Out with the old...

I set about with the goal to begin chronicling out move. So I whipped out the ol' memory card from my camera (where I keep my pictures... Yes, there are pictures on there dating back to October, maybe even before. No joke.) and discovered that I took a total of three pictures during our move. Or more accurately, I took approximately 97 pictures of the same three scenes.

Very typical of me. I don't know why I was surprised.

So, well, here they are I guess. I'll try to fit in the missing pieces of the story.

First and foremost, Travis's mom came to help us pack out. Which is to say, she singlehandedly packed up our whole house for a full week straight while I stood there looking bewildered. This time, friends, I assure you I am not exaggerating. We were beyond grateful for everything she did for us and I am CERTAIN we could not have done any of it without her! More on her visit later.

Out with Travis's old Neon

We concluded that this oldest family member was not likely to survive a cross-country road trip in the dead of winter, let alone the remaining 2.5 years of commuting Travis has ahead. It was time to say goodbye. It was bittersweet because although it's given us a fair amount of trouble (and has cost more in repairs than maybe 3 times its value on paper!), this was Travis's first car after his mission, and it's also the car he picked me up in for our first date!

I still remember when we got on the freeway and the wind was whistling loudly through my window. He told me I had to roll the window down a crack and back up again to make it stop. And I felt so "in" to know the little tricks to this hot guy's car.

And every time I drove someone around and had to tell them to roll their window down and then up again, I thought of my first date with Travis.

Anyway, he made the decision, posted it for sale, and it was GONE within 24 hours.

Not that 12-year-old scarcely-running Dodge Neons are a hot commodity in Maryland. It's just that he happened across a guy who specializes in older Dodge Neons (those people exist???) and wanted to rebuild it for his girlfriend.

Awesome. Knock yourself out.

Meanwhile, the kids helped pack...

And then one evening we had at least 15 people come over and within an hour or so they had moved all of our belongings out to the waiting truck. It was like a sting operation. Only... with more pizza and doughnuts. Our remaining task (apart from making sense of the shocking amount of "miscellany" remaining in the apartment) was to paint. Travis and I had fun back in the glory days holding a design competition between the two rooms - his office (which later became Troy's room) and the girls' bedroom. Several years demolished our efforts somewhat, and the tiny rooms became strictly utilitarian (if that), but the custom paint, of course, remained. Maintenance said it had to go. We thought we'd save ourselves $200 by doing it ourselves. I was so exhausted by this point, however, that I found myself cursing the artistic inspiration that ever gave us the hair-brained idea to paint the place in the first place. I was seriously DONE. I mean, it became painful to lift that paintbrush. Mainly I mean the kitchen, which I had painted RED.

Luckily we had the help of a good friend, Riley, who went above and beyond the call of friendship (and due to his industry of expertise, probably had a better idea of how far in over our heads we were than we did), and he came to help paint. Or rather, like Michele, do it all himself seemingly effortlessly while we stood by bewildered. Again.

My favorite part was when they started on the girls' room. Riley saw the fair amount of artwork covering the lower half of some of the walls (and I don't mean the framed kind) and thought it would be fitting if the girls took care of that themselves. That's right, make the punishment fit the crime! Not surprisingly, they thought it was much more FUN than punishment. We all stood back and fondly watched the Tom-Sawyer-esque scene.

The child-labor supervisors

 Next up, the crew tackled that BYU-blue.

Travis never misses an opportunity to endoctrinate (*cough* brainwash *cough*) his young children.

 GO COUGARS!

 I do realize that my mouth is abnormally large. Travis marvels about it all the time. It's lovely when your husband asks you to open your mouth as wide as you can and when you do, he yells, "WHOA!!!" Should I be flattered? He had to classify mouth sizes for the intubation segment of one of his courses, and he said I am a Class I. Apparently... that's as big as they get. All the better for stuffing full of food! Please try not to be scared.

Back to the kitchen. I was tackling it on our last day of painting, when I was SO READY to throw in the towel. Do you know how many coats of white it takes to cover red? Me neither. Riley came over AGAIN (I think he logged at least 3 days of painting at our house) and gallantly offered to paint the kitchen for me. In return, I went to pick up the pizza, again. That's the other thing I love about Riley - like me, he can eat pizza for three days straight and not mind a bit! See? My gargantuan mouth comes in handy.

Okay, the next picture on my camera is of my girls making gingerbread houses at Christmas. Here's what happened in between. Travis's parents arranged for all of us to spend several nights at a hotel near our house, so we could relax in warm beds and clean rooms and eat a hot breakfast in between the mania of moving out. It was so generous and very much appreciated. Michele left the day before we did, and we were pretty much up a creek without her! By the time the truck left, I was kind of shocked by the amount of stuff left behind, which we then had to fit into our Honda Pilot and drive to Missouri. Of course we had two weeks' worth of luggage and Christmas gifts for spending Christmas in Colorado, but among other things were cleaning supplies, Travis's cello, two live plants, and my bicycle. Did he make it fit???

Oh yes he did!!!

Travis has some killer tetris-type skills, which we've put to good use in many organizational situations. They are not to be underestimated. I wish I had pictures of us as we headed out, but I don't, and that is that.

We drove for two days to Missouri, where we spent the night with some good friends who moved here from Maryland some time ahead of us. Our kids were really close friends, so it was fun for them to play together again. The drive was mostly uneventful, but I guess it's easy for me to say that when I wasn't doing most of the driving! The real drama came on the third day. We were kind of burned out with driving (really?) - Troy was especially done sitting in his car seat. And then the weather turned sour. We hit a huge storm on our way through the second half of Kansas and into Colorado. Travis was not a happy driver. But, we made it at last, and there are plenty of highlights and funny stories from Christmas that I definitely want to share... Some other time!