Friday, June 14, 2013

The Big Move!

School ended on Friday June 7th and our moving truck was reserved for June 11th, that gave me 4 days to rap up everything in my classroom and at school, finish packing the house, and say good-bye to a whomever I had a chance to say good bye to.  As excited as I was to be moving near family I was so sad leaving some of our dearest friends.  Carson has made some great friends and I have become friends with their parents too.  Its hard saying good-bye, but I know its the best for our family.
Cooper and Grandma packing up the front living room.
Things from the house got packed then moved to the garage.
My brother, his son, and a family friend, Ed, drove my dad's truck and cattle trailer from Oklahoma to help us move.  Ed saved us two times!  He noticed something was wrong with the drive shaft on the Penske truck.  He called them and they came out and replaced a part.  He also noticed extremely worn out tires on the U-haul trailer.  Again, he called them and they replaced three of the four tires!  We planned on everything fitting in the Penske and the horse trailer but moving plans rarely work out... I ended up renting a U-haul trailer to tow behind my truck too.  Luckily, I had already planned on flying out for a friends wedding and pick to up Jerry's Grand Cherokee a week later.  Since I rented the U-haul I needed the Grand Cherokee to tow our jet ski trailer.  
The 24 ft Penske moving truck... just gettin' started!
Fully loaded including the car carrier for Jerry's Jeep.
Dad's 16 ft cattle trailer and truck.
My truck and the U-haul trailer we rented on moving day.
The empty family room  :(
So after a very long day loading up everything and cleaning up the house we were on our way to Oklahoma.  We didn't make it that far the first day... Barstow, only 3.5 hours away; at least it was a start.
In the car on the way to Oklhoma!
All tuckered out!
Tuckered out part 2!




 The second day we made it from Barstow to Grant's New Mexico.  Not exactly making the greatest time, but keep in mind we had two little kids and all vehicles were towing fully loaded trailers.

We made it to our new home in Oklahoma about 6pm on the third day.  Our town is in the far Northeast corner of Oklahoma, so we had to travel through this entire state too.  I am glad it is over and I will not have to do that ever again!


Sophie making a new friend, Phil the goat. 











Monday, June 3, 2013

Our last few days living in California

The end of May brought on many conflicting feelings...
  • We accepted an offer on the house, which is great, but that meant we had to leave. After a month on the market, we accepted an offer on the house.  I really liked the family that ended up purchasing our home.  Hopefully they love it as much as we did.
  • The end of the school year was close, but Zuhro had to go back to Tajikistan.  Carson and Cooper lost their big sister and I lost a daughter.  She has enriched our lives so much.  What she has taught us about Islam, Tajikistan and her culture could not be learned from books.  She is an amazing young lady and I can't wait to see what she does in the future;  I know it will be something great!  We also had to say good bye to many of the other exchange students we fell in love with.
Lida, Carson and Zuhro eating frozen yogurt at RiverPark

  • Summer was coming, but I wouldn't see my students anymore.  I had so many great students this year.  I am really going to miss seeing them grow into adults and go to college.  I will definitely be keeping in touch with a select few because they mean so much to me and I truly care that they become successful in life.
  • We were packing and getting ready to move, but we didn't want to leave our friends in CA.  I was excited to be moving to Oklahoma to be near family and start a new life here.  We also have a few really awesome friends in Hanford that we see daily and its been hard not having them nearby.  I know we will see each other in the future, it just won't be as often.

Flowers from a few of the boys in my AP Bio class... I love to tease them!

 
If you remember from a previous post, Jerry took Woody with him on deployment... So what's Woody been doing?

 
 And what has Jerry been up to?
Laughing at the name of a bank!

Checking out the beach

Doing what Jerry does best!!!
Sure wish I had a day off to do the same.