Tears Today

I am feeling a bit emotional today while packing up the house. We will move out on Wednesday. I will clean on Thursday. We close on Friday. Very soon I will walk out of this house, lock the door and never go in it again. Weird. I do wish we were moving straight into the new house. That would be exciting. This temporary move is not much fun. Delayed gratification. I keep finding myself on the verge of tears as I see empty cabinets and shelves and rooms. We have been very happy here in this little house. Many good memories of good things happening to our family. I guess that is what I am thinking about. Not about how we have way outgrown the space. Not the no grass in the backyard. Not the tiny kitchen with counters that need replaced. Not the walls that need repainting. Not how it makes me crazy that there is no where to go to escape the noise of 5 kids in less than 2,000 square feet. I am sure glad we are not moving away from my town, my ward, my friends. Then the tears would be legitimate.

We All Have Work...

We are down to just a few more days in this house. It is kind of bitter sweet. I have been wanting out of this house for several years. Praying desperately for this to happen. We were so excited to have the house sell. I kept thinking the excitement over it would erase the hard work. I was wrong. It is hard work packing up a house for a family of seven. We spent all day Saturday cleaning out and packing up the garage. We are storing stuff in the basement of a friends house so we made several trips with the van and their truck loaded up. The garage is all away. Today the boys helped move all the stuff from the attic to the garage and then we made 2 van loaded up trips to the basement. It is pretty impressive how much I can get in the van. My goal for the week is to have everything we plan to store in the basement IN the basement and all the other stuff we will take to the rental boxed up. We can start moving to the rental on the 26 so the 27th will be big moving day and then we will clean the empty house on the 28th with the closing to happen on the 29th. And that is it. Eight years in this house. Way longer than we thought it would be. We have been very happy here. I am so glad we are not moving far away. We brought two babies home to this house. My boys have gone from little boys (Madsen turned 8 here, Sully was 6, Declan 3) to fine young men. We have had a lot of fun in the cul-de-sac and big back yard. We have really great neighbors. There are a lot of memories wrapped up in this little house. We were so excited to buy it. It seemed so big and nice and new. Now it seems so small and old. I hope the new people are as excited as we were. Now we will live in the house of some friends for a few months while the real house is being built. We are so grateful for their kindness. I so look forward to my new house. It is a nice house, more than I ever really thought I would get to have but everything I have hoped for. It will be nice to have a little breathing room. We will get used to no cul-de-sac and neighbors all around. We will have new adventures and new memories in the new house. But NO new babies! We will watch the kids grow up and leave home. I hope it is the last house I ever buy. The boys are being such good helpers. It is not fun. The boxes are heavy. It is hot outside. They do not like to wash walls and baseboards and windows. I like having my own personal cleaning and moving crew. It will take all of us to make this happen. I will be glad when it is finished and we can rest for a little while. Then we get to do it all over again! kind of sorry for the long post. I guess I was just writing all the things in my head down. You did not have to read it all!

We made it

Yesterday was the last day of school. We survived another year of it all, homework, tests, projects, recess, girls, friends... oh the fun! The boys all did really well, again. I am grateful to have good smart kids who try hard and are pleasant students. Each year I am amazed at how quickly the time flies by. In August it seems like FOREVER before the year will end. But in the blink of an eye November is there and we fly through the Holidays. Then the school year is half over and we have spring weather to look forward to! Before we know it, it is June and we look back and think how fast that year happened. This was a successful year for all the boys. Every year that passes with my kids still getting good grades and having friends and being good respectful students and children counts as success in my book. Next year we will have a Junior, a Freshman a sixth grader and a third grader. Four kids, four schools. They aren't so little any more. Well done boys, we are proud of you!

