Christmas Blessings

I moved my sister from New York to Utah this past week. I spent Christmas on the road. I am the free professional mover of the family. My immediate family members usually don't move unless I am there to help them. I moved one sister from New York three years ago and flew out 20 December to move my other sister. I finished my exams that day and boarded the plane. I arrived with virtually no sleep the next afternoon. We spent most of the time before retiring packing the U-Haul trailer and their van. We took a reasonable nights rest then started off the next morning. Before I left, I was watching the weather reports to see what we were going to run into, since we were traversing the northern half of the country. It appeared that we were going to run into at least three snow storms. Having finished cleaning and packing the mop, broom and vacuum, we loaded into the van, said a prayer and were off.

The trip started with some heavy winds, but we missed the storm that was supposed to roar through. We stayed at a friend's house Sunday after we went to Church and were inside before the snow storm hit. U-Haul trailers are not aerodynamic in any sense and for that reason they are hard to pull. We could not drive faster than 55mph without the trailer starting to sway so much that it would jerk the car back and forth. I had hoped to be able to drive the speed limit, but found that we averaged about 50mph. I got frustrated every time the trailer would start to sway. I became expert at keeping semis from pushing the trailer when they passed us by pulling over to the white line as far as possible without hitting the rumble strips. We were better able to keep our speed when I finally figured that out.

It took us a day to get to Danville, IL from Akron, OH due to being stuck on our friend's lawn for a while until we bought a tow strap and he pulled us out. From Danville we went to Omaha, NE, then to Lincoln and finally to Utah. Every night the Weather Channel predicted snow showers for our trip and weather.com gave poor ratings for the freeways we were to travel, but every morning the storms had either cleared up or moved in a different direction. We missed every predicted storm and had clear roads almost the entire way. Had we been able to drive faster we would have been stuck in every one of the storms. It turned out to be a blessing for us that we drove so slowly. There was a part of I-80 which was kept in shade most of the morning where we hit a patch of ice from the storm the night before, which caused us to slide a bit. My heart was pounding like it hadn't in a while, once we had traction again. I was especially grateful when we started dropping off of the continental divide and found no ice coming down the steep roads. We made down I-84 with out any problem either. The heavy snow predicted earlier that day had moved out or dissipated before we had to worry about it. I really did not want to take a trailer pulled by a minivan down Parley's Canyon or any other drop into the valleys with the possibility of snow on the roads.

There is no doubt in my mind that God had His hand in our travels. Though I was frustrated by the lack of speed we had to endure, I can look back and say that events were orchestrated to bring us safely home. We even had a toddler under three and a two-month-old baby in the car and only rarely did we have to endure much crying. All in all, we were more than blessed in every way. Does our Heavenly Father still care about us, His children? Absolutely!

In the beginning...

Today I was reminded, again, that I should keep a daily record of the events in my life. We had a lesson, or rather a thought, on Thanksgiving and President Eyring's message about the events he recorded in his life for his children and other posterity. I am hoping I can be consistent with this and perhaps share some light and good times with those who view these entries. In the last few weeks there hasn't seemed to be much good to speak of, with many things going wrong, but there were and continue to be bright spots. I will reflect on them as time permits. As with a lot of things I do, if I put too much time into this I will have to scale back, so as not to impede on some other part of my life...exams, labs, homework or other duties. This is just the beginning so I will leavea it as an introduction.