Today Just Kicked My Behind!

Today was one of those work from sun up to sun down days. I am trying so hard to get the house ready for us to move but as each day goes by I am more and more scared that it won't sell. I have been doing everything that everyone tells me to do so that we can increase our chances of having our house stand out from the rest but the problem is not that, the problem is that no one is comng to see the improvments that I've made! Today alone, I cleaned out the entire basement and moved all of the furniture to the garage. I took a huge load to the DI and then completely emptied the backyard and the house of garbage because the curb pickup is tomorrow. I also cleaned up a flood that Ivan created in my kitchen and vacuumed the remnants of a "Kix" cereal storm that hit my living room. It was insane but here at the end of the day, I have a ton to show for what I did. Matt didn't seem as enthused as I was but I think that is because he is really having a hard time with moving away from Utah. I am having a hard time too but I know it is what the Lord want's for us. The thing that I am having a hard time with is that we are running out of time to sell the house. That used to make me think that maybe it wasn't the right thing for us but now there is no doubt in my mind that we are supposed to go. I am so thankful for the power of prayer because without it I would be lost when it came to these kinds of decisions. I just wish that I could make it easier on my husband. I pray that the Lord will give him the comfort that I have found.

Our Baby "Fergie Ferg"

I caught this video of Nora in the kitchen the other day. We all thought it was hilarious. We have music on our new Verizon phone and Claire is always asking to listen to it. Of course they are not kids songs, they are all my favorites but I have found that they have quickly become Claire's favorites as well. So here is Nora dancing to "Fergalicious". So now we call her our baby "Fergie Ferg". I should win mother of the year for letting my kids listen to this song but at least it is the clean and edited version. Claire can sing all of the lyrics and she too can really break it down! We have a lot of fun together with our music!

I Can't Believe It's Only 9am!

So I don't know about everyone out there but the phrase "Thank goodness it's Friday" does not apply to me and mine. I don't know what it is about this day but it seems to be the hardest one of the week. The kids are out of control (more than usual) and by Friday I am just too tired to deal with it! So already this morning even though it's only 9am, Ivan has emptied a shelf in the hall closet, wasted a whole box of band aids, pulled hot dogs out of the fridge and has been throwing them at the wall! Most people would be able to laugh at this kind of thing but because it is so usual at my house, it is just not funny.



NO IVAN!!!

(Ivan reminds me very much of a character from one of our favorite books by David Shannon called "NO DAVID!")



The dog pooped on the carpet downstairs which is usual when we leave her here when we go out of town. For several days after we get back she must just be pissed at us.


Nora is already down for her first nap of the day because all she has done since she woke up is cry.
Where am I during all of this you may ask? Well, I have been busy trying to help Claire find the tithing money that she took from me and lost. She insists that someone stole it. Nothing here is safe. All of this has happened in the hour that I have been out of bed. I cringe at the thought of what else might happen during the rest of the day. So as others are glad that it is Friday, I am wishing that the day were over already. I swear that Ivan is out to sabotage my efforts to keep this house clean for showing. Everyday I have to rush around cleaning like a mad woman!


My little family means the world to me, it's just so hard to keep it all together!

So Confused!

Well, Matt has an interview tomorrow with a company here in SLC. If he were to get the job it would be a 10k pay raise a year. That would be incredible. We also found out today that there is a place in Arizona called Queen Creek that would be about the same distance from Hanjin there than Tooele is from Hanjin here. Well, I was looking at those homes and they are incredible. They are cheaper than Chandler where we were looking but they are all near 3,000 sq. feet and the largest one that I found had 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. I could not believe it. I never ever thought that we might be able to afford something like that. It's not even bank owned or anything! So now I am just as confused as ever. I want Matt to be happy and I want what is best for us. I know that we need a bigger house because our family is still growing and I want to move out of Utah. I know that this job here in SLC would be a great financial gain for us. Man, it's all so confusing. Even though great opportunities keep coming up here in SLC, I just keep finding myself drawn to AZ. I am so confused. It will all work out how it is supposed to but I am not a patient person.

This is a small taste of Queen Creek Arizona:


Here is one of the local golf courses:


Here is an example of what the houses look like:


This is a picture from the neighborhoods in bloom festival that they have every year:

