Getting Settled...

We're getting somewhat settled into our apartment in Escondido. Becky chose some of our stuff to be put into long term storage and some to come to the apartment. I think we're finding that more stuff should have gone into storage. Our house in St Louis had a great deal of space. Our apartment in Escondido does not. Moving is always an eye opening experience - finding out how much stuff you have accumulated - a lot of which you could probably do without. Anyhow, the picture to the right is Stephen standing on the deck at the entrance to our 2nd story apartment. The fact that it's on the 2nd story is significant as I'll explain later.

The moving truck arrived promptly at 8AM to bring our stuff. It was one of those really big 18-wheeler rigs. The moving company had called ahead and asked if they would be able to get the truck to our apartment. The lady in the apartment office assured me that they have trucks like that come through all the time and there shouldn't be a problem. Well... she was wrong. The truck could not even make it through the entrance to the complex, much less make it down to where our apartment is at the back of the complex. So, the movers decided they would need to bring a second, smaller moving truck to ferry our stuff from the big truck, to the small truck, to our apartment.

Since I needed to get to work, they went ahead and unloaded my car while awaiting the smaller truck. That went just fine and around 10AM, I left for work. I had a meeting at 11 so I couldn't wait any longer. At 12:30, after my meeting ended, I called Becky. They were still waiting for the small truck to arrive so they could start unloading. I'm sure they must have been getting frustrated. Eventually, they were able to get everything moved in. When I came home from work that night, the scene to the left is what greeted me. The apartment which, the day before, seemed to have lots of open space, now had walking trails winding through stacks and stacks of boxes. All except for one rather large item.

Remember how I said that the apartment was on the 2nd floor? Well, that was not our preference. In fact, Becky had told me to make sure we got one on the ground floor. Things don't always go as you would want. No first floor apartments were available so, 2nd floor it is. The movers took a look at the steps and the landing leading up to the deck and said, in no uncertain terms, that they were not going to move Becky's piano into the apartment. It was going to go into storage unless we wanted to pay a piano mover to bring out a crane and lift the piano up to the deck. We called the movers and they were not at all encouraging about the prospects of success, so we resigned ourselves to having the piano stored away.

Below are some pictures from our apartment. From these, you can get a picture of where we live.


We've made some progress unpacking, but not a lot. There are more important things than unpacking boxes - like going to Sea World, BBQ's on the beach, Six Flags Magic Mountain, surfing, and taking Stephen camping. But, hey, that's stuff for another blog entry - maybe.

I keep hoping that the realtor will call us and say, "Hey! Good news! I sold your house today!" So far, that hasn't happened. We're praying and trusting God and waiting on Him. I'm certain His timing will be perfect. Please, keep us in your prayers.

Allen