The move. 5/28

I have been trying for DAYS to get Blogger to post the first batch of "moving pictures" I would like to share. No such luck, so I'd best not postpone any longer and at least share SOME news.

I'm in a weird rut with this move; one of the oddities is that I've been spending shockingly small amounts of time on the computer in these last few weeks. In one way it has been refreshing. In another way it's awful because I have really missed being in touch with everyone!! lol

N, J, & Elaine all suffered with stomach issues on the trip up here. It was good to see friends along the way. We had a completely lovely weekend with Scott & Amanda in Albuquerque. Wow, we are all missing out on so much, not being able to be together more often. (sigh) Our visit with the Bittners in Co. Springs was too short, for sure, but really, really nice. We enjoyed seeing one another’s children, more than anything, I think. In the four years since we’ve seen them, I think basically the only thing that has changed is the children! It’s amazing what four years can do in the life of a child. (blink, blink)

With each new mile of comfort & ease I kept finding myself consciously thinking, "So THIS is what it's like to drive a dependable car on a long trip!!" Then the car broke down on Thursday in Broken Bow, NE. Jeremy drove the 6 hours to come pick up the children, the dogs, and me; we were moving in that next day and had to pay the movers at 8:15 a.m. Friday morning!! We had spaghetti supper with our friends Michael & Kimberly Mundt (We’d planned to have lunch with them and then spend that night in Blair. THAT didn’t happen.) After supper we drove to Des Moines until 2:30 a.m. Elaine stayed with the car in Arcadia, NE. No one in that part of NE will even LOOK at a Subaru -- except for Michael's best friend, Johnny, who lives in Ord. [Michael (who is not currently working since he's between jobs) did all the leg-work using his monstrous truck to haul our dead car from the main intersection in Broken Bow, first to the Mundt house in Arcadia where he and Jeremy could look at it, and then the next day up to Ord.] The head gaskets (Subarus have two!) were shipped to Ord from (irony) Des Moines(!), but the wrong ones kept getting shipped, so Elaine didn’t end up leaving Arcadia ‘til Thursday! Uggh! Thankfully the car did get her here safely, but the very next evening while we were driving it to a small town 12 mi. west of Des Moines for an annual camp-out weekend (We didn’t camp.), the car died again in almost exactly the same way it had in Broken Bow. This time, however, it was accompanied by the sickening sound of a rod banging around in the engine (however that works). Needless to say, we are tremendously set-back financially from this completely unexpected event. It’s especially frustrating considering the time, effort, and money expended beforehand specifically for the purpose of avoiding such a situation. The church got us moved in (25-30 people came to help!!!), but since we purposefully chose a house with 200 fewer sq. ft. it is a challenge to find the right homes for everything. Tragically, we lost not one, but two bookshelves in this move ... NOT the items we needed to lose. I won't detail every little thing. There are bumps along the road, but we are well and very happy to be here. The church gave us our welcome basket & bag (The basket overflowed!) and sang to us a WONDERFUL song they know called "Welcome to the Family"; I will type up the words sometime. It made me cry. The welcome basket was unbelievable. I guess about a month ago they announced for everyone to bring anything additional they wanted to go in there. I'll try to list enough things to give you an idea of this piece of work: dish towels, dish clothes, homemade dish scrubbers, an Iowa Recipe Book, recipe box & cards, Bath & Body Works hand soap, 2 pretty & high-quality magnets, high quality 'chip clips', homemade strawberry jam, homemade chocolate chip cookies, sticky notes, pens, two key chains for the children, a children's book about Iowa, Iowa state maps, lots of information about the city, activities & toys for the children/crayons/sticker books, Bible cases, book marks, Iowa & Iowa State t-shirts for both Justus and Jeremy (LOL -- whole, big rivalry. "We're all watching to see which shirt you wear first!"), a candle, a picture frame, a coaster, a Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head for Jeremy, 20 McDonald's dollars, $40 gift card to a local grill, six tickets to see the Iowa Cubs (same league as Albuquerque's Isotopes, Scott tells me), and (drum roll please) a year's membership (“Family plus two”) to not only the zoo, but ALSO the Living History Farms, AND the Des Moines Science Center. This is just one example of how the congregation here goes far above-and-beyond what would be expected or considered ‘status quo’. We have been brought meals, been invited over for meals, and one family gifted to us $150’s worth of three brand-new bookshelves (!!!!); it just goes on and on. My nature is to keep track of it all for the purpose of somehow ‘repaying’ the favors we’ve received; it didn’t take too long, however, for me to figure out that it simply will not be possible … it’s overwhelming.

