Saturday, September 04, 2010
The move and other such stuff. I wrote this email to Laura and she said that I should post it on my blog. I decided to do that just because actually writing about my whole move and everything that's been experienced since we moved here is intimidating. But first for those of you who don't know all the problems we had I give a quick recap:
-After finally getting our u-haul trailer, and carefully jam-packing it I smelled soy sauce. I could tell it was leaking and there was no way to get at it. I had nightmares that it was getting all over my couch and mattress. What was I thinking packing soy sauce!!!!? I said a prayer and begged Heavenly Father for a miracle, and in the end it was a miracle. It only got on the corner of my bookcase.
-Once our u haul was packed and the back of the truck was packed we realized we had not planned for enough room for our stuff after all. We still had tones of stuff left in our house and it was 10 or so at night and we were supposed to leave the next morning. Ann saved us on that one though, thank goodness and payed for another uhaul truck which I ended up driving pulling my car behind it. However before that solution, I was majorly panicked and Katie was by my side helping me go through stuff I really needed and things that I could do with out. She kept reassuring me, and Brent stayed until midnight shampooing my carpets.
-So we spent another full day cleaning and packing the truck. With plans to leave the next morning. That put us day behind.
-Did I mention that through all of this Sloan was sick with hand foot and mouth disease? If you don't know what that is, its fever for the first day or two and then you break out into a rash, sore thing on your hands mouth and feet. He was very irritable about that. I maybe got two hours of sleep the night before we left because he was so uncomfortable and wouldn't settle.
-The next morning we couldn't find the keys to the u-haul. We searched high and low. Finally Kyle went back to look in Chris Russell's truck which we had borrowed and they were smushed in the crack of the seat.
-By the time we said our very tearful and sad goodbyes to Ann and Katie and her girls, we set off in hopes to catch the 12:50 ferry. We got the ferry terminal at 12. We didn't make it on. Kyle and I were the first two cars stopped.
-This put us in Vancouver during rush hour. Sloan screamed for an hour and half straight due to his hfmd irriation. I tried to administer advil to him from my seat while driving. We arrived at Andrea's around midnight. Exhausted.
-The next morning we were up and ready to go around 9:30. But no. the strap around our tire holding our car onto the tow thing came off and Kyle couldn't put it on right because it was latched through wrong and jammed in. We had to wait for someone from uhaul to come and fix it. When we left it was 11:30. So much for an early start!
-Calgary found us at about 9:30. We stayed at Karey's. We pretty much went straight to bed and were ready to go at about 8:30am. Nope. Couldn't find the keys to the uhaul AGAIN!!! Turns out I locked them in the truck. We called BCAA which Kyle smartly bought for our trip and a guy came to break in. Nope. You can't break into the uhaul trucks. They put a special bar across so you can't jimmy in. So then we had to call a locksmith which took three hours. By the time we were on the road it was 1pm....
That's our trip out here. The rest was without any major glitches. Many times before I left I found myself thinking "I need Mom. Why can't Mom be here? Mom would be able to help me handle this problem!!" It wasn't until I left that I looked back on everything and realized that Katie was my mudsy. She showed up and spent days at my house helping- Just doing things that needed to be done and taking initiative without even needing to ask. She just knew what needed to be done and did it. She also brought an army of sweet nieces who were a big help too. Running little errands here and there and just being lovable. She stayed into the late night, and she was back first thing the next morning, even before I was there. She helped me feel calm and reassured me countless times. And when we didn't know how we were going to get our stuff out here, she was even willing to send Brent out here with a load of stuff. Brent was a huge help to Kyle with loading stuff and just doing the things that were man jobs that Kyle didn't get to in time. And they sent us with delicious brent-made brownies peaches and a confetti loaf of bread with cheese and green pepper in it for the road. They must of honestly put their whole lives on hold for the week before we left to help us.You can't imagine what a blessing their help was. You can't imagine how hard it was to say goodbye either.
