Brion & Trion

I wrote this about a month ago but never posted it. For posterity's sake (ha) I'll post it now.



We made it. We are here in Florida. Things are calming down. Finally. It was a crazy wild ride getting here. When we were skyping our families and telling them what we went through to get here, we decided we definitely needed to document it.

After such a fun holiday in Utah, we flew back to Michigan and packed everything up and drove back to our humble abode in Georgia. From there, Shaun immediately had to go to Houston for a National Sales meeting for the week so my Mom came and visited Georgia. I'm so grateful for all of her help packing us up. Shaun came back late Friday night and Saturday we finished up putting our apartment into a box and left for our Florida house hunting trip. Everybody told us that we were crazy expecting to find housing in five days. They were right. Fortunately we were able to sign a lease two hours before our flight back to Georgia!

We got back late Friday night and stayed up preparing for the big move in the morning. We had to be up at 6 AM to go get the Uhaul. Shaun picked up the truck while I was running around getting last minute things for our big drive. The 9 o' clock hour rolled around and…nobody was there to help. I was laughing in the grocery store aisle (masking my fear of doing this by ourselves) watching a video Shaun sent me of him taking down boxes to the truck by himself. Thankfully a few friends showed up and saved our lives! We got all packed up and then went to dinner with some friends that night.

We were planning on saying goodbye to our friends kids before they went to bed and then spending the night there to be rested for the early drive. We had to finish getting everything out of the apartment. By that time I was so frustrated about all of the random stuff that was still left that I started throwing stuff away. Finally that was done and all that was left was hooking up our car to the dolly. . .

Shaun had done this before when he made the drive across country to Georgia, but he didn't have me as his navigator! I can't explain to you how hard it is to navigate a whole car to roll over a certain spot that is only a few inches wide. I felt bad for Shaun because he had just moved our whole apartment down six flights of stairs on 4.5 hours of sleep and was now having to listen to my "directions." After many tries and finally switching spots so he was the navigator, we got the car attached. He had me go into the Uhaul and start moving to make sure it was secure. Whoops, we definitely had put it on backwards and it was about to do a nose dive. Let me just remind everybody out there to look out your mirrors and turn down the radio so you can hear your navigator telling you to stop (I don't think he knows this but after I put the Uhaul back into park, I was laughing my head off. I pulled myself together and went back out to "help").

After about two hours, we finally figured out how to correctly attach the car. We got to our friends house about 11:30PM and of course missed saying goodbye to the kids. The next morning started at 5AM. Call me high maintenance, but there was no way I could drive this 17-foot Uhaul + our car being towed behind it plus no rearview mirror. I actually don't think Shaun trusted me to drive it from how nervous I was. So he once again earned the husband of the year award for driving the entire way. It is only an 8 hour drive but in a big Uhaul it took 12 hours. Yes, he drove 12 hours with minimal breaks and no cruise control.

We barely pulled into our place just in time for the movers Shaun had hired to move us in. My family has moved quite a few times so I understand the people you sometimes encounter as your movers. This was pretty bad though. We pulled up to our condo in the dark where I met two hooded gentleman that never spoke (Brion and Trion. Yes they were brothers and yes their names rhymed) and the main guy that I guess owns the company. I was a bit surprised when the owner was telling me how annoyed he was having to drive these guys around to the jobs because they don't have licenses. {hmm. what does it usually mean when you can't get a license…} We were already so exhausted and stressed. It was safe to say that our welcome party stressed us out even more.

They leave, we return the Uhaul, and go get our car that we left at the airport parking lot. We picked up the car and drove to Wendy's for some much needed food. Shaun checks to see if the dining area is open and it wasn't so we went through the drive-thru. It was there that we realize Shaun's wallet is currently missing. We rush back to the airport and it isn't there. We are in panic-freak-out mode because of the following:

-ten hours of sleep the past two days
-Shaun is exhausted from the drive
-we have to turn on the electricity with a card that is in his wallet
-Shaun works in seven hours
-our welcome party was frightening
-it's midnight in a brand new area so everything looks sketchy

After driving through the airport one more time Shaun decides to go back to the Wendy's because that is the only other place we went. We pull up and laying in the curb is HIS WALLET. When he got out to check the dining area, it fell out. We get back home and are both just wanting to cry. Shaun decides to take a shower and go to bed. He turns on the water and it sputters a bit and then shoots out water with a powerful rotten eggs stench. Soon our whole house is smelling like that and we both are just nauseous. We decide the best thing to do at this point is just bury our heads in our pillows and sleep.

Once the sun came up everything was better. We called about the water and I guess it is a brand new unit and the water hadn't been run through the purification system yet. After twenty minutes the smell was gone.

