We Like to Move It Move It.

It's been a few months now, but for the sake of saving some confusion when years from now someone has enough time to kill to read my journal, I thought I should mention the fact that WE MOVED. Small detail, I know.

Brandon has been keeping in touch with the owners of a physical therapy clinic down the road from his family in Pullman, Washington where he completed an internship shortly before graduating from UNLV. They set the bar as far as jobs were concerned. He loved everything about working there - the staff, the atmosphere, the patient base, the location - everything. So when they let him know about an opening, he jumped at the chance. We prayerfully considered it and decided to accept their offer of employment and move our wee family there for him to start work at the beginning of August. 

It was definitely bittersweet. I was really excited about the prospect of moving closer to family, but at the same time didn't feel quite ready to leave Las Vegas. I'd made wonderful friends there. Such wonderful friends, that they hosted a Bon Voyage party for me on July 16th. I was so touched that so many of them came to bid me adieu. We had a "roast" of sorts, but said nice things about me. I cried as much as if they'd actually roasted me. It was so sweet to hear people's favourite memories or things about me. Nothing like an ugly cry in front of a room full of people - thankfully they were all my friends. They wrote me kind little notes for me to read after I moved, but I must confess I read them as soon as I got home. More ugly crying. In a place like Las Vegas where most of us don't have family around, friends become your family and I have been so well take care of for the six years we lived there. Meals, babysitting - sometimes overnight, furniture, girls' nights, baby clothes and gear, maternity clothes, prayers, cleaning my house to name a few of the things they've given or done for me. I love these ladies!

 Top: Jen, Christina, Lisa, Natalie, Chelsea, Layne & Sarah

Middle: Rushelle, Sara, Jane (and Conrad), Kelli, Cami, Sheena, Janet (and Eden), Katie & Emily

Bottom: Megan, Danette, Kelli & Shali

We moved to Las Vegas for Brandon to complete UNLV's Physical Therapy program in 2008 and in the more than 6 years we've been here, have lived in 3 different houses and 4 different wards - Painted Mountain for two weeks before it split to create our next ward - the Southern Hills Ward and when we moved into our house in 2011 we moved into the Coronado Ward (which was basically heaven on earth) which split a year after we moved in to form our most recent ward, the Blue Diamond Ward. We became parents here, twice over (at Southern Hills Hospital), bought our first home and had more than 6 years worth of memories here. It's the end of an era.

I've compiled a small list (there are so many more, but if I'm going to keep up with life I need to be brief) of things we will miss and not miss about Sin City...

WILL MISS

• Entertainment
• Weather
• Visitors
• Friends as family
• Location, location, location
• Telling people I live in Las Vegas (always a conversation starter)
  
• Cheap, cheap housing
  
• Amazing libraries with a super convenient interlibrary loan system
  

WON'T MISS

• Entertainment
• Weather
• Visitors
• Being far from family
• Not having a backyard

For those of you smarter than the average bear, you'll notice that several of the items are on both lists. You see, we will miss being in a major hub for entertainment - we were able to see a few shows over the years (KA, The Lion King, Blue Man Group, Donny & Marie, La Reve, Panda and Phantom (x2)) and visit other venues (Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden, Red Rock, Madame Tussaud's, M&M's Chocolate Factory, Hoover Dam, Disney on Ice, and Shark Reef reasonably priced or free, being locals. There was always lots (of skin) to see, but Brandon was in school for half of our life here and so we were on a pretty tight budget and only really visited the Strip when we were showing visitors around. I won't miss some of the kinds of entertainment and billboards prevalent in Sin City. Our location was pretty perfect - just 15 minutes from the Strip - far enough not to deal with the sights on a daily basis, but close enough that we could go and see the appropriate sites when we wanted to.

I will miss the beautiful weather from October to May - swimming in the fall and wearing flip flops in winter. This may sound silly, but I won't miss the year round sunshine. I know, woe is me, it's too sunny. But I am looking forward to season changing, snow at Christmas and seeing a little more rain and clouds. Boo hoo, I know. 

I will miss friends and family that come to visit and take advantage of the entertainment and the weather and those that swung by on their way elsewhere. I won't miss being contacted by Facebook "friends" I haven't spoken to in years asking for a trip itinerary, must sees and how to get discounts. Visitors that weren't visiting me, but want me to serve as a travel agent. It got annoying.

Regardless of what I will miss and won't miss, here we are moving on.

We put our house on the market in June, shortly after he was offered the job. The house process deserves an entry of its own, so stay tuned. I was on Facebook like a mad woman, selling everything from photo albums and toys to kitchen tables and bookshelves, trying to make a few bucks and clear some space at the same time. I chipped away at the packing over a few weeks, with kind friends volunteering to watch the kids a few hours at a time and others helping me pack and patch holes. Brandon had just a couple of days between his last day of work and moving day, so we spent many an evening watching episodes of 'Wings' we'd borrowed from the library, since we'd boxed up all our DVDs. We wrapped everything up and tied up loose ends in order to roll out of our driveway for the last time on July 18th. Brandon's parents and brother-in-law, Eric, were kind enough to fly down to help us make the move. We picked them up from the airport and Brenda, the kids and I were on the road within the hour. We left the men to finish up kid-free and that was the best idea ever presented to us. Brandon's Dad has an incredible Can Do attitude, so instead of waiting until the Elder's Quorum (a group of men in the LDS church) came to pack us up, they loaded the truck themselves with the help of one kind brother who came early and with years of experience packing UPS trucks - word has it he was a genius. So, the Elder's Quorum came as scheduled to find an empty house, so they cleaned instead. The men of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are renown for their moving abilities - there's no better time to be a member of the church, quite frankly. It was a bit of a leap of faith for me to leave the house in a shambles, trusting my husband and his friends to take care of everything, but it really was a great decision in the end and I'm told things went really smoothly.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mom Richards and I hit the road. We said last goodbyes to the Statens who had been watching the kids and even saved ourselves a trip when Natalie stopped by their house at the same time. So one round of tears was all it took. They have both been so sweet to us and I hope we remain lifelong friends in spite of the distance. Me being a silly, sentimental goose hadn't really considered the fact that the last time I left my house would be the last time I left my house. I would have felt dumb stopping by just to say goodbye to our first home (I know it's just a house, but I will miss it!) but Teagan needed to use the bathroom, so it was a great opportunity for me to do a goodbye lap, dodging boxes in and out of every room, taking a step or two inside to remember the wonderful things that had happened there. Stop laughing.

