The 1st Week

Well we have been in Salt Lake a week and we are all still alive.  It's amazing.  Salt Lake welcomed us at 9pm on New Year's day with the temperature being about 7*F.  (lovely)  We found out our stuff wasn't going to be here on time from the moving company (that's a whole other story) so we have been camping out in our townhouse with the bare minimum of stuff.  It hasn't been to bad, but we are all tired of living out of suitcases and sleeping on the floor.

Our 2nd day here was the first day back to school (these poor kids have to go back the day after New Year's.  Yuck).  We slept in a little that morning and then made it to the kids schools for them to register.  I can't say that I am all that impressed with the education system in this state and I feel like we are doing our kids a disservice, but other than going to private school (which we can't do) we don't have much of a choice.  There will be a lot of supplementing going on.  We were able to go over to our cousin's house and have dinner with the Updike's.  I think this is the closest we have ever lived to family.

Day 3 was a hard day for me since I sent the kids to school.  I worried about them so much.  I almost broke down into tears twice while dropping off the younger two.  I miss the comforts of Jerabek.  The schools are all indoors and they have inside days if the weather is below 22*F (please, they should be indoors if the weather is below 40.  No wonder everyone is sick all the time here and RSV is so rampant).  The kids all had a great day, but I did hear a lot of "I already learned this" or "we did this last year".  Noah is doing the same math class he did last year and they won't move him up.

 Day 4-7 have been pretty much the same.  On Saturday the boys were able to go play at their cousin's house (Damon's cousin's kid).  We did a little shopping.  I found a grocery store.  I bought material for Noah for his Home Ec class (who still does that?) and we managed to find our way to church.  We also had a great dinner Sunday night over at Damon's cousin's house. 

Things are starting to settle down here into a routine of sorts.  I am positive things will look up once our stuff arrives, but it is amazing how little we can actually survive on.  It is a bit of an inconvenience though.  I have gotten creative with cooking with only 1 skillet and a big pot.  Our stuff should be here by the 14th.  11 days later than promised.  I may just stick to moving our stuff ourselves when we move again.

It's cold, but it hasn't snowed yet and I am grateful for that.  The idea of driving in the snow or ice freaks me out to no end.  Hopefully our house in San Diego will close soon so we can stop paying rent and a mortgage. I'm trying to stay positive throughout all this.  I told Damon that one day we would look back at this time and laugh.  He didn't seem to believe me.  Only time will tell.  I miss the familiarity of San Diego and the friends and comforts we had in Scripps.