I am laughing out loud as I am writing about this. It is crazy how in the moment something seems like such a huge deal to your wellbeing. Things that make you think your life is over, will have you laughing weeks later. Like I said at the beginning, we're here. We made it. Florida is amazing despite our journey getting here and we are so excited to see what it has in store!

Faith in His Timing

I can’t stop thinking about how Heavenly Father has individual plans for each of us. It is so special. I wanted to write a little bit about how our plan fell into place.

First of all, I now advise all my newlywed peeps to MOVE AWAY! Get out of your comfort zones together. Get away from your friends and family and just RELY on one another. It is so powerful! I am grateful for Shaun’s wonderful job that brought us to Georgia. Out of the entire state we ended up in Alpharetta where we had wonderful friends who could tell us where to live and which ward to join. I think that truly made all of the difference. The people we have met will be life long friends. For example, The Wernlis. Chris was the only other member in Shaun’s office. He had just moved from being a rep in Florida. We became super close with him and his wife. Their constant raves about Florida were imprinted in our minds. Who knew this would play such a huge part in our decision?

Before Shaun could get into a permanent territory, part of his training involved covering an area temporarily for three months. We were really hoping for Houston because my brother lives there, but when that didn’t work out Baltimore was next on our list. So when we got Grand Rapids, MI we were confused and frustrated. Thankfully the Lord knew the plan. . .

Shaun was the “West guy” in his office. Everybody knew that we wanted to end up out West. To our surprise, that started changing this last year. We loved the culture in the South and the church out in the ‘mission field.’ So we decided to be open minded to other areas.

Fall came and Florida showed up on the open territory list, but Shaun wasn’t done with his three-month cover. The position soon filled and that was that. Weeks later toward the end of his cover, we were finally able to apply. We considered a move to Dallas. We didn’t know how we truly felt about Texas until we found out that the new Florida rep withdrew and Fort Myers, Florida was back on the table! Instantly we felt Florida was right and decided to go for it.

Shaun was able to show many of his successes from Grand Rapids and really shine in his interview. I don’t know what would have happened if we ended up in Houston or Baltimore like we originally planned, but it’s amazing that the cover position ended right before they wanted Shaun in Florida {The Houston and Baltimore jobs would have run into the New Year}.

Prayer works. I have a testimony of it. I also have a strong testimony of tithing. The lessons we learn from it are so important and the experiences that come to us build our faith. Heavenly Father is real and his plan is the best thing for us.

sayonara

As I mentioned, Shaun & his Dad took the trek across country to GA while I stayed in Utah and finished my summer semester out. My parents went on a cruise so it worked out perfectly to stay at their house and use their car while staying and spending time with my brother. Kristine moved out but was good about coming back to hang with us. Looking back it actually was a good last two weeks {even though at the time I was super stressed with school & thought it was the worst}.

Highlights: Avengers with the siblings, Brit's art history night, Grocery shopping with Corn, KC's fathers day celebration, slurpee runs, Kristine the hair stylist, Din with Park & Pat, Trampoline sesh. 

It was a short time but a good one. Dad had meetings but Mom & the kids drove us to the airport and said our last goodbyes! It was a big moment leaving the nest for reals. {But I'll be back...right Shaun? :) just kidding we like it here}

outside the bubble?

I, Nicole Erin, have lived a sheltered life. But I'm grateful for that life. I think although it makes branching out and moving across country a terrifying experience, it is more fulfilling to people like me. 
Yes, I have utterly enjoyed: 
-knowing my whole neighborhood because I see them that Sunday at church. 
-being familiar with the town or even the state of Utah like the back of my hand. 
-feeling safe to go anywhere by myself {although duh, I know things happen everywhere}.
-walking across the street to church and having a church building on every literal corner {i will admit, i thought that was almost embarrassing as a teenager}.
-having my family and close friends all at my fingertips.
-familiar faces at my University. 
-having a small town grocery store seconds away
-seeing at least 3 temples in sight.

I lived in a bubble.

It sounds funny but it is strange to think that there is a world outside of it. There are places where people would laugh at the way I used to live because that does not exist where they live. I am grateful for my bubble. But I am more grateful for my husband that took me out of it temporarily to experience something new. 

It is scary and will take some getting used to but for the 5 days I have been here, {ha} 
I have utterly enjoyed:
-not knowing a soul.
-seeing a new face everywhere I go.
-not knowing where I am even if I was just a street away from my apartment.
-that feeling of uncertainty even taking the laundry downstairs wondering if I am safe. {disclaimer: I live in one of the safest communities in GA. Probably just the Law & Order talking. I have got to stop watching that}
-driving 20 minutes to church.
-skyping the friends I left behind and wondering who the new ones will be.
-making a trip out of going to the temple.

Here is to new things. New experiences to still keep my bubble, but maybe widen it a tad. 