We officially started making our way out of town and Mom drove so I could tend to the kids. We talked about trading, but she powered through and I was so pleasantly surprised by Teagan and Mason - the latter having never been in his carseat longer than 1/2 an hour. A two day trip could have been a nightmare, but they both rallied. Not much sleeping got done, so I had to take a picture to remind myself that it did indeed happen on occasion.

I spent weeks agonizing over car friendly activities and gathering things for T to do and M to eat and wouldn't you know it, Teagan played with Silly Putty for over an hour of our 18 hour trip!She also read some Chipmunk books and watched several of the Chipmunk movies - thank goodness she was in a phase and I could find super cheap Chipmunk themed things to entertain her with. She also drew a lot and snacked a lot. Almost as much as I snacked.

We stopped in Cedar City after about 3 hours and stretched our legs at a park. I took a page out of my Auntie Louise's book and played pixie with Teagan. I remember when I was little going for walks with my Mum's best friend Louise and she had gone ahead earlier in the day and planted little surprises from the pixies for my sister and I to find. We ate it up. So I found some Easter egg jewels on clearance and planned to hide one each time we stopped the car, in an effort to make getting back into the car a little more appealing. My pixie story worked fairly well until Teagan saw the whole stash of jewels on Mason's side of the van. Cover blown. But the jellybeans still tasted good, so she played along. Bless her.

We wanted to at least make it to Provo (about 6 hours away) on our first day and we made it to Orem (about 6 hours and 5 minutes away) before everyone melted down. Brenda put us up at the La Quinta Inn there and while we put forth the effort to haul the playpen up to the third floor and set it up, Mason AND Teagan insisted on "sleeping" with me. They slept a little. I slept less. Thank goodness I wasn't driving. Though when we met up with the men (a happy coincidence) the next day, they had it worse than I did. They left the house Friday night instead of Saturday morning and stayed in a teeny little town in Northern Nevada whose decent hotels were all full. So they found themselves at the Motel 6, asking whether they had a room that would sleep 3. After some deliberation, the clerk said "Yeah! I think there's a spot on the floor big enough for someone to sleep." They got two rooms. Two nasty, rundown rooms without the kind of continental breakfast spread we enjoyed. Poor guys.

There wasn't much for poor little Mace Face to do, so he started to struggle towards the end of our two day trip. I nimbly and gracefully made my way back to the middle row (translation: I hurled myself in a whirlwind of limbs with a soundtrack of various unearthly grunts and groans towards what I hoped was the middle row of the van and landed with a thud, crunched between two car seats. At least Mason enjoyed me being back there -  that was new.

 

All in all, the trip went much better than anticipated - thanks to Brenda for driving. It got windy towards the end of the trip and she felt the van pulling a little. We'd been filling up that pesky tire every chance we could, but it didn't quite make it and we could feel it limping a little as we slowed down to drive through town. When we pulled into the driveway, we were astonished to find not one but TWO flat tires. Who knows how many miles we'd driven, the tire waiting to deflate entirely but as Brenda puts it - angels pushed us those last few miles. Indeed they did.

Speaking of angels, as our little van limped onto the homestretch on Saturday night the street was lined with brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews clapping and cheering and pointing to a beautiful handmade sign welcoming us home. I was in tears. Of the two surprises, this was my favourite. The men were only minutes behind us and even before greeting everyone, Buddy collapsed in the grass. The blessed green stuff we haven't seen much of since 2008. He was overcome with emotion. And fatigue.

All our earthly belongings sat in the moving van in the Richards' ample driveway until Monday night when the family men and the Elder's Quorun here (what did I tell you about those guys?) moved it all IN THE POURING RAIN into a storage unit across town. Some of my stuff may be growing new stuff when we unearth it in a few months, but most of it seemed unscathed.

So here we are in Moscow - Idaho, not Russia - waiting for someone in Las Vegas to fall in love with our home like we did. It's taking longer than I anticipated, but I'm assured it will sell. Until then, we have wonderful friends down the street looking after it (and shooing away the hoodlums who are still out there in full force - blocking our driveway and everything) and lovely family taking care of us here. Does moving closer to Brandon's family make me miss mine that much more? Yes. Am I a little worried about starting over and making new friends and that I'll lose touch with my friends in Vegas? A little. But so far it's been great and we feel that we've been directed here by a loving Heavenly Father who knows our needs better than we do and loves us with an incomprehensible love. So I'll quote Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin here and say: "Come what may and love it."