Thank You, Petrina!!!

So there's this family back in Texas. They're pretty cool. I remember meeting Petrina on our first day in the ward in Texas. (Mark and I went ward shopping before we bought our house out there). She drilled me about where I grew up and told me how I looked so familiar. We didn't know each other, but I'll certainly never forget that conversation. She even e-mailed me a couple of times to see if we'd bought a house yet, and how the move was going. We were both pretty excited that we ended up buying a house in that ward, our kids were going to go to school together. I was lucky enough to be able to serve with Trina in the scouting program in our ward. But, even if we hadn't served together, I know we would have become great friends.

Our kids played together often, (Jackson idolized her boys) and whenever our hubbys were away on trips or working late, we would meet for crazy dinner dates with six rambunctious boys! I have to say, Jason's Deli became a favorite! Planing birthday parties, Amazing Race Parties, BYU games, Superbowl Parties...just having family dinner's together. I truly miss having fun and spending time with her and her family.

She is the type of person you can always count on, a true friend. When I was getting ready for the move, she was really busy and couldn't actually help me pack, but she did more for me than anyone else. She took my kids so that I could get things done, she picked them up from school. She made time in her (VERY) busy life to help me out. I had several friends come and help me pack a little here and a little there, but to Petrina I am most grateful.

Mark had come home that last week to help with last minute things and to drive with us back to Utah. The plan was to finish everything up on Thursday, have the truck completely loaded. Friday we were sending the kids for their last day of school and doing last minute clean up. When the kids got home on Friday we were taking off. It SO didn't work out that way. We got most of the stuff loaded into the truck on Thursday night. We planned on getting a hotel that night since our bedding was in the back of a truck, but Petrina wouldn't hear of it. She insisted that we stay at her house that night, she had plenty of room. We had several from the Elders Quorum come and help. But we have so much stuff that we still had lots of little things to load when we finally sent everyone home. So that meant on Friday instead of cleaning, Mark and I were still loading the truck. To make matters worse, they were supposed to come and pick up the truck at noon but they didn't show up until about 7:30 pm. Ugh!

Long story short, we didn't end up leaving until Saturday around noon. Petrina kept our kids Wednesday night, Thursday night, I picked them up from their last day of school on Friday and took them to Petrina's house again. So to my kids, it was just a great big party! They had a blast those last few days in Texas. They still talk about the big party at Petrina's. She insisted once again that we stay at her house on Friday night...and the by the way, the bed in her spare bedroom is SOOOO comfortable!!! I would stay with her ANYTIME! Then her family sent us off on Saturday with goody bags for each of the kids and treats for Mark and I. She was an angel and truly heaven sent! I know we wouldn't have gotten out of there til Monday if she hadn't helped the way she did. So THANK YOU, my dear friend!

Party at Petrina's!

Saturday Morning - Driving Day.

I cried (like a little girl) as we drove away!

She called yesterday and I got to chat with her for a few minutes. I miss her, but she is going to be here for a month this summer. I can't wait! Part of the reason she called though, was to check if I had arranged to get the boys spring school pictures from the school. Of course with everything else going on, I forgot, so she is ONCE AGAIN taking care of things. She is amazing! I hope every one has a friend like that. It makes life so much easier!!

Book Review

While Mark was living in Utah and taking trips to Hawaii (I know, poor guy!) I was stuck in Texas packing all of our stuff and getting ready for the move. I had to do SOMETHING to help pass the time once the kids were in bed and everything was boxed up. So I picked up a few books that I'd heard great things about. It was brought to my attention that I never said much about the books I had read.

The first book was the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

This book takes place in Afghanistan at first and then America. It spans nearly 30 years. I’ve never been to the Middle Eastern countries mentioned in this book, but they came alive for me! It was such an easy read and never a dull moment. This was an excellent book about the relationship of a father and son and the relationship between two friends in very different worlds. Regret, redemption, hope. Very profound and difficult in parts, but it was one of the best books I've ever read. It leaves you with the sense that even after every thing the characters in the book have endured, there is still hope in the end.

The next book I read was The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

After reading the back of the book, I was really interested:

"This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own."

Once I started reading it though, I just couldn't connect with the characters. I kept waiting and Waiting and WAITING for it to get better. It never did. It was a truly heartbreaking story about loss and sorrow and many wasted years. So I guess if you're into that type of thing, go for it!

