Moving Day!

Moving day went smoothly, well, as smoothly as it can go when you are moving all of your earthly belongings across the valley. We didn't start too early both to give us a few extra hours to pack and in hopes that we would have more help if it wasn't first thing in the morning. Nik had arranged for his scouts to come over after the Scouting for Food food drive and we were lucky to have many good friends, ward members and one family member come to help us. We were on the road with the second caravan before noon.

The new house is easy to find, so I just told everyone how to get there before we left. I was really only "leading" a couple cars: my brother Jeff and my visiting teacher Maya. Maya was a huge help, by the way. She spent two days with me packing the random and last minute stuff. Well, we had just gotten on the freeway at 4500 S, I can see at least one truck with my stuff in front of me. Traffic seemed heavy, but I am not often on I-15 on a saturday morning. Just before the 5300 S exit I see a box leave a truck and promptly be hit by a car.

Now, at this point several things are going through my mind, here are a few of them:

* Oh, that sucks.

* Wait, thats my box.

* It just got hit by a car, there is stuff everywhere.

* I have to get it! It's my stuff!

* Its the freeway!!!!! I can't get it....

Last second I pull off into the "free space" the exiting lanes create and almost forget to turn off the car before I get out. I am now booking it the opposite direction of traffic toward my things, grabbing everything I can see. Among the things I see first are a pair of my new work pants, a tee shirt, a wicker basket that is now demolished, the cardboard box in several pieces, a tupperware, several papers of varying import. As I am gathering up all this I realize that my brother is now with me, also picking up everything he can see. After only a few seconds I look around and think that we've got everything and we start back to the car. I am throughly out of breath and my legs are dead (hopefully because of adrenaline, not because I am out of shape, but I don't doubt the later) so I am moving slowly. About half way back I notice something I missed on the first run. My camera. On the freeway. Smashed.

Yep. It had not only been in that box that was hit, it had been run over by a car almost immediately. I just about stopped breathing. Not really a feat at this point, but now its from shock and not exertion. But I couldn't dwell on it now, on the freeway, so we just dumped everything in the back of my car and continued on. Traffic made it so we couldn't get back on the freeway, so we exited and took state the rest of the way.

Once I knew that those behind me knew the new plan, I called my mom to tell her what happened. I would just like to point out here that my parents chose this weekend to go to St. George. I thought she was kidding when I got that text, but nope, they were really going to St. George the day I was moving into my first house. I told mom I would maybe be able to forgive them in about 10 years. It was a little less than that, but don't tell them that. Anyway, mom had the appropriate response of being horrified and shocked that that had happened. As I was relating the story and got to the part about noticing Jeff was on the road with me she suddenly exclaims "Jeff was on the freeway!?!" Thanks mom. He's fine. Oh, and your DAUGHTER is fine too.

I wish I could post a picture of it. It really is like a train wreck. You just can't turn away! But other than that, everything went great! Lots of people helped us get the house ready to move in (cleaning, painting, etc), helped organize boxes in the rooms (thanks again Jeff! And thanks Emilee for letting Spencer spend the afternoon moving our boxes. He's a great 10 year old), and helped get the boxes unpacked and put away. A big thanks to my mom who spent the better part of a day helping me unpack. One of the reasons I have forgiven her for not helping me move. Oh, that and helping me shampoo the carpets before we moved in.

We really love our new place. And would love to host anyone who wants to come see it. Just know that it is still a disaster from trying to unpack. We will certainly be having a house warming party so everyone can see it, but it will probably be when the weather is a little more stable and warm. Stupid snow.