Another Gorgeous Hike

After a very busy week, Ryan and Jamie enjoyed finding a beautiful place to hike (and cool down). The temperature in Boulder when we left was 99 degrees, when we arrived at our hiking destination it was about 74 degrees. Both the temperature and the location were perfect. We were in the Roosevelt National Forest, it took a bit of time (about 30 minutes) to drive to the hiking spot as well as find it (the roads weren't listed on any of our maps), but it was well worth it. Because the temperature and location were so wonderful we hiked a bit further than we probably should have. The entire hike was about 6 miles in length and we hiked a good portion of it, probably close to 5 3/4 miles. We were exhausted by the time we got to the car and drove home. Originally we had planned on taking advantage of a gift certificate for the Dushanbe Tea House after our hike, but we knew that we would be too tired to enjoy our dinner and the incredible atmosphere of this historic restaurant. Instead we opted for fast food, a dvd, and went to bed early.


Ryan's TA (Teaching Assistant) training kept him fairly busy last week along with trying to prepare for his upcoming classes. By the end of the week Ryan was able to speak with his advisor regarding the class conflict he had with the TA class he was assigned to. Apparently all of the TAs had signed up for the Solar class and none of them would have been able to switch TA classes with Ryan. Ryan's advisor decided that they would likely change the time of the Solar class as there had been other conflicts with that time as well. Now Ryan is waiting to hear when the new class time will be.


The week was also filled with activities for both Ryan and Jamie. Thursday night we attended a planning meeting for Horizons International Student Organization. Friday night we attended a Welcome dinner at Horizons and met International students from all over the world. Jamie also attended a "Girls Night" with several of the Smiley Court (our housing area) ladies, we shared wedding photos because one of the ladies had recently gotten married. Jamie enjoyed this opportunity to meet more of her neighbors and get to know others better. The Smiley Court ladies may host a baby shower for Jamie soon (date pending on the arrival of the baby). Saturday Ryan spent much of the day reading the text for his TA class so that he can be prepared and get ahead of the students. That evening we attended a Welcome Cookout hosted by the Family Housing Office for all of the family housing areas. It seemed a bit overwhelming to combine all of the Family Housing areas into one cookout, but we were able to meet some new people from Smiley Court as well as visit with others we already knew. Later that evening Ryan and Jamie played Settlers of Catan with Philip and Jana (neighbors), which made for a late night! On Sunday (before the hike) Ryan and Jamie went back to the church that had such a powerful message for us a couple weeks ago. The message spoke to us again as it was very relevant to our life stage - it was about families and parenting. We also visited with a couple that we had met the last time we were at the church. It was good to reconnect with them, as they also have recently moved to the Boulder area. And we rounded out the weekend with the strenuous hike mentioned above.

Preparing for Baby

Well, Jamie is 38 weeks now and less than two weeks from her due date, she could have this baby any day now. We have enjoyed preparing for our baby's arrival. Ryan has set up the crib and changing table as well as moved around the furniture in the nursery several times until both he and Jamie were satisfied with the results. The decorations are hung and drawers are stocked with baby supplies. We thank family and friends for all of their gifts that helped in setting up the baby's room.


What else have we been doing to prepare for our baby's arrival? Well, let's see... We attended home birth education classes, watched some birth videos, read some books and talked with others that have had home births. As long as Ryan is not busy with class or training he attends Jamie's appointments with her midwife Judy. Jamie has been exercising regularly - yoga, walks, hikes and her daily exercises from her midwife that are to encourage baby to move from the right side of her belly to the left side (which should make for an easier delivery). Jamie's placenta takes up a lot of room on her left side, so we think that is why the baby tends to prefer the right side. Baby's head is down and in position for delivery.


Jamie has also gotten all the supplies needed for the delivery, except the small chicken for the chicken soup that the midwife and her assistant will make during or after her labor. Jamie has also found time to make birthday cards for the upcoming months as she may be a bit busy trying to figure out how to care for this new little baby and herself. There are still things on Jamie's list of things to do before baby arrives, some days she gets more things crossed off her list than other days. Ryan and Jamie were excited to receive the Dunstan Baby Language DVDs from Ryan's mom last week. The other night we eagerly watched and listened to the universal language that has been discovered to help parents understand what their baby's needs are before they can speak. We are excited to try out this language system and hopefully relieve some potential stress. We are still deciding on names for our baby. We have narrowed down our choices significantly and have agreed on a few for each sex. When the time comes we may just have to see which name fits the baby best.


