The move

This has been the most exhausting and difficult move of them all. Not counting the move into our first apartment before we were technically married, we have moved 9 times in 9 years of marriage. NINE TIMES. (Thanks Ferris.) That is pretty much out of control. I'd like to find a house and stop moving :) The most obvious reason that this move has been the hardest is my health. Even when I was 8 months pregnant with Cole and we moved from Arizona to West Jordan, I was technically in better health than I was for this move. It was rough. But we felt like it was the best thing for our us so we pressed on. I felt like I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown for almost two weeks straight. That was fun.

Of course we decided to move on Memorial Day weekend so the nearest U-Haul truck we were able to pick up even with a week's notice was down in Lehi. Friday evening was full of driving down to Lehi and back, packing up everything we were bringing to my parents' house in Riverton and then collapsing into bed only to wake up and do it all over again the next day. Thank goodness we had help from Dad White, Jeff and Haleigh on Friday night. 

Saturday was long but it could have been much, much longer. We didn't know how many (if any) ward members would show up to help and most of Danny's family was out of town so we were a little worried about how much help we'd have. I should have known better. We were in the COOLEST ward ever! We had six guys show up from the ward pretty much right at 9 AM and were cruising! They were probably half way done by the time our family members showed up. I was feeling so overwhelmed with gratitude that they would help out with such a horrible task on an early Saturday morning. I mean, family kind of gets guilted into helping...but these guys did it out of the goodness of their hearts. Typical of the Prairie 10th Ward. I had to run to the store to get more Gatorade and donuts to make sure everyone was fed. Then Doug, Jeff, Nate, Ethan, Rylan, Willie, Amanda, Scott, Spencer and Brian showed up. Thank goodness for family. I should also mention that Cole was actually a great little helper too. It's nice that he's getting older and can help carry things that aren't too big or awkward. The truck was quickly packed and off it went to the storage unit.

I stayed back at the apartment to tackle the second worst part of moving: cleaning. I had heard that we had help coming from the Relief Society but I wasn't sure who/when. Within 20 minutes, there were five women from my ward with buckets, gloves and smiles on their faces. We were scrubbing base boards, wiping down doors with magic erasers, scrubbing down the bathroom and even cleaning the blinds. This wasn't just light dusting and vacuuming. This was hard, grimy, deep cleaning and I couldn't have done it without them. If I was overwhelmed before, now I was even MORE overwhelmed with gratitude. I've been writing a lot of thank you cards...

All that we had left was to clean the kitchen stove and the fridge but we were dunzo for the day so I sent everyone home and after Danny had returned the U-haul, we went "home" to take naps. Eventually we made our way back over to the basement to mop and finish cleaning the kitchen. It felt so good to say goodbye to that place. It's funny how I had such mixed feelings about leaving because I couldn't wait to get out of that basement but I was so sad to leave my friends and ward members.

I was pretty much paralyzed for the next week. I have no doubt that Heavenly Father gave me extra strength to get through the week of the move with as much energy as I had. I know part of it was the adrenaline of needing to accomplish a task but honestly, it was more than that. I know I had extra help.

There are a lot of things we'll miss about our time on Wood Mesa Drive but we're one step closer to our first home and that is a great feeling.