In the meantime, I turned up the radio, gathered my energy, and washed baseboards and shelves, vacuumed and swept. You should have seen the way I quickly moved from my normal cleaning methods to extreme energy-saving ones. I stopped kneeling or scooting from one baseboard to another, instead finding that rolling was just easier. Suffice it to say, I was comical even to myself and completely covered in dust. By the time Neal was back to help, I had given in to asking for help from other sources as well (thank you Whitni!). The three of us managed to make the apartment clean for inspection. Part of me didn't care by the end though, I just wanted to leave everything else behind. Funny how exhaustion just takes all my ambitions away.
So, we live outside of Cache Valley now. It's incredible to me how much I miss the small community feel at the same time I'm loving the new adventure. The walks along the canal and the closeness of the mountains was such a blessing.
But however much I love the last nine years (minus two for my mission) I spent there, I also know it's time for us to be here in this place. We're supposed to be here because it's closer to Neal's work, because it's closer to family, because it's the best opportunity we could possibly have imagined. But more than that, because it feels right to be stretching in a new direction.
I have spent most of my life in school. It's what I'm good at. Much of the way I approach the world comes from my intrinsic desire to understand, to relate to, to analyze. I realized when I spent several hours the other day reading about recent news events that I will never be satisfied with simply ignoring the news, no matter how sad it may be.
So, we are mostly moved in now. For your enjoyment, I have included a photo of just how chaotic our move was at moments.
This is Logan's packing glory. We had a lot of boxes, but also a lot of stuff to put in the boxes...
This is the Roy fabulousness. Eventually, this room is supposed to be a nursery. Obviously, it's a good thing the baby isn't due yet.
At one point, I just took a picture of the ceiling because it was the most relaxing, tidy thing to look at. I have not included that photo here. But look! Our bottled goods are actually visible here. This way we'll know what we actually have.
Moving has been such a stressful process, but now that we're here, I'm just so happy. I love where we live. I love the confusing neighborhood with it's winding streets. I love being closer to family (though I will miss all our friends who are a bit farther away now). I love the large kitchen and perfect spot for my piano and air conditioning and place for actually planting some of our plants in the ground!
Also, I am apparently done talking about moving, so here are some more of the gems from life lately.
This is a comparison of a regular York peppermint patty to a giant one. The giant one was supposed to be a gift, but after a while we just decided to eat it.
A comparison of them unwrapped.
Neal enjoying the refreshing goodness. I think when we returned to clear our apartment, small bites of this baby really helped me through rough patches.
This year's herb garden all planted before we leave for a trip to Seattle! See how happy I am? I am happy because I love plants. Also, there's a hose here instead of hauling water by the pitcher. Also, I'm about to leave on a trip to Seattle (which I will tell you about later).
I'll be blogging a bit more for a while because we did go to Seattle and I feel the need to share some of our lovely experiences and photos. Yay for adventures of all kinds!