Can't Win For Losing

Today has definately been the kind of day where I certainly should have stayed in bed. It started out very well. Believe it or not I took 6 kids to Target to grocery shop today and we all made it out alive and without yelling and screaming at one another. The older kids were such a great help. After we got home, things took a turn for the worst. The daycare kids that I watch were still so great, the oldest wanted to make lunch and so with my supervision she did and it was delicious! She loves to cook and I told her today that she should go to cullenary school. The afternoons this week have been so hard with Claire and Ivan. Ivan has hit that stage where he doesn't think that he needs a nap. He does great until about 3 pm and then he either crashes or throws fits for the next 4 hours until bedtime. Claire has been having melt down after melt down since Monday when Matt and I got home from Arizona. We started her on some medication for her ADHD. I have been working so hard on dealing with this in a possitive way with her so that she could be as happy as possible. I have felt for a very long time that along with her counseling she needed medication. Her psychiatrist finally agreed and so for the past week she has been on Medidate. The first two days were a great improvement. She spent the weekend at my Mother and Father's house and they said that she did great. This week though, something has gone terribly wrong. The only thing I can think is that it would be the medication. It is such a drastic change in her behavior and there is nothing here at home that has changed. The doctor told us to take her off the medication for 2 days and then start it again to see what the difference is, if any. It is so hard to be patient when dealing with these out of control melt downs. I know that she is not happy either and that is what breaks my heart. I felt so much like I was doing the right thing but now I am questioning that. It seems like that has been happening a lot lately. Just when I think that I am doing the right thing or feeling the right thing, it all comes into question. So in addition to all of this heartache and hardship today, Ivan broke a light in his room and Claire colored our brand new computer with sharpie. FYI rubbing alcohol takes Sharpie off of computer keyboards and computer screens. Thank goodness because this computer is not even a week old! To top off this day, my brand new phone stopped working. I can receive calls but cannot dial out. The only key that will work on the phone is the power button! I swear, somehow I am doing something wrong in life to make everything fall apart. A great friend of mine came to the rescue and let us use one of their old Verizon phones while we wait for our new one to come in the mail. Man, I hope that tomorrow is better!

Thank Goodness for Family Home Evening

Because Matt and I are having a very hard time I felt that tonight's family home evening needed to be very special. I chose the theme of family unity and enduring to the end.

I found a very good story for the children and it captured their attention very well because we had pictures to go along with the story. I have re-capped the story below with different pictures but hopefully you will enjoy it as much as we did, it was just what Matt and I needed to hear.

A boy had always wanted to climb a mountain and so he packed his things and started on his journey. He came to the bottom of the mountain and he started to climb. He climbed and he climbed.



After a while he came to a stop. In front of him was a snake. The boy did not like snakes and he wondered if he should turn around or keep going and endure to the end. With his goal in sight the boy decided to endure to the end so he picked up his pack and continued to climb.



He climbed and he climbed and soon he fell and scraped his knee. Because he was hurt and tired he wondered if he should bandage his knee and continue on his journey so he could endure to the end or if he should merely start back down the mountain. With his goal in sight the boy decided to endure to the end and so he picked up his pack and continued to climb.



He climbed and he climbed and soon he was very tired and thirsty. He did not have any water to quench his thirst and so he wondered if he should give up and climb back down the mountain or if he should keep climbing and endure to the end. With his goal in sight the boy decided to endure to the end and so he picked up his pack and continued to climb.



The boy climbed and climbed and soon it began to snow. He was very tired and cold and wondered if he should start back down the mountain or keep climbing and endure to the end. With his goal in sight the boy decided to endure to the end and so he picked up his pack and continued to climb.



At last the boy reached the top of the mountain. He realized that by enduring to the end, picking up his pack and continuing to climb that he had reached his goal. It was a beautiful sight to behold.



The boy realized that the Lord had blessed him in so many ways for his willingness to be faithful, persevere and endure to the end.

Throughout the trials that Matt and I have been facing these last 2 months I think we had lost sight of what needed to be done. We have stopped many times in frustration and cried, not knowing if it would be best for our family to keep climbing or to turn back and go down the mountain. We have had many set backs in our attempts to find the right answer for our family. We have considered many options which have failed and many options that may or may not fail. We have been a little lost. Tonight's family home evening helped us with that. No matter what the decision may be, to stay here in Utah or to move to Arizona, we are not going to turn back. With our goals in sight we are going endure to the end and so we will picked up our packs and continued to climb.

Back Home...For Now

Yesterday, (Sunday August 17,2008) was the last day of our house hunting trip in Arizona. Matt and I got up first thing in the morning and planned another day of house hunting. We would have loved to relax and enjoy the pool but we felt that we must utilize all of the time that we had there for planning our move. The evening before we had driven through Mesa Arizona. We were hoping to find the temple but we were unsuccessful. We were not impressed with the area but I think we were in the wrong part of Mesa for successful house hunting. After we returned to the hotel on Saturday night I spent hours online looking for smaller houses that would be closer to where Matt's new office would be. I found a list of 17 houses that I would potentially come back and see. We were able to drive around Chandler Arizona on Sunday and view the outside of many of the houses I had viewed online the night before. There were many beautiful ones and many that we were able to cross off our list. The plan is to make and offer on a house as soon as we get an offer on our house and it goes under contract. If we are not successful with any of the houses that we were able to tour, I will fly down by myself for a day when we have the house under contract and view the three bedroom houses and make and offer on one. That will be hard because we will be paying for the trip ourselves but it will not be too expensive and now that I know the area, getting around will be a piece of cake. We are now just praying that our house will sell. We have had many viewers and many that "almost" made offers but they found bank owned properties that were 5,000 dollars less than ours. Right now we are feeling very nervous and discouraged. We are trying to do what the Lord is asking of us but it is so hard and we are meeting trials at every step. It is hard not to feel like we will be homeless and jobless in a few months. We are striving to do everything that the Lord wants of us though and so I know that it will work out the way he wants it to. In the meantime we will have to pray for comfort and knowledge that we will be okay.
We were so glad to be home and see our children. I think Matt was glad to be back in Utah but I was sad because I feel that Arizona is where our little family is meant to venture.

