Leaving Las Vegas - Sunday, August 5th

Las Vegas, NV to Grand Junction, CO
512 miles today

Well, today the real adventure began. As we headed north out of Las Vegas, all the familiarity disappeared and the reality hit - we're really doing this. We all have so many mixed emotions - sadness, excitement, fear, doubt, and peace - all at the same time. We know we're doing the right thing but truthfully it's pretty darn scary. Our safety net won't be there. No one to bail us out, babysit, help fix things, pick us up when we break down, go to dinner with us, heck - MAKE dinner for us... the list goes on and on.

And yet, we are excited, too. Excited about the big new house. Excited about the green mountains that await. Excited for new schools, a new town, a new start. It's a crazy time inside my head and heart right now. :)

So after another great breakfast at the Cafe with Mom, we gathered our things and loaded into the car. This good-bye was rough - Mom and I have really grown into the closest of friends. I hated saying good-bye. I'm glad she's considering a road trip soon to see us, though, and I'm thankful for free cell-to-cell minutes and that we live in the internet and e-mail age...

Anyway, we heard a *THUMP* in the night. Woke up in the morning, gathered into a time of family bonding on the bed - and saw J's eye. He'd fallen out of bed in the middle of the night and although we comforted him and put him back to bed, we didn't realize he must've hit his eye on the table on the way down. Odd thing is he doesn't remember it at all. It's a lovely shade of lavender today, and I'm sure the colors will continue to change as the days go by.

Today was a long, long day. We did the majority of the driving today. It was long and very tiring but wow - we saw some of the most beautiful mountains, mesas, and other scenery along the way. God's handiwork is absolutely incredible.

We drove through the northwest corner of Arizona, lunched at McD's in Cedar City, Utah (where they didn't have the new Angus burgers, hehe), got some rain outside of Richfield, UT, and had a Subway dinner in Green Valley, UT. We are only averaging about 13.3 mpg with the trailer, and gas prices have varied from $2.87 up to $3.30. We had hoped to geocache at various spots along the way to stretch our legs, but nothing worked out.

Got into Grand Junction, CO around 9 and stayed at a nice Quality Inn there. There was a little rain and lightning so the kids didn't get to swim, but we'll make up for it, I'm sure.

OK - on a totally Beth note - the hotel was nice (not fab) but it had the coolest toilet flusher ever. The way my, um, dookie, shot down the tank was fab! hehehe Hope that wasn't TMI for you readers, but hey, it was one of the highlights of the day. :)

Relaxin' - Saturday, August 4th

Las Vegas, NV

Nice easy day today. We had breakfast in the morning with Mom in the Cafe, and then Ro took the bigger Wigglets swimming while G attempted to nap. Then he stayed with the baby while mom and I took them to see Ratatouille in the theater downstairs. Not a bad movie, but I would've rather have spent the $50 we paid at the Craps table. :) Later we went over to Deb's condo to hang out some and swim. The kids had a blast floating down the river at her place.

Interestingly enough, while at Deb's, we visited with Scott - my former softball coach's now-grown up son, who lives in... Loveland. It was nice to chat with him a little about the area. He's currently living very close to where we are buying our home. Small world, huh?

Deb went with us all back to Boulder, where we had a late dinner at the buffet. After that we just went upstairs to get settled into bed. Deb was going to stay a bit and play with Mom, but I just felt... weird... I really was wiped out, but it was also just kind of sad to think of playing a "last" time with her, plus I didn't want to make things any harder on her - so I opted out. My first time in Vegas without playing Craps with her. Heck I didn't even gamble a dime.

TTFN - Friday, August 3, 2007

Palmdale, CA to Las Vegas, NV
275 miles today

I can't believe it really. It's so surreal, leaving here. I have so many mixed emotions. I loved the desert, but what made this place home had nothing to do with geography. The Antelope Valley has been the only home I've ever known because that's where my family is, plus a few friends close enough to call family, and our church family. I really refuse to say good-bye; that sounds so permanent and it really hurts my heart. It's just TTFN: ta-ta for now. In my heart of hearts I hope everyone will miss us so much they'll pack up and join us.

So I haven't blogged in nearly a year - since Kyle died, in fact - but I felt that this was as good a time as any to begin again, especially since there's so many miles between us and our family and friends now. Maybe this will be another way for everyone to keep up with us.

