Monday, August 17, 2009

MOVING :( a review of the experience

Goodbye Port Angeles.
Moving week has finally come....
Last week on Wednesday we got a call from the moving company asking if they could send over the packers a day earlier then we were planning, so we couldn't finish going through everything that we wanted to pack or keep out like i wanted....or do laundry when i wanted either. But we made it all work some how. The packers came thursday morning and packed EVERYTHING they could get their hands on (including the mattresses) while i pulled out the things we wanted left out. John only wanted a few things: his uniforms, a few sets of G's, his tooth brush and razor, the clothes he was wearing.....and of coarse his xbox, games and the small tv. The mind of a man is fascinating to me. If only it was all the simple, but this is more then a day trip and we don't know when we'll be getting our things again. So I packed a few extra things for him (like more clothes). I was going to say no to the tv and games, but i know him well enough to know that if he doesn't have something to entertain him then he'll expect me to give him all my attention ALL the time, so i think i made a good decision there.
Friday the movers came and took it all away. We had spent the night on the air mattress and still hadn't packed our stuff we were keeping with us, but i had managed to keep it all out of the way for them to move the rest of it all out. I kept an electric skillet unpacked and made some amazing scrambled eggs for brunch, then when they were all done we went out and kind of had a little date. We had a late lunch and went to see the new G.I. Joe movie, which john said was even better then he expected (in case you're wondering if you should see it yourself).
Saturday was a super fun day :] On friday before the movers left and we realized we had the rest of the day to do things, i said we should go out to Forks and check out all the sites, but John said "Well, that's what i was thinking we could go spend the day on Saturday doing". (!!!???!!!) He had come up with that idea already and hadn't told me?? What a good husband. It would have been a shame to have lived there for a year and not gone over there before we left. I'm not a die hard Twilight fan, but i've read the books and seeing the sights isn't something a lot of people get to do, so why not? We had fun too :] I think husband had more fun watching me have fun, but it was great still. It's an hour and a half drive from P.A. so we had to entertain each other a little, but that was fun too. We played Name That Disney Movie by listening to the first 5 seconds of each Disney song on my CDs, then had sing along time. The trip was a success if you don't count me spilling my lunch down the front of my shirt in the car, and i'm glad we got to go. We took pictures, i just haven't had the time to go through them and post them, but i'm thinking it will be done in a soon to follow post....
Sunday was our last day in our ward at church. I did really good not crying i think. i only cried in sacrament meeting cuz the speakers were really good. I said my goodbyes to the Young Women the sunday before, but i got one last hug from them before we left. While we were saying goodbye to a few of the other people in the ward we managed to get invited to dinner at some members house. "Mina" helped with the young women getting ready for camp and i got to know her a little from that, but i still didn't know her and her husband very well, but they invited us to dinner anyway and i'm glad we went. Her daughter and her friends joined us and we got to know them a lot better, and now i'm feeling a little gypped that it was at the end of our time there that it happened. I always liked her, but talking with her more i think i had misunderstood her before....but oh well. i'll try to learn from that and get to know more people in CA.
Monday was cleaning day. John was sweet and went to the Laundry Mat to do the laundry we couldn't do before they packed up our washer and dryer, while i cleaned the house. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. He came home while i was cleaning the kitchen and helped clean out the fridge with me. I felt terrible throwing away so much food. I had been getting creative with what we had so i wouldn't have to, but in the end there was things we couldn't pack and didn't use so we had to throw it out. Mostly condiments though. i had 3 things of mustard of all things, and never enough ketchup....i wonder what that says of my cooking? After the cleaning was done, and i must say it was cleaner then when we moved in, i did the packing. When i was done packing a bag or a box of what was left in the house, husband would load it into one of the cars. It was a long day.
