The Move

After months of planning and preparation the day of our big move arrived. We were fortunate enough to have a moving company pack, load, move, unload, and assemble all of our stuff as part of our relocation package from Union Pacific. This was a total life saver! We moved to my parent's house Tuesday afternoon with the few things we were taking with us and then Wednesday morning the movers came and spent the day packing up our house in hundreds of boxes. We had done a fair amount of prep in the weeks before, going through our stuff dejunking and organizing everything. I think our extra efforts definitely paid off on the unpacking end. The next day the movers took a day to load up the truck with all our boxes and then they were off to Omaha. That night I sat in our empty house for the last time. It is still weird for me to think we will never being going back to that house.

On Friday, the plan was to close on our house in Orem and then close on our house in Omaha (we had actually already signed all the papers the day before and over-nighted them to our realtor so they would be in Omaha for the closing since we wouldn't be there). Unfortunately, our buyers had a few hiccups in their financing and we weren't able to close until the very end of the day which pushed our closing for our Omaha house to Monday. This was a big problem since we were supposed to be moving in that weekend. After 24 hrs of A LOT of stress and a lot of people who were not happy with us, it worked out to sign a pre-occupancy agreement and change the closing to Monday.
Next up, it was Scott's turn to leave. On Saturday morning we packed up our Sequoia with Ellie's crib and all of her equipment along with a few things we didn't want to risk getting lost or damaged on the moving truck. Once the car was packed as tight as possible, Scott took off on his 14 hour drive to Omaha. Since I was flying alone with Ellie and was already having to take some of her equipment and supplies that she couldn't be without for 24 hrs we tried to send everything we possibly could with Scott, including her spare g-tube.  What were the chances that her g-tube would come out during those 24 hours? Well, if there is one thing I have learned it is that luck and odds are never in our favor. That night I went to put Ellie in the bathtub and her g-tube fell out. Every 4-6 months the balloon that holds it in place gets a hole in it causing it to fall out and we replace it with our spare. Well, since our spare was on it's way to Omaha we instead got to take a trip up to Primary Children's ER to say goodbye to all of our friends up there and get a new g-tube put in.

Scott pulled into Omaha in the middle of the night and early the next morning got to go see our new house for the first time. Yes, we bought a house without ever seeing it in person. Crazy? Absolutely! I could go through and list all of the reasons why we chose to do it, but really what it comes down to is after months of house hunting and loosing several other houses we were interested in, this house popped up and we just knew it was the right house for us. We knew if we waited to put in an offer we would loose it, so we took a leap of faith and put in an offer after our realtor walked through it and told us it was great. Even though we never doubted our purchase, it was impossible not to be nervous before the first time he walked through. It turned out to be even better than we expected. We have absolutely loved it and have no doubt it is exactly where our family is supposed to be right now.

Later that day I boarded a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Omaha with Ellie. We were all more than a little nervous about how she would tolerate flying. Ellie fell asleep shortly after take off and miraculously slept in my arms the entire flight.

I did not move a muscle the entire flight (I even refused a drink because I didn't dare move for fear of waking her). I had some sore and tired arms and shoulders by the end of the 2 hour flight. The flight went perfectly until it was time to land and the pilot announced we were racing a fast approaching storm. The plane was descending and the landing gear was out, we were literally seconds away from landing when the plane was hit with shearing winds that knocked the plane pretty hard. The pilot had to quickly pull the plane back up and fly away from the storm. We tried another runway, but the storm reached it before we did. All of the craziness woke Ellie and she was actually a pretty happy girl while we circled the skies for 20 minutes before being diverted to Kansas City to wait out the storm. About an hour later we were on our way back to Omaha where we landed safe and sound. Scott was waiting at the gate to help me with all of Ellie's equipment and had been following everything that had been happening with the gate attendants. I think the whole experience was more stressful for him and my mom then it was for me. It was such a relief to have made it to Omaha with Ellie and all of her equipment...well almost all of it. As we were setting up all of Ellie's machines that night I realized I had forgotten to bring any corrugated tubing which is kind of the essence of her trach mask. So we got to become acquainted with Children's hospital ER sooner than we expected when Scott went to beg for some tubing at 11pm. They were incredibly nice and made sure we had everything we needed until the moving truck arrived with all of our other supplies.
The next few days Scott and I ran around getting things ready before the moving truck to arrived. I was also able to experience my first tornado siren when we were hit with some big storms. I like to think the Midwest was welcoming me.  It was interesting how the change in climate affected Ellie. She had a rough couple days while her body was adjusting to all the different things in the air. Her secretions were different which caused a lot of coughing and discomfort for her and made us a little nervous at times, but after 4 or 5 days she seems to acclimate and has been doing great since.
 Bright and early Wednesday morning the truck pulled in and the movers got to work unloading. Later that afternoon, right as the movers were finishing, my parents flew in with Mason, Brynn, and Miles. We were so excited to see them and they were so excited to see Omaha. With the help of my parents we got right to work unpacking and getting settled. My Dad stayed through Sunday and in the 4 days he was here he and Scott stained the deck, built the play set, and built shelving and racks for storage in the garage along with many other little projects along the way. They worked from the minute they woke up until the minute they went to bed every single day. We are so grateful that my Dad would take time off work to come help us get settled. I don't know how we would have done it without him Thanks Dad!

