Well hopefully you've all guessed that we have actually made it to Florida, even though we haven't said a whole lot about it. So far our move has been quite adventurous if I do say so myself.
It all started with our trip to the airport. Justin's Grandma/Grandpa Murdock so kindly drove us, but with 5 people, a car seat, and a whole lotta luggage the drive was quite hilarious and mostly uncomfortable. We stuffed as much in the trunk as we could, but that still left us with Jackson's portacrib (which he has yet to sleep in I might add...), Justin's guitar, a backpack, and a rather large 50 pound suit case. These things were all stuffed in the backseat on our laps, making for a very interesting 40 minute trip to the airport.
The airport itself was uneventful as was the flight to Denver. Jackson fell asleep during take off and woke up just as we were landing, every parents dream! It was amazing! He ran around the Denver airport like a maniac for the next 2 hours, even managing to run straight into a podium, which actually knocked him flat on his back (hehehehe....took a while to recover from that). He didn't do too bad from Denver to Florida and we were even able to get him his own seat, which was awesome. He did however chuck a toy car across the plane, which ended up smacking into someones computer screen....yikes...., but no damage done. I decided he was getting a little too restless at that point so we spent the next 45 minutes or so walking up and down the isles picking up all the garbage (his idea).
We arrived in Florida and were literally smacked in the face with humidity, phew! All those forecasters who said the humidity levels in Utah were similar to those in Florida were completely lying! It's not even close, I was sweating before we even got outside. We ended up having to upgrade our rental car to fit all of our things, but once we were loaded we were on our way. We arrived in Gainesville around 3:30am and got our things unloaded. When we came in we didn't have power and were really disappointed because we were supposed to, but Justin messed around with some of the breakers and it turned out they had all been switched to off so we had power after all. At first glance we were sorely disappointed in the state of our apartment. It was
n't as nice as we had hoped and it was actually rather dirty. We had a mild freak out and then went to bed knowing there was nothing we could do about it at that moment.
In the morning I called the office manager so we could sign our paperwork and mentioned to her that our apartment wasn't really what we were expecting and that it was pretty dirty. She didn't really seem to care that much, but told us to write it on our check in forms. We spent several days lamenting our crappy apartment, but after some good'ol fashioned elbow grease, some paint, and a few new fixtures, we actually really like it and the location is perfect, especially for not having a vehicle, and all arounds it is a great apartment.
When we got here our internet wasn't working, but we were able to steal a really bad connection from someone in the area so we could call the internet providers and have them come out and fix it. They came the Tuesday after we arrived (we came in on a Sunday) and got everything up and running. Well Tuesday afternoon our computer finally gave out, because of the "incident" (if you don't know what this is and want to know, I'll gladly fill you in), which left us with no way to communicate for quite some time. The computer would come on every now and then, but it was never for very long and it wasn't reliable so last Saturday we decided we needed to do something about it.
So we walked to Best Buy and bought ourselves a new computer and a tv to hook it up to. (side note: Justin wanted to by a mac mini and hook it up to a television instead of purchasing a separate computer monitor, hence the need for the tv). The funny thing about not having a car is that it makes situations like this much more difficult. The buses don't really run very much on Saturdays and we felt really foolish bringing a television on the bus so we decided it would be better to walk. We brought both strollers (the big one and the umbrella) and we put Jackson in the umbrella stroller and strapped the tv, along with all of its components into the big stroller. Justin wore a backpack with the computer in it, just to separate our purchases a little. It was the funniest thing I have ever done. We literally laughed the entire way home, I know we looked completely ridiculous and Justin talked in his 'hill billy' accent the whole way home, I could not stop laughing. We were a little nervous carrying about $1500 worth of stuff home at 8:30pm in a stroller/backpack, but once we started walking our fears went away and it was just a fun experience. Not having a car sure has been an adventure for us. The walk was only about 2 miles each way, and we waiting until evening so it wouldn't be so hot. Other than looking like idiots it was really no big deal. This picture is a recreation taken the next day as it was too dark to take a picture during our excursion, but in the stroller are almost 2 gallons of paint, a few painting supplies including a roller and a plastic tray liner, a small trash can, a wall mount for the tv, hdmi cables, a web cam, the 32 in. tv, and the diaper bag. On Justin's back are the mac mini, a key board and the mouse. What a funny adventure!
More to come soon! Next installment: 'Church with no Car'
