okay, so this post is probably not going to 'move' you in any way. It's about our move from Charlotte to Omaha and all the craziness that went with it.
A month ago (how can it be that long already?) the movers came to pack our things into boxes. It was really kind of fun to sit there with baby Alice and watch them put all my stuff into boxes, although there was one of the guys that really made me nervous. He wasn't very careful about anything, and the only stuff that actually ended up broken was in his boxes. They came on Thursday morning and the three of them were done in about 3 or 4 hours. I spent a couple more hours cleaning things out before a friend brought the girls back (Thanks again!!) and we ended up watching golf for a few hours. What else is there to do in the middle of the afternoon in Charlotte in the middle of August? Everything was packed, including toys and EVERYTHING. Just before 5pm the movers call and ask if they can come on Saturday morning instead of Friday morning. Joe tells them no, they have to come on Friday. They said okay, but it wouldn't be until after 5pm on Friday evening! Oh, and by the way, our stuff is going to sit in a warehouse in Charlotte for at least a week until they can have someone available to drive it to NE for us. Our stuff is already packed.
That night Joe's dad flew in from Indy to help us drive our little car, since I have to nurse and can't drive that much. He left early the next morning with the car, and we waited. We did some shopping and went to the park. We watched more golf; Tiger was doing okay, but not good enough. The movers come at 6pm, and take 2 1/2 hours to load it all on the truck. We finally leave at 9pm, almost 12 hours later than we'd originally been hoping to leave.
Saturday morning at 1am we stopped in Knoxville to sleep for a few hours, then drove the rest of the way to Indiana. We visited with Grandma and Grandpa, the girls ran around in the yard, and Joe's brother and his family came down to visit too. It was good to see them, since it'd been a year or so. The cousins had a great time playing. All of them but Karen have blond hair and ALL of them have the same blue eyes; they could be siblings, not just cousins. It was fun to visit with everyone we know up there at church on Sunday and just relax for a bit.
Monday we were up bright and early (actually, it was still dark...) and in the car on the way to Nebraska. We haven't driven this far since we had kids, and they did surprisingly well. Having Grandpa following behind us made it more fun for the girls; they kept turning around to see if he was still back there. We saw soooo much corn and soybeans that Karen got tired of it; she kept complaining that there was nothing to see but corn. I told her she should get used to it, we were living in corn country now. Her favorite part of the drive was probably when we went through the flooded parts of Iowa, seeing all the buildings/fields/cars/etc. under water; she's too young to see it all as the disaster that it really is. I was once again reminded about how much I hate going through or over water; big bridges and things scare me to death for some reason. It's probably because I grew up in Utah with nothing even close to that around, but crossing big rivers (like the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri on this trip) makes me freak out. Joe thinks it's funny and like to make me have to drive those parts. Anyway, back to the story...
Tuesday morning we checked into our new apartment. I knew I was spoiled with my apartment in Charlotte, but I didn't think it would be this bad. When we came in, there was no stove/oven. It was an empty hole. The fridge didn't work. There are no overhead lights in the bedrooms and the windows are tiny. The master bedroom/bath smelled like cats. The dishwasher sounds like a jet taking off. After a month's worth of work orders we have a new fridge, an oven that works but cooks 25degrees hotter than it says it does, and the cat smell is gone (unless you turn on the fan in the bathroom...). While I was cleaning the walls in my bedroom the blinds literally fell down on me.
A week and a half ago, Joe and I were watching TV after the girls were asleep and we heard a funny noise from the utility closet. We opened the door and saw flames coming out of the water heater. Luckily turning off the breaker solved that problem, but we had no hot water the next morning. At 4:30 pm the next afternoon we finally got the maintenance guy over to fix it. He changed out the heating coils, turned on the electricity and left. 15 minutes later it was on fire again. The next day (a saturday) the guy came back with the plumber to change out the water heater, but they had to take the trim off the inside of the door to get the old one out. After the new one was installed the guys left, saying they would come back after the Labor day weekend to fix the trim. It's still sitting next to my front door, nails poking out and all.
On the other side, we're doing quite well. It took an extra week for us to get our stuff and it barely all fit inside (thanks again to everyone who took our 'extra' furniture and things!!) but it only took us a day and a half to get it all unpacked. We have groceries, diapers, and a few extras with money still in the bank. We went to the eye doctor and I finally got contacts again!!!!! Joe and Rachel are getting new glasses that should be in next week sometime. We get to go to the dentist next week, and after that I can finally get the crown for the root canal I had last winter. Joe's (other) brother and family live in Laramie, WY, and came to visit for Labor Day; it was great, and would have been even better with hot water. Joe loves his job, teaching, the students, the research, everything. We already have some friends from way back when (Joe knew them in Indy before his mission), as well as some new friends in our ward. Maybe best of all though is that Joe's dissertation is now almost done! The defense is scheduled for next week, and after that (and the revisions) we can hopefully buy plane tickets to go to graduation!!!
This may have been the most stressful month of my life... or at least in the top 10 for sure... but it has also been really great for us. We're finally getting settled and starting to feel like we really are out of school. It feels weird, to be honest. We've been students literally forever and now we're suddenly...not.
Well, time to go. Cinderella is officially over and that means my girls are done being entertained. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon; I know there are some people (mostly Grandma) that really want to see them. But, it's only been a couple weeks since my last post so hopefully I'm starting a new trend?!
Rachel and Alice. It was in the 'Thanksgiving' folder, so sometime in November. Note that she's not looking at the camera; this is a normal thing for her. She can't stay still long enough to actually take the picture. She also LOVES her baby sister! (sometimes too much...)
Notice that the cake is the same colors and such as the toy castle? That was really on purpose, and Joe didn't even notice until after we'd eaten half the cake, when he said something like, "hey, isn't the cake almost like the castle?
Setting up the Christmas Decorations after our Thanksgiving.
Karen was Cinderella for Halloween, while Rachel reprised Karen's role of 2 years ago (can it really be that long?) as a sunflower. They got lots of candy for mom and dad, and had fun showing off their cute clothes. Karen even got kissed on the cheek by AJ, a 3-year-old in the ward at the trunk-or-treat.
The pumpkin patch where we got our pumpkin (we bought the one Joe's touching). If someone else would have taken the picture so I could be in this would be the perfect family picture for us and we wouldn't have to get them taken still... oh well!
Karen was trying to 'sneak' a few cheerios, but ended up dumping most of the box. The day after this she did dump the entire box of Kix, but since it was right after I'd cleaned the floors I put them all back in the box. Was that bad of me? The one with the trash can is from the week after general conference. Karen liked watching the old guys (who she kept calling John McCain) talking so much that she had to do her own talks. She put a book on the can that she has memorized and then 'reads' it to me. She even does this cute little fake cough like she's clearing her throat.
Future pianists? I definitely think so! I have to practice my choir music almost every day, and after I have my turn the girls each have to have their own turns too. It doesn't even sound that bad sometimes, but maybe I'm just going deaf or something. 
These two pictures are from a party we had for our friends who were moving back to teach at BYU-I. Since then (July) they have moved to ID, one of our other friends moved to NJ, and another one had her baby!
