MOVING & MIRACLES 

Its been so long since I’ve blog! Sorry its been crazy with everything going on at once. Well, to start we finally moved to Oregon. I have learned a lot about moving. For one thing, itsn’t fun, it always takes longer than you think it will take, and it goes much faster with help. 

So let me back track just a little bit to get you caught up. We witness something really awesome through moving. Scott and I were worried about finances because the truck was going to be $800 with insurance and that didn’t include gas. Scott had been doing some extra work on the side with an apartment complex in town and we had been saving for sometime. We knew we could do it, but we contiuned to pray that we would have the money and finances we needed to move. So Friday night we were in bed just chatting and Scott decided to empty out his wallet. The wallet he had was falling apart and so he was switching to a new one. All of a sudden Scott pulled out $100 bucks, then $200, then $300...wait it gets better $400.00 dollars. Both of us just looked at each other in awe. We sat pondering who gave us this money and how did it end up in Scott’s wallet. He always has it on him and rarely takes it out of his back pocket unless e is home. It truly was a blessing and an answer to our prayers. Whoever showed us such kindness thank you! You saved us. We were able to pay all of our gas to Corvallis with that money. I really don’t know what we would’ve done without it. Thank you for helping us witness a miracle. 

Goodbye Cedar! Kyle's First Home.
(Don't miss the apartment at all) 

So the week that we moved, it was Scott’s last week of work and of course he was way busy. He would leave for work at 7, would work through lunch, and get home around 6. It was a long week. While he did that, I slowly try to pack up the house one box at a time. It is a lot harder moving with a kid then it ever was without one. Kyle loves to unpack boxes :) Anyways, my friend Kelli told me of an idea she found on pinterest when it comes to moving. One of the ideas that I thought was very useful was to pack a bag and live out of the bag for the week so that way you can pack the rest of your stuff. Well, I did it a little differently, but it was useful. Since we weren’t taking off until Saturday morning, I didn’t pack my bag until Thursday night. That still gave me time to pack my clothes and have enough to last me for the next 5 days. 

Another thing that I found useful was boxes! Last time I moved we just through everything in bags or suitcases and went for it. However, with a kid, it is a lot harder to do it that way. So through many friends and of course Walmart, we were able to get enough boxes to almost box everything up. It was so nice because when we were loading and unpacking, we were able to sort them to the right room because I had labled everything. Boxes are your friend! 

Anyways, Saturday morning is when we began our trip. We drove up to Salt Lake and spend the night at my sisters. Then from there we drove to Pendleton, Oregon where we got a hotel and spent the night. The next morning we woke up and drove the last 5 hours to Corvallis. It was a slower trip because Scott was driving the Budget Truck and I was driving behind him in the car, but it worked out. We were hoping to tow the car behind the truck, but the car seat wouldn’t fit in the truck. It was probably more comfortable though in the car any ways. So all together counting the 4 hours to SLC, 9 to Pendleton, and another 5ish to Corvallis, it took us 18 hours. For a 1 year old that is a long drive! However, we witness 2 more miracles while taking out journey. The second one was driving from Cedar to Salt Lake City. Everything was going great and we had just filled the truck up in Nephi so we wouldn’t have to fill it up in SLC. We were just driving along when it started to rain. It wasn’t bad or anything until we hit Payson. Thats when it got scary! I have never been through such a bad rain storm. It was like someone was throwing buckets of water on my windshield and my wipers weren’t going fast enough. I started to pray and just asked to help me make it to SLC. I was so scared and all I could see was a little bit of the white line in the bottom right corner of my windshield and every once and awhile the lights from the truck. People were pulling over and others were inching along with me. I prayed that I would be able to see and make it there safely. When we got to Provo, we saw a car off the side of the road that had hydroplaned and spun off. In the middle of the freeway everyone was coming to a dead stop to cross the muddy river that was right in the middle of the road. It was CRAZY! But my heavenly father answered my prayers and we were able to make it to my sisters. It really was the scariest thing I have ever drove through. I have drove through plenty of rain storms and snow storms, but nothing like this. Again miracles #2 happened and we made it there safely.

So to make the drive easier on me with a child I found that doing certain things made it easier for me and Kyle. Espeically once we were out of the rain, everything seemed to go just smoothly. Some tips for the future...

1. Place soft toys in a handy bucket where he can reach them. (This way he can pull them out and play with them without you getting distracted.) 

2. Make sure all snacks, drinks, and binkies are accessible. I put a plastic bin in the passenger seat so it was organized and easy access. 

3. Try and keep a nap schedule as much as possible. (So we would try and travel during the times he was napping. Then when it was lunch time we would stop for lunch and let him stretch and play. Then start again so he would play for 30 minutes in his car seat and then fall asleep for another 2 hours.)

4. Always have his blanket where he can reach it. Kyle loves this one blanket in particular and so when he was right about to go to sleep he would just grab it, snuggle up to it, and be out.

Driving to Corvallis. This is the
Columbia Gorge.

5. Make a goal point! This I think helped me more than Kyle. But we would set a goal before we would stop again. This help me stay awake and focus on that one point. Plus I think it helped Kyle realize it would be 3 or 4 hours before we started again. We started to get into a nice little groove. 

The last miracle that I witnessed was Kyle. He usually gets fussy and restless after 2 or 3 hours. But he was so good. I know that the tips above really helped, but again my prayers were answered. He didn’t fuss or hardly whine at all.  He really was so good and patient. Even during the rain storm he was wide awake and just kept quite and played nicely in the back. He was such a trooper. I enjoy being a mother so much and having a great son is even better. He really was a champ!