Things NOT to do when you move:

1. Have lots of stuff. Where did it all come from and why can't I just throw it all out?
2. Rent a truck that is too small to bring all your stuff. (We did this when we moved from Utah too - why didn't we learn? Just cheapos I guess. Coop had to make two trips this time! Good thing it's only 90 minutes away!!!)
3. Be pregnant. I feel a little useless really and so overdid it so many days in a row that I spent most of moving day and the day after sitting down with my feet up. Pathetic.
4. Forget how much time the little stuff and last-minute cleaning really takes.
5. Have your fridge stop working. It worked for like the first 2-3 days here, then we realized the freezer wasn't cold enough so we turned that up and poof! the whole thing stopped working. Lovely. After throwing out most of what we'd just stocked up on, and trying the whole ice-bag-in-the-fridge-(making it just a giant cooler)-until-the-ice-bag-melts-all-over-the-floor-(making you worry about what's leaking until your brain starts actually working) thing. Then when you've given up on living any kind of civilized life ... poof! it all starts working again magically. Can it be trusted????
6. Have your daughter Meri get sick. Not one of those silly little 24-hour bugs. How about a week-long raging fever tipping 105, making her so miserable that she never sleeps for more than an hour before waking up crying about her tummy or some other part of her little aching body. All she wanted was to be held and rocked - which was a tad difficult to do in a sea of boxes.
7. Neglect your daughter Jell, who becomes bored out of her mind because her sister's not feeling well enough to play (so you never leave the house) and all you ever do is rock or unpack or fall asleep sitting up. Poor thing.
8. Unpack boxes with the blue tape designation, meaning they were intended for permanent storage. Not to be opened. This means you either leave out stuff you don't really need for these 4 months or repack a box that you just flattened. Sigh.
9. Try to find anything. It's better to just do without. Who needs to cut fingernails anyway?
10. Have the nagging reminder that in 4 months, you have to do it all over again ... 9 months pregnant.

Despite this, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your help! We couldn't have survived without you all! And we're doing much better already - evidenced by the fact that I have the time to actually write this email :)

Sounds like my house

(Click on it if you can't see the whole thing)
This is my life right now - except the boxes are all coming out of the attic and stacking up in the garage and living room.
My favorite quotes from Jell about moving:
A dad of one of Jell's friends in the ward asked if she would still come back sometime and play on their trampoline. Jell responded slowly as if considering it and said, "Welllll, we will be coming back a lot ... BUT we do have a lot of people to see." I don't think that made him feel like much of a priority :)

"Mom, today at preschool we had a PARTY! For me! Because we're moving and I won't be at preschool anymore and my friends are going to miss ME SOOOOOO much! They are SO sad!"

"Mom, I told my friends about the big yellow truck we're getting that will be big enough to hold ALL OUR CLOTHES and they could NOT believe it!" When I told her it would actually be big enough for all our beds and other furniture, she could not believe it - "NO WAY!"

"MOM!!! (Jell comes running in holding a box of band-aids) What if we get an owie when we're in The Dalles?!?"
Me: "I suppose we'll put a band-aid on it"
Jell: "You CANNOT forget to pack this mom! What if we get an owie? DO NOT forget to pack the band-aids!"

And then there was the discussion about our strawberry plants in our backyard that I have so lovingly cared for and molded into a lovely patch. I pointed out how many strawberries we were going to have very soon and then said, "Well, actually they won't be our strawberries anymore by the time they're ripe. Sad."
Jell: "Mom, they will always be OUR strawberries."
Me: "Not really. We won't be living here anymore."
Jell: "Yes but we planted them and we growed them. They are OUR strawberries."
Me: "Except for another family will live there and water them and keep them growing so really they will be their strawberries then."
Jell: "No mom. They're OUR strawberries. We growed them and it's only for four months."
Me: "Oh honey, we probably won't be coming back to our same house because somebody else will be living there then."
Jell: "They will still be OUR strawberries."
The sad part of this conversation is I realized she doesn't really get the whole moving thing. The funny part of her being so insistent is she doesn't even like strawberries and never would have eaten a single one of them. I, on the other hand, have been looking forward to them pretty much since the season was over and they stopped producing last summer. Not even to mention the raspberries that are looking oh so promising already. Sigh. Fortunately I can take some solace in the fact that one of the blueberry bushes that I so excitedly planted just last fall is looking quite dead.

