Monday, August 8, 2011

When Rome falls so falls Klamath Falls.

Hello from Chris.
We have made the move from Newberg to Klamath falls! The drive itself was very nice. We went through forests and lake country, over some big hills and through some mountain passes. It all went relatively smoothly accept for our experience just before we got to Eugene. Kim, who was in the Honda following me while I drove the U-Haul with attached trailer, radioed me to tell me that she could smell burning rubber and was starting to see smoke coming from the right side of the trailer. We took the next exit off I5 and shortly after the trailer tire folded up like a dead spider and left us slowly bumping along to a stop. Fortunately there was a U-Haul mobile repair truck in the area and he was with us within 15 minutes and had us repaired within the hour. We showed up in K-falls at around 7pm or so and became promptly lost in town. After speaking with our landlord, whom we were supposed to be meeting, we found our way to our new home on the southwest side of the lakes.
Thanks to some members of the local Mormon Church we were able to unload the truck very quickly the next day, and have been unpacking ever since. On the 8th we finally got internet service and so we decided to update our blog for all of you who are interested in our new situation.
My enrollment at OIT has been going smoothly and I am impressed by the friendly manner of all the people I have met at the school, it is very encouraging. I look forward to spending the next few years here earning my BA in Geomatics (Land survey) and have been hearing many promising signs that I will enjoy this career for years to come. Kim has been meeting an assortment of people and we hope to make some new friends down here in the near future. Elyas seems to like his new surroundings, especially since we have been focusing on making more baby-proof areas for him to reign. He rules over his flock of kitties with a pudgy iron fist. And they seem to accept him as their leader for now.







Hi from Kim ;)

Wow. What an adventure. We packed up as fast as we could, crammed all of our belongings into a Uhaul truck and trailer and moved to a house that we had never seen except for in pictures. Yikes!

For all of those of you who don't know yet, about 3 weeks ago Chris was still planning on going to OSU and we were going to move to Corvallis. At the time I thought that was going to be so far away from friends and family, but I don't think that anymore. Chris decided to do some career research to make sure he was taking the right steps to getting him into his chosen career field. He called several Land surveying companies and talked with them and asked them their advice. He got some very good advice to consider OIT as opposed to OSU. Chris decided to take this advice and on that very same day we made the decision to move to Klamath Falls and have Chris go to school at OIT and get his BA in Geomatics (Land Survey). On the very same day we also found out that we needed to get out of the house that we were living within a short amount of time. We took the steps and Chris applied for OIT while I looked for a place to live.

A week before we had to move we finally secured a place to live. Thank goodness we got this place! I had been looking at another house before this one and we even applied for it. I think that them rejecting us (out of pure discrimination...ILLEGAL!) was really a blessing in disguise. I'm so happy we got this house instead of the other. The neighborhood is safe, beautiful, and has friendly neighbors; plus we are also more rural. The house we almost got is kind of in the ghetto, I would NOT have been happy there. Plus that house was only half the size this one is, so it would have been cramped. Another plus is that we are only paying $10 more per month for rent. We were definitely blessed!

Packing and moving was crazy! We reserved a 20' Uhaul earlier in the week, but we didn't realize that reservations at Uhaul means absolutely nothing. The day we were suppose to get our truck they couldn't get a size bigger than a 17'. Well, we tried to fit everything into that truck. My brother Bryan came over and helped Chris play tetris in the truck. They crammed that thing so tight! Well, Sunday night came and we ran out of room in the truck and we still had things to pack. So Monday we had to wake up early and run down to Uhaul and rent a trailer for the rest of our belongings. Luckily, Chris is good at negotiating and got us like half price on the truck and the trailer for free since we had reserved a 20' truck and they had failed to come through. We left for Klamath Falls as soon as the trailer was packed up.

The drive was long, and a little adventurous. I drove behind Chris in our Honda. We got to Eugene 2 hours after launching out. As soon as we took the exit for Eugene I started smelling a rubbery smell. At first I didn't think anything about it, until I saw Chris's trailer's tire was smoking. I radioed Chris as soon as I saw it. We decided that as soon as we could we would pull over, but as we drove the tire began to unravel and started to spew out at me. I told him to pull over immediately. After we called Uhaul we rolled into the nearest Albertson's parking lot and waited. Thank goodness they were prompt, we really didn't wait long at all. The guy checked things out the make sure it had just been a flat and nothing more serious, changed our tire and we were on our way.

We pulled into Klamath Falls around 7PM and immediately became lost. We both kept saying that we felt like we were in a different country; everything looks so different from the Portland area. Huge lakes, mountains, and sparse trees and green. Everything is kind of yellow. We found the realty place after parking the Uhaul signed our papers and got to go see our new home for the very first time. It is a lot smaller than the pictures made it appear, but I'm happy with the location. Elyas loves it. I put him on the ground and he began to run a marathon around the house.

The next day was a little funny and interesting. We had no internet, no home phone, and no help. We had a prepaid phone with 10 minutes left on it, and I was trying to wrangle up some help from the local LDS church with no numbers and barely any minutes left on our phone. I called Barbara Stock who gave me the only number that I actually was able to speak to a real phone instead of an answering machine. I called many friends and want to thank them for their help. With 4 minutes left and no luck I finally texted my sister for help. I gave her the number of the guy I was able to get a hold of and asked her to tell him that I needed his help. He was able to wrangle up Klamath Falls First Ward for me and sent a whole group over. They helped us get the truck emptied in under 45 minutes. The next day they sent the first ward relief society to our house to help us unpack our kitchen. Wow, thanks to every one who helped out. Thanks to my family members who helped us pack, who helped us load the truck, who helped us wrangle up help on this end of things, and to the Klamath Falls 5th ward bishop who got the Klamath Falls first ward to come and help us.

We are still in the process of unpacking and can't wait for this process to be over. We will be keeping you posted and I will be posting pictures soon.

Love you all!