Surviving St. Louis

For almost 6 weeks, husband has been in Utah. Without me. It just made sense to do the Big Move over Thanksgiving weekend, thus limiting the number of days either of us has to take off work. Have I mentioned yet that my job is letting me work remotely through the end of the year? I know - totally awesome. But it means that I have been stuck in St. Louis all by my lonesome (yes, I'm whining. Its well-earned whining though: 5+ weeks alone and PREGNANT!)

So while husband's been "living the dream" in Utah and seeing both of our families, I've been packing up the apartment. By myself. And please don't worry that I've been doing too much for my prego body - I've been smart. Promise.

Anyway - back to us being apart for OVER FIVE WEEKS - this is the longest we've been apart since we met. I know I know - it could be worse, and he could be in the military or it could be WWII and he would be gone for years and years with only a letter or 2 to keep me going. But I think there's a reason God didn't have me born during WWII because I would NOT have been able to handle it. I am not strong enough and I'm one of those pathetic wives that needs to have her husband around.

So yesterday the long-anticipated day was upon us. The day of husband's return!!! His flight to Denver went off without a hitch. About 20 minutes before leaving Denver, the big announcement about the Darren Wilson case was made. (If you've been living under a rock for the last 3 months, google "Ferguson, Missouri." Happy reading.) The plane took off and I figured no matter what happened in Ferguson, we would see each other in 2.6ish hours.

Let's back up to the Darren Wilson case. Things have been CRAZY here for the last 3 weeks with prepping for this big day. Rumors and speculating have been abundant. Every weekend I've been stocking up on the essentials because the announcement was supposed to happen any time. It kind of seemed to be overly hyped up.

So the announcement was made, and within an hour things were getting REALLY ugly. I watched on tv in horror as parts of our town were destroyed. I've never felt afraid like that before - it was scary. All I could think to do was pray for peace and safety for those who were trying to keep the peace. We're about 15 miles from the heart of Ferguson, but there was also a group of protestors in the city, only one mile away from us. Helicopters were flying overhead all night, but other than that our street stayed eerily quiet. And thankfully the city protestors were much more peaceful than the ones in Ferguson.

When it came time to leave to pick up Dan, I mustered up my courage and ran out to the car. (Yes, I got in trouble for leaving the house, so don't bother to yell at me any further. In my defense I needed a man, and getting Dan was the only way to have my man to protect me! And our street really was quiet.) But less than a mile away the protestors had shut down the freeway. Which meant the surface streets were busy with traffic. My drive took me really close to where the shutdown was happening, and it was kind of traumatizing to be see close to the action.

I arrived at the airport just in time to discover that Dan's flight had been CANCELLED. They were literally 10 minutes away from landing in St. Louis when the protesting got so bad that they closed the airport. (The airport is only a couple of miles from Ferguson.) So the plane turned around and went ALL THE WAY BACK TO DENVER. I was devastated. Dan was worried sick and had no way of knowing if I was safe. Needless to say it was a long night for both of us (but it thankfully remained quiet on my street).

And let me also add so that no one worries to much that I wasn't being smart . . . . I live in a duplex and have awesome neighbors that live in my same building and checked-in on me periodically. And my next door neighbors on both sides were also at my beckoned call. And the bishop called several times to make sure I was safe. So I was being taken care of just fine.

Dan spent the night in the airport and was on a flight again at 6:00 am. Thankfully the airport had reopened and we were reunited at last. I cried with relief the whole way home from the airport.

Sorry for this crazy long post without any pictures (head to the news if you want to see pics of all the destruction).

This year for Thanksgiving I have something new to be grateful for - feeling safe. I've taken it for granted my whole life. God bless St. Louis and the good people who live here.

It's Official

You know how on TV when the like-able main character is headed off to some big or important event, and inevitably something goes wrong on the way there? The flight gets cancelled, or there's a major storm, or the car breaks down, etc etc. Did you know those things happen in real life too? Cause they do. Dan was on his way to a big important interview when his tire blew on the freeway. Oh fudge!!! (name that movie)

Yes, he was wearing a suit and tie and proceeded to change the tire on the side of the freeway while cars whirred past at 70 mph. Miraculously he was only 10 minutes late to the interview. Apparently the blown tire didn't phase him at all, because he must have rocked the it-they gave him an offer the very next day!! Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!! It's a great job doing compliance work for a small HR company. We couldn't be more grateful or thrilled.

So what does that mean for our little family?

Yep, that's right. We are moving to Utah! It's been quite the crazy last couple of weeks, and everything just seems to be falling into place like clockwork (which is very NOT normal for us). I keep waiting for something to go wrong because it all seems too good to be true. Then Dan reminded me that his tire blew out on the freeway, and that's got to count for something, right? Right.

So we're packing our bags and will be in Utah by December. To say our families are excited would be an understatement. Get ready Utah - the Ditto's are coming!!

Oh - and just in case you were wondering, this is what baby Gus looked like at 21 weeks. Totally rockin my huge bump. :)