Elder Holland

We had the privilege of having Elder Holland at a special Stake conference today. Madsen and Sully were at the church at 8:00 this morning to save seats for a meeting that started at 10:00 and we were in the first row of the cultural hall! It was a really neat experience to be able to hear one of the apostles speak to us. He is funny and wise and kind. He speaks with such power and authority. When he started to bear testimony it was very quiet for a room full of people. The spirit was so strong. He talked about the challenges of growth that the church has, but that it is a good challenge. He talked about the early apostles and the challenges they faced after Christ was gone. He talked about the man who was crippled and for years went to the temple to beg and how he was healed by Peter. He spoke of the man who was blind and Christ healed him and he said, I don't know much, but this I know. I was blind and now I see. His point was that we cannot deny the evidence of the gospel. I loved it when he spoke of the crippled man and read all the verbs in the story. How this man went leaping and running and praising and singing. He said, "he hasn't had a verb in forty years. He can have all verbs he wants for a few days." Made me giggle. And I tell you, after being there today I feel full of verbs. I want to leap and run and dance and sing praises. It was truly a spiritual feast. At the end he pronounced blessings upon all of us. It was very moving. He spoke of those who need physical healings and said "this is as if I had my hands upon your head. This is your blessing." He blessed those with spiritual struggles and temporal struggles and those going through hard times. He said, "our children grow up mostly in enemy territory these days. I promise that if they stay with the gospel they will be safe." What a promise form a servant of God. We were able to shake his hand as he left. I told him that my parents were missionaries in Chile when he was there. He smiled and asked their names so I told him and he got a big smile on his face and said, "oh of course! Tell them I say hi." It is a rare experience to be taught at the feet of an apostle. I am so grateful that we were able to be there. That my children could shake his hand and hear his testimony in person. Elder Holland has long been one of my favorites. Now he is even more.

He is in!

I got a letter from the Student Assignment office today, here is what it says, "The staff in the office of student assignment has considered your transfer request for Declan to attend Apex Middle. We are happy to inform you that your request has been approved. This is Declan's school assignment for the entire 2012-2013 school year." I am so relieved! I guess the letter I got yesterday saying it was declined is the standard letter everyone gets. It was dated the 28, todays is dated 5/30. Now I need to contact AMS and schedule a time for registration and course selection. And I will take his name off the wait list so another parent can get good news too.

School News, maybe

Last night the father of a boy in Declan's class who has the same screwed up school situation as us, called and asked if I had checked the assignment web site lately. I told him no and he said I just might want to because theirs now says Apex Middle. So I checked and sure enough, Declan's assignment now says Apex Middle. But there is a sentence that says, "all of the schools that you ranked were above capacity. You were placed at a school within your proximity and are on the wait list for your first choice. Please call the assignment office for more information." Apex Middle is my first choice and he was #10 on the wait list. I called and left a message for my assignment office lady asking if he is indeed now assigned to Apex. I have not heard back yet. This would be such good news! I am believing he now gets to go to Apex Middle. I also received my letter from the student assignment office telling me that my request for transfer has been denied and I can appeal if I would like. I am not very surprised by this. I am hoping it is a moot point. This news will make this one good week! Now if I can just find a place to live for the next few months...

Hurray!

Our house is under contract! After a week of frustrating counter offers, the buyer came up to a price we are mostly comfortable with. I am so excited. Glad to have this huge weight off my shoulders. Glad to not have to show my house any more. Glad to be able to move forward. Glad to have the new house even more of a reality than before! They have until June 18 to do inspection, appraisal, finalize funding etc. Then the settlement date is June 29. One month. That is what I have to pack up my house and find somewhere for my family to live until the new house is completed. I better get to work! I hope this all goes through without any problems. I do not need any surprises at the inspection. I do not need to find out they can not get financing. I am remaining faithful. I went to the builder this morning and for the first time that drive felt more real than all the months of dreaming. We need to do all the design center choosing and then sit with the builder man and go over the plans in detail before they start building. They have the permit in hand. Hopefully, we can get over there this week. The sooner the better! We are very excited. I hope the new people will be good neighbors to my friends. I hope they will be happy in my house.