Thursday, January 15, 2009

The saga continues... Part 2

So here's the continuation of how it all went down and is still not finished:
(Yes that is right, we are still waiting for our stuff to come from Florida, the blasted moving company is jerking us around! The nice thing is we did have a bed and some belongings in Luke's parents' basement in UT that we moved down so we at least have something to sleep on. The other stuff that we got from Utah like - scrapbooks, camping stuff, and Christmas decor hasn't really been that helpful though. I miss our stuff- especially kitchen stuff. A quick side note- if you don't have a pan, don't try to cook pizza on cardboard cut from a packing box, even though store-bought pizzas come on cardboard; it will set your fire alarms off! he he)
PS challenges in red> blessings in blue

Dec 19- Luke's last day of work
Dec 20- Pack & clean whatever Hollie didn't get finished before
Dec 21- Church and goodbyes and jumpstart on loading. Luke wondered about safety of Uhaul
for a front wheel drive car. Too much weight in back makes front wheels come off the ground and you can't steer or brake??
U-haul rules: Can't go faster than 45 mph- which we didn't know prior to loading it, meaning our trip could take 6-8 long days of driving with Gracie alone in the back going that slow. Wheels really started turning!!! Decided to do it anyway. Slept on floor of empty house.
Dec 22- Load, clean, and paint!
7 PM- Everything is ready and we leave to drop off one last Christmas gift to neighbors. Not to mention it is one of the bitterest cold nights we have spent in FL. Luke pulled off the side of the road with trailer to wait for Hollie to run it up, not thinking about the weight of his load. TRAILER GETS STUCK!
8 PM- Trailer gets unstuck from friend of a friend who came with tow truck, but did not need
it. He just drove and turned it right while Luke pushed. Thanks Gabe and Gabe's "tow"er friend.
8:30 PM- Gracie crying (stressed I'm sure) and hungry. Other friends around corner welcome us in for hot chocolate and to feed Gracie. Thanks Brian Froemming.
9:30 PM- While rethinking our plan in Target parking lot (we had to buy a lock for the uhaul) with our caravan, an angel of a lady parked right next to us, comes out of target and told us that the Lord wanted her to give us some money. She was so kind. Luke took it and it was $100.00. (The price the u-haul would cost if we decided to just leave it packed and parked in our driveway while we went up to KY for Christmas. Coincidence? I think not!)
10 PM- Unloaded cars for easier travel and we were finally on our way! We stayed in Dothan AL at a hotel where we got triple AAA and senior citizen discounts, both of which we are not. Sorry Karl and Megan for not making it to Nashville that night!
Dec 23- Arrived in KY at 8 PM. Their kids had waited to see us since Thanksgiving when we had canceled on them. We weren't going to do that again.
Dec 24- Hung out, made gingerbread houses, did the nativity, and stayed up late waiting for Santa.
Dec 25- CHRISTMAS! Karl and Megan made sure Santa visited us too! Thanks. We had a lot of fun and love your family.
Dec 26- Decided to re-book the moving company who would pickup on Sun, Mon and we would try to hurry and sale our second car on Craig's List so we could drive together. Then we hung out and toured Karl's dental school. Cool! Luke said I could go to dental school if I wanted to be the bread winner afterwards. I just wanted to learn it, that's all! I got sick with some kind of stomach flu and threw-up and the whole bit that follows afterward, diarrhea etc.
Dec 27- Gracie started throwing up (first sickness) and diarrhea too. Started to leave back to Fl to unload the uhaul for the movers and rolled down the window to say goodbye and window got stuck. Karl and Luke jerry-rigged it to get it up! Wheew! Got 15 minutes away and had to drive back for Gracie's new Christmas toy which Rebecca apparently really liked :)! Then we got 30 minutes away and realized that the cell-phone was missing so had to turn back. Found it in the chair!
Dec 28- We got back to our home in FL and forgot that we had all the power, heat, and water shut off. Our neighbors Barb/Charlie and Chris/Melissa were so kind to lend us an airbed, some flashlights/lantern, heat our food in the microwave, watch Gracie while we unloaded, and gallons of water to flush our toilet. Thanks! People came from Craig's List to check out the car and bought it! A blessing to sale the car within 3 days!
