The Big Move

As I stated in my last post, I met my momma to drop off the girls on Saturday afternoon.  This enabled me to get last minute stuff done without their "help".  They had SO much more fun at Grandma's than they could've possibly had with Mom & Dad.

With them gone, I did last minute stuff.  Monday morning Matt & I, with the help of my good friend Sarah, my brother Charlie, & my bro-in-law Darin (who took the morning off work to come help) loaded up our moving truck!  We packed that thing SO full.  Like I said before, we had WAY more small stuff than we thought lying around, plus we had a LOT of Ikea furniture in boxes.  We made it work, but just barely!

Matt's dad posted this sign on our car, it says, "rochester, MN or BUST! Hold the Mayo, pass the gas"

Early Tuesday morning Matt and I headed out in the moving truck.  The poor thing was so weighted down that we couldn't get it over 55 mph, and uphill we were lucky to get 35, usually it was more like 30.  This added lots of time to our daily drive time, and we ended up driving 11-11.5 hours each day (for 3 days).

We drove through Colorado during all the terrible wild fires, it was devestating, as you can see below.  this went on for miles and miles, as far as the eye could see in each direction.

We got into Rochester Thursday evening.  We stayed with a friend of a friend, the Rowse's who we had met on our house hunting trip.  It was good to get to visit with them, even though we were pretty worn out, and Julie even helped us unload the escape off the trailer (which was a comical situation involving a busted ramp gate), and let us keep our stuff that was packed on the trailer in her garage until after we got the keys the next day.

Friday morning we did the final walkthrough, then signed the papers and got the keys!

Friday afternoon Matt and I unloaded some of the truck, went shopping for paint and other supplies, and did some cleaning, etc.  Friday evening we were hoping to get some help from our new ward with the move in.  About 1.5 hours after our scheduled "start time" for the ward move in, the missionaries showed up to help us, with the apologies that they got called because no one could make it.  So at this point the truck was about 85% done, but they did help with some of the big things, with was AWESOME, because Matt and I were toast.  We were actually about to call it quits for the night, and just do the rest in the morning because we were so exhausted when they showed up, so that guilted us into having to finish it that night.  With 2 things left in the truck a ward member (Bro Hurst) showed up.  He apologized for not being able to come earlier and helped us move 1 thing.  It was funny.  He's a great guy.

Part of the reason that Matt & I were toast was that the mid-west was having a huge/record heat wave the week of our move in.  Like 100+ degree temps with crazy humidity.  That humidity just makes you sweat like crazy and is exhausting.  So on Saturday, we got up and started working hard to get stuff put together (5 ikea dressers, bunkbeds, 3 couches, bookcases, etc) and painted.  Halfway through the day we realize that it is really hot.  Our AC stopped working.  The motor was completely busted and ended up being totally replaced.  But not for 3 days.  It got fixed on Tues afternoon (we left on Wed morning super early).  So it got up to about 93 degrees in the house with about 75% humidity.  Perfect conditions for unpacking, moving and assembling furniture and painting right?  We laughed about it being the totally typical "first time home buyers" experience.  At least the kids weren't here.

Sunday at church Bro Hurst invited us to come by after church for dinner with his family.  Normally this is the type of invitation I would politely decline, because I hate to impose, and I feel socially awkward, and I stink at making new friends.  But I also had been eating pb & j's for days straight, and knew that their house was bound to be at least 15 degrees cooler than ours.  So we accepted and had a GREAT time.  I totally adore their little family and have told Natalie that she has no choice, I have latched onto her and decided that we are friends :)

So we went home Sunday evening to our miserable, hot, humid, house and got to work.  We worked so hard that whole week of moving.  We didn't sleep much, and the sleep that we did get was hot and sweaty and miserable.  The last few days we had to take a lot more breaks as we got more fatigued from all the sweating.  It was gross and miserable, but we got LOTS done!

Here are the pics of what all we accomplished in the 5 days we were in Rochester:

Early Wednesday morning (the 4th of July) we flew back to Phoenix (on about 3.5 hours of sleep).  We then drove to Thatcher to meet up with the girls, but first we stopped to eat lunch with one of my BFFs Kellee, who was in the valley visiting her family.  It was awesome to see her, even though I was disgusting and exhausted.  She is one of my favorite people ever though, so I'll take whatever I can get!

We then drove the 3 hours to my mom's house, getting there right at dinner time.  We originally had been so excited to get back on the 4th of July, so that we could do the small town celebrations with the girls.  However, I didn't even eat dinner.  I fell asleep.  What a lame mom right?  Luckily my mom & Hank took the 2 big girls to watch the fireworks, and left Kate home sleeping with us.  The girls said that they had a great time the next morning, so I am glad that they didn't miss out, just because their parents were too tired!


That morning poor Matt had to turn around and drive the 3+ hours back to our house so that he could go to work that night.  I stayed at my mom's with the kids, so that I could have a couple weeks to spend with my family before heading off to Minnesota for good!