The boys hard at work!

This was a blank wall before they created all of the shelving.

My mom stayed with us for another week after my Dad left and when Scott started work to help me finish getting unpacked and to help us get into a good routine. We also got out and explored some of the fun things to do in Omaha, but I'll be doing a separate post on those adventures soon. Without my Mom's help we would most likely still be unpacking. Having her here eased our transition and made it such a positive experience for all of us. Saying goodbye to my mom and dad was by far the hardest part of this whole move. My mom is so much more than a mom to me, she is my best friend. The kids and I miss her so much. Thank goodness for Facetime, which we do almost daily. We have been counting down the days until she comes back to visit in August (15 days in case you were wondering).

We were without any TV or Internet for 2 1/2 weeks. It turned out to be the best thing ever! It served as a wonderful detox for all of us after months of me using way too much technology to keep the kids occupied while I was getting things done for the move. It forced the kids (and myself) to stay busy exploring a new place. By the time we finally got the Internet hooked up we had a great summer routine going that didn't involve much technology and I am happy to say we have kept it up.

We had no problem finding things to keep us busy.

Notice the hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place? That is all Mason cared about the entire game. He spent every dollar he had to get them built as soon as possible. He went on to win the game because of it.

We tried not to loose this little one in all the boxes.

Brynn didn't waste any time diving into summer fun.

As always, Miles kept himself busy doing his own projects. (Some more helpful than others)

Mason is sporting quite the Jack-O-Lantern grin after knocking out his front tooth while running around playing

The only 2 things Mason cared about when we were looking at houses were if it had 3 floors and he got his own room. He got both with this house and he is loving it.

More mischief.

The finished product. Completely worth the 2 full days it took to build.

Brynn loved having sleepovers with Grandma in her new room.

We love our big backyard, but it sure can be a beast to mow!

We couldn't have asked for a better neighborhood to live in. All of our neighbors have kids in similar age ranges. We hadn't even been here a week before our kiddos were running around with all their neighborhood friends loving life.

Mason and Jack hadn't known each other more than 5 minutes before it was clear they were going to be best friends.

It took no time at all for our house to become the princess dress-up zone.

Miles was feeling a little left out so he dressed himself up to join the girls.

I have been amazed at how easy of a transition this has been for us. After living in Utah my entire life and loving everything about it, I couldn't believe how quickly I felt at home here. I know we've only been here for a couple months, but I have yet to feel extremely homesick for Utah. I think that is because Omaha has a similar feel to Utah in a lot of ways. Of course there are things about it that are completely different, as well. Here are some of my first impressions of the similarities and differences between Omaha and Utah.

Similarities

* Christian and family centered community.

*Safe and well kept neighborhoods.

*grid-like system of street names and numbers makes for easy navigating.

Neighborhood full of families with children.

*Big church ward full of great leadership.

Differences

*It is extremely humid.

*Summer thunderstorms have a completely different meaning out here. There is no such thing as sprinkling rain. It is always a torrential downpour. Thunder never stops, it just becomes a constant rumble with non-stop flashing of lightning in the sky.

*Garbage collection is not done through the city. Everyone is in charge of hiring a private garbage collection company on their own. This means everyone has different garbage cans that are collected on different days at different times. So basically there are always random garbage cans on the street and countless garbage trucks travel up and down the street each day. It drives me CRAZY! It is so inefficient! When I think about all the wasted gas and resources to drive the same route over and over and over with each truck only emptying a handful of garbage cans along the way it frustrates me. Am I the only person who can see how this drives up the cost for everyone. I guess we were just spoiled in Utah.

*Costco's kirkland milk doesn't come in a two pack box. It comes in single cartons that are rectangular with a hole on top and impossible to pour out of without spilling. Hate them. Also they don't sell Bandon cheese blocks. But they do have a really impressive liquor isle that doesn't exist in Utah. Too bad we don't drink.

*While our neighborhood is full of kids, they are all in daycare all day so the streets don't come alive until 5pm every night.

*Because all the kids are in daycare, the crowds are always really small when we go on outings, unless there happens to be a daycare having a field trip. Then they take over the place.

*Church is in reverse order with Sacrament meeting last. Whoever came up with this schedule must hate parents.

*The resources for Ellie have been easily accessible and I feel like we actually have people on our side trying to help us instead of having to navigate everything on our own like we had to in Utah.

Omaha has been a great fit for our family and we have been extremely happy here.