The First Week...and then some

 Let's just start by saying that I am officially selling off all of our belongings before we move again just so I don't have to deal with moving all of our crap all over again. It's seriously 

THE WORST.

Just ask Edgar:

I'm sure anyone who reads this blog probably already knows my story of the 'Movers From Hell', but I'll give a quick condensed version:

I booked this super cheap moving company based out of Vegas. They were $3,900 cheaper than Allied, which should have been my biggest red flag. Hindsight is always 20/20.

So this company promised that they would be to our house to pick up all of our stuff sometime between 12-4 pm on August 13th (Our flight was scheduled for the 21st and we would arrive on the 22nd). I got a call at 11:30 am, 30 minutes before they were supposed to be to our house from the driver informing me that he was stuck in Denver and wouldn't be to our house until Friday (3 days later).

Awesome.

So I called my amazing parents, told them our plight, (We would have been stuck in our apartment for 5 days with NOTHING.) and my incredible Papa agreed to drive our stuff over 2,300 miles across the country.

Best parents ever? Um, YES. Love them to pieces.

So I cancelled our booking with the worthless company and booked a beautiful Penske.

 

On Sunday, August 18th, Bryant and I dragged Garrett out of bed and basically forced him into the car and made him ride with us from Logan to Springville to load the truck so my parents could leave bright and early on the morning of the 19th.

Edgar didn't enjoy the family photo.
He basically lived alone at the house for a week while Bry, Willis, and I were staying with Bry's family in Logan.

So on August 21st we finally think we're ready to leave. My parents left their truck with us so we could haul Willis and our luggage to the airport and they would have a ride home once they flew back.

Willis was securely tied down in the back. (I thought I did a mighty fine job, personally.) 

We had to drive down to the Springville home one last time to get Edgar.

(Below we have Bryant, SUPER sad to be leaving his house)

So now let me tell you about how I almost killed Edgar...

Seriously.

It was BAD.

Before you can fly an animal, the airlines require that you have a certificate of health from your vet dated no later than 10 days before your flight. We took both animals to our awesome vet and they went through all the paperwork with us. I mentioned that I wanted something that would "make the flight easier" (*wink*wink*). So the vet prescribed "Acepromazine" for both Willis and Edgar. They gave us a ton of pills in a bottle for each animal so we could test the medicine before we flew them. We didn't get a chance to test Edgar and personally I didn't want to try shoving a pill down the demon's throat more than I had to. So while we were in Logan, the Sunday that Bryant and I went to pack the Penske, I gave Willis his recommended dose of 3 pills thinking I was being so smart by knocking him out while leaving him in the care of Laurel (Bry's mom) who kindly tolerates Willis and his crazy antics. I texted her a few hours after giving him the pills to see if he was knocked out and she said "Not a bit." (Great. Stupid pills don't even work.) The vet later recommended that we give him 4 before his flight. The next few days after he had the pills I noticed he had hives all over his body. He was itching like crazy and the girl at PetSmart who gave him a bath said he had "ouchies." Only later would I look up the pills and see that hives are a common reaction to the pills.

So anyway, the night of our flight when we went back to the house to get Edgar I decided to give him 1 pill like his recommended dosage said. I grabbed Willis's bottle of pills and cut one in half, then Bry held him while I shoved both halves down the Beast's throat. (It really went quite well, surprisingly enough.) We finished a few things up at the house and I was putting both bottles of pills in my purse when I decided to look at the bottles. I opened them and noticed that Edgar's were pink pills, but Willis's were yellow. I hurried and looked at the bottles one more time and saw that Edgar was supposed to have ONE 10 mg tablet and Willis was supposed to have THREE 25 mg tablets!

So now I start to mentally freak out a little bit. I go through the following in my head:

-Ok. So I just gave Edgar 2.5 times the normal dosage he should have. No big deal.

-What if it's lethal?

-Oh shiz.

-Bryant is going to FREAK.OUT.

-How do I casually bring this up?

-We're already running behind, maybe I'll wait until we get in the car...

So I waited.

A few minutes later we start driving out of our subdivision when I tell Bryant what I did.

He freaked out.

Thinking on my feet, I suggest we stop at Wendy's just down the road and get a burger and feed the beef to him to get him to barf up the pills. (For some odd reason beef makes him puke. Weird, I know.) So we stopped, parked the truck, took Edgar out on the grass while I shoved pieces of beef down his throat. (Normally it takes about 30 seconds for him to barf. Nothing was happening.) I seriously fed this cat half of a JBC and nothing was happening. So we called the vet and asked what we should do. He said that he should be ok down in the cargo area, just make sure to give him a blanket so he doesn't get too cold.

So we started driving for the airport and Edgar's meows became much less frequent. I looked up on the internet that you can feed a cat Hydrogen Peroxide and it will induce vomiting. Bryant wasn't satisfied with "give him a blanket", so we pulled over at the Target in American Fork, got some Hydrogen Peroxide, and again returned to the grass with Edgar. I held his poor little mouth open while Bryant shoved capfuls of it down his throat. Still, nothing was happening!! (What the crap?!--turns out, the pill we gave him is know for its 'anti-vomiting' characteristic, so thats why vets like to give it to animals so they don't barf after surgery. Good to know.)

