Arrival in Merced!

It took us exactly 2 hours to get to Merced from Melinda's, just north of Sacramento. We went straight to our apartment, signed all the paperwork, got some Jamba Juice (my fave!), and headed back to get into our apartment. There wasn't too much settling to do yet without our stuff, so we headed over to Stone Ridge Christian to meet Matt's principal, Sandra Mobley. She showed us around, and invited us to her house in a few hours for dinner :). We brought Samson along; he LOVED running around in her huge yard. We had a great time getting to know Sandra and her husband and a parent of some students, who was there also. We have been told and are seeing that this school is like a big family! Everyone is very friendly, helpful, and generous.

We also got the 20 min tour of town, and are getting to know it quite well in the last couple days already. The city is the largest in the area, but still only 80,000. It has a bit of a smaller town feel than that though even... we learned that 20-30 years ago, the population was only 25,000... so the people who grew up here all know eachother still.

We have been busy getting things set up. We spent 2 and a half hours at the DMV this morning getting our Cali drivers licenses and registering the car (BOO!). We even had to take a written test that I barely passed (I need to study up on my Cali driving laws, apparently!). Then we had to go to In-N-Out, of course, after all that waiting!

Our apartment is really nice, 2 bedrooms 1 bath, with cement patios off of the living room and off of our bedroom. The biggest downside is that there is absolutely no grass (just dirt with plants) for Samson to go to the bathroom, other than the grass strip along the street just outside the complex. However, Merced College is just across the street and has a big grassy field right there that we have been taking him to a few times a day.

We are still awaiting the arrival of our moving truck with all of our stuff. It has been one huge pain in the neck to put it nicely. We are very frustrated with the company and would not reccommend them to anyone. They gave us a delivery estimate of July 27-August 4, but then said that they would narrow that down for us when they got our stuff... and we still do not know. They also said they could track the truck... but we just keep getting passed off to another person or told that they'll call us in a few hours or the next day. So PLEASE PRAY that they will giv eus more information and that we will get our stuff soon. We really want to be able to do some unpacking before Matt starts teaching!

I don't know how much I will be posting in the next couple weeks because there are only 2 guys to install comcast internet in the area and the earliest appointment was a week from Tuesday, blah. So I am at starbucks right now to get it.

Driving Through the Desert Without AC!

Rewind...
On Sunday we left Salt Lake City very early to get a head start and beat some of the desert heat. And good thing we did! We drove through the rest of Utah and the Great Salt Lake Desert, which was very cool and hilarious to see all the white salt that looks almost like snow. Morton salt company and another company even have mines there and along the lake. Huge mountains of salt, how weird.

Welcome to the Great Salt Lake Desert!

Matt REALLY wanted to stop on the side of the highway to
walk on the salt... he wanted to drive onto it too, but we didn't.

Morton Salt

The AC in the car had been going in and out since a few days before we left GR... and it was still working in the morning as we drove through that first stretch of desert. However, soon after we entered Nevada, it went out for good. Leaving us to drive through the entire state of hot Nevada in the late morning and early afternoon without AC! We figured we could deal with it, even though it was rather uncomfortable, but were a little worried about Samson in the backseat. We ended up getting a towel wet with cold water and covering him with it; which actually seemed to work quite well. Matt and I, on the other hand, were starting to feel pretty fatigued by the heat. Thank goodness for all those mountain ranges with slightly cooler air to help us out. We finally made it through Nevada, then slowly through the mountains as we entered Cali, then slower yet in a bit of Sacramento traffic, until we FINALLY reached Melinda's house in Woodland!! Scott was in town too and we all went out to a fabulous dinner at a local Mexican place. Oh how we have missed our college friends! Melinda and I practically had the giggles all through dinner, out of sheer excitement to be together :). Simply wonderful.


OH! I almost forgot... Samson had a great time playing with Melinda's dog, Kronk. He is a pit bull and gave Samson a run for his money!

Merced

We are indeed in Merced now. Arrived here Monday morning around 11am. We don't have internet at our apartment yet, but hopefully I can post more soon.

Salt Lake City

This morning we winded out of the mountains, headed back up to I-80, and through the rest of Wyoming. We really enjoyed the rock formations and colorful reds and browns that were striped together in the surrounding hills as we drove through Utah.

