Saying Good-bye to Neighbors

We have come to know so many special people during the past 14 years in Utah, but among the best are our neighbors.  It was difficult to find time to say good bye to each neighbor, so our good friends, Angee and Michael Thomson, along with Debbie Kenning, Juile Grange and Beth Rosenlof, put together a non-party as a send-off.  In the Adams tradition, "Nobody was invited but everyone was welcome."  The moving company had just finished boxing all our goods so we had nothing in our house.  The party provided a wonderful way to eat a bit, see a lot of our friends, talk, and enjoy an evening without too many tears.  

 

Michael & Angee

Angee, Julie & Debbie

Julie and Julie

Julie & Beth

Kathy Driggs made this awesome cake.  The flag was a perfect replica.

Vern Wood, Gerald & Lois Gardner, with Beverly Lemon in front.

Glenn Young and Michael Thomson cooked hot dogs all night...but nobody eats without a prayer.  Thanks Jon.

Brian & Jeanne Hatch, Betty Turman

Sharalyn Beazer

Lesa Rose

Dan Seelos

Brian Hatch & the Cronins

Scott Rosenlof (thanks for the tables and who knows what else)

Glen Plaizier & Garret Dahl, Rob Jackson, LeNore & Jon Bouwhouis, Von Hill

Natalie & Olivia Jackson, Talia Riley, Julie, Heather Murri, Debbie Kenning

Tyler & Lindesy even made it down from Logan.  (Happy 3 year anniversary)

Julie with TJ Riley, who came back to the ol' neighborhood for the evening.

Lyman Rose and family brought the Sno-Cone machine.  Thanks!

John Kenning got a few hugs in before his mission.  We will miss him too!

Mike Grange took pictures all evening.  Thanks for the memories.

It really meant a lot to us that so many friends would bring food and make it such a nice occasion.

We will miss all of you.

Getting Ready to Move was 4 Months of Mess and Stress

It's pretty amazing what your head goes through when you have to make the thousands of decisions of what to send to Peru, store for at least 3 years, give to someone  specific, sell at a yard sale or just throw away.  If you throw it away do you need to shread it first?  What do you keep so you can live in relative comfort for 8 to 10 weeks before you see your stuff again?  Will it all fit in your suitcases when you go or do you leave it at a family or friend's house until you can come back for it?  What important things do you take as "carry-on" in case someone gets into your luggage or the airline loses it?

It was great to look through keepsakes that had been around for decades.  Something we should had taken time for earlier.

Sorting and shreading seemed like an endless task.


We weren't very interested in eating even when we were hungry.  We did not feel like we had to to cook or clean up.  Even finding a place to eat was a challenge.

Finally packed for storage.

The kids came by the night the packers boxed everything so we stopped for a little Yspahan.

We have decided that is must be easier to sell a house than get it ready to leave as a rental. If you sell a house you declare what is broken or does not work and you walk away. If you rent your house EVERYTHING must be in good condition and work perfectly.

 The packers came and hauled off what we wanted to store.

That left us with 9 pieces of luggage.

An empty house but still a home full of memories.

(the chair went in the trash)

Too Much New to deal with the Old

I want to fill in the activities of the past 4 months as we got ready for our move, but first I have to mention a couple of encounters that have happened since we left Utah last Thursday.

1. Julie and I were sitting in the Salt Lake airport waiting for our flight to Atlanta and a neighbor of ours (flight stewerd for Delta) walked off the plane we are going to leave on.  We talked and he took a picture.  We seldom have a picture of Julie and I together.

2. As I finished washing my hands in the Atlanta airport bathroom I glanced up and in the mirror behind me I saw a face I recognized. It is Gonzalo Pena, the Venezuelan Stake President when we lived in Caracas 30 years ago. I was on the High Council under him. We were so involved in catching up on things that we forgot to take a picture.

3.  Last night while eating dinner in our hotel 3 men walked in.  They had the typical calm Mormon spirit about them but we were not sure.  To start a converstation with them, when we walked out we mentioned that it was nice to hear some English.  We quickly discovered that they were from Utah, Mormon, and 2 of them had friendship connections with our family.  One was Home Teaching companions with one of our sons-in-law and Bishop to a lady that Julie worked for for 13 years.  The other is married to a girl from our home Stake in California that Julie knew.  I knew the older brothers.

Julie and Derrall are Moving to Peru

At some point I will post about our trips to Spain and the UK, but for now I will share the latest.

Last November Julie and were talking. She said that she could move.  She wanted a house with at least one room where the entire family could gather...a room that would hold the expanding family of in-laws and grandchildren.  I surprised her by stating that of late I had the feeling that, indeed, we would not be in our house very much longer.  When she asked if we should start looking for another house I said "no".  I told her that I had a very strong impression that when it was the right time to move "it would be very clear".  Julie said "OK" and we went on with our lives, even starting some minor remodeling projects that we had talked about for some time.

In late March of this year I was walking down the hallway at work (FLSmidth) and the Operations Manager asked me if I had a minute. He reminded me that a couple of years ago I mentioned that if an opportunity came up in the company to work in a Spanish speaking country I would be interested. He asked if that was still the case and if my wife would be supportive.  I said I was interested and that Julie and I mentioned it to each other every once in a while. The Operation Manager living in Chile that was covering both Chile and Peru had resigned and FLS wanted to replace him with someone to cover Chile and also someone else dedicated to Peru. He asked if I could consider living in Peru for a couple of years. I told him I was for it and that since Julie was leaving the next day to visit her sister in Texas for a week I could ask her when she got back.

That evening Julie was in charge of a Relief Society project making over 50 porta-potties. I went over to help but there was no time to talk or bring up anything about the move.  By the time she got home I could not hide my enthusiasm. She asked "what's that smile on your face?" I said, "How would you like to move to Peru for a couple of years?" She asked a couple of questions and then after about 3 minutes she said "THAT'S VERY CLEAR" and that she was not opposed.  It depended upon the deal.

The next day Julie flew off to Texas and I told the Operations Manger at work that "we were in".  I asked if the company was truly serious about the opportunity. I was assured that the offer was real and that we would be happy with the deal.  It only needed to be formalized. He told me that the Peru office was in favor of my move and that the man in Chile who resigned had endorsed me. The Peruvians snd Chileans at FLS had come to know me while working together on various projects over the past 4+ years.

It was that simple. I had a business trip already planned for Peru and Chile within 2 weeks. I told work that if they were serious Julie should come down for a long weekend while I was in Peru so we could look for a place to live. They told me to book her flight.

OUR PERUVIAN ADVENTURE HAD BEGUN