Ok, this might be a long post, so get comfy! Like many of our other moves, this one was quick. 9 days from the time we said "ok" until our house was empty. Here's the story. "Let me 'splain, no there is too much. Let me sum up..." (Name that movie quote!)
About 6 months after we moved to Deer Park and started farming, Kody noticed little things that the owner would say or want Kody to do that wasn't totally right or honest all the time. Or things that were farming practices that Kody did not believe in doing. They weren't big things, but they were enough for Kody to notice and take note of. He didn't heed or pay much attention to these things, and just continued to work in his own way keeping things legit, honest, and sustainable.
Over time, the desires our boss had for the farm grew to be less about actual farming and sustainability, and more about making himself money. He wanted to start to include crops that, in our opinion, are totally unethical, cut our wages, and have us pay certain farming expenses like electricity, wages for other employees, and gas.
We were hoping this would be a very long term commitment for our family. Originally, it was. We talked with our boss about working and doing things for the next 20 years. But....people change, or their desires change, and they want something different. At the beginning of this year we really started to realize that this would not work for our family for the next 20 years. The actual farming and lifestyle would, but not with the people involved. So we figured we would be able to work for him for 2-3 more years, then hopefully go off on our own and homestead. Homesteading was/is our ultimate goal.
However, things were accelerated pretty quickly, and it just came down to a conflict of interest. Our boss wanted Kody to do wrong things and Kody wouldn't do it. So he said "Well, you can go then and don't ever come on my property again." And Kody said, "OK." It was a mutual parting.
Since we were living in a house that the boss owned, he told us to move "now." We couldn't possibly be moved out over night (especially when we had NO plans to go anywhere). We had had our trip planned for a while, so we agreed to be moved out of the house and shop before we left on our trip....in 9 days!!!
It was Crazy!! Oy Vey!! I tell you what, I'm surprised I didn't have a complete major nervous breakdown! I do confess, I had a couple of small ones! :) We spent 2 days really figuring out where to go. About 2 weeks before it all came down, Kody had applied to numerous farming jobs in WA, OR, ID, MT, and CO. We really wanted to stay in the northwest. He got several call backs and interviews, but nothing seemed to work our quite right. We even posted ads and talked to everyone we knew that might be able to let us homestead on their property. But that didn't really workout. So we called our friend Matt in Missouri! His family used to live in WA, and it was his roofing business that took us to WA from Arizona in the first place all those years ago. :) He wanted to get back to farming, so him and his family went home to MO and we've remained good friends with them ever since. Almost every time Kody and Matt had talked on the phone, Matt would jokingly (but kind of serious) ask Kody if he wanted to move out to MO to farm. :) So when Kody called Matt to see if that offer was still good, Matt was excited! He even said to Kody, "I've been praying for a few months to find someone who could come work the greenhouses. Just a couple of weeks ago I told my wife what I really need is one of the Collier boys!" So, it worked out. We had a place lined up to move to! In Missouri! That was exciting! Even though it was half way across the county...again. And even though we moved in less than a week.....again. And we moved while having a nursing baby.....again. And we had no place to live lined up....again. And we had never been there.....again (minus a short visit for a few days several years ago).....it was nice to know where all the boxes I had been packing were going to go!
So, then began the "fun" part! You would think that with all the moving we've done (10 moves in 12 years) that I would have a very well organized, flowing system down. Nope, I don't. Moving is still a bugger. It's still super stressful. It's still super exhausting. One benefit is that we've learned to save most of our boxes from other moves, shipments, or Costco. :) We did have our friend who works at Walmart save some good boxes for us too. That helped a lot. So, things nearly literately got thrown into boxes.
Fast forward about 36 hours......We have so much stuff that we knew we would have to do multiple loads/trips. Granted, most of our stuff is tools, food storage, and survival items (all things we will not part with) so we rented a big moving truck for Kody to drive the first load to MO. Everything we had in the shop went into the moving truck.
I didn't get a picture of our awesome helper, but our dear friend Eldon showed up one morning to help us load the truck. He was a real champ, and stuck around for several hours. Things went a lot quicker with him around helping Kody. As I was tending to littles and continuing to pack boxes in the house.
The kids had fun climbing on things in the truck. It was like a giant jungle-gym for them!
Kody left on a Sturday morning driving the truck and towing our little car. It only took 2 1/2 days to get to Missouri. When he got tired, he just pulled off to a rest stop and slept in the truck. When he got there he rented a storage unit to put our stuff in. He and Matt, and a couple other helpers unloaded everything from a 26' truck into a 10x15 storage unit. Talk about PACKED! We bought a plane ticket for him to fly home Monday night. It was a crazy, exhausting weekend!