We got to Salt Lake a little after 5 pm, and got settled into our hotel. We were actually allowed to leave Samson in the room, if he wasn't barking and bothering other guests... so we gave him a sedative and tried to sneak out after about half an hour... but then he just kept whining and barking as we listened in the hallway. So for fear of him barking while we were gone and getting charged any extra fees... we took him with us. Of course, as soon as we got in the car, he gave into the drugs and was out. I had to lift him out of the car when we got to the temple square, but he perked up once we started walking, thankfully. He was a little calmer than usual though :-P. It was nice to walk around the temple square and courtyards, even if we couldn't see as much with him along. The temple itself is gorgeous and very impressive that they built that thing in 1853, using ox drawn wagons to move the granite stones!

Samson liked the temple!

The reflection of the temple in this cool pool just outside the gates

Oh! On our way to the temple, we saw black smoke billowing in the near distance. A police car whizzed by us and stopped just a couple hundred feet later at a van on the side of the road that was on fire! It must have just happened, and I got this amazing picture as we drove by:

Rocky Mountain National Park

Don't you touch my bone now...

Silly puppy

This morning we drove about 5 hours to Rocky Mountain National Park. We bought an "America the Beautiful" pass to all the National Parks for a year! Since we'll be living so close to Yosemite and a few others anyways. The park was absolutely breathtaking. It was a little freaky driving along all those windy roads with nothing but a cliff to your death on one side, but still well worth it. Samson still did excellent in the car, without sedatives, and even finally went to the bathroom this morning, and then tonight too! It was a little disappointing, however, because there were a lot of trails that we couldn't go on because of him. We read that you could only have pets on paved trails and walkways, but that wasn't even true. Oh well. We'll have to come again sometime without him. He could still get out at most lookouts with us. The mountains were amazing, and the rocks along the cliffs were very cool too (I know why they call them the Rockies!), and we even saw a very little bit of wildlife: some elk, a chipmunk, and a golden mantled ground squirrel (looks like a giant chipmunk).

Sitting on a bear at the visitor center

Samson wanted to say hi too

See... rocky...

Love it!

Elk, these are the tourist elk according to a man on the trail.

We hit the town of Estes Park tonight to find some dinner. It's such a quaint little mountain town, I love it! We walked down this sort of main strip with shops and food places with Samson (because we are not allowed to leave him at the hotel). We found this local little extra greasy burger place called Penelope's, and sat at a table outside with Samson. It was so funny walking down the street (which was mostly full of tourists) with him and having everyone look and point at the "cute little puppy!" That's right, my puppy is the cutest.

Pictures

Note: I am going to post pics to the other posts on here, so scroll down the page :).

North Platte, Nebraska

Well, today went very well with our longest drive of the week and Samson in the backseat :). It took us just over 12 hours, with a few rest stops to TRY to get Samson to go potty (and for us too), and a bit of traffic and construction zones. We drove across Iowa, and about 3/4 the way across Nebraska to North Platte. Samson, however, did not go to the bathroom the entire drive, and, in fact, still has not gone since this morning when we left. He did do a fantastic job in the car though! We gave him a sedative before we left in the morning, and he was already walking like a drunk by the time we got in the car. He was so dopey in his cage (which we took apart to make more like a bed for the car), lifting his head up for a few min, then dropping it back down because it was too much effort. The drugs wore off by early afternoon, but we didn't give him any more because he was doing so well. The last 45 minutes I even let him sit in my lap with his head out the window! I took a hilarious video of him trying to bite and eat the wind in his face (he does this to the air from my blow dryer too!).

Passed out

Matt felt the need to look at me for a picture while driving 80 mph...

On the road!

The moving truck and movers came on Tuesday. After running all of the errands we needed to and doing all of the cleaning that we could before they came... we sat around waiting for a couple hours because they were late due to a big accident on the highway. They finally got there around 5pm, and then FINALLY finished and left with our stuff around 10pm, phew! In between there, we had a few nice visits and goodbyes from Andrea and her kids from our small group, our friends Zach and Sarah, and Carrie and her son and puppy from small group too. Samson had one last play date with his best friend, Izzy. (We had several visiters on Sunday and Monday too. We have pretty much had at least a goodbye or two each day for the last several days. Making it SO HARD to leave.)

Matt hiding behind our massive pile of boxes

I decided to climb them instead!

Samson and Izzy

Cohen trying out Samson's cage, so cute!

Once the movers left, we had to finish cleaning and get some more things ready for the morning. With one more 11pm visitor from small group (but we were so glad to see Keith before we left too!). It's been SO BUSY! A whirlwind of packing and goodbyes. Our last service at Ada Bible church too.

