So They Loaded Up the Truck . . .

In August of 1995 Bruce and I did one of the craziest, scariest, bravest things of our married life.

Bruce had just graduated with his Associates degree in communications and video-production in June of 1994. He got a part-time job with KSL TV, in master-control. We moved from his grandma's house to live in my parents' house while they finished out their mission in Portugal. Jason was born in January of 1995. My parents came home in May of that year. We were doing OK, but the job didn't look like it was going anywhere and we were living with my parents. Not that there's anything wrong with my parents--they are great! But you just don't want to live with your parents when you are married and have kids; it's time to be on your own.

Bruce, particularly, was feeling stuck and he'd been thinking of going back to school and getting his Bachelor's degree in audio-engineering. And he wanted to go to one of the best schools in the nation for this--one that had all the latest equipment, etc; he wanted to go to Middle Tennessee State University. On July 24, 1995--Pioneer Day here in Utah-land--I was in my mom's kitchen washing dishes when Bruce came up behind me, gave me a little nibble on the neck and said he needed to talk to me. He wanted to go off to school now. So we talked about it a little, prayed about it, and decided to go for it.

Bruce immediately called MTSU admissions and got the paperwork rolling (July 24 isn't a holiday in Tennessee). When he went in to work he gave his two-weeks' notice. Throughout the next week we called student housing and got our names on the list there, but it looked like we wouldn't be able to get in for fall semester; so we started looking up apartments in Murfreesboro, TN (this was before the internet), and got our names on some apartment waiting-lists too. We found the names of the bishop and Relief Society president of the Murfreesboro Ward and called them to let them know we were coming. And we started packing up our things; we'd be leaving in two weeks, on August 7.

Grandma Johnson took my boys and their cousins on a "farewell trip" to Hogle Zoo a few days before we left Utah.

I spent those two weeks organizing all our things, and weeping, wailing, and gnashing my teeth. I was terrified! But we were going to go through with it.

August 6 was a sleepless night. Jason, who was eight months old, must have felt that something was up because he kept me awake all night. In the morning we said goodbye to our family and got ready to go. Mom was pretty worried about us going across the country by ourselves. She and my dad were going on a vacation trip with Melanie's family the same week that we would be driving away. Actually, we had intended to leave the previous Saturday--the 5th--but Mom said she'd feel better if we all left on the same day. Well, what's a couple of days? She also asked Peter, my oldest brother, to drive out with us. The last thing we did on the 7th was dump our goldfish, Omar, into a giant pickle jar and take him out to the car.

This picture was taken just before we left. I had spent most of the night in tears with a fussy baby. We all felt about as good as we look here.

We prayed together, gave hugs and kisses, and we were off. We had no job lined up, no place to live when we got there, no friends or family in Tennessee, and didn't even know yet if Bruce had been accepted to MTSU. But we jumped into a moving-truck and drove away. Now I was really terrified!

to be continued . . .