Wow! It's been a long time since I posted anything. We have had many fun adventures in the last month. Monday was an extremely big day for Chelsea because she went to lunch with David Archuleta, from American Idol!!!! I heard about a contest on the radio after dropping Ben and Chels off at seminary Thursday morning. I called Chelsea after seminary and told her that a radio station was giving away passes to meet David and have lunch with him. Chelsea called in and finally got through as the eighth caller and that day's winner! I was listening on the radio and heard her win, with her friends all squealing in the background (and her squealing, too!) So Monday was the big day. I took her and her friend, Collette, and I even got to go in and take pictures. There were about 20 other winners. David was very down-to-earth and cute and friendly, like the boy-next-door type. I will have to post a picture soon. Very fun.

The RAV

I mentioned that our rental car, upon arriving in San Diego, was a Toyota RAV4. I pulled out of the rental car lot and a couple of blocks later took the entrance ramp to I-5. I immediately fell “in like” with the car. (I’ll reserve “in love” for stronger sentiments.) Anyway, I liked it a lot because it had a lot of “get-up-and-go” to it. I found this very helpful when negotiating the rapidly shifting traffic patterns of California freeways.

Californians like to drive fast. This was apparent immediately. In spite of the large volume of cars on the interstate, it really didn’t take very long to go quite a distance, because all six lanes were moving at break-neck speeds. An acquaintance told Anthony one time that in San Diego you could go just about as fast as you wanted in any of the lanes except the left lane. If you go much over the speed limit in that lane, you are volunteering for a ticket.

Other California roads besides interstates and highways also move traffic right along. Many major roads in town are marked at a speed limit of 50 mph. Even narrow, winding, canyon roads are marked at 40 mph -- this, even though there are driveways and intersections all along the way. (Contrast this to Park or W. Stephenson Streets in Freeport at 25 mph!)

Our first Sunday here, we were trying to follow a church member to another member’s house. The route climbed up a winding hillside road and then snaked down the other side. I was going uncomfortably over the speed limit in an effort to keep up with my guide in the car in front of us. Even Jacob, who loves everything fast, especially fast cars, was nervous. He said it reminded him of a slot canyon racing video game.

The peppy RAV definitely helped us fit in with the traffic patterns in our new area. It also fit in with the trend of white, small SUV’s that I suddenly began to notice. Isn’t it funny how you can become aware of something, like a certain style of car, and then you start to notice it every where. (Unless of course it is a ’93 Chrysler van, and then you notice that it isn’t every where. You would stand out less if you were driving a Mercedes station wagon.)

Well, the week that we had the RAV, while waiting for our Honda to be transported from Illinois, I saw white SUV’s in abundance. In fact, it seemed that I was always coming out of a store and walking to the wrong car. Sometimes I would figure it out by the time I was within a few feet of the car, but a couple of times I found myself standing by the driver’s side wondering why the key fob wasn’t unlocking the door. When the realization struck me that I was at the wrong car, I would look around sheepishly, hoping the real owner wasn’t on their way to the car, and then I would quickly try to locate the car that really matched my key. The next time I came out into a parking lot, I would make a mental note to be sure I was walking to the right car, but ridiculously, I’d often make the error again.

When the time came to return the RAV to the car rental place and resume driving our much-less peppy regular car, I did so with a sigh. I would miss the RAV; and yet, at least I’d recognize my car in a crowded parking lot!

All Together Again!

Anthony arrived late last night after his long cross-country journey. We are all so glad to have him with us again. He worked so hard to finish preparing our home to put on the market. He was up all night Thursday cleaning carpets and completing other details for his meeting with the realtor Friday morning. He spent a good portion of the day loading the van, etc. then set of on the trail. He made it about as far as Des Moines and called it a night. The next day he drove to Utah, pulling in to Mom and Dad's house at about 3 am. After a delicious, hot breakfast served by Mom he began the last leg of the journey. He had a bit of a scare when he realized near Barstow, CA, that the brakes on the van were overheating. After giving them some time to cool off, he hit the road again and pulled in late. We are very grateful that we are all together again!

The first and longest day

My last night's sleep in our Freeport home was really only a nap. Two hours after finishing all the packing details it was time to get up and go. The day before had been filled with visits from friends coming to say good-bye, and it was difficult to focus on packing when I really wanted to be spending the last few moments with one dear person or another. The packing probably saved me from being an emotional wreck because it gave me something I had to think about and do, rather than dwell continually on the imminent separation from home and friends.

Tuesday morning, departure day, began at 5:30 am. It did NOT begin any earlier, in spite of the fact that Chelsea's friends, Emily and Haley, thought it was going to. They showed up at our house at 5:00 am to say one last good-bye. Seeing the house still dark, they decided to wait, and curled up like puppies against each other on the front porch, trying to get a little more sleep. (I would like to have seen that!) They did wake up before we discovered them there.

Soon all was ready to go...that is, of course, a delightful oversimplification. It does not give light to more tearful farewells, with Haley and Emily-- and Chelsea's best friend from childhood, Brooke--and her mom, Cindy. It also overlooks the many dashes back into the house from the car by one person then another to grab or do something they had forgotten. It also spares you the final sobbing tour of the home so dearly loved and already painfully missed, as well as the stressful, “We’ve GOT TO GO or we will miss your flight!” interjected at various intervals and in various forms by Anthony, until we really were fearing that even his lead foot would not be able to get us to the airport in time.

