Friday, 17 August, 2001

We are now living in Longmont, Colorado in a small 2 bedroom apartment waiting for our new home to be built.  I think we are pretty much unpacked and have things put where they will stay for the next couple of months. Our apartment is small and reminds me of the places I used to live in as a student.  We put most of our things into storage and have stacked boxes along the dining room wall and in Amy’s room.  It isn’t all that pretty and we haven’t done much decorating, but it will be comfortable enough for the next couple of months.   It has been pretty much a shock to both Chris and myself to downsize into this apartment.  There is very little storage space and it is about 25 years old.  We console ourselves by remembering that it is only for a short time.

We drove out to look at our house, or what we hoped would be our house, the same day we got here.  We were so depressed by our living situation that we needed something to boost our spirits.  We were so surprised as we drove onto Dresden St. and saw that our house was completely framed and ready for windows where no other houses stood around us.  I drove out again a week later while the girls were sleeping in the car (I was trying to keep Amy asleep for as long as possible) and was greatly surprised again.  Some of the neighboring homes were beginning to be framed, but ours now had windows, siding and the shingles are stacked on the roof ready to be added.

Melinda DeBry, the wife of one of Chris’ friends and classmates from BYU, came over in the morning and invited us to dinner.  It was so thoughtful of them.  We were all so tired, and Amy was pretty out of sorts that we didn’t stay too long.  One of Chris’ coworkers, Stan Braun, called to invite us to dinner on Friday as well, but we planned instead to meet on Saturday evening at Woody’s Pizza in Longmont.  Again, it was thoughtful to help us make the transition here and feel like we weren’t on our own.