The Big Move

Helpful friends & family, road tripping with a baby, & monsoon season.

Moving is a lot of work!

We’ve been in our new home in Rehoboth, New Mexico for a month now. Wow, time goes by fast! One thing we’ve learned about moving is it’s a lot of work. And there’s added difficulty when a baby is involved. We still have quite a bit of unpacking & organizing to do. We are working on it; it’ll get done eventually. Here’s a quick summary of the moving process:

Pack-clean-load truck. Pack some more. Load some more. Clean some more. Drive. Unload. Shuffle boxes. Shuffle furniture. Find important boxes. Unpack. Shuffle more boxes. Not find what you’re looking for. Find more important boxes. Unpack… unpack… shuffle… Still haven’t found what I’m lookin’ for… Shuffle… unpack… You get the picture.

The summary does not include the constant distracting, entertaining, feeding, holding, and loving on of Roland (we are not complaining; we love our boy!).

Napping on the air mattress the day before we left. He was pooped from the persistent pandemonium packing produces.

There were a handful of people who helped us tremendously through the packing & cleaning process. We are so grateful. We could NOT have done everything without their help (you know who you are!). We want to thank you, we hope you know how much we appreciate you!

Finally done packing, loading, & cleaning! Zoey (Jasmine’s sister) joined us to help entertain Roland in the backseat. The 4 of us drove down in our Rav4. We left on a Saturday and arrived on Tuesday. Many stops for little Roland.

Said our goodbyes to sweet baby cousin Isla just before we left.

We made the best distance when Roland was sleeping.

Roland swimming in a pool for the first time at one of our hotel stops.

Roland looking cool with his sunnies. Maybe a little too excited to be in the driver’s seat… oh boy.

Two Men & a Dog. Jack (on the right, Jasmine’s brother), Isai (on the left, a family friend), and Leo (in the middle, Jack’s dog). They drove straight through the night and almost caught up to us. We arrived only 7 or 8 hours before them.

Home sweet home. Our living room after the truck was unloaded. Stay tuned for a progress photo (don’t worry, our living room doesn’t look like this anymore; we just haven’t taken an updated picture).

Roland’s reaction when we told him this was our new home.

Roland was shirtless for the first week or so we were here, as he was adjusting to the heat.

Things we’ve learned:

1. July & August are the monsoon season in New Mexico. The first two weeks we were here it rained nearly every day. It hailed a couple of times too! It is common to have flash flood warnings during rainstorms.

   

   View of a hail storm from our living room window.

2. We get clean drinking water from The Water Store (yes, that’s the name of the store. Also, yes, that’s a real thing.). The tap water is drinkable, but it has a bunch of extra minerals and such that are not recommended these days. Bonus fun fact: our cousins own the store.

3. Central air conditioning is uncommon here. This makes us feel like real wimps. Why does everyone have central air conditioning in Michigan, where it’s only hot for like 2 months?

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July & August were a whirlwind. Moving is a lot of work, and we’re exhausted. We were both excited and nervous to embark on our journey to the Southwest. We are grateful we made it here safely with no major hiccups along the way. Thank you to everyone who has supported us through prayer, encouraging words, and helping hands! We are surrounded by the best people; we are blessed.

We are still adjusting and getting settled. We have started work, Roland has been growing and developing rapidly. Stay tuned for more details in the following newsletters!

Thank you for reading The Newmsletter!

Much love,

The Newmans