So that's what you need to know about my move here. I'll get to the rest of my life next post. Now for my email to Laura:
Middle earth Canada is good I suppose. It's really green here and there's lots of trees, but it's still flat. It hasn't been all that warm here either, which makes me think that fall must be here. The day we got here it was really really muggy, and it's been muggy off and on since. We have an air conditioning in our room and we've used it a few nights. It's not hot, but once you start doing something that requires energy exertion you sweat (such as unpacking things) Right now we don't actually have the real internet (we're getting it today between 10 and 12- if you must know) we're just mooching off someone who lives close to us. Today is finally sunny. It's been cloudy and raining off and on with random periods of sunshine since we got here. Hope it stays. I want to see Lake Winnipeg before it gets too cold. I'm sorry, I'm sure the weather report of winnipeg isn't what you wanted. How dull am I? It's hard to believe that I'm actually here, though. That this is my home now. That I'm living in a completely new province. That I don't know anyone. The first few days I woke up feeling sad and alone about it (since Kyle started school right away, I've pretty much been on my own all day everyday) but I think part of that is the overwhelming feeling of unpacking all the chaos on my own. I immediately missed Katie and all her help and company and opinions about where to put things, and Ann for taking the kids so I could focus on getting things done. I had all this wonderful help on the other end of the move and it just seemed to make me feel more alone here. But now that my house is looking more like a home and I have driven a few places, so I know if I needed to I could make it to a store and stuff, I feel better. I knew this would be a hard move and I know I'm going to have days where I really miss Nanaimo and everyone. To top off the week and the move and everything, Kyle and I both got sick. Him with a bad bad cough and me with a yucky cold, so there was a day or two where I just didn't want to do anything but lie on the couch. Then, as I was catching up on your blog and I kept reading about how you hunkered down and tackled your unpacking and how good it felt and stuff, it was like this underlying message to me: Get to work.
That being said, there's so many places I want to go and explore with Kyle. Tons of restaurants and fun shopping places. Being in a big city is intimidating to me, but fun too.
So that's life so far here. Adriel is longing for some friends. There was a boy climbing a fence a few yards down from us and Adriel said hi to him on our way into the car. I don't even think he answered, he just stared at us, but Adriel is convinced that he's his new friend. He said "I just made him up as my friend." He keeps asking to go to his house. I have no idea where he lives and even if I did. I'm not the sort to show up on a stranger's doorstep and ask if my kid can play with their kid.
7 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 6:00 PM
Comments:
There y'are stott, comments like everyone else!
nice, newsy post! It sounds exciting to me, getting to explore a whole new city! Adriel's cute. Did Andrea used to go door to door looking for friends when she moved to a new place?
hope you get your place all homey and nice soon.
nice, newsy post! It sounds exciting to me, getting to explore a whole new city! Adriel's cute. Did Andrea used to go door to door looking for friends when she moved to a new place?
hope you get your place all homey and nice soon.
soooo glad you finally have comments! yay! And yay for some news!!
Hooray for Katie. She really knows how to be a sister. that's crazy what you had to go through to get there though. I'm excited to hear about you getting to know Winnipeg.
Hooray for Katie. She really knows how to be a sister. that's crazy what you had to go through to get there though. I'm excited to hear about you getting to know Winnipeg.
# posted by 
: 5:18 PM
: 5:18 PM
oh wow. that is a disastrous moving story. i hope you are feeling better, and that the house is coming along. i need to make a trip to winnipeg... i haven't been back since we moved back to bc when i was like... 8? something like that. and moving so far away from home and family is very scary. i hope you make new friends and feel more at home quickly!
Your description of Katie's help made me cry! She is such a good sister! And it is so hard and lonely moving - especially so far away! They say it takes a year until it really feels like home and I've found that to be true.
I miss Katie too :( I am glad that you are getting settled. I still feel like I have so much stuff to go through and we moved 5 months ago!! I look forward to reading about this fun adventure you have started!
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