There was/is quite a lot of just-straight-'work' that needs to be done on this house/yard; it sat empty for six months, and clearly wasn't cared for very well for at least some time before that, at least the yard. Everyone else’s yards (front AND BACK) in this neighborhood are far better-looking than ours is. gr. Everyone else's house in this neighborhood is also surprisingly bigger and nicer-looking than ours is, too. hm. [Not to complain, just an observation/opinion! Lol] I have almost completed all our tornado preparations. ;) The house is on a remarkably steep hill. ("Pleasant HILL, IA") The closet where we will go during bad storms is on the earth-side of the basement. It hasn't been so many years ago, one church friend (& neighbor!) tells me, when one of the few tornadoes that has hit Pleasant Hill in the past number of years took off the top halves of houses ON OUR VERY STREET. (wince! gasp! chill bumps! eyes clenched shut! hands fisted! tightness in the chest!) And now, I’m sure you have heard about Parkersburg, the town that was mostly-leveled by the EF5 tornado (1 mile wide) on Sunday night. Parkersburg is 80 mi. NE of us, and the same storm that hit Parkersburg went over our house that same evening. Yes, we were in the basement keeping a close eye on the weather station….

The following paragraphs are in answer to lots of questions I have been asked.

The unpacking is going slowly. Lots of days I have unpacked zero boxes, what with so many other things that have been needing to be done. Most days I unpack between 2-4 boxes; this could take a while!! LOL We have done some visiting of folks having surgery/babies, and have had some of the teens over on two separate occasions. We walk the dogs, do laundry, watch N’s and J’s dramatic productions they are putting on for us, and run errands as we can….
It is SSSSSSSO green here!! After one of Iowa's most snowy winters in years, and a very wet spring, it is just EXTREMELY green, which (of course), having come from the desert, makes a huge impression on my visuals. lol We really like it here so far; in lots of ways it feels like 'coming home', since it's SO VERY MUCH like Nebraska in every way - wow. The house is functional, though 'nothing special', necessarily. It's not brand-new, whereas the last two houses we lived in were … which has its positives and negatives. :) The church is OUTSTANDING - almost indescribably so. We are doing GREAT as a family, although with the house still in partial disarray, there are little frustrations about that ... as well as getting our schedule & routines back in place. One HUGE blessing for our family unit is that Jeremy is 'back', so to speak. The eight months leading up to our move were really, really, really hard on him. It was very demanding to continue carrying the work load he had in Tucson WHILE SEARCHING FOR A NEW JOB. However, we knew it had to be done, so just 'bit the bullet' and accomplished it. Now that the move is behind us, it is absolutely a JOY for me that he is back to his old self. He is being tended to so carefully by the elders here and the rest of the church (especially the brothers, our age and up). His work load is much more reasonable, and he has SO MUCH MORE support and interaction to provide good motivation and focus. We very much like our neighborhood; we have officially met only one neighbor so far. I am fine. My body is clearly still recovering from all the stress of the move; I'm shocked at how much sleep it is needing [early to bed(!), late to rise] some days, but it's fine and I consider it a blessing that my life situation allows the flexibility. It is both frustrating and exciting to begin building all new relationships with the sisters (and brothers and children) here. I just hate the 'starting over' aspect, since it truly does take much time and energy to get to know so many new people
Money has been a huge problem since we got here because of the car breaking down [It's engine blew. "All that for that." -- pfft] and a few other significant unexpected expenses (including Elaine having not returned to work until just yesterday; plumbing problems that are now, thankfully, resolved; etc.). Finances have been a source of much 'pondering' and 'discomfort' (sigh), though no fear, thankfully. The dogs don't have the most wonderful of situations. Without the necessary funds, we haven't built them a fence yet, so their outside time is on tie-downs or leashes ... which I HATE very much, especially for more long-term situations. gr And now as we're looking at next month's budget it's looking like we won't be able to do it for the month of June, either, which means we'll be building a fence in JULY??? The hottest month of the year. Grrreat. GRR!! i-r-r-i-t-a-t-i-o-n-s I have done almost zero shopping of any kind since we arrived. Bless Jeremy, the day before we arrived, once he had the new fridge all set up and cold, he shopped the "Perpetual Grocery List" before we even arrived. >> How great was that???! I did make one quick-trip to Wal-Mart for a few things, but other than that I'm strangely not yet qualified to communicate accurately about any stores in this city! We haven't even spent Justus's birthday money even though he DESPERATELY needs those new reinforced-knee pants for which the money has been allotted. Honestly, we simply aren't interested in spending the gas $$ right now. Well, not to mention, Justus's wallet (birthday money in it) was misplaced for a number of days, too -- so easy to do in a move. Argh

More later!