Hi Ya'll!

Sorry... had to start the post with a cheesy title. I actually have only heard "ya'll" several times. Hmmm... maybe I need to get out more.

Lets go ahead and back track a bit. Lets start where I left off. Just before leaving SLC, Jaren came home to a surprise. I chopped my hair! I didn't want to do Alabama with long, fine, thin hair stuck to the back of my neck with all that humidity. So ta dah!

The back is a bit of an A line. Thanks Taryn... love the cut! With Jaren home, came the packing. This is the basement after most of it was gone. Wow Mom, there is a floor down there!

The bedroom and all of it's boxes. Total 146 boxes, 130 something wrapped up pieces of furniture/ chairs/ bins... etc.

This is the moving truck. I liked that it said on the side - "We move your life." So true. Don't worry... we didn't use the whole truck. There were several other loads that went on it, and came off it before it ever arrived to Alabama.

We left Monday morning at about 5 am, and then got to Mandy and Jake's that night around 8 pm. Long day. Unfortunately I totally forgot my camera that night. Mandy's house is awesome... and it was such a treat to get to see one of my favorite people on such a long and scary trip away from home. It was supposed to only take 13 hours, but it took longer because of a long stretch through Wyoming that looked like this:

What is that? Well it's an inch of ice over a road... with a blizzard on top of that. I drove for about 30 minutes through this before I made Jaren get back in the drivers seat. Good thing he's used to bad conditions. Scary!

Next day, Tuesday, we are off from Nebraska to Arkansas. We stayed with my cousin Mary and her husband Scott. We were shocked to see how much we look like each other. It had been over 10 years since we saw each other. We have the same chin, the same teeth, the same kind of eyes. And now since I chopped my hair... the same kind of hair. Hilarious!

These are her kids, Kaitlyn:

And "Bubba":

This is my aunt Helen. She's wonderful! And she looks just like my dad. Man it was great to be able to see MY family. I don't get to see my cousins, aunts, or anything because we lived so far away. But now they are only a day's drive. You'll get to see more of them when I go up to "Decoration Day" (Memorial Day weekend).

Wednesday we leave early, and drive to Alabama. We made it, and found the house to be clean (empty) and bigger than I expected. We had to wait until the following Tuesday to get our belongings. I can tell you that living without my stuff in a house is very different from camping without your stuff. I got to see exactly how materialistic I was, and how I don't do well without TV's, Books, Radios, etc. Needless to say we bought a lot during this time, and tried to get our storage organizers ready for all of our stuff. Here's a tour of the house before we got our stuff (WARNING - may cause motion sickness - and yes... I am breathing right into the mic. Sorry... I will get better at this):

Here's a pic of when our stuff came:

First impression of Alabama / Ft. Rucker: "This isn't going to be that bad Jaren! I can do this! This is really kind of pretty down here." I feel tremendously blessed already. I have made so many new friends that like to do the same things we do. I have met several vegetarian eaters, organic lovers, cyclists, triathletes, runners, climbers, etc. Basically I'm feeling very "at home" already. I miss my family and friends more than I expected - but it's not in the sad pathetic "oh I have no one" way. It's just a realization of how good my life has been.

I love the Church out here. My ward is awesome. They sure do know how to make you feel welcome. There were over 50 women at Enrichment the other night. 50!!! Back home it was pretty good to see 10. I also already had some "visiting teachers" come to see me. They are just two girls in my ward, that wanted to make sure that I was doing alright. AWESOME!

Everyone is really really nice. They are open and friendly, and aren't afraid to be genuine. I honestly think there might be something to this southern hospitality thing. It is awesome. I am a bit ashamed of how judgemental I was about all of this going into it. Not just Alabama, but the Military part as well. Military women are amazing. Their husbands.... equally amazing. I will say that I have found an amazing assortment of mustaches out here. On guys our age!!! Incredible. I will try and get you some pictures.

Once the house is all set up (got a long way to go), I will do another video (hopefully with less shaking and no weird breathing) to show you what I've done with the place. I will also try and get a picture of some of the cool / interesting things around town.

Oh, and for the record. I do not yet have an accent! :)