Sept. 25, 2002

Well, Kari, Elijah and I moved to Orem, Utah. We had fun getting here with all the U-Haul mishaps. Oh, don't bother reserving a truck 3 months in advance. They still won't have it when you need it and will give you the wrong size truck. Oh, and the truck will break down in Vegas on the strip at 2 in the morning. And they take hours before they come to tow the truck. No, I'm not bitter, any more. But I won't use them again.

We had a lot of help, and that was very nice, both loading and unloading the truck. But we got to Orem to confront an unfinished apartment. Well, it's still incomplete. Missing a bathroom. Good thing there is at least one working bathroom in the house. Kari's parents love having Elijah live in the same house with them. I enjoy it for the most part (and am much happier now that most of the apartment is complete and we don't have to use AOL for an internet connection, gotta love the cable Internet access). Of course, right after we moved here, we were hit with a heat wave that crushed our spirits and made work on the apartment difficult. My parents and the Griffins came to visit not long after we moved. My parents were also picking up Karyn, who kept me company in the truck I drove. Since then, the Cornwalls have also visited, too.

Things have been cooling off a bit, still not sure about this "winter" stuff that people talk about. Well, OK, I dealt with winter when I was in New York and Germany, but still. Elijah is growing like a weed. He is almost off the charts for baby height, but maintains a trim figure (for a baby). Kari has acclimatized to being a mother, and to having others there to help her take care of the baby. She also already has a job, even though it won't start until November (Hickory Farms, one of the places she worked when I first met her). I don't have a job yet. Much of my time has gone into fixing up the apartment (that's why there have been no updates for a while). I also was speaking with BYU professors for advice, etc. It looks like I may end up attending there (if they accept me), even though I never had plans of going there. Just when Kari and I moved here, they changed the residency laws for school in Utah so that it takes two years to be considered a resident. Ew. Screw that. I'll get my education some other way. We'll see what happens. I'll be applying at the end of the year.

Elijah is 5 months old today. He talks, sort of. I mean, you can hear him trying to say "I love you" and "dadda." He's a smart boy, loves having attention, wishes he could walk already, loves standing. Oh, we kind of had to force him to learn to roll over, which he hates to do. He hates being on his stomach, even. He babbles, he coos, he yells. He's a fun little boy to have around, usually in a good mood and full of love. Yeah, I'm gushing, as all proud dads do.