Are we there yet? And where is there...

My life at this point is really not that interesting, and I very, much like it that way! After years of rushing from school to jobs to home and back, I love my do whatever we feel like, no deadlines, laissez-faire kind of style now. In fact I am so dull that when our new bishopric recently asked me what I like to do I literally did not have an answer, and Kevin finally said something after I sat silently stumped for a minute. So I have put off writing a post about this summer because I didn't want to come off as "look at how much I have done!!" kind of news, but I figure some people may also be having a dull kind of a day and may wonder "Where in the world are the Allreds?" so here is what interrupted my normally blissfully boring routine the last few months, cliff notes style:

First week of July- We knew a move was imminent so we decided to postpone our trip to Utah. Originally we were going to fly in on my Dad's 50th birthday and surprise him but decided we needed to wait for a few weeks, he had a job in Kentucky but was waiting on another in Utah.

July 6th- Kevin finds out he has an interview in Utah, we decide to all fly out in 2 days.

July 8th- After a long flight with 2 tired kids we arrive in Utah for the first time, Kevin interviews in Utah then takes a red eye to interview in California for 3 days.

July 19th- Kevin and I go back to Georgia, leaving the girls in Utah, to pack up our house their which we have to be out of in 3 days. We still have not heard back from the job in Utah, so we are not sure if where we are driving a moving truck to, therefore we do not have one.

July 22nd- We packed like crazy for 2 days, and had an army of help from our friends in Statesboro and actually got moved out in time. We sadly say good-bye to Georgia and aim the truck towards Nashville, still not knowing where we are actually going to end up. We are missing our kids terribly and know we have to be back by my brother's wedding on July 29th.
We have a HUGE 26 foot truck, with a car trailer on the back and I followed Kevin in the van. We ended up never hearing from the job in Utah, no call back no anything, after we had paid to go to the interview and they knew we had to move (don't get me started!) so we drive for about 12 hours and end up in Lexington, Kentucky. It is so beautiful here, I am absolutely in love from the first moment we get here.

July 23rd, 24th, 25th...- The love fest fades a little for the Bluegrass States as we have no luck finding a rental. I have never seen anything like it, we would see a listing and call and they would say it had already been rented, things would go in about 2 hours! We were so frustrated, exhausted and a little scared being a totally new place and having no idea what we were going to do with a moving truck full of stuff. We would get up about 6:30 am and check the listings, then head out to try and find anything and talk to anyone who might have something and wouldn't get back until about 9:30 pm. I was so carsick at the end of each day from the twisting country roads and endless u-turns down neighborhoods. The morning we had to take our truck back we met up with an agent who had 2 houses to show us. The first wasn't quite what we wanted but she was sure we would love the 2nd, I was thinking as long as it had a roof and a door we would be into it. I am not sure if we were really just that desperate but we loved it and we could move our stuff in that afternoon! I cannot tell you the relief we felt at finding this place, and with some help from some new friends we had our truck unloaded in an hour and returned without paying any penalties! Man, what a blessing!

July 28th- We finally had to get our tickets back and didn't get anything until the day before the wedding. My dad who is a frequent travel was pretty nervous about putting it that close, but I figured what was the worst that could happen! It's a major airport we would be fine, I have never had an actual canceled flight in my life. That morning I went to unpack a few things at the house and when Kevin got home, we couldn't find either set of our van keys! Because I hadn't really unpacked and we couldn't find them anywhere, I assumed they had been locked in the van so we had a locksmith quickly come out, and when he opened it, surprise, still no keys! Our time to leave for the airport came and passed and still nothing. How we both lost our keys in a totally empty house we still don't know, but I was panicked. After we finally said a prayer and dumped out all of our packed luggage, I found mine in the bottom of the snack bin I had carried in, it was the only box I hadn't dumped out. We rushed to the airport, quite late, and when we went to check in I couldn't find my skymiles card. This was important because without it we would have to pay $50.00 in baggage fees. The man at the counter could not find the account under my name, my address, or any information we could give him! We finally called and got someone at home to look up the number for us, and we ran through security, which was of course on a Wednesday afternoon, jam packed! I hate being late, and get totally nervous when we don't have enough time at the airport. We finally got through and only had to get to our gate, which was the last one in the terminal. If you have ever been to the Cincinnati airport, it is not laid out like a branch with the terminals all jutting out of one main hall. It is a huge long tunnel and we ran what felt like 2 miles, especially because I was in flip-flops. We got to the gate where my flight was leaving, (Kev and I were on different flights) and went to talk to them about bumping Kevin to the same one. The man rudely told us that we would not want to switch his ticket because my flight was probably going to be canceled. And that I would only be able to get on a plane that would go through Atlanta and get to SLC at 1:30 the next afternoon. My brother's wedding was at 10:00 am and I hadn't seen my kids for 10 days, so of course I started crying. They continuously told us that there was nothing else they could do. So I kept crying. But lucky for me Kevin is a little bit better with this kind of thing, and walked back and forth between 2 gates and eventually snuck around to one side where he found a wonderful lady in a red coat (they have all the power in the airports) who froze the entire system, then was able to change my ticket for Kevin's on the flight later that night and put him on stand-by. I think I stopped crying at this point, but I can't be sure. The funny part was that after all this I ended up in first class, so I got on the plane first (I was terrified they would give my seat away) and then waited to see if Kevin would get on. I kept thinking I heard his voice but he didn't get on that flight. He got put in a hotel but was miraculously able to get to Utah by 9:00am the next morning. He actually made it to the wedding before Lauren's dad did. So...

July 29th- We were all back together in Utah, our stuff neatly in boxes and luckily in a house Lexington, our good-byes said to Dixie and for 3 blissful days we got to enjoy it!