What we've been up to...

Holy Toledo, it's been a crazy few months. I am only now feeling like I can catch my breath. I don't do consistent crazy very well... This girl has got to have some down time in between.

One of the biggest things we've been up to that played into a bunch of other "to do's" on our list  is this:

We are building a house! Have you ever seen a family so excited about dirt? The house is actually all framed and getting a roof this week, and it is super fun watching it go up. We finalized the contract back in February and are looking at an end of August move in date. We were open to moving anywhere that we felt prompted to go, but saw everything unfold for us to stay in the same area where we've been --same church ward and all.

I can tell you that I was a happy woman to have our house sold in four days. With three busy kids and a baby, it was not easy to keep the house in showing condition and to be outside of our home for such long stretches. My mom was able to come and visit in the calm right before the storm, and then it was full throttle. We put the house on the market on a Monday and had three solid offers by the time Thursday night came. Talk about a hot housing market. We accepted one of the offers and agreed to be out around mid-March.

The Ides of March rolled around and we had a fantastic friend filled moving crew get half of our stuff into a storage unit, and the other half into a two room townhouse up the street. I figure I can do anything for six months --so stuff all six of us into 1100 square feet and no yard, it is! Closing on the house was put off for a few weeks, but we finally closed on our home of seven and a half years near the start of April. 

When we moved into the townhouse the stain on the cupboards had been recently put on --on a varnished surface, so stain was stinky and getting on everything. They came in and removed the drawers and cupboard faces and handrails and finally came back to put them on with only half done right a week later when I called to ask them about it. (I finally washed down all the sticky surfaces with baby wipes so we wouldn't get the nasty unwashable wood stain on us anymore. It looks terrible, but I don't care.) We didn't have a washer and dryer for a few weeks because we have to rent a stackable here, so trash bags full of clothes made their way to the laundromat. It looked like a refugee camp here a couple of times because there wasn't enough time for Jake to dry everything in the evening at the laundromat, so we had to string clothes up all over the living room. The dishwasher wasn't working for a while, but it mostly functions now... Sadie sleeps in a pack and play in our closet.  We've been settled into the townhouse now coming up on two months, and I have to say that I am soooo looking forward to having normal sized, good functioning appliances again. And kitchen counter space --oooohh, I can't wait. Oh, and being able to throw the kids into the backyard while I make dinner. I miss that. I found myself getting ticks over apartment living for a little while, but then I decided to embrace it. There isn't a better alternative, so I can spend six months being a grump about it, or I can embrace it and make the most of it while we watch our awesome house go up. I have chosen the latter and am making plans for all kinds of summer activities with the kids to keep things moving along at a fun pace.

There was another pocket of stress last month. My Grandma Rich passed away and Jake was so good to make things work for me to go to Utah for the funeral. I, of course, took Sadie with me. I was able to visit Jake's family while out there and saw the double blessing of siblings being able to meet Sadie for the first time. I was grateful for the time spent with the Rich side of the family since it had been so long since I'd seen them. There is a bit of a complicated history there, but I am grateful I could go and properly pay my respects to my grandmother and show my support to my father. I had a really nice time visiting with my siblings and their kids, Dad and Sandy, and then Jake's parents and the Blacks. When I got back, my dad was in the hospital the next night. Aaahh! It turned out to be ulcers, which are getting taken care of. Two days later a girl T-boned my car as I turned off a frontage road to go get Costco gas. I had all my kids with me. The biggest point of impact was the passenger side door --the only place where no one was sitting. We were all okay, thank heavens, but any event that follows with a 911 call is going to result in some time consuming, insurance involving, headaches. Her car was totaled, and mine was taken for almost two weeks to repair. It's all over and done with now, and my Traverse looks great, but I am dealing with a bit of whiplash that I hoped would just go away. Instead I'm needing to check into it with insurance stuff again. It will all be in the past soon.

So, stress, yes. But I'd take my stress over anyone else's any day. And everything is fiiiinnne. And did I mention our awesome house is getting built?!? We drive by almost every day to see how it's coming along.

With all the craziness in the past couple months, I feel I need to mention, great friends stepped in to help and to support. I am beyond fortunate to have such wonderful friends around me.

Okay, so, there is a nature preserve a quick jaunt from our upcoming house. It's connected with trails all over the city. We are about six houses up from the community pool, playground, and basketball standards. We are in a great place to see the community fireworks and balloon festival when the time rolls around. And best of all, we have neighbors who are happy to meet us. That thought just about makes me cry. As much as I loved our old house, the neighbors on that street wanted to keep to themselves, and although they were nice when approached, it felt isolated as a neighborhood. I'm ready for that to change.

So we are sticking it out in the townhouse. Plugging along in our callings, work, taking care of each other, and planning different upcoming activities. 

I'm so grateful.