Despite the seemingly hard times we have had since our arrival in Boulder, we both know that this is where God has called us and we have peace about being here. Before coming to Boulder we knew that there would be difficulties, but it has not been more than we can handle. We trust that all things will happen in God's time as we wait for the sale of our home and the renting of our duplex. There are many things for us to be thankful for. We have wonderful neighbors that check in on us to see if we need anything from the store, or how Jamie is handling the heat, and that bring us cookies. Horizons International has become our extended family and we are excited to be a part of their ministry to internationals. In fact, one of the staff offered to give Jamie breaks after the baby is born, she would be happy to watch the baby while Jamie takes a nap or runs errands. Our midwife Judy and her assistant Peggy are wonderful women who are very supportive and encouraging. We have family and friends back home that have been lots of help to us with our house and duplex and we are grateful for their help while we set up a property management service and try to sell the house. We continue to search for a new church home, but plan on trying one that had a good feel on our first visit. Our thanks also goes out to all of you who continue to lift us up in prayer.

Let the Good Times Roll

Over the weekend we took some time to enjoy the beauty of Boulder and our surroundings. Ryan had been told about a short hike to a waterfall, so on Saturday we set out in search of the hike. Within 10-15 minutes we were in the mountains and found lots of cars parked at pull-offs on either side of the road, so we got out for our hike.

There was a nice large path (sometimes paved and sometimes gravel) along Boulder "Creek" (it seems more like a river than a creek to us). Lots of people were walking, jogging and riding bikes. We thought that it might be a bit cooler in the mountains, so we both wore long pants - surprisingly there wasn't much of a temperature difference, still about 90+ degrees. We got to the end of the section we were on and a sign said we had gone 2.25 miles, after walking back that was a 4.5 mile hike - pretty good for Jamie being 9 months pregnant. Ryan got excited by the guys that were fly fishing along the "creek," he has a fly fishing rod, all he needs is a reel, some line and flies, and learn how to use it all? He has been debating getting all of these supplies and his fishing license - not knowing how much time he might have for this recreational activity. Unfortunately we did not find a waterfall and we had forgotten to bring the camera for our first Boulder hike. We decided to try again on Sunday.

After trying out our fourth church on Sunday we ate lunch and packed some water and snacks for another day in the mountains. This time we knew a bit more about where we were headed (Boulder Falls) and we were told we wouldn't be able to miss it, we just had to drive farther into the mountains. We brought the camera this time and sure enough, there were signs everywhere, as well as people.


Since it was afternoon, we figured there might be rain (it has been raining nearly every afternoon - sometimes just a sprinkle and other times it will downpour for 10 minutes to a couple of hours) so we packed our rain jackets and some towels in case we decided to go in the creek or waterfall. We also dressed more appropriately for the weather - shorts instead of long pants. Ryan didn't want too much in the backpack so he opted for the towels instead of the rain jackets. The "hike" to the waterfall was more of a short climb - up and down on rock stairs to the waterfall, slightly more challenging for Jamie than the hike the day before even though it was only about a 100 yards as opposed to the 4.5 miles the day before. After spending some time at the waterfall and petting a German Shorthair year old puppy, it started to rain. Although the rain was slow to begin with, Jamie remembered those rock stairs to get to the waterfall and decided not to stay too much longer before it got slippery. Ryan, worried about the camera, ran back to the car after it started to downpour. I guess the rain jackets would have been better to have with us, but the towels were helpful for drying off once we reached the car.


Rather than return home, we decided to continue up into the mountains and travel the Peak to Peak Highway, we knew the rain wouldn't last long. Along the way we found a dam at the top of Boulder Creek and the Barker Reservoir, we stopped to take a look, by now the sun was out. We continued on the Peak to Peak Highway through small mountain towns and stopped occasionally at overlooks to soak in the beautiful mountain views that surrounded us. We ended our mountain tour in Estes Park, where we spotted some Caribou eating flowers and trees along a line of fenced in yards before heading back home. What a gorgeous day! And a nice end to the last week before Ryan started training and school.