The hardest part in all of this was deciding if we should move back to Arizona. Kody had been on the phone with his parents several times a day discussing the possibility of us moving back. The pros, cons, situation of things, work responsibilities, living arrangements, etc. Previous to all of this we had zero desire to move back to AZ. Other than being closer to family, moving back did not really interest us at all. I told Kody that ultimately the decision of where we moved to would be up to him and I would support him in his decision. Since he would be the one providing for us and working, the kids and I would make the best of it, wherever it was we ended up. There was lots of tears and prayers involved, to know where the Lord wanted us to go. The decision really came down to the wire. We kind of joked - even though it was a bit serious - that once he left in the moving truck he would either go East to Missouri, or South to Arizona. About an hour after he left, this is the picture he text me :) We were moving East!
While Kody was gone for those couple of days, I packed. And I picked Kamille up from the airport, since she had been gone in Arizona for a whole month! Poor girl, so much had happened while she was gone! Before she left, she knew that we would move. But she didn't know when and she didn't know where. Heck, neither did the rest of us :) My friend Lisl watched the 5 monkeys at church while I was at the airport with Jace picking up Kamille. Then she took them home to her house. We stayed for dinner and enjoyed a couple of hours of relaxation from the stress of packing, and especially our extremely hot house! Our A/C went out about 5 days before. Perfect timing! There's nothing like packing and moving stuff when it's 95 degrees INSIDE your house!!! Needles to say we didn't worry about getting a new one.
Lisl snapped a few pictures while we there. I'm so glad she did! I treasure these pictures!
This is obviously before I gave the boys there much needed hair cuts!
I love this lady! She is so incredible!
I love this chica too! She's a rock star in so many ways!
I wish I had pictures of Kyndra, Brigham, and Jace (yes, they have a son named Jace too) Those three kids are super awesome too, and my kids love them like siblings!
My lil' silliness!
Kody's plane was supposed to land at 9pm Monday night. However, it got delayed by 3 hours because of a big storm and near tornado warning in Kansas City. So, he didn't land till
after midnight. Lisl offered to come over and stay with my sleeping children so I didn't have to wake them up and haul them to the airport. Who does that? I mean, really!? Yeah, she's cool like that. We enjoyed a lovely little chat and some ice cream before I left. Kody and I finally got home at 1:15am.
About 7 hours later we were back to the grind of packing and loading. Rather then rent another moving truck and waste $1,500, we just bought a flat bed trailer to haul our stuff. That way we'd be able to keep it.
Lisl and her children came over to help, again. They took apart shelves, finished cleaning out the shop, and packed boxes, amongst other things. Jordan came from straight from work, brought us breakfast for the next morning, and used her awesome muscles to help load dressers and other furniture on to the trailer. Jace and Brigham kept the kids entertained. They are a couple of awesome little (not so little) guys! Kyndra cleaned and scrubbed the carpet in the playhouse. It looked awesome! We would have loved to have taken it with us, but considering it was like a little cabin, and would have taken up an entire trailer by itself, we sold it to a dear family in our ward. We also had a little help from friends Austin and Ayden (a couple of boys from the ward). They took apart the swing set, and loaded up all of our trash and stuff that needed to go to the dump. Believe it or not, we got rid of, sold, or gave away a bunch of stuff! That was kind of nice.
Here's Lisl giving the little fatty a bath in the kitchen sink. He liked it :0
With our move being so far away, we decided to give away the pets. At least the ones that were left. June was a pretty rough month for our pets. We had two dogs, and seven cats. Four of those were kitties that we were giving away anyway. But, in a matter of about 5 weeks, we had 3 pets get hit by a car and die, and 1 got sick and died. It was really a miracle they lasted as long as they did. Especially the road we lived on. It was a main road for logging trucks, and there were big trucks all the time. We had the dogs for 2 years and the cats for 1 1/2. This picture shows all the kids smiling and happy, but there were lots of tears in behalf of the pets. I even shed a couple of tears, and I'm not a huge animal lover. They really were good animals.
Some sweet friends in the ward put together a little good bye party for us. We had it at the park, and I was quite overwhelmed with the turnout! I thought that maybe just a few people would show up. But there were a lot more than that! I so wish I had taken more pictures, especially with such amazing people. We were truly blessed to live in a really incredible ward, and become dear friends with some amazing people. My eyes fill with tears now, thinking about our Washington friends who became like our family! We truly miss them!
Kamille got to have one last hurrah with her BFF Hannah! These two were two peas in a pod!
