Greetings – from San Ramon

Well we’ve arrived, safe and sound. The last 4 days have been a whirl-wind…but things are settling down now that we’re here. I have a LOT of unpacking to do this week and hope to be completely done by Wednesday or so. We’re stuck without internet/cable/phone until Tuesday, so I’m blogging in a word document so I don’t forget anything.

Here’s a breakdown of our move:

Thursday: 

My first day of no work. I spend the day packing, going to the dr. and picking my friend Joey up from the airport. Joey is one of my best friends from high school and lives in Monterey, about 1.5 hours away from San Ramon. I flew him down to help us pack, drive up with me (I didn’t want to drive the whole 7 hours alone!), and unpack. It worked out nicely. By Thursday night I still had a lot of stuff to do, but I had to get to Tiersha’s bridal shower, so I got to take a little break. After the shower, Ryan and I stayed up late packing up last minute things.

Friday: 

We woke up early to pack up the U-HAUL. Ryan went off to pick up a friend and get the truck, while I went off to get pastries for the helpers. Several guys from church arrived after 8:00 to help us load the truck. Ryan hadn’t returned with the truck yet and by the time he got home, nearly everything was outside ready to be loaded in. It was really great to have so much help!

The U-HAUL was too small!! It was like a game of Tetris trying to fit all of our stuff in it. Both of our cars were stuffed too. We ended up sacrificing some furniture to Goodwill to free up a little space. The truck was loaded and the house was nearly empty by 11:30 which was good because we had to get to the Newport Beach Temple for Tiersha’s wedding.

We went to the wedding and the luncheon that followed before coming home to pack up some last minute things and clean the place up. Once finished, it was time to get to the wedding reception, which was great…there was a crepe bar (AMAZING).  Even though it caused us some stress, having Tiersha’s wedding reception on the night we were leaving Orange County worked out perfectly. We were able to say goodbye to all of the Neilson family at once. I thanked Tiersha for throwing us such a grand farewell partyJ. After our goodbyes (and maybe some tears on my part), we left. We were headed up to Ryan’s parent’s home in LA and planned on leaving from there in the morning. On our way up, we stopped in Whittier to say goodbye to my grandparents. When we finally got to LA, we crashed. It had been a LONG, LONG day.

Saturday: 

Ryan had talked about leaving around 5:30 in the morning but we were SO tired we ended up sleeping until about 7. We woke up, ate breakfast, and took off at around 8:30. Ryan and Walle drove the U-HAUL. Joey and I drove Ryan’s car. Luke and Courtney drove my car. We all drove at our own pace and Joey and I were the first ones to arrive (just after 2pm). Once Ryan got here, we had to get some things signed before getting the keys, so that took a while, but we finally got into the apartment around 4:30 or so. My mom, brother, and sister came to help unload, so we had a total of 9 people unloading and it seemed to go pretty quickly.

We ended the night with some pizza and tv. It was a nice way to relax after a long drive and some heavy lifting.

Sunday: 

Ryan had to get Luke and Court to the airport by 6:30am, so he woke up early and even though I didn’t get to bed until about 1am, I woke up and started unpacking. That’s about all we did all day…well, unpack and nap. There’s still so much to be done, but we’re so tired!!

Monday: 

Ryan skipped his first day at the new office, he's been feeling sick since we arrived. He came down to the complex business center to catch up on work though (since we don't get internet until tomorrow). I continued to unpack and made my first Target run. It's amazing how many new things you need every time you move.

I don’t start my job until next week...if I even decide to work there after all (more on that later), so I get to unpack and get us settled in all week. I was looking forward to spending some time at the pool since the weather is AMAZING, but we just got a notice that it closes today for a MONTH for renovations. FIGURES. 

I love our place though…it’s roomy and new and in a GREAT location. I’ll explain more in a separate blog post…maybe tomorrow.