Virginia in a Nutshell (by Jordan)

I've decided that I like Richmond. First, we have a nice little neighborhood. Since I don't have any pictures loaded onto the computer, just imagine a nice little suburb with trees, people walking their dogs, etc. The weather is hot (which I'm fine with) but the humidity isn't bad at all. Plus, I'm looking forward to a winter with very little or no snow. There are tons of trees here. I usually don't think of Salt Lake as a desert (no sand, no cacti), but it definitely looks barren when compared to the sheer amount of forestry around Virginia. There's no smog or haze. Gas prices hover around $2.50 a gallon. The roads in general have less potholes. Road construction is virtually absent. There are surprisingly few bars here (helps make the atmosphere more family friendly). Though there aren't any mountains or trails, there are a bunch of parks within a few miles from where we live.

The bad news is that the movie theaters do not compare to the ones in Salt Lake. I'll sum up the movie going experience here in two or three words: Expensive, run-down. Other than that, I'll think we'll enjoy our four years here.

The Little Car that Could

Jordan blogging. Last night, we made quite a trip and I'm surprised that my car lasted. First, I should preface by describing our car: It is a Mazda 3 hatchback. What's special about it is that this car is that it has literally been totaled and put back together again into a functioning automobile. In other words, it's a rebuilt title. Scary to think that we drove this 2200 miles in just under 40 hours two weeks ago, but we did it. Luckily, this car hasn't had any major problems in the three years and 40,000 miles I've driven it. But last night...

For Melyn's birthday we drove yesterday to Washington D.C. On the way back, we stopped at Woodbridge, VA (about 80 miles from Richmond, our new home) to go to IKEA. Melyn loves buying furniture and other home doodads from IKEA. Since our house had very, very little furnishing so far, and since we also had a bunch of IKEA gift cards, we planned to get a bunch of furniture there. I assume you all know about how IKEA "flat-packs" everything, so we expected to fit alot into our car. I love the little bit of extra space that hatchbacks can give you when the rear seats are folded down. So, at the end of our shopping we had two carts jammed pack full of stuff. Melyn asked, "are you sure we're going to be able to fit everything into the car?" I responded, "Of course!" (Since my car survived the trip to Virginia carrying four people and all our luggage, I believed my Mazda was capable of anything). Well, when I drove the car up to the loading area to where our huge pile of stuff was waiting, my car suddenly didn't seem as spacious or capable as I remembered.

Fortunately, we had an IKEA employee helping us. But as we were loading, I knew not everything was going to fit inside. So, as you can see from the first picture, we had to tie one large box (an office chair) to the top of the car. The inside was so full that I (the driver) had to lean to my left as I sat in my seat. I could not see anythingtot my right while inside, so I had to ask Melyn everytime I wanted to turn right if my path was clear. And we had to travel 80 miles with all this stuff. This is the kind of moment where you say a silent prayer. Believe it or not, we made it home. And the office chair on top made it too. I think it's about time that I give my car a break.

Job Hunting, Jump Start Med School, and Orientation

There are basically three hospitals that I would love to work at.

1. St. Mary's Hospital. It holds Magnet status, which essentially means it's an amazing place to work at. (There are only 3 Magnet hospitals in Utah, all IHC and in Provo, American Fork, and Orem.) Plus, it's only 1.5 miles away from my house, which means I could bike and Jordan could then drive to school. Or I could take the bus or walk if I was in a pinch. Plus it's so quaint looking :) The only downside is that they've rejected me from all but five jobs, but since I got my VA nursing license, that should change.

2. Henrico Doctor's Hospital. This is also about 1.5 miles away from us. Apparently, after talking to lots of locals, this is a great hospital.

3. VCU Medical Center. Oh how I would love to work here! First of all, it's literally across the street from Jordan's school. Jordan will be having clinical work and seeing patients here. Plus they are considering me for a New Grad Program in psych, which I love, and which would give me guaranteed employment for at least six months. Plus then Jordan and I could drive together whenever I work and he has school. It's only a 15 minute-ish drive.

On to other things. Jordan attended a Jump Start Medical School for the week of August 2. It was comprised of an introduction to how med school functions as well as a biochemistry class, which Jordan has already taken, so it was easy. They also had a ton of club introductions, and lots of free food. Yay!

The week of August 9, Jordan attended orientation for med school. He thought the majority of it was a waste of time, but that's ok. They mainly talked every day for hours about how to study and not be a failure in life. He's confident that he isn't a failure, and I am too :) This was also the week that Jordan's parents came into town to see us! More on all our adventures later. They were mainly here for Jordan's White Coat Ceremony, which is basically where they are given their white coats they will wear to clinical rotations and where they take the Hippocratic Oath.

Walking in with all the students

Wendy, Jordan, and Jim

Me and Jordan

I tried to upload videos of Jordan getting his white coat on and taking the Hippocratic Oath, but Blogger is being stupid. I'm sorry!