So Bry called the vet one more time and talked to him for a little while. The vet said Edgar had about 2mg per pound, which isn't ideal but it's ok. He said if you get into the 4mg per pound range then it turns lethal. He said that the problem with this prescription is that it lowers their heart rate, and they can't control their body temperature, so if you put them down in the cargo of the plane it could easily make the animals hypothermic. (Would have been nice to know when they were originally prescribing the pills...)

So now we had a problem. We were now officially running late, we couldn't check Edgar as cargo with Willis anymore, and Edgar's crate was way too big to be a carryon. We checked Target and they had ZERO pet carriers. (Worthless Target.)

So we panic a little more.

Bryant frantically calls Cami and starts to give her instructions to leave Provo, get a cat crate we can fly with, and meet us at the airport because we had to hurry and get Willis to Delta Cargo on time. While he was calling I saw there was a Walmart nearby, so Bry sprints in, buys a smaller carrier for Edgar, and off we speed to the airport.

We arrive at Delta Cargo and the employees there could not have been any sweeter. They were beyond helpful, even though Willis was growling at some of them. I left Bryant to finish checking him in so I could run out to the truck and put (the now lethargic) Edgar into his new carrier. I look up and sure enough I see Willis prance through the automatic doors out into the parking lot towards me. (When they took his harness off him, he decided to bolt for the door. He's not stupid!) So I bribed him with treats and we eventually got him squared away.

WHEW!!!

So below you will find Bryant (on Twitter/CaneSport/Rivals) sitting next to Edgar while we wait for the shuttle.

 Luckily the carrier we bought fit PURRRfectly. (Get it?)

When the flight was boarding there were a few small kids that were starting to whimper/cry. At the same time, Edgar was kind of starting to meow, even though his eyes were completely glazed over and his inner eyelids were creepily half way up his eyes. NEVER, in my whole time of flying, have I been more grateful to hear a kid cry. It was loud enough to drown out the sound of my whimpering cat. Seriously, the kid could have cried the whole time and I would have been perfectly content.

We arrived around 6:00 am on the 22nd at JFK. Edgar made it without disturbing anyone. Willis was completely overjoyed to see us again, even though we put him in a crate and left him in the freezing cargo of the plane for 6 hours. (Why don't more people own dogs? They love you 110%, all the time. They're the best. Just sayin'.)

Willis has never had a problem with stairs, but apparently the ones in our apartment seem to freak him out. Maybe they look steep? I dunno. Willis refuses to use them. Lucky for the fat dog, the building has an elevator (which kind of scares him too).

We had about 90 minutes before my parents made it to our place, so we used our lovely Delta blanket and had a nap on the floor.  Edgar was so out of it that he went and rubbed up against Willis, then Willis started licking the top of Edgar's head, all the while Edgar just purred away. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. It will NEVER happen again.

 Our beautiful empty bedroom and office:

Once my parents arrived, my mom was anxious to hold Edgar while he was still high. If you've ever met Edgar, you'd know this picture is proof that miracles do happen:

                                

And then the terrible task of unloading commenced: 

Since January my poor mother has had two surgeries on her torn right rotator cuff. (The left is torn as well, but they won't operate until her right has healed.) She is super stubborn and insisted on helping lift stuff even though she shouldn't! So we put her on guard duty and she would lift and move what she could to the back of the truck to speed things along. She's a tough ole bird, I'll grant her that!

Strategizing the mattress move

This stupid worthless couch was the #1 worst item to move. Period. 

We took the feet off, tried the elevator, then three different staircases and after over an hour we finally got it into the apartment. 

It's now SUPER scratched up and I don't even care. I'll take an ax to it before I'll try moving it again.

We had to take a break to return the truck so my parents were able to see a lot more of Williamsburg.

Here is the building our ward meets in:

Growing up in Cache Valley, you don't see too many Hasidic Jews. 

(Thank you Paige, for enlightening me!)

My mother was loving it.

Upon our return we started the process of cleaning and putting stuff away.

Willis helped my dad assemble stuff on the terrace.

Friday, August 23rd we took my parents for a fun-filled day of sightseeing. 

My cute little Momma and Papa at Battery Park checking out the Statue of Liberty. 

My two favorite guys!

Wall Street

The September 11th Memorial was amazing.

My mother is a natural born paparazzi 

My parents got to experience Subway performers:

Checking out the Law School

How adorable are my parents?!

Madison Square Park

I stuffed them full of Shake Shack goodness...

...then I made them go back to our apartment and put together Ikea furniture...

Saturday, August 24th, we had a little bit of time left to explore before their flight left.

This was looking at the city from our roof

Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza

                                                      

                    

Grand Central Station

(I love this picture!)

