It has been a while since I updated and boy oh boy, has a lot happened. Buckle up!
For starters, two weeks ago I left for Enoch. I spent the whole week in Enoch helping where I could. Tim stayed in Provo to take care of purchasing a washer and dryer, microwave, and getting things ready for the move. I left for Provo in the evening on Friday after an interview over Google chat. I was offered the position and said yes. The plan was...you will see a lot of this phrase...to flow right into the job after paying for the license, but that didn't happen. I'll get into that a little later.
We left Provo a week ago at 6:30 Saturday morning. The plan was...to make it to Houston in 2 days. We would do a 15 hour day on Saturday arriving in Lubbock around 11 pm and then resting on Sunday and waking up early on Monday and finishing the day. Well it had been a late night for me cleaning and doing the final pack after spending a week in Enoch with the parents and I feel asleep. When I woke up we had crossed the border to Colorado, which was not supposed to happen. We had missed the exit and the lovely GPS had redirected us without us knowing it. We pulled over for gas and I got out the map...a real map and found where we were and what we needed to do to get back on course.
The plan was to just head straight south and be back on course an hour behind. A couple of hours into heading south again we started to see a more mountainous terrain, which was NEVER in the plan. We got closer and closer and we realized that we were going to go through some mountains. I was worried and Tim was starting to get worried. By the time I saw a sign that said something to the effect of large trucks should choose a different route and I saw some cars ahead of us up the mountain, I started having a panic attack. And it only got worse. The pass we took was worse than following I-70 through the Rockies, because of the switch backs and drop-offs on one or both sides. It was not ideal for a U-hauls with car being towed behind. While I did my best not to look out the window, Tim did a masterful job of not driving off the side of the mountain. About a mile from the summit we came to a complete stop on one of the switchbacks, where we stated for the next two hours. There was a wreck ahead of us on one of the turns that stopped traffic both ways. Tim kept his smashed on the break along with the parking break all the way down. His poor leg was shaking so bad, but it was a good thing he did because we might have lost our breaks...which would have been really bad.
We got around the cornering and saw that a truck with a camper on the back and hit a car. The car was completely smashed. The only thing keeping the truck from rolling down the mountain were the trees holding it. We both agreed after summiting two different times to elevations higher than 11,000 feet that we were done with Colorado and ready to never return.
We kept going, but by the time we reach Santa Rosa at 10:30 with five more hours to go to Lubbock we decided to stop for the night. We spent the night in a hotel with lots of bugs. But, I didn't care, not even waking up with a bug on me, because I was not in a truck moving.
Sunday we woke up and drove to Lubbock and rested the rest of the day. Monday morning we left at 7 am. The plan was to get to Houston around 3:30 or 4 to beat the rush and to sign a lease before the office closed. At 3:30 we hit a snag at a gas station that required some crazy, mad backing up skills by Tim. We were pushing it to get to our destination by 5. Then we hit Houston...at rush hour...which was also NEVER in the plan. We ended up missing our lane and going around the long way on the 10 instead of the 610. Our complex was nice enough to stay open for us to sign our contract and there was some really nice people in our ward that came to help us. It wasn't bad with their help and we were moved in completely within 30 minutes.
That evening as we drove to drop off the U-haul I decided that Houston roads needed to be completely destroyed and rebuilt on the grid system like Utah. There really is no reason to names, directions, and if you don't know where you are going then good luck because the major roads will exit from the right AND the left which was our mistake when we first got into town.
Tuesday was the day we unpacked and got things set up with the apartment. That evening we tried to go shopping, but we struck out twice with finding a place. By 9:30 pm I was done and we were both ready for bed.
Wednesday I received notice from the district that is hiring me that there was a long and very tedious process to make sure that I am a teacher and that I am qualified to teach in Texas, because apparently I might not be, even though I taught for six years in another state. I began that process and made an appointment to have my fingerprints checked out by the FBI. We also made a trip to downtown, downtown Houston. We were able to get the car title changed, tags, and Tim has a Texas license. We also finished taking all the boxes to the dumpster and this was the final product.
For starters, two weeks ago I left for Enoch. I spent the whole week in Enoch helping where I could. Tim stayed in Provo to take care of purchasing a washer and dryer, microwave, and getting things ready for the move. I left for Provo in the evening on Friday after an interview over Google chat. I was offered the position and said yes. The plan was...you will see a lot of this phrase...to flow right into the job after paying for the license, but that didn't happen. I'll get into that a little later.
