Catch-up Time-It's all in the Timing

To best catch up on this post I have to go back to March 2009. Dan took a job with Biomat USA as a manager trainee position. Their training program is approximately 9 months long. After the training is completed, the company then transfers the new manager/assistant manager to a center that needs the leadership, unless the center where the training took place is in need of someone in the management position. Dan knew it would be temporary since the Pocatello center had a manager and assistant manager who wouldn't be relocating for several years.

In the fall Dan was asked to come help out the Kennewick, WA center for a week. I drove up and joined him a day into his trip. A few weeks later Dan came up for two weeks, this time I came along for the whole trip. (What a blessing that I wasn't working so I could be available to come along.) We knew Kennewick was an option but it didn't feel right to either of us so we just enjoyed our time in a new city and continued to speculate where we would move to.

While Dan worked, I headed out and took in the sights of the Tri-Cities area (Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco make up the Tri-Cities.) Here are a few pictures from those first trips to the Tri-Cities:

After our visits a couple offers were made but we still didn't feel good about the location. We looked into other options discovering that Kennewick was our only option at present. So we decided to list the pros & cons and really considered the option of moving to the Tri-Cities. We came to the conclusion that despite moving farther away from our families, it was the right thing for us to do and accepted an offer for Dan to be the Facility Manager for the Kennewick Biomat facility.

The packing then began with more determination.

Dan's job gave us a stipend to help us move. I figured we'd hire movers to do the work. Dan figured we'd save the money and do it ourselves. Dan won with the promise that he'd take care of it all. Guess who packed the most boxes...yep, not Dan. A HUGE thanks to the Lovelands for coming over and plowing through the final areas. I really couldn't have done it without your help!

Finally things were ready to be loaded onto the U-Haul truck (told you we did it ourselves) Lots of help from family and friends loading the truck, last minute packing, and cleaning the carpets! (Mark &Amy, Ann & Kevin, Kevin's employees, Liz [you school-ditcher you], and the High Priest Group from the Princeton Ward!)

Then we said good-bye to our first place...

...and began our drive west....

We towed my car but I didn't get a single picture of my car loaded onto the carrier!

Though Kennewick is only about 8 hours drive from Pocatello, we took it in two days to not push ourselves. We stopped in Boise to stay with Dan's brother Andy and his family (A HUGE thanks to them too) giving us an easier drive plus visits along the way with more family.

We arrived in Kennewick the evening of January 20, 2010:

First stop was to get my car off the carrier so we could unload the truck:

Next was our new apartment to begin unloading our things...

...and unloading...

...and unloading! (HUGE thanks to the YM, Elders and High Priests of the Hanson Park Ward!).

(Yes that's a bed in the spare bathroom, doesn't everyone put one there when moving?)

Let the unpacking begin!

After several days weeks of unpacking our new place began to take shape:

We even hung some things on the walls to make it more our own...

Other homey touches were made...

 

(Not thrilled that our bed was Dan's work bench.)

Ha ha ha...guess I need to supervise better next time! Ha ha ha...

We even purchased some new furniture for our bedroom:

Every little bit and each new day Kennewick feels more and more like home.