The Kotters have moved from Provo, Utah to Arlington, Virginia! On August 22, we boarded a plane in Salt Lake City headed for Washington, D.C. Oliver did just fine on the plan ride. In fact, as we exited in the plane at the Dulles airport, a couple directly behind us exclaimed, “Wow, you have a little baby! We didn’t even know there was a baby sitting in front of us!”
Our move was a little more adventurous than we had intended. We had agreed to rent a home from an older widow who lived in the Falls Church ward. Unfortunately, on the day after we shipped our belongings she called us up and told us that she had changed her mind and wasn’t comfortable renting her home. That left us in a bit of a bind! We arranged to have our stuff stored at a warehouse in Baltimore while we looked for an apartment.
Luckily, one of our friends called to let us know that there was a vacancy in their apartment complex in Arlington. The price was within our budget, so we went to check it out. The apartments are older, but well maintained and many ward members live here. We liked the apartment and we loved the location, so we signed a contract two days after we flew into Virginia!
Oliver handled the move the best out of all three of us. He seemed to have no trouble adjusting to a new time zone and a new location. He is still sleeping all the way through the night! He gets bigger each day and Mom and Dad love to see what new tricks he learns. Right now, he loves to grab anything within reach and put it in his mouth.
Kay has been a great support to Jason throughout the entire move process. She unpacked all of the boxes and has turned our empty apartment into our new home. Unfortunately, the house that we thought we were going to rent was furnished so we shipped our stuff without any of our furniture (except our bed and crib and Kay’s art desk). We picked up some living room furniture at IKEA, but Kay has done an amazing job at turning some of our packing boxes into bedside tables and dressers. (Which we may have to make do with for a while, because rent is pretty expensive here!)
Jason has started work with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He was taking the metro to work (It’s about a 15 minute walk from our house to the Metro Stop which makes for a 40 minute commute door to door) but he recently discovered that he can get to work in about 20 minutes by taking the bus. It has been a little overwhelming to try and get acclimated to a new job. He is the only married research assistant in the International Finance Division (much less the only one with a child); additionally, he is the only one who doesn’t drink so it is a chance to be a good example. One of his weekly duties includes a report that is sent to Chairman Bernanke! (He may never read it, but hey, it still goes to his desk!)
We are settling in to our new home, but we miss our family and friends a lot! Consequently, we would love to get email, regular mail, and phone calls often!