Dec 29- Everything was loaded in our garage for the movers and they didn't show! Barb and Charlie agreed to be there for the moving company and we left for Las Vegas that night. Little did we know that the moving company would keep moving the pickup date back a day so that Barb was "on-call" everyday all day for over a week. I am so sorry Barb and thanks!
Dec 30- Met Lisa and Ben for a quick dinner and chat in Louisiana! It was fun to see you both!
11 PM- Gracie crying uncontrollably! Hotel clerk identified it as teething... thanks, I ran to Walmart at midnight for children's tylenol and teething stuff while Luke tried in vain to comfort Gracie. That was a hard night! Each day afterwards, she dealt a little with it in the car and diarrhea and feverish. It just so happened that the Walmart lady at the door was a pharmacy student and was able to help explain stuff for teething. Hailey, my sister-in-law helped too.
Dec 31- Driving to Las Vegas still, but then we were told our town-home would not be ready until Jan 4th. So we switched and decided to go up to UT to see Luke's parents for New Years and get the other half of our stuff we had left behind 1 1/2 years ago.
Jan 1- We were glad to see Rick and Lenna and Felicia and Von and the kids. Played games with them and had fun.
Jan 2- Got our stuff ready to go to Las Vegas on Rick's trailer.
Jan 3- Started to get on our way to Vegas and Luke rolled down the other window to tell Rick something and it got stuck. Tried lots of things and ended up waiting all day at the repair shop to get the window motor replaced just to roll it up! It was siezed up or something. Got it up (thanks Rick for $$) and got to Vegas that night. Meanwhile, Rick and Lenna got the same stomach flu that Gracie and I had, even though we had been better for 2 days. SOoooo Sorry!
Jan 4- Realtor lets us in our new home. The place was filthy and not ready for us to move in. They were cleaning it that day I guess and got mixed up on the days. We put our stuff in the garage and waited till that night. Thanks for moving us Lenna/Rick. Then we realize their is no gas, soooo-- no HEAT again! But this time Vegas is colder than FL> found a space heater in our stuff! So we shut ourselves up in one room and slept!
Jan 5- Luke's first day at his new job. Had to wash his hair in freezing cold water! Carpet cleaners came so we have a cold wet house that can't dry because of no heat. Clean carpets though! The moving company finally meets my friend Carrie at our house for pickup. A big mess goes on. They want to charge us highway robbery so Carrie doesn't sign the paperwork. Thanks Carrie.
Jan 6- Gracie and I went walking to find warm places to spend the day. Library, Smith's and Coffee shop within walking distance.
Jan 7- We have HEAT! Still don't know the status of our stuff. Moving company won't call me back! Moving company holds our stuff in storage unit in Florida for over a week and I can't get ahold of anyone to talk about it!
Jan 11- We think we will love our new ward! Tons of people at church said hi! It's a young ward. We will miss our branch though! Luke's uncle was sitting on the stand (who knew he was in the stake presidency and it was ward conference) and he helped us pick-some furniture deals we found craig's list. What a blessing. So now our house is not empty and we have something to sit on besides camp chairs. Thanks Uncle Jeff.
Jan 12-16- Luke finally gets some muscle put onto this moving company and they are talking (more like yelling) at him. We are not going to pay $1700 for our stuff when we were quoted $1050 and we know approximate Cubic feet and weight since we loaded it in a uhaul ourselves. They don't know who they are messing with. Luke is keeping his cool though and it is working... we think. We hope we will not have to get a lawyer involved but they have breached several things in the contract so far.
Side note: the stomach flu that Gracie and I had might have come from Karl and Megan who had 2 weeks before, maybe not, but we gave it to Rick and Lenna, and Mikaela and Von who were visiting them from Idaho. They visited Granny on the way home in Pocatello and she got it and then Aunt Renee got it who only visited her for a couple of hours. Talk about a potent flu. I am so sorry. I didn't know and hope it didn't go any farther.

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