And just as quickly as they came, they flew back to Utah at 7:30 Saturday evening.
(My parents are seriously THE BEST and we literally couldn't have moved out here without their help. They were so willing to drop everything just to help Bry and I.  We are SO grateful for them.)

Saturday night around midnight Bryant's mother, Laurel, and his sister Cami flew in to JFK after both of them ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon! (I can't run a mile, let alone 13.1 then fly across the country! What troopers!)

While we waited for them, Bry and I decided to walk around the neighborhood and take Willis to the dog park.

We found it. He loves it.

I think he likes Brooklyn more than Utah just because he meets about 100 new people and dogs every time we go out.

I can't get over how cool the East River State Park is. 

 Willis realllllly wanted to go swim, but I kept picturing the Seinfeld episode when Kramer starts swimming in the East River, so we used our better judgement and didn't let him. (Pretty sure you can't anyway...)

Sunday around 12:30 pm we walked the 0.8 miles to the Bushwick 1st Branch for Sacrament meeting. There were probably around 80 people total. After the meeting when we were talking to the Branch President he said one of the young men asked him "Who are all those white people?" I'm really excited for the experience of being in a different type of ward.

The four of them were pretty worn out.

Monday, August 26th we walked around the city with Laurel and Cami.

Central Park

While walking from Central Park we ran into the set of "The Carrie Diaries" on location.

(I've never seen it. Cami recognized the girl and had to text one of her friends to figure out who she was. She was also on 'Soul Surfer' and 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory'.)

I was DETERMINED to finally have some food from The Halal Guys.

www.53rdand6th.com 

Worth it? Oh yes.

De-ricious.

Wednesday, August 28th, was Bryant's "last first day" of school.

HALLELUJA!!! 

He figured that he would technically be starting the 23rd grade.

(Ugh. Enough school already.)

But he did look handsome here at Washington Square Park, right next to the law school.

We stopped to say hi to him before Cami, Laurel and I went to the Late Show with David Letterman.

Poor Bryant had class until 7:50 and we had to line up at 3:30.

We got in line at 3:30pm, waited about 20 minutes in the rain, then they ushered us inside to go through a second checkpoint where the girl asked what our 'code' was. ("The Top 10 List") We told her and she gave us our tickets and put a big 'A' on the back.

Then they moved us into another room where we were told to come back at 4:50 and get in line with our same group. Later we learned that the A or B meant if you were in the lower section or the balcony.

So we walked around Times Square for a bit, drank some Diet Coke, then went back to the theatre at exactly 4:50. Once we arrived, they ushered us inside the ticketing area and crammed 280 people inside. The poor Pages had to repeat the same paragraph about standing in line "2 by 2, shoulder to shoulder" about 100 times. They told jokes too. 

We waited in this room until 5:50 when they ushered us into the tiny theatre and directed us to where they wanted us.

I was feeling like a rebel so I snapped a few quick pictures, even though I saw a Page force a poor old man to delete a picture he took after the show.

The stage was SO small. It was crazy. 

We were on the 4th row on Dave's side of the stage.

Why yes I did watch the show and pause it as soon as I saw myself.

The guests were Bill Murray, Lenny Kravitz, and Gladys Knight.

After the show we walked to Juniors at Times Square (www.juniorscheesecake.com) where Bryant met up with us after his class got out.

Thursday, August 29th, Momma Laurel and Cami went back to Utah.

We are so grateful they came out to help us clean, decorate, and explore the city. They definitely made the adjustment that much easier for us. Love them both to pieces! (And Willis really misses waking Laurel up every morning)

Later that day Bryant and I decided to take the subway down to Ikea to get a few little items.

Things started getting sketchy.

I was NOT a fan of the Red Hook area.

We ended up buying more than we anticipated and knew we wouldn't be able to haul it on the subway, so I used an awesome app called Uber (thank you Paige!) to get us a car. The guy shows up in a Suburban, puts our stuff in the back, we climb in the back, and before we can even get out of the two lane driveway, a car pulls out in front of us while our driver was messing with his phone. The two cars collided and the driver side door of the other car was completely smashed in.

Our driver simply says, "Uh, I think you need to find a new car." You think?!

We did find another one and made it back without being mugged.

Then we went back to the apartment and watched our poor Aggies lose. 

Saturday we went to Smorgasburg, which totally changed my life. 

Such good food. 

www.smorgasburg.com

(Most people have probably already seen these pictures on Facebook.)

 

And finally, here is a little bit of our apartment.

We're still in the process of decorating, which by the time we're finished it will be time to move back to Utah.

Willis is adjusting. 

He isn't a fan of the wood floors. He has zero traction and slides about everywhere he goes.

But he IS a fan after we come home from the dog park when it's 89 degrees outside with 79 percent humidity:

Overall, Brooklyn is finally starting to feel like home!

Grocery shopping is an expensive joke so we eat out or order in. (Again, we're coming home fat and I make no apologies.)

Miss all of our friends and family in You-Taw!