Last week was a fairly positive week for us, a few low spots here and there, but for the most part we had good times. Sunday, Aug 12, started out with a sermon that we both needed to hear, and we met some young couples that were either new to the area or lived in Family Housing at CU. It is always nice to make new connections. We finished up day two of our birth education class that day as well with more confidence and excitement for the home birth that we have been planning.

During the week, Jamie finished getting supplies for the birth as well as for the baby and nursery. Ryan was finally able to do some consulting work for his former employer (which will help a lot considering he doesn't get his first paycheck for the TA position until the end of September). Some friends took Jamie to Costco to check out the potential savings that could be had by getting a membership there. (Jamie is also discovering ways to keep the grocery bills down - the cost of food was quite daunting at first, even the farmers market was more expensive. A membership to either Sam's or Costco will need to be part of the plan to save money on food.)

Later in the week we attended a prayer and worship meeting with Horizons Ministry, it was wonderful to connect with some people that we have met before and to meet new people. Friday night we got to visit with a friend fom WI, actually she was our wedding photographer as well, and we ended our week with the lovely weekend mountain adventures mentioned above.



Of course there are still challenges that come up...Jamie realized that the slipcover for our chair was not in the clothes basket she thought it was in, but instead it had likely been left in a clothes dryer prior to the trip back to WI and now is gone - possibly donated to Salvation Army or in someone elses's living room. Our scanner no longer seems to be working, which is helpful for copying and sending documents. And Ryan found out that the class he is assigned to TA for conflicts with a class that he would really like to take (it is only offered every other year) and it appears that he may have to drop his class and take something else. Both our house and our duplex are still up for sale. We have mostly decided to hang on to the duplex for a couple years or so hoping that the market will get better - so, if you know anyone that is interested in renting a 2BR lower unit near Wauwatosa, please let us know. Also, our charming little house in the quaint Jewish neighborhood just north of St. Joe's Hospital is for sale if anyone is looking - please send them our way!

A Time of Sadness & Rejoicing

No, it has not all been bad since we left Wisconsin. We have met some wonderful people and already started building friendships. The day we moved in we were blessed to have so many helpers and to meet Drew and Stacy (thanks Amy and Jon for the contact). We also met Neoni and Jana who live in student family housing. Neoni was the one that helped us try to clean our mattress and couch cushions with the handheld Bissel cleaner. Jana brought over the mattress for Jamie to sleep on. A few days later we met Jana's husband Philip who invited Ryan and another guy to go out for happy hour. Ryan had an opportunity to have some good conversation with the guys that night. We've had neighbors introduce themselves and bring us baked goods, we've been invited to various events in the family housing community and we even had dinner with Philip and Jana one night. We have been trying to get together with Drew and Stacy, but so far our schedules have not aligned to make it possible, but we are still working on it. We are truly enjoying our international community that we live in and can't wait to meet more people and dive deeper into relationships.

Another blessing has been the Horizon's ministry that we have connected with. We visited the director's (George) church where he is the pastor and met some very nice people. In fact, Jamie went to their women's retreat the following weekend. We also met George's family and visited the Horizon's ministry over lunch. They continue to check up on us and include us on various events. This weekend the whole church (it is a fairly small church) went on an overnight camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, we were unable to stop by due to childbirth education classes on Saturday and Sunday, but we appreciated the invite.

We were excited to finally choose our midwife as well. Jamie had interviewed one midwife over the phone before the move and had spoken with another, but planned on meeting in person once we arrived in Boulder. We interviewed three midwives in person and had some amazing connections to the third woman that we interviewed. Judy Roberts is our midwife and two of her daughters spent time in Nepal with friends of ours who are now back in Milwaukee. We are blessed to have found her.


Despite traveling to WI for a sad occassion, it was a wonderful time to celebrate Ryan's grandmother's life. The entire family was there - Jamie finally met everyone from the Del Balso side of the family. It was great to have time again to see family so soon after we moved and we really enjoyed spending time with Ryan's siblings and neices, who we rarely get to see. Having taken advantage of the bereavement fare option on Midwest, our flight options were somewhat limited which actually extended our time in WI longer than we would have anticipated. Because of this we were able to go to Meadowbrook Church on Sunday and the state fair on Monday, one of Ryan's favorite WI summer activities. Of course we had some fried cheese, corn on the cob and cream puffs - what a treat to be able to enjoy this time with family. It was fun to see our nieces, Pacita (6) and Parker (2), enjoy various rides and activities at the fair. We look forward to being able to bring our little one with us some day.



