Summer movin' had me a blast.

Most ladies choose not to travel in their third trimester. That's when I did most of my traveling. Brandon's final year of PT school required him to complete 3 12-week internships in 3 different settings. His dad helped him set up a placement in Pullman, WA for January to April and he'll intern at Southern Hills Hospital (around the corner from our condo) starting in October. We chose Louisville for his first internship from July to October. UNLV had an existing relationship with a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky which interested us because Brandon's brother, Shawn, and his family live in Lexington and it's closer to my family than Las Vegas. A bonus was that housing arrangements were available, so we wouldn't have to find our own. 

As with most things that sound too good to be true, our housing arrangements weren't actually arranged. So we stayed with Shawn & Annie in Lexington (an hour away from Brandon's placement) for a few weeks and he just commuted each day. It got to be tedious and we didn't want to impose too much on the Kentucky Richards, so we started researching Louisville options. Turns out no one wants to rent an apartment to people for two months. We actually managed to find a reasonable apartment for a reasonable price and filled out an application. We got a phone call the next day that the tenant had changed their mind and decided not to move out, so the apartment was no longer available. Awesome.

 But hindsight is always 20/20, and I'm so glad it fell through. Poor Brandon ended up staying in an extended stay motel for a few weeks, paying way too much for a dark, cramped hole in the wall. Bless his heart, I ditched him and went to visit my family for a month. We had initially chosen Kentucky, thinking we could drive a few hours on occasion and visit my folks. Instead, I went once and stayed for 5 weeks, leaving Brandon to fend for himself. He was SUCH a good sport and didn't complain about his less-than-ideal living arrangements. Seeing that it wasn't ideal emotionally or financially, so I contacted an old roommate of mine who lives in Louisville and she asked around about a room for rent. A friend of a friend came forward with a basement they had refurbished for their teenage kids and offered for us to live there RENT FREE! I was overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. They were some of the nicest people I've ever met and opened their home to us. We'll never be able to repay Joe and Joan Fowler. They were an answer to a prayer, since we were still paying rent in Las Vegas and wound up subletting to a tenant that never paid us a dime for the 4 months she lived there. I kept to myself while I was there, mostly watching TLC, reading and balancing various things on my ever expanding belly.

On weekends we went to stay with Shawn and Annie and there was always fun to be had. We toured Lexington, we cooked, we visited the library, we played with niece & nephews, we ate our weight in ice cream (R.I.P. Maggie Moo's - apparently we kept them in business and when we left, they bit the dust), we watched 4 seasons of Psych, we went to the Louisville Temple, we played Wii, and we laughed. Boy did we laugh. I got to see my old co-worker Kristi, which was a fun surprise. She moved to Chicago and was in Louisville on business so we lunched at Jimmy John's - our old LLS stomping grounds.

 

We attended Shawn & Annie's ward for a few short months but were made to feel SO welcome. Some of the friendliness may have been due to them confusing Brandon for Shawn. The first week we were there, Shawn had been on call and had to come late to Sacrament Meeting. We chose a row in the back, Annie sat on the outside with her kids, then Brandon and myself. When Shawn came in a few minutes late, people did double takes and later told us they thought Shawn was already there. We visited a local orchard and picked more variety of apples than I knew existed and a huge chuck of the ward turned out for the event. It was great to see how well everyone got along and enjoyed each other's compnay. We hope to live in a ward with that kind of unity one day. I hadn't been apple picking in a very long time, so this was delicious AND fun. We ended up with a "peck" of apples to take home - Buddy couldn't reference Willow enough that day. Apple cider, apple pie, apple fritters, apple juice...it was heaven.

Known for horse racing, Lexington boasts an awesome park with statues of horses and jockeys. Annie was so sweet to take us out and show us the town - she's always in the know about fun things to do. Needless to say, we had a good time. Even if I couldn't keep up.

I had to fly home to Las Vegas earlier than Brandon on doctor's orders, so I left him high and dry...again. We had a great time in Kentucky and are so grateful to Shawn and Annie for making us feel at home and to Joe and Joan for taking us in. We were lucky in Kentucky!