We were supposed to be out of our house (oops - no longer our house) by 3pm today. We thought it wouldn't be a problem, but it turned out to be quite a stressful day. We had some glitches in packing and everything took longer than expected. I don't know why we didn't expect it to take this long - we did everything ourselves except for getting the POD about half packed on Thursday with some of our former youth guys. But as usual, things didn't go so smoothly today and we ended up pulling out of our (oops - again no longer ours) driveway a little after 5. It wasn't the way I'd wanted to leave. I felt rushed. I'd wanted to stay and linger, say a final good-bye, take a few pictures. But the new owners were there, and although friendly and not pushy, we knew they were anxious to take possession of their new house.

We had to leave a lot behind. Sadly that means we'll be spending a lot more money when we get settled, but at least shopping for it all should be fun. :) By last night we realized the fridge was just going to be easier to leave, and we called the buyers and they agreed to buy it. They had previously agreed to buy some other things, including the washer and dryer. Made sense but it was still kind of a shame, since we'd just bought the washer, dryer, and fridge two years ago.

Among other things, we also had to leave the kids' mattresses (pretty worn out anyway), Robert's bike, and - ready? - the van. We had thought the neighbors were interested in buying it but they didn't have the money when we had to leave, so we parked it at Chad's, gave Mom the keys, and left. We'll have to figure something out for that soon I guess.

Anyway, we left Palmdale around 5:45 for Las Vegas. Slow going, pulling the U-Haul. We didn't make it to Boulder Station until nearly 11. What a day - just insane. Some lovely folks Ro worked with at Kaiser gave him a lot of McMoney to use along the way, so we had dinner at Mickey D's in Barstow on the way. Traffic wasn't bad, thankfully - it was just a long drive after a long day...

Remembering Kyle

My heart is really hurting. Yesterday, our friend Kyle was killed in a motorcycle accident on Lake Elizabeth Road. He was 22.

 

I remember:

 

• one night toward the beginning of my leadership in youth ministry, Kyle sent Corey out to do something, and then stood up and spoke to his peers, and asked them to give Corey a break from picking on him.
• a chat discussion with Kyle after he spoke for our Student-Led-Service. That day marked, I think, the day when I knew for the first time, that God was working in Kyle's life and Kyle was responding.
• just last Sunday night (9/9/06), when Kyle shared a deep dark secret with the youth. He said he'd never told anyone... but that he's so obsessed with being clean, he smells his feet when he takes his shoes off.
• the Sunday before in the youth Bible study, Kyle shared that his bad habit was speeding.
• when Kyle got to the girl's cabin before me at camp and left crunched chips in my sleeping bag.
• when Kyle couldn't throw the ball to me at first base to save his life.
• sitting behind Kyle and Sarah in church yesterday, thinking that they'd probably marry.
• leaving church yesterday. I was putting Gracie in the carseat and my mom was standing beside me. Sarah and Kyle got into their car and backed out. Sarah was driving. The car honked, and we looked up, to see Kyle lean across and wave good-bye. That was the last time I saw him. Two and a half hours later he'd be with Jesus.
• Kyle letting his hair grow out. Pop called him Hollywood.
• the day in Kids Connect when Kyle brought Sarah over to introduce her to me.
• poor Kyle had to work during our Youth Christmas Scavenger hunt and the kids went over and videotaped him at Target.
• Christmas shopping at Target where Kyle worked. When Mom and I came out of the store, he'd left a ton of shopping carts directly behind our car.
• last Sunday after the youth had left, Kyle, Chad, and I sat at Chad's kitchen table discussing the future direction of our youth.
• decorating his tan bug at a lock-in one night.
• doing the quarter-funnel game during a lock-in. Gotcha!
• shortly after I took over the youth, after church one Sunday night, Kyle told my mom and I that the youth were going to a movie, and he asked us to come along. I felt so accepted! Then he asked me to go home and change first, because I looked too ghetto!
• once he and my mom sat behind me in church pointing out my gray hairs.
• my mom, Darlene, Vickie, and I ended up at Movies 12 where some of the youth were seeing I Am Sam. First we went over to the dollar store for some toilet paper and TP'd Kyle's bug. Then we bought tickets and went into the theater and sat behind them. Darlene sat directly behind Kyle's seat, leaned over, and ran her fingers up his bare leg. Now that was funny!
• bringing Kyle See's dark chocolate almonds to him at work at Anchor Blue. He loved dark chocolate like I do.
• stealing his unattended cell phone. I told his mom I had it but she let him sweat it out. I changed the message on his voice mail. It took several days for he and his brother Kasey to call it. When I answered they tried to play like they were the police. Too funny.
• when Kyle came over for lunch at Pop's... he loved the barbecued Spam!

 

This is a post-in-progress. I will update it periodically as new things come to mind.