I have started and stopped writing this post six or seven times now. Life is still crazy, insane and hectic. But good. For better or worse, this is what's been happening for the past couple of months...
The Good
1. Our new home is beautiful! It has a lot of great upgrades that we never would have spent money on: crown moulding everywhere, epoxy floor in garage, built in speakers in living room, office, upstairs game room, patio, garage, fancy lighting for the landscaping, and best of all- a pool!
2. Our new ward has been great. The day we moved in, we had tons of help from the ward and family. After all the "movers" had left, we still had ward visitors bring a casserole and some cookies and invites to YW for Emily.
3. Jason's amazing dad drove to Houston three times to load our stuff up into a trailer and haul it 1000 miles back here. Yes, three times! And, yes, I think he's crazy, but I'm very grateful for his hard work. I just hope his back eventually recovers!
4. My parents "adopted" Bullet for 3 months, so that I could show the house and pack. It was a blessing for me, but quite the ordeal for Mom and Dad. Bullet took off after a cat and came back with several gashes that wouldn't stop bleeding. Mom took him to the vet and then put up with the ordeal of nursing him back to health. She must have done a good job, because when she came up to visit, Bullet hopped into her van to go back home with her.
4. Since our moving day was two weeks before school was over, there was drama about Tyler's ability to enroll in high school next year without "finishing" 8th grade. Neither school district in Texas or here was very flexible. So our wonderful friends- the Fullmer's- hosted him for a couple of weeks. He enjoyed his stay and I didn't worry about him a bit, knowing he was in good hands. He came home a new and improved Ty- taller, more mature and helpful. I'm glad he had that experience and I wish I was the one who could've stayed at the Fullmer's while everyone else moved.
5. No more travel for Daddy! That's a very good thing.
6. We found a strong Special Olympics group here, and Randy has started playing basketball with them. He loves it. I love it too, because I've already met other moms that can teach me about the schools and the area. When basketball is done in a few weeks, he will be participating in swimming, bocce and soccer. He's really looking forward to all of them.
7. Less than a week after Ty got here from Texas, we sent him with his Teacher's Quorum to go on High Adventure. They hiked, swam, repelled, biked and had a great time. Ty wasn't too excited about going with a bunch of strangers, but they weren't strangers when they got back. The timing was perfect! And Emily just got home from her first Girl's Camp experience. Although she got sick, she loved it and had a great time.
8. We have been able to visit with family and have family visit us several times since moving here. Cousin swaps, birthday celebrations, baptisms- I love being close enough to have these experiences and so that my kids can really get to know their family.
The Bad
1. Every move has casualties and this was no exception- our camera (and the reason for few pix on our posts), Jason's iPhone, our grill and a couple of car break-downs. The car was fixed and Jason bought the latest iPhone. But we haven't been able to replace the camera or the grill and I really miss them.
2. Our house in Texas hasn't sold, and prospects aren't good. Our realtor talked us into leasing it out, and he was confident it would be leased right away. While it's being shown more often, we still have an approaching double mortgage payment looming with no potential renters. Boo.
3. Just a couple of weeks after moving in, Randy was swimming near the bottom of the pool. He didn't have goggles on and had his eyes closed. He got a little too close to the bottom and chipped his front tooth. We found a great dentist and had it repaired, and thankfully, Randy still loves swimming.
4. I was very careful about lifting and moving, so that I wouldn't hurt my back. But shopping at Walmart did me in and I threw it out while picking up a packet of pencil leads. I am now on very friendly terms with a local chiropractor. And he is on very friendly terms with my money. sigh.
The Ugly
1. While our home is beautiful, there are a lot of projects that need working on. Our master closet was completely gutted, and Jason has built some nice custom closet organizers. He says he's 3/4 finished with 1/2 of the job. But it's enough to hang most of our clothes. Our "To Do" list is quite long. It will keep us very busy for a while.
2. "Where is _____?" is heard often around the house. We still have boxes in the office, toy room, closets, bedrooms, garage, etc. Our "front room" has no furniture, just boxes and food storage. I know it's temporary, but it still drives me crazy.
3. The girls and Randy are still sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Jason needs to assemble Randy's bunk bed, and he is planning on building bunk-beds for the girls. But his work schedule has kept him so busy and my back hasn't let me help with assembling. The kids say they are OK with it. I think they just like an excuse for a chaotic room.
OK, so maybe that wasn't so "quickly." Writing our experiences out show me that the Good far outweighs the Bad or the Ugly. I just have to keep reminding myself how blessed we are.