Today we tried a new church - one that had an early enough service that we could go to and still get to our birth education class on time. It is amazing how many churches around here only have one service at 10:30am - which would not give us time to get to a class at noon on the other side of town, plus eat lunch. God really met us there and spoke to some of our recent challenges. We also met some young couples - one that currently lives in student family housing on the other side of campus, another that recently moved to Boulder and another that used to live in the same family housing area that we currently live in. Unfortunately we had to decline their lunch invite as we needed to get to our birth education class. Jamie was also invited to attend the MOPS program at the church, the first meeting is the day after her due date; not sure that she will make that one.

It Could be Worse, Right?

We got a little ahead of ourselves and told you the fun flea story a bit out of order. Ryan had planned on doing some consulting for his former employer after we got a bit settled in to our new home in Boulder. So one of Ryan's first priorities was to set up the computer. He had most, if not all of the main parts for doing this, the problem came when he could not find the box that had all the wires and cables to connect the computers and accessories. We realized that somehow the box with all of these cables was overlooked and packed somewhere in our storage unit. Ryan had wanted to rearrange the storage unit anyway since the day the truck was unloaded into the unit, his helpers had very limited time. We began the process of removing a majority of the boxes and random items in the very full storage unit so that we could rearrange and get to items that would be needed sooner rather than later and bury the boxes that would likely not be used unless we purchase a home here in Colorado. Eventually we found the much needed box and realized why it never made it in to our home - it was not labeled! Oops.

Ryan soon went to work setting up the Mac and the PC. The Mac worked just fine, but the PC was not working. Guess which computer Ryan needed to use for work, yup the PC. He tried several things and even called around for tech support to see what could be done, but it seemed the PC died during our move. Hmm, now what? Ryan would be getting a laptop for school that would be a PC, but that would probably take weeks - we thought it would be better to have something sooner than that. Ryan found a PC on Craigslist for $50 and began setting that up. More problems of course, he had to re-program the enire computer to get it to work. Due to the interruption of the flea situation Ryan didn't get this new computer up and running until it was time for us to fly back to WI.

One of our most important tasks to do when we moved here was to find a midwife. We began interviewing midwives shortly after we arrived. A midwife that we interviewed lent us some birth videos (VHS) in case we were not able to find a birth education class on such a short time schedule. After dinner one night we decided to put in a birth video to learn more about home birth and the birth process. Well, wouldn't you know our VCR died too. We had two VCRs in WI and donated one to Salvation Army, of course we picked the wrong one to keep. In talking with a neighbor about what had happened they offered to lend us their VCR, so we did eventually have the opportunity to watch some of the birth videos.

In the previous posting we mentioned that Ryan's grandmother had passed away and now we needed to make plans to go back to WI. When Ryan was booking the bereavement flights he asked about travel during pregnancy and what sort of documentation, if any, was needed for Jamie to travel. Midwest Airline's policy is that prior to the ninth month of pregnancy nothing is needed, but once a woman enters her ninth month, she must have a letter from an OB (not a midwife) stating her due date, that she is fit to travel, the dates of travel and the cities she will be traveling to/from and this must be dated within 72 hours of the departure date and it needed to be in triplicate. Jamie contacted her former OB office in Milwaukee to see if they would write the letter for her since she would be flying on the first day of her ninth month (35 weeks), both her OB and midwife said that it was safe to travel prior to 36 weeks. Unfortunately the OB was not in and the nurses did not feel that they could approve this letter without the Doctors permission. Jamie would not be able to speak to her OB until Monday (it was Friday), but we were to fly out on Wednesday and this didn't give much time in case the doctor said no. Jamie began to worry and stress out about the possibility of not getting the letter from her OB and wondered what else she could do. Jamie called various contacts that she had made during her first two weeks in Boulder and eventually found someone who would be willing to write the letter if her OB was not willing to do so. The only problem was that to get the letter, Jamie would have to drive about three hours (round trip) to Ft. Collins in order to pick up the letter. Thankfully Jamie's OB approved the letter and it was faxed to the CU Family Housing office. Annoyingly, no one at the airport seemed to care whether or not she had the letter - at the airport Jamie showed it to the man at the check-in counter who didn't really seam to care, and no one collected a copy of the letter as was indicated online and per conversations with the airline. On the return flight Jamie didn't even mention it to anyone and no one asked her about the letter or whether she was authorized to fly during pregnancy. All that stressing for nothing.

