It's Kinda Like a Birth Story

Remember how I said a week or two ago that moving was worse than labor/childbirth?  Yeah, it's definitely true. Like childbirth, I was nervous. Like childbirth, I had a plan. Like childbirth, pretty much everything in my plan went to poop. Like childbirth, it has taken me days to recover and I'm just now starting to feel "normal" again. 

Here was my plan for our moving week:

Saturday: Load the truck with the help of the Elders from our ward (leaving only enough stuff for us to stay overnight). Spend the rest of the day cleaning the apartment and tying up any loose ends.

Sunday: Get a good night's rest and hit church in the morning to say our goodbyes. Take a nap. Hit the road at 6pm that evening with the hopes that Shye would sleep most of the way since her bedtime is 9pm.

Monday: Arrive in Utah in wee hours of the morning. Brian and I plan to take turns watching Shye throughout the day while the other catches up on their z's.

Tuesday: Unload truck. Find a storage unit to store our extra stuff. 

Wednesday & Thursday: Unpack and get settled in.

Friday: Get ready for Shye's birthday party

Saturday: Shye's birthday

Here was how it actually went:

Saturday: Only 2 guys show up to help us move. I commence freaking out.

As you can see, Shye was absolutely no help at all during the move.

Sunday: We go to church, say our goodbyes, come home and take a nap. It ends up taking us until 8pm to load up the last of our stuff and do a final wipe-down of the apartment. Gah. Then Brian attaches the car dolly (to tow his car) to the truck only to realize that the brake lights on the dolly don't work and one of the safety pins for securing the tire straps is missing. Since it is 9pm there was nothing we could do except go back up to our empty apartment and wait till Monday morning to take the dolly back to Budget. Since we had just packed all of our linens, pillows, and clothes, we end up spending the night on the floor with one blanket and one towel between the 3 of us. It was a very sad night. 

Waiting for daddy to wake up from his Sunday nap.

The last of our crap. I hate this stuff.

Monday: We wake up at 6:30 and are at Budget by 7am. It takes them FOUR hours to fix the dumb thing. At 11am we are finally on the road. Brian suggests that we stop by and see his grandfather in Yucaipa on our way out. (He is 93 and at this point, every time we visit him it feels like it might be the last time) We leave his grandfather's house at 2:30 and finally start making our way to Utah. Shye sleeps for the first 3 hours, plays and sings to herself for next 2 hours and then cries the rest of the way. It was another very sad night. 

Waiting at Budget for our dolly to get fixed. Shye was getting impatient and tried to drive away on her own.

Grandpa Faye

Shye still doesn't like kisses.

Tuesday: Shye and I roll into Brian's sister's driveway at 3:30 am. Despite my explicit instructions to sleep in until at least 9, Shye wakes up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 7am. We spend most of Tuesday walking around like zombies. 

Wednesday: We start unloading our truck. It's a very slow process mostly because it's just the two of us and my injured back makes it pretty much impossible for me to lift anything over 20 lbs. 

Thursday: We unload all our extra stuff into a storage unit. Shye gets the stomach flu. This is the first time she has ever been sick. (Back in January when she had a fever, she had four teeth break through a few days later.) I spend most of the day cleaning up vomit. 

Friday: Shye starts to recover and Brian comes down with the stomach flu. I have a tire blowout on my way to the store to pick up food for Shye's party. I spend the rest of the day prepping for the party and listening to my husband moaning/vomiting.

Saturday: Shye's party actually turns out to be pretty good. I was slightly disappointed that she didn't dive into her cupcake like normal most children do. But she has a fun time with the bubbles and opening presents. Brian's mom comes down with the stomach flu.  

"What is this stuff?"

So there you have it. 

Dolly malfunctions, repairs, crying babies, sleep deprivation, stomach flus, and tire blowouts.

I think it's time for me to start repressing some memories. 

Even though I am missing my CA friends, I'm happy we are here. It was definitely the right choice. We excited to be near family again and I must say that the scenery is waaaay better.  

The view from my back porch in CA.

The view from the back porch in UT.