Saturday, February 16, 2013
Move to VA
Our move to Virginia went pretty smoothly considering we were moving across the country. First - we drove from Utah to Texas, which takes 15 hours. We got there late Saturday night. Sunday we spent the day recouping from the drive and packing up the last few things for the house that we needed to. Monday morning Dan got the truck, (SIDE NOTE - the truck we reserved was going to be a perfect size for our stuff, when Dan got there - the only truck they had available was the biggest one! They didn't make us pay more for it - but it was huge - we had so much extra room and it probably cost us so much more in gas so I was very irritated, but oh well - side not over) and I went and met with people that were going to be taking over the property management job I was doing... we were basically just finishing up everything we needed to. We had people come over and help us load up the truck and then that afternoon we started our drive.
We only drove to Dallas since we were getting a late start, and also because Dan's dad Rob was flying into the Dallas airport Tuesday afternoon to help us drive the rest of the way. WE WERE SO GRATEFUL HE DID THIS! This allowed Dan and I to be in the same car with the kids so I wouldn't have to do it alone. Tuesday we drove from Dallas Texas to Memphis Tennessee, Wednesday we drove from Memphis to Johnson City Tennessee, and that left Thursday with Johnson City Tennessee to Alexandria VA. We had planned it out so we were doing about 9 hours a day after the Lubbock to Dallas drive. The total driving time from Utah to Virginia was 45 hours - so it was pretty rough. Luckily the kids did GREAT considering. They would get restless for a little while, but we could usually break and let them run around for a bit and they would be fine. Thank GOODNESS for the little DVD player, and my iphone. I don't know how people did it before! Jax watched movies pretty much the entire time and I was able to use the iphone, for GPS and so we could look up hotels and decide where to stay at night and where to eat and all that good stuff. Thursday we thought we were totally fine on time, because all we had to do was get to Alexandria before 5 before the office at our apartment closed so we could sign the lease and get the keys and all that good stuff. I had contacted the elders quorum president of the ward we would be moving into before and asked if they could have people help us move in. On Thursday he called to check in with me and told me to expect traffic - so we ended going from having what we thought would be a 2 hour cushion into rushing and just making it before they closed. HAHA. Once we got to our apartment, we were met by ONE PERSON - the EQ President was the only one that showed up! BOO! But luckily Lydia Strait (the one member that lives in the same apartment complex as us) took Jaxon and Addy and watched them so we could focus on getting the truck unloaded. She also brought us dinner when we were done and gave us a box of starter groceries like milk, eggs, cereal, bread, flour, sugar.... that kind of stuff so we would have stuff to eat without having to run to the store that night. What a huge help and blessing it was to have her help us out like that! Oh - one little hiccup that happened. So I was in the apartment with Jax and Addy waiting for Dan and Rob to bring the truck around. Lydia called and said I could take the kids over so I called Dan, told him I was leaving - unlocked the door and left. A few mins later he called asking where the keys were because the door was locked. Well the keys they had just given us were still sitting on the counter, I didn't worry about it because I had unlocked the door. Apparently the lock on our door sticks so even though you turn it to unlock it... it actually doesn't unlock. So here we are - its now almost 6:00pm - the office is already closed, all of our keys are locking in our apartment, and Dan, Rob, and Rory (the EQ Pres.) are waiting to move stuff in. AHHHHH! I tried calling the afterhours number, but it just goes to voicemail. I obviously felt awful and sick inside. I said LOTS of desperate prayers and luckily Dan saw a maintenance worker walking out of another building so he flagged him down and was able to get into the apartment. PHEW! Our prayers were answered and we were able to continue with what we needed to do.
The next day we spent getting the apartment set up and unpacked. We learned that first night that none of the bedrooms have lights in them..... I know WEIRD! We also have no real pantry for food and the dining room has carpet so I went and got some lamps to put in the rooms, a rug for under our table (which is a card table by the way since we sold our dining room table before we came here) since we have 2 young children that would stain the carpet every time we eat I'm sure - and a few other things we needed.
The next day we explored. We drove to the law school and took a tour, walked to the capitol and around that area, ate at a delicious Irish pub and drove around looking for some of the big things like the Whitehouse. (It had started raining so we figured driving would be best!)
The next day was Sunday and Rob was leaving that afternoon but before he did we made sure we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, and the botanical gardens because those were things Rob really wanted to see. Then we dropped him off at the airport and said our goodbyes.
It was good to finally be at our new home and start to settle into our new life in Virginia/DC.
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