The Move

So I've been putting off writing about the move because, I don't know, once it's written it's final and really happening and there for posterity to read about. Something like that. Oh and I've been packing frantically every minute and haven't had the energy to spare. So Coop is graduating with his masters next month and he's been applying to jobs all over and we've been praying some of the most sincere prayers of our lives. Everything has been going very discouragingly slow up until a couple of weeks ago.
On April 19th I was searching for jobs for Cooper and did a specific search in Central Oregon because Cooper was going to be headed out to Redmond the next day to do a presentation to the city out there. I found an internship with the city of The Dalles, he called to see if it had already been taken, filled out an application and snail mailed it before 5 that day. However, snail mail needs a new name because before 24 hours had passed he got a call from The Dalles assistant city manager to set up an interview for the next week, April 27th. So he drove out that day, apparently did well in the interview, and received a phone call the afternoon of the 29th offering him the position and asking him to start on May 10th. You might not have a calendar in front of you but that happened fast! And for those of you not familiar with Oregon geography, The Dalles is located in the Gorge exactly an hour and a half from home.
We very quickly weighed all our options - did he just rent a room there and come back to us on the weekends? could we swing a place there and here? did he commute daily? should we just stay in our ward and come back every weekend? None of those turned out to be feasible or very realistic so we are packing up and moving our little herd to The Dalles. That means our lovely house will get rented out to somebody else so we're saying our goodbyes to all the walls and ceilings and such. That meant we were sadly released from our callings on Sunday and are leaving behind the ward we both grew up in and have now lived and served in for 4 years, and will be deeply missing the most amazing friends. Seriously they're amazing - I've hardly seen my kids for the past week as we and now I (Coop started work today) have been trying to pack and clean everything out in less than 2 weeks time. Where have they been? My friends are amazing. They've taken them and kept them in their homes until I know they must've worn out their welcome and then kept them for a few hours more. THANK YOU!!!!! And we will be moving away from nearly all the family we have. I know it's only an hour and a half, and we will be back tons (I'm not even switching doctors for my pregnancy) but we've been very spoiled here and have loved having such close relationships with aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, great-grandmas, great-grandpas, cousins, etc.
And yet, we know that this was an answer to prayers and are very grateful for the opportunity - it's exactly what Cooper would like to be doing and will give him great experience to add to the resume at the very least. It is a reminder that we don't always get to pick how our prayers are answered but we know the Lord knows best. So we are off on our new adventure. The official move date is this Saturday although nearly everything is packed up already, with just some serious cleaning left to do. And so we take this leap of faith, not quite knowing what will happen for the long term (will we have a job by the end of this one? where will we be when this baby comes in September? if we'll be moving back here where will we live? if we're not coming back here than to where and how when I'm 9 months pregnant? where will Jenelle start kindergarten in the fall? etc, etc), and keep praying and trusting that the next step will be revealed in good time and everything will work out for the best. So, The Dalles, here we come!
Oh, and the girls amazingly still find some joy in the chaos of packing:

Drum roll please ...

So I know we weren't going to find out, and I really didn't want to find out because I look forward to the surprise and think it's fun and maybe I'm just a little crazy and enjoy people looking at me like I have a screw loose for 9 months (which people do anyway cause I'm pregnant with my 3rd and who does that anymore?), but since we're moving (more on that in a bit) I kinda needed to know if the baby girl clothes should go in permanent storage or remain accessible. That was a long sentence. Let me take a breath. Okay, so we had the ultrasound today, with a new game plan and recommence the drum roll please ... IT'S A BOY!! It was totally obvious, but even then because of the packing incentive, I asked the lady if she could 100% guarantee that because you know, it's happened before to people I know that they were wrong, and she looked at me like I was daft and pointed out the specific boy parts which were hardly being shy. So away into storage goes all bows and everything pink! It's a boy!!
P.S. I'll post later about the move.