We Made It

So, for those of you who have been wondering, we made it to PA on Saturday. No, I'm not turning this into a journal entry -- but here is the quick story. We packed like crazy all last week. I blew my knee out Thursday night from a REALLY hard hit in ultimate frisbee and that put me out of commission all day Friday. Good thing for us that our friends Jon and Becca Brodegard were able to come by and help us pack. I use the term 'help' rather loosely here -- Jon pretty much busted his butt all day and finished the packing for us. I could pack boxes, but I couldn't use the stairs (let alone, walk) or move anything. So we relied heavily on Jon's strong work ethic and good nature to finish everything for us. We took them to PF Chang's for lunch to say thanks -- I know they weren't expecting anything in return, but for the help they gave it was really the least we could have done.

The movers came Saturday morning and Phoebe almost got sent back to the shelter. She barked at every mover, every time they came in or out of the house. Melissa's friend Julie came by (thank goodness) and was a big help with watching Phoebe and keeping Melba from stressing out too much. The move went well and we were all unloaded Saturday night around 8:30. The guys who came were all really friendly and took extra care to make sure nothing got damaged. (It's now Wednesday afternoon and we haven't found any damage.)

With no food or fridge in which to store food, we said our prayers Saturday night that we would get a dinner invite at Church so we wouldn't have to break the Sabbath and go out to eat -- we got 2 dinner invites at Church. The ward is pretty small compared to the Falls Church Ward. The Bishop is a High School friend of Melba's and he had told several people we were coming -- there was a warm welcome when we got there. It's nice to know that two strangers can show up to Church on Sunday and have all of our needs taken care of.

Now we have a fridge, washer, dryer, Internet and cable TV. I've reassembled all of our furniture and hung up blinds on all but 2 windows. Melba has got the kitchen in order and is batting 1.000 on meals cooked so far. That's not too surprising though considering that we've been married for 2 years and so far she has only cooked one meal that I didn't think was absolutely delicious. I'm really glad that she has such a nice kitchen now with so much space -- she loves to cook and now she doesn't have to worry about where to find counter space :) Each day we seem to find a couple of small things that need to be repaired and the builder has been really good about getting someone out here within a couple hours of us calling to complete the job. (In Virginia we were lucky if a contractor came within a couple of days of requesting service.)

The closing on the Dover Park condo went fine on Monday -- so we're officially out of Virginia. But I can't really say that we're official Pennsylvanians yet because we haven't gone to the DMV to get new licenses or plates...

With any luck we'll have the house in order by the time we leave on vacation. I'll post pictures once we're done.