So...we're moving.

I don't think I've yet officially announced to the blogosphere that we did, in fact, make it home safely from our road trip. The flight from Georgia back to Salt Lake was crazy--the first flight was delayed 30 minutes because the safety card in the "seat back in front of you" was for the wrong model of airplane and FAA guidelines wouldn't let the plane take off until all the wrong ones were removed and the right ones distributed. Because of that, we nearly missed our connecting flight in Denver. Seriously, we got of the plane, Chris ran across the terminal, and I caught up just as he convinced the ticket guy to unlock the door and let us on the plane, at which point he promptly locked the door again behind us. It was that close.

I ended up sitting between a man with a very restless 18 month old girl on one side and a lady with two cats in her carry-on on the other side. It was an odd flight.

Then we went camping, attended a wedding, and drove 10 hours again to get home. Oh wait, I forgot the part where we went to pick up our van from the transmission shop only to have the check engine light still on. And the red van we had borrowed from Lisa to take camping wouldn't start again after we'd turned it off. AHHH! It turned out ok, though. They just hadn't cleared the code for our light and once we let the red van cool down for a bit (since we had just driven straight from Idaho in 100 degree weather), it started just fine. But I'm pretty sure I cried a bit in the middle there.

THEN we attended a wedding and drove 10 hours home again.

Monday I did laundry. And watched a lot of tv because I was brain dead after our trip.

Tuesday I sat on the couch and watched Netflix while two men I'd never met before handled everything I owned and packed it all. Let me tell you, that is a delightful way to pack your house--TV and chocolate.

I did have an amusing discussion with one of the packers. He had found my picture of the Logan temple, as well as packing all of my church books, and he correctly assumed that I am LDS. He started talking about Joseph Smith and how he is one of the most misunderstood men in American history. I was thinking, cool, we can have a nice chat about Joseph Smith and the church while you pack, sure. But, then he told me how much he believes in the Ancient Alien Theory and considers it fact that the being who told Joseph where to find the golden book was actually from another planet. Ah, well. So much for that missionary moment.

By the end of the day, it finally, FINALLY, looked like we were moving.

Today was...less productive, shall we say? Or at least, less prompt. I was back at the apartment from the hotel at 8:30. The window for the moving guys to show up to load the truck was between 8 and 10. When they still weren't there at 9:40, I started trying to get a hold of Chris at work to see if he could get a hold of the moving people. Getting a hold of Chris ended up requiring a call to Natalie Eames to call her husband to see if he knew where Chris was since he wasn't answering his office phone...yadda yadda, Chris finally called me back. He made some phone calls, some people called back, others called me... To sum up, they didn't have a crew for us. Major miscommunication somewhere, and they just had no people and no truck to send to our house.

I think I cried then, too.

These people were going to talk to those people who would then call these other people and maybe at some point someone would call me... I gave up on the waiting thing and went to Walmart. I spent Ben's birthday money increasing the block collection, and then I spent more money on things like a dvd and pajamas for all the kids. You know, because I was frustrated and bored. Excellent time to blow money, right?

There was an adventure there when the man in front of me in the line fell over onto the floor. He was elderly and kept dropping things out of his wallet. I kept picking them up for him, but he went for one himself too fast and just fell over, cutting his hand open in the process. See? Moving brings out all kinds of adventures.

The confusion continued long enough that I didn't want to pick up the kids from the babysitters since I still wasn't sure what our timeline was going to be, but I didn't feel it necessary to just sit in the apartment all alone either. Instead, I opted to go to lunch at Applebee's. I had just ordered and settled in on some writing that I wanted to do when suddenly I get a phone call saying that the crew would be at the apartment in about thirty minutes. Well, so much for my nice leisurely lunch, but if we get on with the work, alright. I took my food to go instead... and sat alone in the apartment for another two and a half hours before anyone actually showed up.

I didn't cry that time. I was beyond caring by then.

Finally, at 3:00 this afternoon, the truck came.

It started slow because they only had two guys. Chris helped, our neighbor Brian came to help, and eventually two more guys showed up. Yay! We were done and gone by 8:30, which is much better than not loading the truck until tomorrow, which was the most favorable plan at one point during the day. Not only is everything out of the apartment, but all the cleaning and vacuuming is done as well. All my pre-cleaning effort really paid off (which I was quite pleased about). All that's needed now is to wait until the office opens in the morning and turn in our keys.

And then we're done.

Thank you to the Devenports and the Pendletons for watching our kids for the last two days. Things would have been much, much more complicated if it weren't for them!

Audrey made this while she was with the Pendletons today. She was quite proud and wanted to make sure I took a picture for the blog.