The devil has taken form and his name is Michigan

It has been a rough week. Let me say it again, IT HAS BEEN A ROUGH WEEK! Here are some of the highlights . . .

Johno's team is responsible for finding and paying for your living situation which is amazing and terrible at the same time. For instance, we pay no rent, no utilities but, and that is a huge but, we have no say in where we live or when we move. So I moved out here 2 months ago and was working on unpacking and settling in when Mark, the head coach said, "I think we are going to have to find new apratments for you guys. Don't unpack yet." Ok, not the end of the world since we were in a bad area and not very close to REI. We got word that we were moving on Tuesday and picked up the trucks on Wednesday. We loaded our apartment, the Apple's apartment and Kyt's apartment all on Wednesday. Thursday morning we unloaded the truck and then the fun began! The team ownes the furniture here instead of renting it which is smart. They stored it at the end of last season in a huge warehouse. There are a total of 12 apartments that had to be furnished. Yes, 12! 12 couches, 12 dining room tables, 48 dining room chairs, 12 side tables, 24 beds, 24 bed side tables, 48 lamps, 24 dressers, 144 drawers . . . you get the point. There was a lot of furniture. Preseason started on Monday so most of the guys were not here yet so there were 10 of us moving all this stuff. Needless to say come Thursday afternoon we were all exhausted. I had to work on Thursday night so I was off the hook from 5pm to 9pm. I have never been so happy to go to work. I left REI around 9:15pm and had a voicemail on my phone. It was J. Here is the exact message I received, "Katie, I need to you call me ASAP! I just totalled my car and I think my nose is broken. Help!" Ok, I thought he was joking for two reasons. #1. We had joked earlier that day saying we wished there was one more thing we could think of to add to our pile cause we weren't overwhelmed enough and #2. We signed insurance papers for the brand new 7 day old car earlier that afternoon. So I call J back thinking he was going to be laughing and joking but that is not what I got. He was serious. If I have not mentioned it before, Michigan drivers are by far the worst drivers on earth! Everyone is in a huge hurry and always tailgates. So, big surprise, J was rear ended on the freeway, spun and hit the concrete center divide. Car totalled, J ok under the circumstances. He hit his nose on the steering wheel, got whiplash and burned his elbow on the seat belt but other than that he is fine. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same, games, insurance calls and moving the rest of our stuff. Since there were 3 apartments that had to fit into the same truck we could only load our furniture. Monday we had to move one more of the players who was here this summer. He was in Brazil last week and no one had his keys so we had to wait to move him when he got home. So the boys went to the first day of preseason, practiced for 4 hours and then 6 of us met at the old place to load Hewerton's stuff. We had the truck loaded by 8:30pm and were on our way to the new place. We were unloaded by 10:30pm and needed drinks so we were on our way to the gas station when H's wife came running over and said something had happened to the truck. H was not paying attention when he was pulling out of the parking lot and got the truck wedged on the corner of the car port. This was seriously the absolute last thing we needed. The boys tried to push the truck off, pull the truck off, rock the truck off, whatever they could think of. Watching from the side line I knew there was no way it was going to happen so I called a tow truck and told them to bring a winch. The truck showed up around midnight and got the truck off with little damage. At this point the truck had to be filled with gas and dropped off at the late night drop off. J did not want H to do it so J said we would do it. I hate that he feels responsible because he is the asst coach. So, it was off the gas station. We got home around 1:00am and both of us had to be up for work by 7am. Last night we were in bed asleep by 9:30pm. The last bad news is that Denise got here tests back and her cancer is much worse than they thought. She is now deciding what to do.

So from here, it is a new day. Bad things come in 3's and we have had our 3, so bad things are over for now and we are onto greener pastures. We love the new place. Cool set up, nicer area, close to REI. J has a rental car until we figure out what is going on with the insurance, yeah for 2 cars. We are moving the kitchen today and then we should be done. I bought a shirt at REI yesterday that says, Where there is positive thinking there is hope. I am going to wear it every day. The best news is that we hit the bottom and all we can do from here is go up.