We left Provo a week ago at 6:30 Saturday morning. The plan was...to make it to Houston in 2 days. We would do a 15 hour day on Saturday arriving in Lubbock around 11 pm and then resting on Sunday and waking up early on Monday and finishing the day. Well it had been a late night for me cleaning and doing the final pack after spending a week in Enoch with the parents and I feel asleep. When I woke up we had crossed the border to Colorado, which was not supposed to happen. We had missed the exit and the lovely GPS had redirected us without us knowing it. We pulled over for gas and I got out the map...a real map and found where we were and what we needed to do to get back on course.
The plan was to just head straight south and be back on course an hour behind. A couple of hours into heading south again we started to see a more mountainous terrain, which was NEVER in the plan. We got closer and closer and we realized that we were going to go through some mountains. I was worried and Tim was starting to get worried. By the time I saw a sign that said something to the effect of large trucks should choose a different route and I saw some cars ahead of us up the mountain, I started having a panic attack. And it only got worse. The pass we took was worse than following I-70 through the Rockies, because of the switch backs and drop-offs on one or both sides. It was not ideal for a U-hauls with car being towed behind. While I did my best not to look out the window, Tim did a masterful job of not driving off the side of the mountain. About a mile from the summit we came to a complete stop on one of the switchbacks, where we stated for the next two hours. There was a wreck ahead of us on one of the turns that stopped traffic both ways. Tim kept his smashed on the break along with the parking break all the way down. His poor leg was shaking so bad, but it was a good thing he did because we might have lost our breaks...which would have been really bad.
We got around the cornering and saw that a truck with a camper on the back and hit a car. The car was completely smashed. The only thing keeping the truck from rolling down the mountain were the trees holding it. We both agreed after summiting two different times to elevations higher than 11,000 feet that we were done with Colorado and ready to never return.
We kept going, but by the time we reach Santa Rosa at 10:30 with five more hours to go to Lubbock we decided to stop for the night. We spent the night in a hotel with lots of bugs. But, I didn't care, not even waking up with a bug on me, because I was not in a truck moving.
Sunday we woke up and drove to Lubbock and rested the rest of the day. Monday morning we left at 7 am. The plan was to get to Houston around 3:30 or 4 to beat the rush and to sign a lease before the office closed. At 3:30 we hit a snag at a gas station that required some crazy, mad backing up skills by Tim. We were pushing it to get to our destination by 5. Then we hit Houston...at rush hour...which was also NEVER in the plan. We ended up missing our lane and going around the long way on the 10 instead of the 610. Our complex was nice enough to stay open for us to sign our contract and there was some really nice people in our ward that came to help us. It wasn't bad with their help and we were moved in completely within 30 minutes.
That evening as we drove to drop off the U-haul I decided that Houston roads needed to be completely destroyed and rebuilt on the grid system like Utah. There really is no reason to names, directions, and if you don't know where you are going then good luck because the major roads will exit from the right AND the left which was our mistake when we first got into town.
Tuesday was the day we unpacked and got things set up with the apartment. That evening we tried to go shopping, but we struck out twice with finding a place. By 9:30 pm I was done and we were both ready for bed.
Wednesday I received notice from the district that is hiring me that there was a long and very tedious process to make sure that I am a teacher and that I am qualified to teach in Texas, because apparently I might not be, even though I taught for six years in another state. I began that process and made an appointment to have my fingerprints checked out by the FBI. We also made a trip to downtown, downtown Houston. We were able to get the car title changed, tags, and Tim has a Texas license. We also finished taking all the boxes to the dumpster and this was the final product.
Front room
Kitchen and Dining room
Our bedroom and bathroom
Office/Spare bedroom (the right side is my teaching stuff)
Thursday was more errands and getting organized with Tim starting school. Friday we went to get my prints taken. The plan was to leave early in case we got lost and it was a good thing. We arrived at the location. Tim left me so he could go to the bank, because we don't have one close to us. I discovered the location they gave me was the wrong one and that they never have done fingerprinting. I called Tim and he came back and got me and we rushed to the correct location, which happened to literally be a mile away from our apartment. We also went hunting for furniture, because like grocery stores, furniture stores are hard to find as well. We struck out again and decided to come home. That evening we went to help a family move into their apartment.
Saturday, we went to a baptism of one of Tim's nieces. We had not seen most of his family since we got married so it was great to catch up with them and to be reminded of our baptismal covenants. After cleaning up at the baptism we went and chatted for a couple of hours and then had dinner. We left for Houston, so we could go to our new ward. We missed a week ago and we were very happy to be able to go and feel the spirit and partake of the sacrament.
Next week I will post pictures of the white coat ceremony. Hopefully, we won't have any more plans that fall short!
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