The best of intentions.

I know it’s cliché, but we had the best of intentions to keep our family and friends updated with the day-to-day details of our move to the Pacific Northwest. We even had aspirations to blog our trials and tribulations in near real time, allowing our loved ones to pull alongside us to give advice and encouragement.

Obviously, that didn't happen. We've failed to deliver, and for that, we humbly apologize.

The truth is, this move has been hard. Really hard. So hard in fact that we simply haven't had the energy to blog about it. It’s getting much better, though!

The first day was the toughest.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with a 94°F record high temperature for Seattle (the previous record for May 17th was 83°F). That wouldn't have bothered us in the Midwest because central air is common. However, because temperatures in Seattle rarely climb high enough to need it, most residences don't have central air. Thanks to the heat, moving into our temporary apartment was almost exactly like moving into a college dorm. After a day of travel, we were just about at our wit's end.

But the day was far from being over! After we drug our meager belongings into the apartment, our next task was to find food. (At this point, Bethany was the only one who'd eaten anything other than airline peanuts in the last 12 hours.) However, lacking knowledge of the area around us, we had no idea where we'd find it. To complicate matters, we had no computer, and no computer means no access to GoogleMicrosoft Live Search Maps. ([ed.] Why didn't we use the phone book, you ask? Well, it was hidden in the top of the coat closet, not to be found for two more days.) In the end, we drove aimlessly around Bellevue until we found a Safeway to scavenge groceries from.

At the end of an amazingly long and frustrating day, we collapsed onto our temporary-and-not-quite-as-comfortable-as-we’re-used-to bed. The last thought that went through both our heads before finally falling asleep was, “Did we make a terrible mistake? Maybe we should just go back home.”

As it turned out, the next day was much better, but that’s another story.

Until next time…