Since arriving at our new home in Bountiful last Friday it has been non-stop unpacking, organizing and searching for missing things. My hands and feet are very sore.

For instance, our bookshelf has four glass shelf inserts which are missing, which means we can’t use four shelves, not to mention the shelf supports have disappeared as well.

We have floor space in about half of our rooms. The other half are still packed with boxes waist deep.

We anticipated moving everything last Friday in two moving trucks. That didn’t happen. We had a third truck loaded and driven up on Tuesday by a good family friend. And this coming Friday we’ll have a fourth load picked up by Vickey’s brother, Matt, and delivered on Saturday. Our hope is that with that, we’ll be all set.

We received word this week that the closing on the sale of our Henderson home should occur within the next three weeks. So that’s good news.

I’m barely set-up and functioning at work. Just yesterday I got all my telephone and Internet connections squared away. It wasn’t until last night around 7 that I was able to print to my copier, and there’s still some scanning and emailing documents functionality that needs to be sorted out.

I do love my new office space. It’s a large room with a vaulted ceiling on the third floor of an office building in Bountiful with windows that face north and west. I’ve got a great view and plenty of room. Once my missing furniture pieces are delivered next Saturday, I should be able to get my office set-up and squared away.

Eliana visited her new school earlier this week and met her teacher. The school is about a quarter the size of her old elementary school. There are 24 kids in her class, and she makes 25. She’ll begin attending school there on Monday (the kids were off Thursday and Friday this week, so we didn’t bother enrolling her this week).

Ellie and Dominic have had fun playing with cousins (my brother’s boys) as well as with Grandma and Grandpa Snow.

Vickey and I have been non-stop workaholics, often unpacking and sorting things until midnight or 1 a.m. We’ve re-learned that moving is stressful and just a whole lot of stinkin’ work.

Although our home, built in 1902, has three levels and more rooms than our home in Henderson, the rooms are smaller. We’ve had to downsize to fit in the space and we have a two-car garage packed floor to ceiling with boxes, furniture and appliances.

We can’t fit our new fridge, living room couch or dining room set in here. We’ll have to see what we can do about those items before it gets too cold outside.

Last Saturday as we unloaded the two large moving trucks, Bountiful had its first snowfall of the year. That was a big ‘welcome to Utah!’ We went from summer to winter. The temperature has warmed up since then however. Yesterday was a perfect short sleeves fall day.

We’ve received help from so many family and friends and ward members. It’s greatly appreciated.

Vickey’s dad, Gordon, was a real trouper last Friday as we got up at 6 a.m. to welcome the moving crew, worked all day, drove around Las Vegas to pick-up the auto transport for the Tundra, then maneuvered through construction to get to northbound I-15 (this little process took about two hours), and finally drove to the Snow’s home in Holladay until 4 a.m. The next morning we were at our home in Bountiful at 8 a.m. Talk about a very long day.

Today we hope to conquer more boxes and claim more floor space and functionality in a few more rooms. We’re looking forward to a day of worship and rest tomorrow.

Our new LDS ward boundaries encompass about four or five streets. We’re in the northern most corner of the boundary. There are three LDS chapels within a mile or two of our home. And the Bountiful Temple is just around the corner, up the hill. Our view of the temple is amazing.

Another amazing thing about this place: there are as many deer here as there were scorpions in Henderson and squirrels in Niskayuna (where I went to high school and where Grandma and Grandpa Codella still live).

In fact, Gordon pointed out in the paper earlier this week that a Bountiful resident was complaining about the deer eating all her flowers. She said they’re like living with rats. Having lived in New York City I wouldn’t agree with that, at least not yet.

Vickey and I took Tank on a walk around the block Thursday evening and on our way home, cutting through the very large ranch-like property just to the east of us, we encountered 15 or 20 deer just lounging and grazing in the field by the tennis court. As we approached they began to walk, then run, away. Tank’s ears and tail were at attention but he didn’t even bark or try to chase the deer. We think he’s afraid of them; just doesn’t know what to do because they’re so much bigger and faster than he is.

We’re a bit concerned about Tank because he has wandered up the street several times. Lakeview Drive, where we live, is a busy road and cars drive faster than the speed limit. We learned from the neighbor that our landlord’s dog was killed on that road a couple years ago.

So we have purchased a wireless containment system for Tank. The only problem is he was being bad, or curious or whatever you want to call it, and running away and not coming when Vickey called him so she installed the system and walked around with him once and put the electric collar on him. Then, of course, he explored and went outside the boundary and kept getting shocked because he went away from the house instead of towards it. Now he’s pretty afraid of going outside period. Some more training will be required, when we have time to focus on that.

As with any move, we’ve encountered our share of challenges. It seems that with everything, something that should be simple and easy to accomplish is made more difficult. For instance, on Tuesday night when the ward elders quorum and young men helped me unload a moving truck with furniture and equipment into my new office, as they left my office they locked the door.

The next morning we realized that the people I’m sharing space with (you can read about the business move in my corporate newsroom) did not have a key to my individual office. In fact, they didn’t even know the door had a lock.

The only way we were able to get into the office Wednesday afternoon was to climb out the window in another part of the office and walk around on the building roof and climb in through a window in my office. Luckily that worked, or we would have needed to call a locksmith just to get into my office and set-up my desk and computer.

Now, however, all my office windows are locked. I just leave my door unlocked and rely on the main door being locked for security. Eventually the landlord will locate the key to my office door. And if not, I may hire a locksmith anyway.

At work yesterday afternoon I had three service people working in my office with me, stepping around boxes and displaced furniture and décor. It was a real zoo. But I did manage to get my telephones (I still have my 702 business numbers as well as my new 801 numbers; see CodellaMarketing.com for my new business contact information) and computer hooked up and functioning properly. We’re still working on the copier, but that should be fixed within the next few days.

And it looks like I’ll be waiting until next weekend to finish setting up my office once and for all, after I receive the rest of my belongings.

Vickey spent the week before we left Henderson getting our utilities set-up. So we do have all those things done.

If you’d like our new contact information, just complete this site’s contact form and we’ll email it to you.

That’s our report from our first week living in Bountiful. We’re looking forward to the help of Grandma and Grandpa snow again today. They’re due here this morning.

The kids spent the night with my brother’s family in South Jordan, so we’ll go out there later this evening to pick them up and bring them home again. This will allow us adults to make some good unpacking progress without entertaining children.

I’d say that by Thanksgiving we should be all settled in at home and at my new office. We’ll see if it happens sooner than that — that would be great.