The road from Freeport to Chicago passes through some of the prettiest, peaceful farm scenes in the Midwest, and I wistfully drank it in, trying to imprint it permanently on my memory. The two-hour ride was quiet, each of us withdrawing inside ourselves to deal with the range of emotions we were experiencing. The feelings of sadness and loss which claimed center stage at first gradually receded and became a pervasive background, while other feelings took precedence. As traffic thickened and slowed, anxiety for catching our flight was prevalent. As it cleared and we arrived in time, it turned to the excitement of the journey. Ben, Chelsea and Jacob had not flown for several years, and were excited to do so again. Jacob, especially, was looking forward to it. He had been quite little the last time we flew.

I felt excited, anxious and burdened. I was burdened by all the details I would have to take care of that day without Anthony’s help—retrieving the luggage (LOTS of it, and heavy, too) taking the shuttle to the rental car place, renting the car, driving in a busy city with which I was unfamiliar, finding the utilities office and getting them transferred to our name, checking into the apartment and moving all the heavy luggage in, buying basic supplies to make our apartment livable, and buying groceries so we would have something to eat the next morning. I was anxious about doing some of these things for the very first time by myself. But I was excited about the new life awaiting us. San Diego was our destination, and a beautiful place to be starting our new adventure.

Our flight was smooth and pleasant, but for one pocket of turbulence that simulated an amusement park ride, to Jacob’s delight, and we landed in San Diego by 11:30 am, Pacific Time. We bought lunch at one of the many airport restaurants, and ate it sitting on benches beneath palm trees and blue sky. Our luggage was piled onto two carts, which made moving it much easier, and we found our shuttle to the rental car place without trouble. We were given a Toyota RAV4, a peppy little SUV that was fun to drive. I navigated traffic without much trouble and made it to our new town without getting lost. (This was definitely a blessing! I have taken wrong turns and gotten lost a zillion times since then. But my first driving errand on our big first day went fine.)

The lady at the utilities office was very friendly and helpful. She even knew where we could find a Taco Bell, which Chelsea wanted desperately, having passed on the restaurants at the airport because she just REALLY ONLY WANTED Taco Bell. (I felt kind of funny asking for directions to Taco Bell. I wondered, with so many Hispanics in So Cal, do they really have Taco Bell, or do people all eat at authentic Mexican restaurants? Well, of course they have Taco Bell.)

The children were very helpful moving stuff into our second floor apartment. We were all beginning to get tired from the events of the past couple of days. But we headed off to Wal-Mart, the land of “every little thing you absolutely need at the price that you are willing to pay.” By the time we were done we had FOUR shopping carts of “essentials!” This included all the basic things we couldn’t very well pack on the plane. (And we did pack a lot. Did I mention? Chelsea’s suitcase alone weighed 59 lbs. To her sheepish embarrassment, we had to open it at the baggage check counter in Chicago and farm out nine pounds of her clothes to our other bags, or else pay a large fee. Ben and Jake were good sports stuffing her t-shirts, sweats and shoes in their carry-on bags. I took a few items as well.)

Anyway, we had four carts of pillows, lamps, air mattress, dishes, card table and chairs, dish cloths and other such items. We cut our shopping short because Chels decided that she had had enough and just really needed to get out of there. I couldn’t blame her. The overload of emotions, sights and sounds on very little sleep was catching up to all of us. We made a friend at the checkout counter, however--a friendly young man who had moved from Michigan a couple of years earlier so he could take up surfing. His dad had surfed professionally all over the world, and I guess they decided it was time for him to follow in his footsteps. He said he learned how to swim the first year and made it on the surf team the next year! “What kind of a surf team?” we asked. “The high school surf team,” was his answer. “High schools have surf teams?!” we exclaimed to each other on the way to the car. Why not? Welcome to Southern California.

After lugging all of our stuff up to our apartment, we set out on our last errand for the day. Groceries. It was dark by now, and we drove all over the place trying to find a certain economical grocery store that had been recommended to us. We finally stopped at a different one--I didn’t care how much it cost at this point—and got enough food to get us set for the next couple of days. A couple of days later I discovered that the store we had been looking for had been right around the block from our apartment, while the one I ended up at was all the way across town in the borders of the next city. Live and learn. (And laugh, after you get over being frustrated.) Once again, we hauled all our stuff up to the apartment. After heating some frozen food in our new toaster oven (the apartment didn’t come with a microwave) we pumped up our air mattresses, unpacked a few belongings, had a weary but grateful family prayer, and collapsed into bed.

The longest, hardest day was done. We would wake up the next morning in our new world.

Epic Adventure

After living in a smallish town in the Midwest for nearly sixteen years, our family is taking on a new adventure brought about by Anthony's employment change. On Sept. 2, 2008, the children and I bid a tearful farewell to our home and friends and drove to Chicago's O'Hare Airport to fly away to California. Anthony stayed behind to finish preparing our house to be put on the market. He finished that huge effort today, with the help of many friends, and is driving across the nation to join us.

Here I Go

With all the amazing technology these days, there are so many more ways to stay in touch with those who are important to you. I am launching this blog with that purpose in mind. So join me as I share some of my adventures with you. I hope to hear from you!

~Heidi