how to move across the country in 3 weeks

as many of you know, we had basically three weeks to move across the country. i found out that i got a job in the seattle area on thursday, february 7th and we went straight to texas that night to meet our newly born nephew (aka: the most adorable, dimpled, half-indian baby in the world!). we got back from texas on tuesday, february 12th and figured we needed to leave on tuesday, march 5th to get to seattle with enough time to rest before my first day of work on march 11th...

...anyway, three weeks. here's how we did it:

#1: we started packing immediately. as in, we rolled in from a 13 hour drive from texas and we started packing.

#2: we looked into the cost of moving expenses and found out that it is dang expensive to move your crap across the country. we decided instead to sell everything we own and try to fit everything we wanted to keep into 10 boxes to ship over to seattle.

#3: we started to sell everything we owned. literally every piece of furniture we had was free, thrifted or from ikea. aaaaaaand since my new office is literally in walking distance from the ikea in the seattle area, we figured we'd survive. if i really, really missed our wonderful dark gray couch, i could buy an identical one if i wanted. :)

#4: by the end of the second week, with a little over a week to move, we had pretty much sold everything between our indoor garage sale, giving things away, putting things on craigslist and bringing the rest to a consignment shop. woohoo!

#5: we started actually packing the boxes as this point, as space-efficiently as possible with lots of bubble wrap for the dishes and such. we ended up with 13 boxes including our giant tv and kitchenaid...so really only 11, i would say that we were pretty successful!

#6: the sunday before we left, our friend's ben and jamie came over and helped us fix our trailer. ben put in a new back door (and custom fit the door frame!) and jamie painted our bathroom while we finished packing and throwing everything away.

#7: after several people from craigslist looked at our santa fe and no one wanted to buy it, we decided to just take the things to seattle...it was a win because between the two cars we fit 8 boxes plus our kitchenaid and our giant tv (which we found out we couldn't ship anyway), as well as our suitcases, my wedding dress and all the other last minute stuff we packed away. it was a lose because we had to drive separately the whole way there and although we were ignorant to this fact, it was a miracle that car even made it to seattle (more on this later!)

#8: we had lots of going away parties. the bodin's hosted one for us in iowa city, the meyer's had one last friendship gathering for us and my parents hosted one for us in ames. we have such great people in our lives in iowa.

#9: on monday night, we found out there was a big storm coming into iowa city, so our actual exit was pretty anti-climactic. we hurried up to tidy the now empty mobile home, returned everything we borrowed and shoved the last few things into our cars. we left our pink flamingos in safe hands and left the city before the storm hit (good thing too, because they got over a foot of snow!)

whew! we did it! we get everything done in iowa city, now for the 28 hour road trip to seattle....

completely expected emotion.

WARNING: this post is not for the faint of heart...i cried pretty much the whole time i wrote this. 

at this particular moment, i'm feeling pretty sad about the friends we've left behind in iowa. seriously, can't you all move here please? like right now?

i had a moment today where i just needed to cry. and those of you who know me well know that i'm a community cryer. and i had a thought that only made me more sad: i have no one to cry with here! 

i better find some friends who i can dump on soon...(my apologies to my future friends in the seattle area) 

friends, if you doubted it for a second, I REALLY MISS YOU. 

i stayed very busy this week with my new job (as well as corresponding with everyone at Veritas to make sure everything is still running smoothly there...) but after the work week was over, i finally had time to think about our HUGE loss. man, we had it good in iowa. so many wonderful people, so many best of the best friends. i logged on to facebook to take my mind off of the sadness i'm finally feeling only to see the wonderful veritas community reaching out and helping each other (it was you, mikki, offering to help watch karlee's three kids while she's at the hospital with little garrison, just in case you're wondering). STOP IT, YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE, YOU'RE MAKING CRY! 

i desperately miss our my little veritas staff family, and even more so my connection group family, and even more so my sweet, sweet little group of friends. not to mention my actual family...they are the best. 

yes, we really had it good.

still, we're really happy to be here, you should know that. God has really been so good to us, and we continue to see that in our lives, even in our short time here. so it's not all sad. 

okay. i'm feeling better now, looks like i just needed to cry with you, readers. there will definitely be more tears to come. 