The last book I read before the move was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. I was so involved in the lives of Mariam and Laila. This book takes place in Afghanistan as does The Kite Runner. I loved the loose history lessons it provides and the relationships between the characters are amazing! This story is told through the eyes of two different women, their daily lives in Afghanistan and what it takes to survive.

The book cover says:

“It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them...

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love—a stunning accomplishment”

It makes me grateful to be an American living in this wonderful, free country. It especially makes me grateful for my husband. I appreciate the struggle of Afghan women. This is my all-time favorite book. I cannot wait for another book from this author.

Then of course, there was the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer.

Twilight New Moon and Eclipse.

I am now awaiting the fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn. Great books. Very light reading compared to A Thousand Splendid Suns, but definitely fun and entertaining!

Temporary?

We are all settled. Well, as settled as we are going to be! I left half of our stuff in boxes and shoved everything into the spare bedrooms! I don't want to have to pack it all up again when we buy.

So, here's a little background: Everything with this move worked out way too easily. Once we decided to come back to Utah all the pieces just fell together. A friend of mine that I grew up with was moving with her family to Texas. As it turned out, they wanted to buy our house. PERFECT! So we worked it out for them to rent until they were able to buy it...since the housing market in Arizona is pretty sad right now, we figured it would take a few months for them to sell their house and get everything in order on their end. So that gave Mark and I a chance to get moved out here, get to know the area and then find our house. No rush, no deadlines, just take our time and find exactly what we want.

A friend in our ward in Texas asked where exactly we were moving to and Mark told him where his new job was. This friend just happened to have a house less than 10 minutes away and he was looking for a renter since his renter was moving out in March. See what I mean? WAY TOO EASY!! We were SO supposed to come back home! So we are renting his house til Susie's house sells, and our house sells. We are hoping of course, that it is sooner than later, but we are happy where we are.

I HATE PACKING! So, with all that in mind...knowing it could be just a couple of months (and of course the possibility of it being longer than that) I left a lot of our stuff, decorations, toys, extra things that we just don't need, in storage in the spare bedrooms. So, the pictures of the house are pretty bare and that is the reason.

We LOVE this neighborhood. That last picture was taken from our back porch. We don't have a fence in our yard, so our back yard basically opens up to this huge park. There is a little pavilion, the basketball/tennis court and they are in the process of replacing the playground toy. There are so many kids on our circle. My boys love it here, I am loving my neighbors and meeting lots of new people. I know I am going to get too attached to move! Ugh!

We Are Here!

We got here last Sunday and stayed with Mark's sister until our things arrived. Thursday evening, everyone drove to our new home (my family, Mark's family) and helped us unload the truck. We spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday (while listening to General Conference of course)unpacking and getting all settled. The kids started school and they are loving it! We are looking forward to meeting people in our new ward on Sunday. It is so good to be here to be close to family again! We are home!

The Game Plan...

I cannot believe how quickly time has FLOWN by! Seriously! I have all of the upstairs packed. The office, the kids rooms, both bathrooms and all the toys are done. All my pictures and wall hangings are packed. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I get to pack the kitchen and living room. Wednesday Mark flies home and we get to pack the master bedroom and bath and the garage. Thursday we load up the truck. Friday we are doing last minute cleaning while the kids are at school and then we are heading to see some dear friends. Saturday morning we are getting up early and driving home! We'll be in Utah on Sunday evening some time! The truck should get there on Tuesday or Wednesday and then we can get settled into our new house. I can't wait!

17 Days To Go!

The kids kept asking me, "How many more days until we move?" They miss their cousins so much! (Jace got a new Webkinz and named him Jadon!) So, I decided it was time to do the countdown. The boys remind me everyday to change the number. They can't wait to get back home!

I think we found a house. It has 6 bedrooms and 3 baths. It's in a really nice neighborhood and it's got a huge park with walking trails right behind us! I have been busily packing and have tons of help from friends...they are certainly making this easier on me. Mark is in Hawaii right now...pretty rough, I know. He'll be back here on the 20th to help me get things finished up. Then we leave for Utah on the 28th! I can't believe how quickly time goes by. We'll be all settled into our new home before we know it!

It's Official...