We had planned to drive the whole way from Port Angeles to Sacramento in one trip all day on tuesday, but monday night when john when to pick up some dinner he also picked up one of those random magazines with travel coupons in them that you see in the little racks in lobby's of places and found a coupon for a place in Oregon where we had originally planned to go for our honeymoon a year ago. Plus, i think he knew i was going to have a hard time traveling so far in one day with my "condition" (i have a small case of vertigo when i'm driving which makes me feel like i'm sliding off the road some times. I'm trying to overcome it, but it's frustrating). So, we decided to stop and have some fun before getting to Cali. Tuesday morning, after turning in our keys and getting gas, we were off for Oregon. Its a long drive to do by yourself since we were both driving separate vehicles, so i listened to my Moulin Rouge soundtrack a few time to keep my mind from stressing over the drive. It helped a lot until we got to Portland. Most of the drive, especially through the highways was beautiful. Western Washington and Oregon is amazing scenery, i wanted to stop and take pictures the whole time.
We stayed in Florance for 2 nights. It was a short stay, but it was fun. The rain followed us down the coast though, and ruined our plans to go sandboarding. We were both really excited to go do that too, but oh well. We have an excuse to go back another time i guess. We walked down the beach in the rain though, and went bowling and ate great food and still had a lot of fun while we were there. We left on Thursday to get back on the road and finish the trip. At one point the temp was 99 degrees in northern cali during the drive. We pulled into Sacramento around 7, and we've been staying with some friends since.
Friday, John had to check in on base with his CO, but it ended up being "Morale Day", and everyone except for about 2 people had gone rafting. My questions to that are, do wives get to go too, and if so, when are they going again?? So, he was only at the base for about 10 minutes and was told to check in on Monday. We went to help with our friends take care of another friends lawn and garden (kind of as a service project) that night, and then they took us out to dinner. I went to In-N-Out burger for my first time, and while we were sitting outside eating, a helicopter buzzed over us, and about 2 or 3 blocks down it proceeded to make a tight circle over an area for about 20 minutes with the spot light and everything. I couldn't see what was going on down on the ground because of the line of trees in the way, but it was interesting enough with just seeing the helicopter.
Saturday was the day we set aside to find our own place to live. As much as we love our friends we're staying with, i don't think i want to stay here for however long it takes to find and get into our own house. There's just something about having your own place. I'm constantly stressing about making sure our room is clean least they come in and see our shoes out. Plus, you don't feel guilty for coming and going as you please, even though they say not to worry about it. And i always feel guilty eating their food. They say to do it, they have their own kids that are our age that come and go like we are, so to them its like having their own kids in the house, but i still feel bad even if they've become like family. So, we wrote down a few places to check out, i called around to a few, and then we set out to go look at an apartment. The 1st place we went was ok. The apartment manager guy that showed us around told showed us how they paint an "accent wall" for you, the 1st one free and any more after that for $50, like it was a selling point...there were 5 colors to choose from. Maybe that is a selling point for some people, i don't know. It was just across the street from the church building though, and it was really clean, but something about it didn't feel right, so we left and decided to check out another place we were told about. This 2nd place was a lot better. It was still just as clean (super clean!), but something about it was easier. It was brighter and i felt better there. They don't paint an "accent wall", but i think i'm ok with that. It turned out to be less expensive too, so that was nice. The only thing is is that its on the 2nd floor, so that's going to suck when we move out, but oh well, that's what the elders quorum is for i guess ;) John and I both liked it and felt good about it, so we got the paperwork and were approved that afternoon (we look really good on paper). I think we took a whole 3 hours to do the apartment searching process. After it was all done, we went swimming in the pool and just hung out. We're not in the ward we wanted to be in, but there is usually a reason you end up where you do, so we'll be in the ward we're supposed to be in for now.
Sunday was Stake Conf., so we went to that and were introduced to our new bishop, and today john went to officially check in at the base with his CO. I made some cookies while everyone was gone for the day :) Husband has the next week off for "house searching and moving", so tomorrow we move into the apartment with our 2 car loads of what we kept with us to survive, and we'll wait for our furniture to find us in the next week or two. We have some time to see some sites and explore and play for a while, after we get all set up tomorrow, so we'll see what fun stories i post soon. And i'll also be house shopping and job searching soon. The house searching will be the hardest part i think.
i do plan to post a bunch of pictures soon, i just have to find the cord for the camera to get them all off of it. I know it's somewhere...

Hello Sacramento

1 comment:

*wife* said...

sorry such a long blog....