BUT, until then, i have lots of other happy, fluffy and silly things i want to write about, so look forward to hearing from me soon!

so, we're moving to seattle...

i thought it wise to update you on our imminent move across the country. this will very likely be my last post before the move but don't worry, after we get to seattle, i'll have no friends and plenty of time to blog. and, this is going to be a long one, but there are some pictures at the end to reward you.

so, we're moving to seattle. it's been a very crazy 2 weeks, and we have a very crazy 2 weeks ahead of us. 

going all the way back to july of 2012, we found out we were staying in iowa city. honestly, northwestern mutual wasn't ever our first choice for bryan's career, but it was the best option at the time and bryan doesn't shy away from hard work. and we were excited to stay in iowa city with all of our dear friends and near my family in ames. 

northwestern mutual proved to be exactly what we thought it would be. it's a fantastic company with fantastic products (really, i have nothing bad to say about northwestern mutual as a whole). however, bryan was starting from the bottom and responsible for finding 100% of his own clients. as i said before, bryan doesn't shy away from hard work, but this obstacle was exactly why the company wasn't ever our first choice for bryan's career. 

i will also say that bryan has done a great job! he's met most of his personal goals, helped a lot of people and passed his series 6 license exam all within 6 months of his start date, he'll take (and most definitely pass!) his series 63 license exam next tuesday as well. being a financial advisor excites him, he's great at it and truly cares about people and their needs. 

as 2012 went on, we continued to discuss and keep an open mind about bryan's career. there aren't a lot of other options in iowa city. we were content in iowa city and content with our jobs, but we really felt the need to be forward and that was not happening. frankly, we were surviving, nothing more. 

in the beginning of december, we were talking to bryan's parents on the phone, and his mom mentioned a possible job opportunity in seattle...for me. a lady in her office was retiring in march of 2013 and as my mother-in-law described it, her job was "tailor-made" for me.

while this was exciting, it was an unexpected opportunity so i didn't quite know what to do. we struggled and prayed throughout the whole month of december, asking God to show us what He thought of this. namely, i struggled between my strong to desire to have children and my strong desire to see my husband find a job he's great at and he loves. taking a job in seattle would mean more waiting to have kids, but there was a good chance that bryan would be able to find a job he loves. 

at the end of december, i felt that i should at least submit my resume and see what they think of me. so on december 31st, i called the owner of the company, mentioned that my mother-in-law referred me to the job, and told him i was interested. he was kind and took down my information and told me to send him my resume. 

[side-note: i've never actually had to put together a resume before and i've actually really never had to interview for a job. people just walk up to me and offer me jobs-ha!]

i worked hard on my resume that week and after my in-laws gave me a lot of feedback and edits, i sent it on january 4th. every time i looked at the "education" section of my resume, i grimaced...no college degree=no chance at a job like this. we decided to keep my application under wraps until i heard something more hopeful, because it was very likely that i wasn't going to get the job and nothing was going to change.

and i didn't hear anything at all until february 1st! 

january was a very painful month, but i think it was for the best. i died to myself several different times. i died to my desire to be a mother, i died to my desire to go a new adventure to seattle, i died to my desire to control everything. meanwhile, bryan and i decided that if i didn't get the job, bryan would start to look for other options for his career anyway. 

i also discovered that i really wanted to move to seattle (as did bryan). i was determined to be content either way and to stay present and productive in my current job and life. but as each day of january passed without hearing anything from seattle, i was more and more disappointed at the thought of not getting this job. 

finally, in late january, bryan's mom called me to tell me that they were going to call me soon to set up an interview. an interview, an interview, an interview! that's at least something, at least i have a chance!

on february 1st, they finally did call and we set up my interview for the following wednesday, february 6. 

we cancelled our internet back in january (see above, "surviving"),
so layla and jeremiah let me steal their apartment and internet
for my interview over webex. i found this note, layla is the best!

layla also texted me this picture right before my interview. ha!

the interview went so great that i was pretty sure they were going to offer me the job, they promised to call to let me know the next day. 

they called as promised and all within 2 hours on thursday, i got the job in seattle, bryan passed his series 6 exam, and our first nephew was born! 

bryan with baby jonah!

i'll end with a small FAQ section:

• my start date in seattle is march 11th, my last day at veritas will be march 4th
• we are in the process of selling everything we own. my goal is to fit everything into 10 boxes to UPS over to seattle. 
• we will be living with bryan's parents for a little while until bryan finds a job
• the job hunt for bryan is officially on, with a lot of promising options
• we're really excited! so excited that we haven't really even felt super sad about it yet. i'm sure it will hit us eventually, we have some of the best people in our lives here in iowa.

whew! there you go. everything you wanted to know about our move across the country!