We are heading home! Mark accepted one of his job offers and he actually starts work on Monday. He is on his way out there right now. I finally told my daycare parents this week. I have to give them four weeks notice so they could find other child care, but we didn't know until this past week for sure what we were going to do. We are still not positive, but at least we have a better idea. I have a friend that I grew up with in California who is now living in Arizona who's husband is being transferred out here. They came out this past weekend to go house hunting and they LOVED our house! So, as of now, the plan is for them to just buy our house. So nice for us because we don't have to worry about sticking around out here and trying to sell our house and our family won't be separated any longer than it has to be! So nice for them, because they don't have to stress out about finding a house while living in another state and they can buy our house at a lower cost (no realtor fees)! PLUS, she is wanting to do daycare, and since when we move I am going to be a stay at home mom and no longer do daycare or pre-school, I am just leaving her all of my daycare stuff! Including (hopefully) some of my kids! There are a couple of parents who are really interested in using her (she comes with a GREAT referrence!). We are hoping that it will all work out! It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?!!

So, our tentative buyers want to be here April 1st and that gives us 7 whole weeks to get packed up and moved. We were actaully thinking about moving during Spring Break, but we'll see. I told my daycare parents that my last day of care would be March 14th (see, I gave them 5 weeks). If for some freak reason this sale falls through, then I will put the house up for sale at that point and we will probably just plan to be out here until the end of the school year. It will be hard on our family to be apart, but it will be good for the boys to finish up the school year with all of their friends. Obviously, we are hoping that everything goes smoothly and we can leave during Spring Break, but there won't be any hard feelings if it doesn't work out that way. The orginal plan was to wait until the middle of March to close my daycare and put the house on the market. So if it turns out that that is what we have to do, then so be it. We are in a great area, great schools, perfect location. Houses in our neighborhood have been selling within two weeks lately, so we are confident that it will sell really fast.

For now though, we are planning on leaving by the 29th of March. The countdown has begun! 49 days left in Texas. I've already started making a list of things we have to do either again or for the first time before we leave because I know that it will be a very long time before we are back here.

Well Caden, Jace, Jackson and I better get to work on that list. We have lot's of things to cross off!

Utah Bound?

Well, it looks like we are headed for colder weather! We are still weighing all of our options, but Mark and I keep going back to Xcellerated Solutions. The thought doing things on his own is so rewarding to him and there is so much more work out there for him and Dan now. I know that the kids want to move back and Mark and I are excited at the thought of being near family again.

This has been a good move for us, to be here in Texas and among other things, really learn to rely on one another. We love Texas and all of our friends out here. The ward is great and I love my daycare kids, but Texas is not our home. By no means has the decision been finalized, but we are leaning towards South Weber. I am tempted at times to just pull the plug here, put the house up for sale and head back now but I know that it would be better for the kids to wait until summer when they are out of school. What we are thinking is that Mark will just go back and forth until June. I'll stay here with the kids and then in April or May we'll put the house up for sale. He can work from home and build up clientele in the Dallas area while he is here and he has plenty of projects lined up to work on while he is in Utah.

Obviously, he will still interview with companies in Dallas and it may turn out that we don't move back right away. But I think we are all secretly hoping that nothing out here really materializes because we are all ready to come home.

Decisons, Decisions...

So, it's Christmas time again, my favorite time of year. I can't believe how quickly time flies! We've been in Texas now for a year and half. And we have truly loved living here. Mark and I have made some wonderful friends, learned life-altering lessons, and grown together as a couple and family. But, I think our journey here is not over.

Since losing his job last week, Mark and I have been faced with some tough decisions, yet again. Do we stick it out here in Texas or do we head home to Utah and family? Of course we would love to go home. We WANT to go home. But as I said, I don't think we are finished here. When we made the decision to move to Texas, it was a no-brainer for both of us. We knew it was the right thing to do. We planned on being here for about five years and then heading back. Now that there is really nothing holding us here, the question presents itself: Do we go home? This time the answer is not so easy for us.

Dallas is a great place for Mark to be right now. There are tons of opportunities for him to further his career. There are not so many opportunities in Salt Lake, but I know there are some. It's not like there is a wrong answer here, and I think that is what is making this so difficult for us.

We've spent much time on our knees and in the temple. Mark thinks we'll be back in Utah by June, I'm thinking it will be longer than that. I hope not by much. The kids all want to go back and Mark and I do feel that longing to be near family. I just hope it is sooner than later.