On Wednesday, August 1st as we prepared to fly to WI, Ryan received a phone call from a realtor regarding our house. The realtor said that he would be preparing an offer for us and wanted the condition report. They made arrangements to meet at our house after we landed in Milwaukee for the realtor to present the offer that night. Ryan quickly went about hooking up our scanner, scanning a copy of the condition report and e-mailed it to the realtor. Ryan then called the realtor before we left for the airport to confirm receipt of the condition report. The realtor then told Ryan that he was too busy to meet that night, but would e-mail the offer by Monday. Every day while we were in WI Ryan eagerly checked his e-mail and waited for the offer to come through. Finally on Sunday after not hearing from the realtor or receiving any information Ryan contacted the realtor again. Apparently the family that had planned to put an offer in on our house decided to look at one more house and ended up putting an offer in on that house instead. The realtor didn't even take the time or courtesy to call and tell us. Very disappointing to us both, and all that added stress while attending Ryan's grandma's funeral.

Well, enough of the bad news. Next blog we promise to share some of the positive things of life...

Fleas in the bed?

Well, the bumps in the road continued...

Shortly after we arrived in Boulder we received some sad news - Ryan's grandmother had yet another stroke and this one looked like it was near the end. We began preparing for the possibility of having to fly back to WI for the funeral.

Now that we live in Boulder we decided to get new drivers licenses and register our vehicle. Interesting that it is not possible to take care of both of these in the same location. After waiting for at least an hour and a half for our drivers licenses we were told that WI is one of the few states that does not require proof of citizenship in order to obtain a drivers license, but Colorado does require this. So we had to go home and get our passports and come back. Next stop - vehicle registration, of course it was the same thing here, we needed a Colorado emissions test and a VIN verification in addition to the title and proof of insurance. Needless to say Ryan was not a happy camper. Jamie took care of the emissions test and VIN verification, but Ryan's name is the only name on the title (due to Jamie throwing him a surprise party the day that he decided we needed to purchase a new car) so he had to do the actual registering of the vehicle. This whole process took two days rather than a couple of hours - UGH!!

Soon after we moved in Ryan began complaining about bug bites on his legs. He wondered if maybe something got into our sheets from the move. Jamie washed the sheets to rule out the possibility of bugs in our sheets - we both continued to get bug bites. Jamie noticed a tiny little bug, kind of like a fruit fly that jumped instead of flew, on her one day. Ryan assembled a grill on our back patio one night and was eaten alive by these same small black bugs. When he came in the house he'd have about 30+ on his white socks (he counted as he killed them). We tried to find out if our neighbors had similar problems or if it was just us. No one else seemed to know what we were talking about. After pondering what these strange Colorado black bugs could be, Jamie wondered if they might be fleas. Ryan agreed and Jamie started researching online. Sure enough, it sounded like we had unknowingly brought fleas from our back patio into our house.

The next morning Jamie spoke with the resident manager and mentioned the possibility of fleas. The resident manager immediately contacted maintenance and they sent someone over while we were out to lunch. The next morning the bug guy came back to assess the situation and confirmed our fear of fleas. He suggested that we move to another unit. The possibility of moving yet again during her eighth month of pregnancy caused Jamie to break down. The bug guy came back to spray the back patio and front yard with an organic spray and Ryan talked to him about other options. The bug guy said if we had the carpets and rugs steam cleaned immediately that it might take care of the potential problem brewing inside of our new home (apparently fleas lay their eggs in carpets). Ryan was on the phone nearly all day with different offices from campus to help us resolve this problem. In addition to this we received a call that morning telling us that Ryan's grandmother died and we would need to travel back to WI the following week.


