The BIG Move

Sorry it has taken me SO looong to post! Now I will tell you about out big move from Arizona to New York. It was pretty crazy. (It's super long, so I understand if you don't want to read it all. I mainly want to just get it all written down before I forget!)

 First off, we reserved the truck for Friday night, because we asked the Elder's Quorum to come at 7:00 Saturday morning, which is before the rental place opens. But, when we went to pick up the truck they DIDN'T HAVE IT! They looked in the system and there wasn't a truck available throughout all of Phoenix! The earliest they'd have another truck available in the size we needed was Saturday morning, and the office doesn't open until 8 am.

 SO, we wasted 4 hours of time we DIDN'T have Friday night trying to figure out the truck situation, then we had to push back the EQ to 9 'clock, which is a death sentence for a move in Phoenix in June. It's already so hot by then! We worked and worked and worked all day and night for at least a week trying to get out of there! Before we left Peoria I think we'd had a total of, oh, maybe 12ish hours of sleep in a week. I don't remember for sure. I just know it was awful. We went through a LOT of Dr. Pepper!



 We had planned to leave early Monday morning, because Scott had to be there the following Monday to start orientation and it's a 40 hour drive. But, not only did we have to have the truck and cars packed, but all the projects in the house had to be done and it had to be spotlessly clean before we left so we can sell the house.

 We didn't end up leaving until 8 am THURSDAY morning!! And, Scott and I had only slept about 45 minutes the night before. NOT a good way to start a long road trip, especially since both of us had to drive! Scott drove the moving truck with his car on a dolly on the back, and I drove my car. The kids took turns riding 1 or 2 at a time in the truck with Daddy. They thought that was fun. But, they liked riding with me, too, 'cause I had the DVD player and more games & snacks. ;)

Emma & Katelynn in the truck

Because we left Arizona so late we didn't have time to go the places we wanted to go. We had planned to take a detour up through Utah so we could visit my Grandma & sister, stop in Chicago to meet up with a dear friend of mine from high school, and stop in Cleveland to visit Scott's ex-girlfriend/a friend of mine. (You're thinking, "What?!?!". It's a funny story, actually. Another time, perhaps.)

Michael, Katelynn & Emma in the car

 But, we were so late we didn't even have time to stop at hotels!! We just stopped at rest stops and slept in the car. How did the kids do with that, you ask? They did just fine! They were rock stars the whole trip. I am pleasantly surprised with how well they did. Sure, we had some whining, etc now and then, but that's normal 7 year-old behavior, and these poor kids had been bored to tears the last couple of weeks while we worked on the house and packed.

Michael & Emma sleeping in the car

 Our friend, Burkley, arrived in New York before we did, so at church on Sunday he made a plea for people to help us unload the truck that night. Scott made it right at 7 when everyone was supposed to arrive, and I made it about 7:30. We were really cutting it close!!

Lots of crazy things happened during the trip.
* Scott's car wasn't on the dolly right at first, so it could have easily come off the dolly and ran right into my car, since I was following the truck.
* The moving truck got a flat tire AND the tread was totally gone from half of one of the tires.
* I fell asleep at the wheel with the car on cruise control and almost hit another car going 70?
* Scott got sick and was nauseous, etc for part of the trip
* While we were getting ready to leave Arizona I got an eye infection and could barely keep my eye open. AND, all my spare contacts were packed, so I had to wear my glasses the whole trip.

 But, through it all we were blessed immensely. It was really strange because, even though we had all these crummy things happening, all the things that happened weren't as bad as they could have been. The Lord was really looking out for us. For example:

* We had some AMAZING people from our ward helping out with getting the house cleaned and packed. We would't have made it without them.
* Our neighbors are awesome and were willing to finish up a couple projects in the house (seal a couple spots of grout, mount bathroom hardware), take out the garbage can on garbage day every week until the pile is gone, and mow & water our lawn. (3 different neighbors!)
* Scott's friend, Shaun, took a bunch of stuff from our garage for us, and helped us sell some things like our scooter & fish tank.
* Several families in our ward came on both Saturday AND Sunday to help load the truck.
* When we stopped at our first rest stop Scott struck up a conversation with a trucker, and while they were chatting Scott mentioned how the dolly kept getting loose around the tires, and the trucker saw that something wasn't clicked in right or something, and was able to help Scott get the car secured right. Phew!
* Scott felt like the truck wasn't driving quite right, so we stopped at a truck stop to see what was going on. We discovered the flat tire & the tire with the tread missing. Luckily, the truck stop we stopped at had a 24 truck service center! So, we were able to get an appointment and have the truck fixed while we slept.
* When I fell asleep at the wheel I woke up as I was approaching the other car, and swerved to the right to avoid hitting them (I was in the far left lane). Fortunately, there were no cars in either of the two lanes on the right, and I was able to safely get to the shoulder and stop. That could have been a really bad accident, and I had all three kids in my car at the time.
* Since we were still in Phoenix I was able to go to the eye doctor and get medicine for my infection, which would have been a lot harder on the road.
* There were probably 20 people there to help us unload the truck when we arrived in New York. That was huge, because we had to take everything up the elevator in loads, or try to take it up the stairs, because we're on the 6th floor. There was a 'team' unloading stuff from the truck & filling carts, another 'team' taking loads up the elevator, and more people taking stuff from the elevator to the apartment. It was awesome. Two guys even lugged our bookcase UP THE STAIRS because it wouldn't fit in the elevator! Seriously?! Awesome.

We were blessed over and over again. We wouldn't have made it here, and made it in one piece, if it wasn't for all the care and protection we received from the Lord, and from the angels around us. I don't know what we did to deserve all these blessings, but we sure appreciate them!!

I'm not writing this post to whine or say, "Poor us" or anything like that. I hope it doesn't come across that way! I just wanted to document this crazy move, and to be able to look back and remember the hardships, as well as the amazing hand of the Lord in our lives.