Internet...Hooray!

We finally have internet...hooray!  It was a very difficult process, that's for sure, but we got it worked out.  So now we can keep our blog a little bit more up to date instead of blogging once every three weeks!

Thank you!

We want to thank everyone that came to help us move out of our apartment in Murray: Marla, Dustin, Merideth and Colby, Sharon and Dee, Darin, Alicia, Garrett, and Cole, and Loren. It went very fast, we appreciate everyone taking the time to come help us, and so we could see you all before we left. We were also incredibly blessed to have Derek's parents, Sharon and Dee, fly out to help us move into our apartment; We could not have done it without them. They helped us move in, and get settled, but they were also there for moral support. After we got settled we spent Friday and Saturday site seeing around the city. In the two days we: Walked through chinatown and Little Italy, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, rode the subway a lot, World Trade Center Site, took the ferry to Staten Island and saw the Statue of Liberty, walked through Central Park, went through a session together at the Manhattan Temple, saw the Lion King on Broadway and dinner at Hard Rock Cafe at Times Square afterward. We walked up and down Times Square, around the Rockafeller Center, and 5th Ave. Jamie and Mom had a grand time in Princess Dress-up isle of FAO Schwartz. Have you noticed how many times we "walked", it is cool because we just walk and take the very efficient subway everywhere we go. We would go crazy if we had a car here...no parking, crazy drivers (for example, a lady that waited in her car parked next to the moving truck for an hour and a half, just to have our parking spot on the street in front of our apartment) etc. Below are pictures of the few days we got to spend with Dee and Sharon.

Kampgrounds of America (KOA)

If anybody ever decides to travel cross-country, Koa's are THE WAY to go. After driving all day, it was very relaxing to be camping, play games, and actually feel like we were on vacation. They were cheap, has clean showers, petting zoos, swimming pools, mini golf, pedal carts, volleyball, billards, and video game rooms (we are serious, they really had all of this).

Sunday Night: Rock Springs, WY KOA (not really a campground, more like a bunch of pebbles and one imported tree per camp site).















Monday Night: West Omaha, NE (a very nice campground, we found a monster, jumbo spider on our blow up matress, but other than that it was very cozy).














Tuesday Night: Middlebury, Indiana KOA. (This is the KOA that had the Cadallac couple with the yellow pup tent. There were also fireflies-Lightening bugs, as Jamie calls them-- and a large group of old couples with matching motor homes, all friends, and all of them from Ohio).















**Wednesday Night: Camp Taylor, New Jersey. We forgot to take a picture of our last campground, but it was actually a wolf reserve! Seriously! There was a sign at the entrance that you could take a tour of the wolf reserve pens. Quite exciting. There were also warnings that the campground was in bear country. We actually heard bears growling in the morning...until we realized they were not actually bears, but chainsaws (details). Nonetheless, it was exciting because we were only 70 miles west of New York City and were anxious to be done driving and get moved in to our home for the next few years.

"The Great Move"

Here are a few more pictures of the move. It was a crazy morning driving into Manhattan. Jamie had a job interview over the phone WHILE we were crossing the bridge into New York City. If you can imagine, Jamie trying to have a phone interview in NYc traffic, I am trying to pay the toll booth, navigate through traffic with a 16' moving truck, and find which lanes and exits I should be taking.....yes....it was crazy! But, it was a success, I didn't hit anything nor did I honk more than a few times every minute. What an Adventure!

The pictures below are of our move out of Lost Creek and into our new apartment. (Look at that strong man lifting all those boxes....). We thought everyone would like to see one of our may KOA experiences. We took a picture of this brand new Cadallac and the old couple whose car it was slept in a pup tent (yes, the small yellow tent next to the $50,000 car was a pup tent!). We thought it was ironic, I guess maybe you had to be there. :)

Thank Heavens for the New York Public Library

We are at the NY Public Library right now using their internet to update our blog. There was a mix up with the internet company and they can't come to set up a phone jack in our apartment until next Wednesday. So, until then we are using the Wifi at the ice cream shop down the street and at the library (which by the way, the ice cream shop has a lunch special: only $1.25 for a soft serve ice cream cone... buying ice cream makes us feel less guilty we go in just to use their internet).

We are starting to like living here. The street noise is the hardest part. There is ALWAYS a car honking, a boom box playing hispanic music, or a bus with bad breaks. But, I have slept the past 3 nights with out ear plugs, so it seems that we are kind of getting used to it. Now that we have discovered our neighborhood a little more, we really are excited to be here. There is a park just a block from our house that has grass (yes, NYC has grass), basketball courts, and a raquetball court. We have found the most inexpensive place to do our grocery shopping, and love the farmer's markets around town that have quality, inexpensive produce. There are fun things to do here, and all so close to our apartment. We feel very much at home in our apartment.

We made a home video of the apartment on the digital camera (not a video camera, hopefully it works, if not, we'll just post pictures.

The Cross-Country Trip!

Hours in the Truck.............36

States Passed Through.......9

Miles Driven.......................2,321

Cost of spending 3.5 days with your

spouse in a moving truck....PRICELESS!