Moving In

We moved into our new apartment on July 29, and our stuff arrived on July 30! I still can't believe that we got everything accomplished so quickly. My friend from high school, Sydney, brought us some sleeping bags and pads. So sweet :) We had spaghetti and toast for dinner and then all watched a lame movie that I can't even remember the name of.

We used a Relo-Cube from ABF. Essentially, we fit all our worldly possessions into a 6'x7'x8' cube and hoped that it would come to us in one piece! With my muscular brother, husband, and mom, we got everything into the house in less than an hour. Now for the fun part...unpacking!! Joy! Sarcasm!!

I had labeled almost every box with a number and location in the house and then wrote the number and what items were in the box in a notebook. That was so helpful! Thanks to FLYlady for that tip - if you've never heard of her, check her out! She's amazing.

My dear aunt Jenae and three of her kids, Bryson, Lacie, and Carston came up that evening to help us. It was so nice to have so much help! We had Olive Garden for dinner and it took forever...three hours in a restaurant? Are you kidding me? Anyway, although having eight people sleep in a two bedroom apartment and share one bathroom can be challenging, we did it! We got the majority of the apartment completed by the time everyone, including my mom and brother, left for North Carolina on Sunday. Thanks so much for your help, everyone!

The New Ward

Ok, people, just so you know, you have 17 posts to read before you're caught up. I know, I know, I'm awful at blogging and moving at the same time! :) Who is good at it, honestly? If you want to, read from the bottom up, because the posts are backwards chronologically.

Our new ward is only 1.8 miles away from our house! It's so great. The group is pretty similar to our old ward. Some singles, some older couples, a few widows, some young families, and young couples. We also have about 15 young women, which is huge compared to our last ward of only 4! We got there late, but we already know that we are going to love this ward. Everyone is SO friendly and introducing themselves to us. The sunday school teacher and priesthood and RS teachers were incredible. I really admire the cohesiveness of this ward. Everyone seems to get along. And the missionary work is incredible! Wow, there were at least 3 investigators in church. The stake's goal is for us to bring an investigator once a year. Jordan commented that he could bring a person every month. The missionaries live right down the street from us, so once we get a table and chairs, we're going to have them over for dinner. We are so excited to be here! I could go on and on. Richmond has a cannery too, so I'll be able to get some food storage set up while we're here. Yay for a great ward!

Apartment Hunting

We were desperate to find an apartment after discovering the horrific nature of our hotel. Well, I was desperate in the first place, but this just added to the anxiety. I'm afraid I wasn't a very nice person to be around for those first few days in Richmond. We had scoped out all the possible apartments and had it narrowed down to 5 choices. The first one wouldn't even have any apartments available until September. Cross that one off our list.

The second one was about 6 miles from the school, had two bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms, a great kitchen, a washer and dryer, and a good sized front room. The only downside to this was it was kind of in a ghetto area of Richmond and the outside didn't look that great. Plus Jordan was going to be riding his bike to school, and the distance was farther than he wanted.

The third one was about 5 miles from the school, had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a smaller kitchen, a washer and dryer, and a nice front room with tons of storage under the stairs. The only downside to this one was...I liked the second apartment's kitchen better. It was in a great area though, and looked SO cute from the outside. Plus there was a park across the street and a nice pool just down the street.

We went to look at the fourth and fifth options but neither manager was there, so we decided to head back to the hotel and stew things over. We debated about this for an hour, then decided to come see them again. We prayed about it, and decided to sign a year-lease for the third choice. We were so excited!! We chose on the 28th, and moved in on the 29th.

We Made It...Barely!

It's 10:30 PM on July 27. We are so desperate to get to the hotel at this point; after driving for 40 hours with 4 hours of rest, we wanted to stretch and get out of the car! I just told Jordan, "Drive as fast as you can so we get there ASAP!" Big mistake. We got pulled over in Goochland (yes, that is the name of the city) for speeding. We were 20 minutes away from our destination! Oh yes, I had thought the drive had gone too well - no problems to speak of until now. After dealing with the ticket, we drove to our hotel, a little more slowly, and went to check in. Just the look of the hotel scared me. First of all, we were only paying $38 a night. That should have been my first clue to the awful nature of the place.

Jordan and I walked up to check in, and the doors were locked. Ok? So we tapped on the window marked "Check-In," which was about 15 feet away from the desk. It was very odd. A man helped us and slipped our keys through the window, like we were going to see a movie and he was handing us our tickets. We drove to the back of the hotel and dragged our stuff up a flight of filthy stairs and opened the door. It reeked of smoke, but we were so exhausted that we collapsed on the beds and went to sleep.

The next morning I requested a different room, and although this one was on ground level, it reeked of urine. Great. I guess we couldn't win with this place! The walls were water-stained, the carpet crunched, and there was an inch of dirt on the bathroom floor. I almost wore my shoes into the shower. The breakfast consisted of stale oatmeal, frozen milk, and rotten bagels. I was so glad we were staying here for only two nights! This made our apartment search a little desperate!