Bethanyology

We made it to California!  Yay!

We actually got here a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t had constant access to a computer like I’m used to until today.  The truck arrived yesterday, and was unloaded by Colin and some generous men from our new Elder’s Quorum and my sister-in-law’s very helpful boyfriend.  Thanks sooooo much to everyone who helped!  It would have taken days for us to unpack the truck ourselves, since considering my lack of energy at the moment it would have been a one-man job laying squarely on Colin’s shoulders.  On the truck was the power cord to our computer.  We’d brought the computer in the car with us, and I thought we’d taken the power cord too and was beginning to be very concerned that the cord had fallen down the storm drain at Phoebe’s house when we stopped there in Plano.  To our great relief, we’d just accidentally put it on the truck.  Whew!  So, now I can blog again unhindered (except by morning sickness and my two toddlers).

I must mention how wonderful everyone in North Little Rock was before we left there.  Several women in our ward helped me finish cleaning and packing, and we had a big crew of men who saved us at least $400 (maybe more) with their superior tetris skills as they packed the truck.  Thank you so so so much!

Did we like our moving company?  Yes!  It’s the second time we’ve used ABF U-Pack and everything went pretty much according to plan.  I really, really like ABF and recommend them to anyone who is planning an interstate move (or otherwise, I just haven’t used them for an intrastate move, and I’m pretty sure they don’t go international).  The drivers and dispatchers and customer service people were helpful and friendly.  We could track where the truck was at all times by phone or computer.  Our stuff arrived untouched from the time we put up the bulkhead barrier, though our packing method did leave one item damaged beyond repair (I knew I should have freecycled that rocking chair!).  At least it was one of those things I don’t feel bad about losing, and it had nothing to do with the trucking company.  I really like that you pay by the linear foot with ABF, which meant that although we reserved 21 feet of the truck, when we used only 19 feet we only paid for what we used.

Our road trip was really relaxed and pleasant.  The kids were good the entire way, believe it or not.  We went at a slower pace than normal for us, and took a longer route so that we could visit some of the areas Colin lived and served in on his mission in Texas.  We both loved Bastrop, TX, especially.  It was fun for me to see the places I’d heard about so often, but it was even more fun for me to watch Colin remember things and wax nostalgic as we drove through the towns he’d worked in.  He told me about his old companions and families he’d taught and we stopped at a couple of the ward buildings in his areas and took some pictures.  We went to church in one of the ward buildings, though we didn’t get there in time to go to any of the wards he’d served in.  We saw the San Antonio Texas temple.  It was a great, though long, Sunday trip.

We spent another day and a half driving to Phoenix, because yes, Texas really is that big.  We stopped and spent a day at my parents house in Phoenix and got to see one of my aunts and some of my cousins.  We also saw one of my great uncles while we were there.  A busy day, but very fun!  It’s always refreshing for me to spend time with my family at “home.”  Ironically, they were in the process of packing and moving to Kingman, AZ, while we were there.  Practically everyone in my family moved this Spring!

We pushed the rest of the way to California the next day, pretty uneventfully until we were 20 minutes from the house.  Colin, desciribing the geography as we went, mentioned as we passed through Oakland and into Richmond that much of the violence and ghetto reputation of Oakland is really mostly a Richmond problem now.  Neither of us realized that we had to pay a $4 toll on the Richmond bridge to get home, and when we got there and figured out we had only $1.25 in cash on us, we decided to turn around and try to find an ATM (at 10:30pm) to get some cash instead of getting a ticket.  By this time the kids were sick of being in the car, I had to go to the bathroom, and we were almost out of gas.  But how hard could it be to find an ATM in a big city, right?  Well, we got a little lost and couldn’t find a residential area or a bank or a gas station for about 45 minutes, and when we did it was in the most frightening part of any town I’ve ever been to.  There were people searching the dumpsters, people walking around aimlessly in strang flowing robes, and a lot of frightened, hungry looking people who looked at me like I shouldn’t be there.  Colin went inside the gas station to see if there was an ATM there and to ask for directions while I waited with the mostly-sleeping kids in the car.  He came back cashless and saying they wouldn’t take his card for gas.  The man at the cash register had given him cryptic directions to “go down that street and don’t stop for ANY reason” to get to the freeway.  We were nervous about that, so Colin chose a different, parallel street to go down thinking he could just jog over to the correct one at the last minute, but we ended up going in circles past the same gas station twice (once there was a big fire in the middle of the road and we had to take another detour around the police and fire trucks) as I prayed silently to get home safely.  Finally, we took the gas station man’s directions and got to the freeway, getting a ticket when we crossed the bridge.  But at least we could stop for gas and a bathroom at a safe gas station on the other side!  Fifteen minutes later we got home and put the kids in bed, safe and sound, prayers answered.

We got to be here to celebrate Deborah and Mark’s marriage, and to meet Mark, which was really cool.  Mark seems like a great guy and we wish them the best with their new life together in New Zealand.  They flew away with Ben (Deb’s son) last week and we’ll see them again at Christmas time.

I’m still feeling really sick most of the time, but we’re in a comfortable house in perfect-weather Novato with wonderful family around to help with the kids and everything else.  Our financial situation is steadily improving, with bills getting caught up nearly every day now.  I can hardly allow myself to believe it enough to be relieved and grateful, but it’s starting to sink in.  Colin seems to be doing really well at work and is happily doing projects of all kinds both at work and at home.

The kids are settling in and LOVING having access to grandparents all the time.  Degen and Dick spent part of this morning watering the garden outside, which soon transformed into a delightful spray-Degen-with-the-hose-as-he-runs-by game.  Both Degen and Maggie love going outside on the deck pretty much every day to listen to the cows in the pasture at the bottom of the hill mooing.  Maggie calls Sonja “Pama,” which Sonja likes better than “grandma.”

That was a long post, but I had a lot of ground to cover.  We’re here!

Tags: California, Kids, mission, moving