Moving to Washington

Enjoying that sun which comes out maybe once a week-ah!

Beautiful Seattle Temple

About to head out of Moscow!

Country roads that we won't see very often anymore

It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I’m a Washingtonian now and that I might live here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. What? I only knew Oregon as a kid and had a green heart for sure and then spent 10 years in Idaho back and forth for school and getting married, Austin finishing up school, and then grad school. We came to love Idaho and I didn’t think I would actually be okay living in Idaho for a good while (except I could do without their harsh winters.) But after some time in Moscow, I knew we were going to leave and I started to feel like we needed to. It was probably because we got comfortable and we would settle for a job that wasn’t right if it meant we could stay there. I just knew that wasn’t the path we were supposed to take. It was hard though, because, even though there isn’t a lot there, we absolutely loved it. The ward, the people, the area, the small town feel, just felt right at our level. 

I think I grew to love it more when I started playing basketball twice a week with some ladies in the area, mostly those from our stake, and the friendships I had with some of them. Two of those girls, Amber and Wendy, I just kept giving them hugs and hugs on our last Sunday at Church. They were some of the best people I met there. I made sure to give a hug to Warren Bone, Amber’s son that was in our CTR 6 class, because if I wasn’t already married and he was 20 years older, I would totally marry the kid. ;) He is the cutest! And he brought a lot of comic relief to our class. 

Let me just say that this whole month of craziness between Austin’s 2nd interview, Christmas, Hawaii, and packing up has been full of tender mercies and miracles. 

Back it up even further, last July, we knew we wanted to stay in Moscow while Austin finished up a few loose ends with school and look for jobs. We wanted to stay in the ward and found it was crunch time to settle on a place and move in. The only place that worked where we could move in right away was just down the street from where we lived. It was a little more expensive but still doable. The problem was is that it was a year lease and we didn’t know when Austin would get a job and when we would move. I was so anxious, especially since many family members told us how worried they were that we would have to keep paying the rent if it didn’t sell and how risky it was. But after doing some thought work, we still decided to go with the apartment, praying that it would all work out. I wrote more about that experience here. 

Once we found out we got the job, we fasted in January about our housing situation both to sell our apartment and to find a good place when we moved. Austin put up the ad on craigslist while we were in Hawaii and by the next day we had 5 interested people. The thing is people have to physically come see the apartment before they sign any lease. That dwindled our numbers considerably. But with the pressure of moving quickly after getting back from our trip, we didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. On Sunday of the week we were leaving a young man came to see the apartment. But because he was an international student with no social security number, we didn’t think it would be likely for him to get the apartment. The next day was a holiday and that morning another man called and asked to come see the apartment right then. They just needed something temporarily before him and his wife bought a house. They were in the military so paying for the apartment was no problem. They went right away to the office (thankfully they were open) and applied for an apartment, got approved, and the next day they signed the lease. It was a miracle! We decided to leave on Thursday that week so to have that all squared away just days before we left was amazing. 

We also felt it was a tender mercy to see dear friends before we left. We had Katie Brown over for dinner and games on Monday, Ahmad and Marwa came to visit and gave us a waffle iron as a parting gift (they are so generous!) Sarah Geddes helped me clean a bit in the afternoon and that was fun to see her. Wendy Johns took me out to lunch the day before we left. I’m going to miss our chats! Then that night Ahmad and Marwa came again and helped us move furniture and cleaned the apartment. I really couldn’t have cleaned the apartment without Marwa. She was a big help! I always think it’s not going to take me that long but it’s always longer than I expect. Our little thank you to them was buying them pizza for dinner and giving them leftover food from our fridge. Ahmad still made us a lemon cake and brought it that night (and he doesn’t own a car so he walked in the cold to do that.) Again, they are amazing. We also had some great help from the men in the ward to help us move. I kind of got teary-eyed the next morning after we handed in our keys and were driving down the Main Street for the last time. I was thinking about my fun experiences this last summer working at the farmer’s market and loving those little shops and loving this town. It will have a great place in our hearts. 

Me and Katie

It took about two extra hours longer to get to Portland because we were towing our car but it worked out. We had some help getting the piano from the Vances into the truck and it was so fun to see Tiffany, who was tending the Vance kids, before we left. It was great to hear about her and Asher’s experience being in Orlando for Disney World and Harry Potter World.

And just like the miracle of finding someone to sell our apartment, the 2nd apartment we looked at we wanted. We jumped on it quick and we got it and moved in the following Wednesday. We were in the hotel from Friday to Wednesday but it all worked out. We did a lot of exploring in the meantime and found some great trails and places to shop and of course stopped by the libraries and bookshops at any chance we got. But I was pretty disappointed on Tuesday that we hadn’t gotten approved yet. It didn’t help that it was pouring rain that day and so Washington wasn’t looking all that lovely at the moment. Let’s just say it’s been a while since we’ve seen sun. Ah, how do people do it around here?! And how did I do it growing up in Oregon? I guess you just live with it. 

We did have some wonderful sisters in the ward help us move smaller boxes up our two flights of stairs and then the missionaries came to help us move the big stuff. Austin did a ton unpacking as well. Austin really has carried me through this whole move. He’s done so much while I’ve been exhausted and lying on the couch. 

I think the weirdest thing is being here is not a temporary thing. I’ve only known after high school being in a place for a couple of years at a time tops. I haven’t quite gotten out of my head that this could be more like 5-10 years. But Washington, here we go!

But hey, we have a cool fireplace!

Austin's first day of work

Me at 19 weeks. It's like I woke up and there was finally a little bump there. It's been fun to feel the baby a little more.