The Big Move...Finally (and the craziness)

Warning: The following story is kinda long and may be confusing, but will entertain you should you be daring enough to read it. :)

When Ben was finally given the start date of February 13th for his new job in New Braunfels, we started making plans for moving. The original, yet tentative, plan was for him to just stay in a hotel for 2 weeks but come back to Tyler on those weekends. My last day of work would be on the 18th, and we would have our official move on Saturday the 25th. When people at church would ask us when we were moving, this is what we told them and some agreed to help us load the truck that day.

As Ben was in New Braunfels working, he was also looking for housing. After going back and forth many times as to what kind of housing we wanted (apartment, duplex, house) and after a few attempts to secure something we liked only to have it not work out, we finally found a duplex we agreed on to rent. The only problem was that it would not be available until Monday, March 5th and we wanted to move on Feb. 25th. Well, okay. I went with Ben to NB for his 3rd week of work and Ben contacted the people in our Tyler ward to let them know we wouldn't be moving on the 25th, and instead made arrangements for March 3rd. We, then, would load the truck Saturday the 3rd, clean the apartment on Sunday and head back to NB and get a hotel for one night, then unload the truck at the duplex on Monday. Ben also made arrangements to have people from our new ward in NB to help unload the truck.

Didn't happen. As we were on our way back to Tyler Friday night March 2nd, we were contacted by the rental manager saying that the duplex was in bad shape and they needed more time to get it ready for us. So...we called Budget and changed the truck pick-up date to the following weekend (March 10th), Ben called all the people planning to help us both load and unload to change the date again to the next week, and I would go with him for his 4th week of work in NB before finally being able to move. This is the week we took the cats with us to stay in the hotel and then we dropped them off at the duplex Friday night (the 9th) before leaving for NB to make the move. (And as a side note for the purposes of documenting this story, the cats did not travel as well on this 5 hour trip to a new city as they did on our 3 day trip to a new state! Sosa pooped in the crate and Rolo was drooling big-time! We had to buy some towels at Walmart and give them a bath at the hotel when we arrived...luckily we brought all their cat stuff, including shampoo!)

So now it's Friday, March 9th and we're heading back to Tyler yet again to finally move. Everything is actually working out well, despite having to change our move date twice! Saturday morning, we get up and get ready to pick up the truck at 9am so we can have it at the apartment at 9:30 when people will be arriving to help us move. We get to the pick-up location for our Budget truck...only to find that they do not have a truck for us! Their reservation system is screwed up and even though you make a reservation and give them your credit card information, they don't communicate with the pick-up location to ensure a truck will be held for your reservation!! The closest truck was a 45 minute drive away from us. Ben had to call all our helpers AGAIN (at least 6 confirmed helpers) to tell them that we had to postpone our move...AGAIN...until further notice. We decided not to get the Budget truck 45 minutes away, thinking we could probably find a U-Haul truck in town faster since there were more places that had them than the Budget trucks. We did end up finding a U-Haul truck in town, but by the time we found it and picked it up, it may have been faster to get the Budget truck! Anyway, we finally started loading the truck a little before 1pm, instead of the 9:30am we had planned. Also, with the change in time, only 3 people could help! Our amazing home teachers and one other guy from the ward were able to come help. It actually worked out well with just the 4 guys (including Ben) and we got everything loaded within two hours. We fed them some pizza, and then Ben and I cleaned the apartment and finally left Tyler at about 6pm. Since we were supposed to be in NB at 7:30pm to unload the truck with people planning to help us, Ben also had to make a call to change the unloading to Monday!! Whew!

But that's still not all. First of all, we had an ice chest FULL of food with no room for ice! We had to go to Walmart to get a second ice chest and some ice. Secondly, our bed was in the moving truck and since we arrived in NB at about 11:30pm, we decided to get a hotel after dropping off the truck at the duplex and checking on our cats. Great idea...except that it was spring break for a nearby college and all the hotels were either full or way over-priced. We realized we had an air mattress in my car but no sheets or pillows or blankets, so we went to Walmart and bought a fitted sheet, little travel pillows and cases, a thin fleece blanket, more ice for our food, and headed back to the duplex. After only spending about half the money a hotel would have cost, we finally got to sleep at about 1:30 or 2am...and then daylight savings time changed and it was 3am!! Yay! Oh, and it rained. Thankfully, we were blessed to have the rain hold off until after our moving truck was loaded up in Tyler and it only started raining right as we were headed out. But it did rain almost the entire drive there!

Anyway, we did not go to church the next day, but we did unload enough of the truck to get our bed and bedding for that night. We bought more ice again and then on Monday night, the missionaries, the RS President and her husband, and another guy from the new ward came and helped unload the rest of the truck. We were also able to get a fridge that night and put the food in it on Tuesday. Yay!!

Despite all the complications and changes, we are here and everything has come together and worked out well in the end. We like our little duplex (more info and pictures to come...but I am still unpacking and want to decorate so it's cute for the pictures!) and we like New Braunfels (pronounced New Braunfulls by the locals). Our new ward is really small and I am still trying to decide how I like it. The Church is true no matter what, though. But I do miss our ward in Tyler! :) The RS President, in some ways, reminds me of my Grandma Hatt (my mom's mom) and so that is kinda fun.

Well, my friends, I shall leave you with this for now, but more is on its way!