We were off with our last taste of Biggby/Beaners in hand (a coupon in my inbox for today only... it was surely a sign!), we left Grand Rapids for good. This is when the goodbyes that I had given so many of finally began to set in. We are so excited to move and know that this is where God wants us, but all I could do is look backwards and long for so many things and people to take with us. I think in situations like these, God really likes to teach us to depend on Him to be enough.

Samson is already loving the trip!

This is how we had to fit him and his cage in the car...

We drove to Matt's family in Indiana to spend the day with them before hitting the road for good. We went to see Harry Potter with Amy, let Samson meet and play with (sort of... they aren't the most fond of each other) their dog, Marshie, had a nice dinner and dessert and sit around the fire. It was a wonderful day!

Marshie and Samson

We'll be off nice and early tomorrow (Thursday) for our 11 hour drive to North Platte, Nebraska :). Hopefully our hotel will have internet and I can post again about how Samson did for the longest ride of his life! Which is luckily the longest drive of the trip as well.

More Rolling with the Punches...

I don't know what God is trying to teach me through all this, but definitely something. Yet another change in our plans to rearrange for has come up! Apparently when we requested Monday July 20th for pick up with the moving truck, that meant Monday OR Tuesday. Fantastic. And of course, they never mentioned that when we kept asking if they knew what time on MONDAY they would be coming yet. So we get a call and not only do they say Tuesday, but Tuesday night between 4 and 8. For reals?

So here's the new plan (that I hope and pray is the final one... please Lord, I have had enough learning in this area of flexibility or whatever it is...): Moving truck Tuesday night, leave for Matt's fam Wed morning and spend the day with them, then take off from there Thursday morning for Cali. Which means I had to bump all of our hotel reservations back a day, but thankfully they still had openings.

One more day in GR for us. Which may be annoying for us, but is good news for Samson. He got homesick or seperation anxiety or something the last 2 days before we got home and was puking and had diarrhea for our friends. We thought he was fine once we got home, but yesterday I woke up at 6:30 to him freaking out because it wasn't over; he had gone in his cage. We're trying to get him better before the long car ride!

I am really not sure when I am going to have time to post mroe pics on here from the last few posts... maybe if we get done with packing early since we have an extra day? Otherwise it might have to wait until we are in Merced and get internet.

THE FURMINATOR

We saw this video for the furminator and completely got sucked in! We thought Samson was shedding his winter coat a couple months ago, but now his shedding is worse than ever, ugh. So we saw the pictures and videos of how much fur this tool got out of dogs and cats and it really wasn’t that expensive, so we promptly ordered it! We tried it on Samson, and got more fur out than anything else we’ve tried, but nothing close to those pictures that they advertised.

We figured that maybe that was because Samson was smaller and his hair is pretty straight and not very fluffy. So we brought it to Seattle to try on Dustin and Jenae’s dog, Gus. It worked much better on him, and we would have got even more if we kept going.

Fur from Gus

Seattle and Sun Lakes, WA

When we checked in online the night before for our flight to Seattle, it said that our flight was overbooked and there was an option to sign up to get bumped. For the first time in forever we didn’t have any immediate plans that day and signed right up! This turned into quite the long day in the airport… we still had to get there in time for our 8:30am flight… and then had to wait around until the next one at 3:30. But we each got $400 Alaska Airlines travel vouchers! That was more than worth it.

Some may think we’re crazy for going on a weeklong vaca and then returning home for only 4 days to finish packing. And it may have made things a little more stressful before we left and will likely do the same when we return to finish things up… but I am SO GLAD that we did it anyways! You see, even when we weren’t packing and planning in GR and just trying to relax - I NEVER could. I would just sit there thinking of all the things that needed to be done. We had such a wonderful time on this trip and especially in Sun Lakes where I was FORCED to relax because there was nothing that I could be doing or getting done while we were there. Almost 60 people from the DeKoekkoek clan (my Dad’s fam) camped in tents, trailers, and cabins for the weekend. I have really missed seeing a lot of my aunts and uncles and cousins and their kids (who are getting SO big!) in the last few years. I am used to seeing at least a good chunk of them every few months for a holiday or get together of some sort… but the usual in the last several years has been more like once a year, twice if I’m lucky. And I would still not get to see a lot of my cousins who live in Canada (or Heidi in New Zealand and Tanzania!).

It was hot and sunny the entire weekend J. Perfect weather for lots of boating, tubing, swimming, lying on the beach, water balloon wars, and generally living in your swimsuit! We especially had a lot of fun on my uncle’s 3 person tube. Lots of eating food and sitting around talking and catching up. Lots of little kids running around and begging to be chased and played with. Lots of auntie time for me with my nieces too! Lucca had a hard time with all of the new situations and people, but I got to play with her a little bit there and then a lot more Tuesday night at my parents. Both my girls are getting so big!

