We Did It!!! Again!

I can't believe we actually moved to another country.  I felt such relief to have concluded this task of unpacking.  It is a task that has been with me for a year-of tasks to be completed or looming over me.   First it was how to have our home in a furnished, yet rentable state-leaving things that we didn't mind getting used.  Then it was what to take in our car to use in Utah for a year.  When I got to Utah in was a year of constantly refiguring or moving our stuff in order to keep my family together as much as possible, and minimize the impact on those who so generously let us stay with them. That included moving our stuff around several times in Emily's home, moving to an apartment in SLC, changing apartments later in the winter,  When the decision was made to come to Canada, life got more complicated still.  How would we move from a 4,000 square foot home to a 1,200 square foot apartment? How much of our stuff would fit without making the new home feet too crowded? Would our furniture made for a large home even fit the smaller apartment?  It turns out that most of our furniture would not fit.  We sold many of our furnishings--the dining table and chairs, the desks, the tables, the couch, the treadmill, the basketball hoop, etc.  That was a huge task.  There would be some furnishings that would go to family members in Utah.  We would need to pick up a load of stuff from Utah to take to Canada as well as a load from Ohio.  It was such a complicated move.  It makes me tired just writing about it.  We found a moving company who would pick up our things in Ohio, drive to Utah to do a drop off of unwanted furniture, and a pick up of our Utah things.  Originally we planned on being able to fill our van with the Utah items.  However, we found it was less complicated to sell our van and just buy a new one in Canada.  When we arrived to Canada it was to a lovely unfurnished apartment.  We brought sleeping bags and camping sleeping pads with us on the plane and used those for a couple of weeks.  That is when we learned that our stuff wouldn't be arriving from Utah for more than a month.  Mark at that point decided to fly to Utah and drive our things out in a U-Haul.  My dad, being the kind soul that he is, jumped at the chance for a road trip with Mark last minute and joined him.  Our things came from Ohio several days later.  We were so crammed into  our apartment with our boxes, we couldn't hardly unpack.  It was different from our other moves because we came with too much stuff.  We can't fit another thing into our apartment.  We have taken lots to donate and throw away.  Our other moves started more sparsely and we accumulated as time went on. Each of our moves was hard for different reasons, but I think that this one was the most complicated.  It makes the relief that it is over all the more sweet.

List of Moves
Provo Utah-moved by renting a UHaul. 

Russel Park Davis, CA— moved across the street by caring the things in our arms and using a cart. 

Orchard Park Davis, CA— moved with my parents help and our trusty, green Toyota Tercel. 

Sacramento, CA— sold almost everything we had at a garage sale to fund the last of our interviews. Gave away the rest. Packed up what we could in our green Toyota Tercel. 

Valencia, CA— fit whatever we could in the trusty, green Toyota Tercel

Shoreline Ridge, Salt Lake City, UT— we got kicked out of this apartment after living there for less than a year. Because they decided to rent the apartments to undergraduates. Isaiah was such a helper to me at his five years of Age. I put Rachel in the baby Bjorn filled a cart full of stuff and walked it over to the medical towers. By the end of the night Isaiah said that his shoulders were really bothering him and he didn’t understand why. Poor guy.

 
Medical Plaza— I don’t remember how we did that move

Diestel Road— I remember that we bought a van right before we did the move to LaConner road home. That van did the move for us. 

Connor Road Fort Douglas Home

 Salt Lake City, UT— this was another sell everything that you own and give the rest away 

Valencia, CA— this was a short stopping point, just three months. 

Swarthmore, PA— here we were moved professionally bag company that hired us in Fort Worth, TX. 

Fort Worth, TX— here we remove 

professionally as well. 

Dublin, Ohio. This was a crazy move. We just had to estimate what we thought we would need for the next year and put that in our van. We then packed up most of our other things and put them in the basement so that our home could be rented furnished, but without our personal belongings.  

Utah— this year was full of moves. We moved Emily‘s house as she graciously opened her home to us and we tried to squeeze our selves in without making too big of an impact. This desire to try to make our two families work caused little moves around her home. At Christmas time we moved to grandma and grandpa Halverson’s basement. Meanwhile, MARK got into student housing in October I needed to switch to a different student housing in January.  

Our move to British Columbia was very complicated. We had to sell many of our furnishings in our home because we were moving to a much smaller apartment. We calculated what we would need for our new apartment and then sold and gave away everything else. There was a lot of stuff that grandma Halverson convinced us that we could save in Utah so that we could have it with me left Vancouver. She went with me to Ohio to pack up our things and sort through what we would really need to be taking. We supervised the movers loading up the truck and came home for days later exhausted. The regional plan was that our movers would drive through town, drop off some items and then pick up are you to things and bring them to Canada. It didn’t work that way. MARK needed to end up flying back to Utah, loading up on U-Haul truck with my dad and driving out to Utah stuff here. We flew out as a family and bought a new car here. We sold our van just days before we left Utah. 

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada