Moving along...

Monday, March 16th, Jeff and I pulled out of the Daniel Boone Home in Missouri for the last time. Jeff had loaded our 16-foot Budget rental truck with all of our belongings on Saturday (he only had help with the couch and bed!). We hitched our car to the towing trailer and we were off! After all that heavy lifting, Jeff was privileged to drive the 31 hours across the country in the truck because he is older than 25 and therefore rental companies charge him less to drive. So I was his co-captain the whole way. The books we had on MP3 did not work until the 3rd day of our trip, so days 1 and 2 were rather dull.

Monday we drove 8 hours to Omaha, Nebraska and visited the DeNys family-- our good friends. Tuesday we drove 440 miles across brownish gray, flat, dull Nebraska and 360 miles across grayish brown, windy Wyoming (about 13 hours in our heavy, hill-hating truck). We stopped Tuesday night in Green River, WY at a Super 8 Motel with cold showers, and then drove the last 11 hours on Wednesday up through Utah and Oregon to College Place, WA (just over the Oregon border by Walla Walla). It was an exhausting drive!

Jeff managed to unload our bed by himself the night we arrived, and I helped balance the couch on his back. Then we went to bed and got up at 5:30am thanks to our central-time-zone sleep schedules. Jeff unloaded the rest of the truck and I proceeded to unpack and organize our new little apartment over the next 4 days. And NOW, we are all moved in!!! I'm going to miss our ward in MO and my gift shop ladies and living near my sister, but I'm also ready for a new adventure!

The DRIVER with a snack--those are Utah mountains in the background

I took this picture out of our window while we drove through Utah-- unfortunately, I totally forgot to take pictures of our truck rig: Since I have a tradition of long car trips with Beaker, I propped my Beaker doll up on pillows in our car's driver seat so he could see the scenery while we towed the car along.

Here's our new bedroom!

Little J's room-- no crib yet! That white thing is our "changing table." We have this wheely kitchen island, so we got a changing mat with a grippy bottom and tied it to the top... I hope it works ok!

Jeff in the living room-- his latest joy is using the TV as his computer's screen. Now he can just sit on the couch to use the computer (he got a wireless keyboard to make it happen).

Our kitchen and living room are SEPARATE for the first time in our 2 years of marriage! It feels SO SPACIOUS! I have to WALK around our kitchen to get things from cabinets! (in our old place, I could just lean to the left or right to reach almost everything!)

Here's our lovely kitchen-- my two favorite parts: the FULL-SIZED OVEN, and the SINK DISPOSAL. I made a REAL dinner for the first time in a LONG time on our second night here: I used our 9x13 pan and our 7x9 pan (chicken enchiladas and brownies, and also salad) because I haven't been able to use them in 8 months (our Missouri Nook did not have an oven). It was glorious!

. . . and last but not least, here's the only load I was carrying around during our move! (at least Jeff got to put the boxes DOWN when he brought them in!) haha, I am creeping up on 30 weeks: this picture was taken Monday, March 23 (29 1/2 weeks).

Hello, homeSTRETCH!

It has happened: I began the final trimester! That means that on the last post I was wrong about the # of months: NOW I'm at 6 months (27 weeks down, 13 to go!). Little J has been pretty active lately-- he pummels my tummy so it jerks visibly. I feel so tight-breathing gets restricted at times-and this "little" baby still has to put on 5 more pounds before he's done stretching me out!

We will be moving across the country to Walla Walla, WA on March 16th. Jeff is going to get his master's in teaching out at Walla Walla University. We are excited for this new adventure, but I am also sad to leave Missouri: I have loved being near my dear sister Em and I love my "gift shop ladies" so much! This week, the 5 sweet ladies I work with threw me a surprise baby shower in the gift shop! I was so surprised! Thanks! There were cake and punch and presents (if I get some of the pictures from it, I will post them!)

sooo tight...the last trimester is definitely the homeSTRETCH!