Now if only I can figure out how people are even wearing the clothes on their backs! 

Humidity + a literal 106 degrees = I'm too hot to even think of what that could equal.

Restaurant Party Hopping.

Well we are safe and sound in Georgia, but we'll talk about that later. Today I wanted to share one of those stories that goes under the category of "hilarious but only if you were there." {would you believe that I have a ton of those?}

So after a fun day at Thanksgiving Point, which will be blogged about later, all of Shaun's fam packed into the CRV to go and get a burger at the deli there. Much to Audrey's dismay--it was closed. Which was the first comical thing because of her outrageous reaction...due to her insane diet, she has "meat days" sparingly and she wanted a hamburger from there before the day ended. So instead, we head to:

it may have been because we had just spent the day outside in outrageously high temperatures, because we were boiling. We couldn't feel the AC at all. KC came up to us saying we needed to leave because they said the AC was broken. As we are headed out the door Shaun explained to the hostess saying 

"..you having trouble with your guys' AC huh?"

"...no.."

"oh, well..sorry.."

"we can turn the AC down if that's the only reason you're leaving"

.and scene.

We then go down the street to: 

Applebee's is not all that glorious but this was even worse than normal. We get seated and the floor underneath our table is covered in filth---and this was not just my germ freak insides speaking. Audrey was sticking to the table so we asked for a cloth. The waitress than plopped what seemed to be one, but was more in the condition of a mop that had just wiped a floor covered in things we do not want to discuss. We were debating on leaving again (in-between me hysterically laughing my head off). The waitress had already brought out our waters and she said:

Waitress: "do you need another minute? 

SJ: "yeah we do, thank you"

Audrey: "yeah we just need one more minute, we're talkin 'bout some stuff"

We all just lost it. 

(Although, where we were going to eat that night was turning into a very personal matter!)

Supposedly just getting up and walking out wasn't our thing because we left it up to pregnant Margaret to fake sick and walk out with Ryan first. Margaret being the happy person that she is, was just all smiles walking out and Ryan was whispering in her ear "SICK. You're supposed to be sick!" 

When all else fails where do you go?

-actually that should be your first choice, I know.

After explaining to our waiter Nate that the pressure was really on because this was the THIRD restaurant we had been to that night, it was time to order. Audrey goes ahead and orders the new bleu cheese something-or-other burger and the waiter was confused. We then realized that burger was in-fact the special at Applebees. You know you have been to too many restaurants when you are ordering other menu items.

Texas of course did not disappoint and it was a funny, hyper dinner to end our time in Provo. It honestly was one of the funniest moments that I have had in a long time. All of this while carting Kevin & Audrey in the back of the CRV like dogs. (Which we forgot to let them out quite a few times). Things that are hilarious are fun. And it makes it better when it's with your fam. 

GA

Well I just wanted to make it blog-official.

These Johnson's are headed to the "state of adventure."

GEORGIEEE-A.

Shaun's cousin has been trying to get him involved in this great Animal Pharmaceutical company and their base is in the South. This has been one of Shaun's goals to eventually get his foot in the door. When there was an opening a couple months ago I said to of course apply for anything and everything. I should have known that my SJ was going to get it because of how amazing he is. We found out a few weeks ago that he got it and have been trying to comprehend it all while making arrangements at the same time. The job requires a year or so in Georgia for training and then they place you elsewhere {we're praying for UT}.

It's so amazing how the people that you meet and build friendships with are for a real, true reason. I have had many examples of this in my life but lately it has been with the Sant family. Out of the whole state of Georgia, Shaun's work is only about 30 minutes or so from them in Alpharetta. What a blessing! We are able to find places that are close to them but also close to Shaun's work. Ashley's parents have been so incredible with helping us find a good area and an amazing ward. WE ARE SO BLESSED. And it makes me rest a little easier knowing that I will have a few amazing connections there.

My time for graduation was going to be April of next year. I am hoping that I can continue on with that pace and online classes will open up. So many things have worked out perfectly for this job and the timing on different things is unbelievable. In the mean time I'm purging my belongings. Especially my clothes. For some reason I have believed that I would always have a need for all of my clothes and haven't gotten rid of anything since high school. {Then why do I still wear the same thing everyday? I don't get it either.} We will be loading up the U-haul and Shaun & KC will be driving out June 14th. I finish my summer block of school the 22nd so I'll still be here. Shaun will work about a week and then fly back June 22nd to come get me and perform the last Johnson band concert for The Rose Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We then say Bon Voyage June 24th. 

Flights are booked. Moving boxes have arrived. And the goodbyes are slowly happening. Looking at the big picture--I know this is the right thing for us and I am excited for this "state of adventure." 

I can't decide, I think this might be a depressing song about Georgia.
But I'm sorry, there is no going astray from John.