Sadly, the story does not end there. After about a week and a half of unpacking boxes and rearranging furniture (multiple times) we had finally felt that we were making progress and getting settled. Unfortunately when you have your carpets steam cleaned you have to move everything off the carpet from one side of the room to the other and then back again. And after all that it takes two or three days for the carpets to dry and then you can move your furniture back into place. Around 1:30pm some people from maintenance came to clean the carpets - they only spoke Spanish. Apparently they didn't know what they were doing, Ryan had to talk on the phone to the gentleman's son, who was also his boss, in order to translate. After only a short period of time, there was a bright spark and a pop - the steam cleaning machine had shorted out the wiring. They left to get a new machine. A few hours later two different ladies came back with a new machine and one spoke some English. These ladies did a much better job and knew what they were doing. Ryan helped move the furniture from one side of the room to the other for each room they cleaned. Around 7pm the cleaning was finally finished - unfortunately the smell was rather overwhelming and not a great place to spend the night. The university has a couple of "hotel" rooms in one of the dorms and offered to put us up in one. We picked up the key and then went to get some dinner. When we went to the dorm with all of our stuff for the night (around 9pm) we were thoroughly exhausted. Ryan turned the key and opened the door only to surprise someone that was already staying there as she came out of the bathroom (Ryan was quite surprised too). By now the housing office was closed, so we contacted the resident manager of that dorm. We tried another room in the dorm, but it had not been cleaned since the last time it had been used. We were then authorized (with many appologies) to get a hotel room for the night. We checked into the hotel and got to our room around 10pm. It was rather musty smelling and humid in the room (very rare for such a dry climate) the AC was on full blast, but not doing a thing. We were so tired we decided to try and deal with it. After laying down and practically sticking to the sheets we opted to call the front desk. They switched us to a new room - the AC worked a little better and it did not smell in the room.


We were able to get a little bit of sleep before heading back to our damp carpets the next day. As mentioned earlier, Boulder is typically a very dry climate - of course the day our carpets were drying it happened to be one of the most humid days they've experienced in awhile. Ryan quickly went to work putting the furniture back into place while Jamie washed all the bedding and anything else that had been on the floor (five loads). Ryan also vacuumed all of the furniture.

The rearranging of our things back into place actually re-motivated us to unpack more boxes. We were now getting more settled in, but the fun did not stop there...

A Few Bumps in the Road

We departed Wisconsin on Sunday, July 15th and headed to Boulder, CO. Our first stop was only a few miles from Jamie's parents' house where we started out. Jamie was not very comfortable in the passenger seat, we needed some ice for the coolers and Ryan had to check the tow dolley after being on the road for a little while. Thankfully the middle seat was more comfortable for Jamie and once she got situated there she was much more comfortable. Throughout the drive there were several stretches of road that were extremely bumpy - the truck suspension resonated with the bumps in the road. Due to the extreme comfort of the cab, Ryan was happy to take breaks often - Jamie's pregnancy was not usually the reason for stopping. At a top speed of about 60 miles per hour we did not get nearly as far as we had hoped - especially since Iowa had so many hills, we probably only averaged a speed of 50 mph. Oh and not to mention the two hour delay for tire repair on the tow dolley. Ryan checked the car and dolley at a rest stop and realized that the bumper was rubbing up against one of the tires - literally melting the tire. We praise God that Ryan noticed this before the tire failed. Penske was quick to respond and we waited for the tire to be fixed and ate an early dinner. The first day we drove somewhere around 600 miles (we left around 8:00am and didn't stop to sleep until 11pm). We were on the road again bright and early the next day at 6:30am and arrived in Boulder around 4:00pm mountain time.

After touring our new "home" and running a few errands our unloading crew arrived. We were so thankful for all the help - 5 college students took a break from their Navigators Leadership training to help us out. Drew and Stacy (Navigators staff) organized this for us and brought us "house warming gifts" - breakfast and cleaning supplies, it was so kind and thoughtful of them. A few of our new neighbors also helped us, they too were impressed with the crew that was there to help. Unfortunately most of the furniture was slightly damaged from the move. Knicks and scratches on just about every wooden object - probably from all of the bouncing and rubbing up against whatever was next to it. A bottle of bleach spilled and ended up soaking our mattress as well as a couple of our couch cushions. Some wonderful new neighbors tried to help us out by bringing over a bissel hand cleaner for the mattress and couch and a mattress for Jamie to sleep on that night as the bleach smell was a bit overwhelming and probably not a good idea during pregnancy to inhale too much of. Ryan slept on piles of blankets on the floor that night. The next day Drew and the same college students were available to help Ryan unload some more things into our storage unit.

We spent the next week or so unpacking and arranging furniture in our apartment. The bleach smell dissipated from the mattress and we were able to sleep on it the following night. Jamie's priority was to get the kitchen unpacked so that we could stop eating out. Ryan moved furniture around in the bedroom and living room and started setting up the computer.