We had to have everything out of the house before we left on our trip. That whole week of packing and loading, we averaged 4-5 hours of sleep each night. Some nights were less. I don't know where the strength came from. It was truly sent from heaven! Angels all around us, in spirit and in the flesh, who kept us buoyed up and moving along in our duties. We had people provide meals, and Lisl and Alicia came and helped me clean the house. It was a true miracle we were able to get it all done in a matter of 9 days! The final night after the goodbye party, Lisl took all the kids except Jace back to her house and got them settled down and put to bed. It took Kody and I until 3:00am to finish loading the 2nd trailer and get everything covered with tarps and strapped down. We headed over to the Collins and finally got to bed at almost 4am! The next day (which was the day before we got up at 3am to leave on our trip) was nice and relaxing. Lisl let us sleep in and just handled everything with the chilluns. It was so nice to take a shower and just lay around for a day. We really needed it something fierce, especially after the week we had!
Here's our moving rigs! We're big ol' red necks! That's the best way to be!
We left the cars and trailers parked at the Collins while on our trip. When we got back, Jim and Kyndra picked us up at the airport. We finally got back to their house a little after 1am. Jordan was awesome and laid out some beds for us on the floor. When we got there, we just basically fell on the beds. Kamille and Kayda got to the couches and Kody and I, along with Jameson, Jefferson, and Kosette all slept on two twin mattresses put together. It was a wee bit crowded, but good :) They offered for Kody and I to sleep upstairs in the bed, but we were so tired, we couldn't get off the floor :)
After taking care of some title business for our new trailer that next morning, we finally headed out of Deer Park, to start our trek east!
We passed Jordan on the road. She was coming home from work. We waived to each other, and then I started crying. It was then it really hit me hard! Moving away from people you love is a hard thing to do. And since there were so many people we loved, it didn't lessen the heartache. I'm just so thankful for sweet, fond memories with some wonderful friends!
I kept Kosette and Jace with me in the suburban, and Kody kept Jameson and Jefferson in the truck. Kamille and Kayda traded back and forth throughout the 72 hour journey.
The first day we drove about 7 hours. To save time and money with stopping for sleep, we just pulled off the road on rural exits, or at rest stops. Since the inside of both vehicles was packed full, no one had room to lay down or lean their seats back. It wasn't the most comfortable arrangements, but we made do with what we had. :)
The next day we traveled for a total of about 16 hours. That was including stops for gas and to eat. Driving through most of Montana was really pretty. The had lots of American flags flying, lots of cows, and lots of country music stations. :)
On the road again...
Each night we stopped to sleep was for about 6 hours, give or take.
One thing I noticed about central and eastern South Dakota, is that there are no trees. Seriously, like zero trees. Ok, actually now that I think about it, I think I saw 2 trees. They were each standing solo out in the fields. They were the only trees I saw within a distance of about 5 hours. When we stopped one time for gas, I even said to Kody, "Missouri has trees, right? Because there are none here!" Thankfully we started seeing lots of trees a little later, and especially when we hit Iowa!
We had about 5 hours left to go and I was not going to make it. So I grabbed a caffine infused Dr. Pepper and pushed through it. It's amazing how good I felt and how awake I was drinking a Pep and munching on my sunflower seeds! Kody noticed the "high" when we stopped for gas. He said, "that Dr, Pepper must be working, you look awake." Then about 3 hours later, he noticed the "detox" and said, "You coming off the Dr. Pepper high? You don't look too good!" Thankfully I didn't get addicted. :)
I did a little happy dance when we came upon this sign!
We finally arrived after 72 hours of traveling, over 1700 miles of driving, and $$$$.$$ much money in gas! We were truly blessed in our travels. I had packed books, coloring stuff, toys, etc. for the kids to paly with while we drove, but they did not use any of it! They were seriously the best little travelers! They sang songs, told stories and jokes, and mostly just looked out the window. Jace did amazing! We only had to stop specifically to feed him once. Every other time he ate when we got gas. We had no problems with either of the vehicles. No problems with the trailers. No throwing up. It was wonderful! The Lord truly blessed us on our journey!
Since we had no place to live yet, and nothing really lined up, we stayed with Matt and Christina. They were kind enough to house our crew for 5 days while we found a rental. We were not worried at all about not having a place to live all ready lined up. Heck, we've moved half way across the country before with no place to live, so we knew we could do it again. :) We had faith it would work out, and it did. Kody found this cute little gem of a house just by driving around.
We're on 10 acres, lots of trees, lots of grass for me to mow (YAY!), and lots of room for the kids to run and play.
We're so thankful to be here and to have made it safe and sound and to be moving in.....still. Because, ya know, it's a process. :) God is Good!
1 comment:
I have so been waiting for this post! What an adventure! So glad you were so blessed n your trip! I'm glad God is calling such good people to Missouri to prepare the way for the rest of us ;)
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