I didn’t get to do a whole lot or see many people since most of this trip was in Sun Lakes, but we did get to see Tash and Andrea a little bit J. I also stopped by to visit Teresa and baby Lola, who is pretty much the funniest baby that I have ever met! Such a little character! We did get to go on one boat ride with my parents as well. I don’t think I could ever get enough of those beautiful sunny Seattle days on the boat.

Moving/Housing Update

So… once again a stick has been thrown beneath our wheels as we try to move forward with all this moving stuff. I think we managed to quickly recover without falling. After FINALLY having found and secured an apartment with wonderful management… Matt’s principal and a few others expressed some serious concern to us about the safety of that neighborhood. My initial reaction: “You’ve got to be kidding me! Will this never end?” But what can you do when things keep tripping you up? Keep chugging along. Keep trusting in God’s plan that is grander than my own. Thankfully, we the manager at the old place is amazingly helpful and flexible and is mailing our deposit back to us.

There was another apartment complex that we had found earlier that is in a better area and that allows bigger dogs, so we contacted them to make sure they still had something available. We scrambled to get an application faxed to them yesterday and just received confirmation today that we were approved and have it held for us! This was a scramble because we need to get our address to the moving company, considering they come on Monday (AH!).

So the new complex is 0.7 miles from Matt’s school, even closer. And the dog park is still only 1 mile away. Good news bears. Our actual apartment will be quite a bit larger (an extra 200 sq ft), but so is the complex, meaning slightly less friendly and a lot less green space for Samson. We will have 2 very small fenced in cement patios also.

So here I sit in the airport, waiting to board our flight to Chicago (and typing in a word document to copy and paste later). Once we arrive, we are going to hangout with Matt’s family and enjoy dinner together with them, before driving back to GR. Then comes the beginning of the packing frenzy! We have Thursday through Sunday to finish packing everything before the moving company comes on Monday. Yikes! I hope we can get it all done and squeeze in all the other little breaks and activities we have planned with friends and family on those days too. It’s going to be a zoo at our house, that’s for sure!

We are getting really excited about moving though. We just planned our drive to Merced and made hotel reservations. I’m not sure how it’s going to go with Samson in the car, but we have a few fun stops planned: Rocky Mountain National Park and the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.

God Provides

Our lives have been pretty crazy for the last couple of weeks, but we've had some fun in there and some big God moments too! First of all, we have an apartment! Our housing stresses have been relieved. We knew that God would provide something for us, but it was getting really hard not to be stressed about it anyways with it getting so close to our move date. Matt's grand parents went to look at some apartments and houses for us in Merced last week. The houses/duplexes were all in bad shape and bad areas. They stumbled upon a small apartment complex, however. The units are small, a 2 bedroom with 675 sq. feet (about half the size of our upstairs right now), but they are one level with no one above them. It is a gated community with only 20-30 units and a pool. The managers are very nice and willing to hold it for us. This is such a huge answer to prayer! They allow dogs and have a good amount of green space for Samson to go to the bathroom. It is only 1.3 miles from Matt's school... so he can bike and we can function with one car. That dog park I was talking about in my last post is also only about 1 mile away.

We are thanking God for the apartment; although we knew that He would provide something... so this next thing seems much bigger to us because we were not expecting it. A couple of weeks ago, Matt blew a tire on his way to work. When he brought it in to get new tires, they said that he bent up the wheel rim (or something like that) too badly to put a new tire on, and that he would need a new one of those too! Thankfully they had a cheaper generic option, but the total with tires was still around $350. So all of that on top of an existing problem that we needed to get fixed before we drive accross the country: his car window has been broken for a while... it won't go up and down with the switch and starts falling down, so you have to pull it back up. We took this in and the part that was broken was quite expensive as well. We talked them down a little, but that ended up to be around $350 as well.... totalling around $700 in a week for the car.

I am sitting there thinking: we need our money for moving expenses; we're not going to have much left after the car and that. Thursday was Matt and my last day of work. We both got our last paychecks and everything like that. It ended up that Costco pays out all of your remaining sick and vacation time when you leave, and Matt had hardly taken any sick time ever (I'm not sure we even knew he had sick time!). So what is my point about this blessed paycheck? It was almost exactly $700 more than his normal paycheck that we were expecting! Gasp! I always hear people talk about those moments where they need a certain amount of money and they like get a check in the mail for that exact amount or something, but I have never experienced it myself. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness!