded up to leave Saturday morning.

So we arrived here on the 4th of July. What a rude awakening to leave the cool breeze of Utah and be welcomed by the ferocious heat of Arizona. Why did we move during the summer? Poor Deacon. He is so used to running around barefoot. He took off through an open door and stopped dead in his tracks on the cement and just started crying. His feet were burning but he couldn't move. So Nathan quickly swept him up and told him he had to wear shoes outside in AZ.

We'll be staying at Nathan's parents house for a few months while they're on their mission. Nathan has a job at St. Lukes, but it's PRN with no benefits so we're still looking for something more permanent if anyone hears of anything! Luckily, I'm still considered and employee at Wells, just "on leave" so we'll have insurance for a couple more months and COBRA after that if we need it.

Where's Waldo? Do you see Addy in this unpacking picture?