Getting to Oklahoma and Losing Track of the Days...

We got up early on Saturday morning and hit the road for Oklahoma. This is one of the first pictures I took off the interstate. Flat and windswept - that's southern Oklahoma! But it was beautiful... We got into town about 5:00 and checked into our room at Intown Suites. Now this is a room that is just over 300 square feet, which is smaller than it sounds. There was a full-size bed, a pullout loveseat, a kitchen and a bathroom. Ben and I took the bed, Olivia the pull-out, and Kelsey slept on the cushion from the couch. Connor had his pack-n-play to sleep in, so we crammed in quite nicely. Our only real complaint is that they didn't have NBC and we missed most of the first week of the Olympics!

The following day we went to our new ward: Edmond First Ward. There's a TON of young families with small kids and youth. Apparently they had a baby boom about 6 months ago, and there's a lot of infants. Since Ben's dad had already sent our records over the week before, we were welcomed in as a new family - setting some sort of record apparently, since we'd been here less than 24 hours.

On Monday I started pounding the pavement to find a place to live. This was no easy task, apparently. There are several colleges in Edmond, and the public school system out here is one of the highest ranked in the state. So in addition to the college students moving in, there are always families trying to move out here before the start of the school year. However, I was blessed to find the right manager Monday morning, and by lunchtime we had a place to move in to on Thursday night. On Tuesday (Aug. 12th), the kids and I stayed at the hotel to relax, and I got sick with an upper respiratory infection. (Just for the record, I finally started feeling better a few days ago, but Ben has a milder case of it now.) Anyhow, Thursday night we moved in to our new place with the help of the local Elder's Quorum. Our apartment is a 2-story townhouse duplex behind the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). There's a lot of fraternity and sorority housing in the area, but the street we are on is quiet and we are less than half a mile from Olivia's elementary school and only a mile from the library. We also have a small private backyard with a privacy fence around it. The Monday after we moved in, I heard Kelsey calling for me from the stairway. She had gotten stuck playing on the railing on the second floor. It was so funny! So of COURSE I snapped a picture to share...

Now we are more or less moved in and getting settled. We're still glad to be in Oklahoma, even though we have gotten off to a rough start!