Utah



Arizona

Well, today was day 2 of the house hunting trip. Tonight we were very discouraged by a lot of the houses that we looked at in a more affordable house range. I can see what they mean by Arizona being more expensive than Utah. Gas here is only 3.89 a gallon right now though! We looked at 11 properties today. We came away with a few that would work for us but nothing that we absolutely loved. We have decided that we will have to change our search from a 4 bedroom home to a 3 bedroom home. We currently have 4 bedrooms in our home in Tooele but we only use 3 unless someone comes to visit. We were unable to submit any offers even on the two that we liked because our house in Tooele is not currently under contract. So tonight I sat down and looked at 3 bedroom homes in a lower price range in Chandler. We have decided that is the area that we would like to live in. We decided this after driving all around the surrounding areas. Chandler would be closest to Matt's work and it's a very beautiful place. Here in AZ there are the most beautiful flowering bushes called Bougenvilla bushes. Whatever home we end up in if we move here will be having these bushes added if they are not already there. If I could bring some home to Utah and have them survive I would do it! We are discouraged tonight but things are looking up a little after I found the more affordable houses to look at. It looks like as soon as our house goes under contract, I am going to fly back down here for a day and look through these houses and make an offer on one of them. Matt will most likely not be able to come with me but I will come down and go back in the same day. This has all been so stressful for us but it all has to work out one way or another. I am ready to come home tonight. There is not much more that can be done here at this time and I am anxious to see my children. It has been nice to have some time alone as a couple but we wish it would have been under different circumstances. At any rate, relocation or not, Arizona is someplace that I would like to live at some time in my life.

Below is a picture of the Bougenvilla bushes I was talking about.

Phoenix

This is a picture of the very awesome car that I got to drive all weekend. I think Matt only got to drive it once. It is a Chrysler PT Cruiser. We are considering not givingit back! (laugh). I would love to own one of these cars one day. I always thought they looked kind of silly but I have loved it. They are going to have to pry the key from my cold dead hand at the airport tomorrow. (laugh)

This is a picture that was taken by someone in front of the Chandler museum. Chandler and Tempe where we did most of our driving and looking was a very pretty area.

This is a picture from our hotel overlooking the pool at night. It was a very nice place to stay. We wish we could have had a few more days to enjoy it.

Well, Matt and I are on our first day of the Phoenix house hunting/information gathering trip. The flight went well, although we were in a jet that was about half the size of a normal commercial jet. It only had one stewardess, if that tells you anything. The flight took about 1 1/2 hours and I slept the whole way. I did wake up at the end in order to see the landscape as we flew in. It was much greener than I would have imagined and for that I was thankful. When we first arrived in Phoenix we were a little aprehensive because we were getting a rental car from the airport and then we were on our own. We were given a PT Cruiser and just like a woman, I have no idea who makes the car, all I know is that after driving it for a day, I want one. We did get lost for an hour or so while driving around but luckily we got lost in the very wealthy part of Southern Phoenix. It was very funny to us because we kept thinking that we spotted our hotel but then it would turn out to be a private residence. I mean honestly who needs houses that beautiful, is it really necessary??? When we did finally find the hotel and it is great. There is an outdoor pool, a spa, a full morning buffet, none of this cold cereal crap and bagels but the real deal. Matt and I got the opportunity to meet with his would be supervisor and his wife and friend for lunch. It was a nice meeting and they all seemed to have great sense of humor. They were all from Korea and they thought that we were absolutely nuts that we had 3 kids and that we were even entertaining the thought of having more. They informed us that the Chandler/Gilbert area where we would be living is "very Mormon." I don't know if he meant that in a bad way or not, he didn't seem to but he was suprised when we told him that would be great for us because we were mormon. That made us feel a little better about moving here, we would feel like we had a bigger support system if we had a strong base here with the church. I have been told that we will enjoy the difference between the LDS church inside of Utah and outside of Utah. If this is what we choose to do, I am looking forward to discovering that difference. After all, with no family nearby, we will have to rely on new friends and the church for our support system. We are more confused than ever about the move. I feel it would be a very positive thing, especially after looking at some of the houses that we did today. Matt is aprehensive and with good reason. I tend to go more with my feelings and Matt is a logistics man so he has to see everything on paper. It has been a good but tiring day. It has been nice for Matt and I to come on this trip without the children so that we can talk things over without disruption. This is one of the hardest decisions that we have had to make in our 7 years of marriage. The scenery and the beautiful homes are making it a little easier for me though! (laugh)

Options

Well, Matt and I are off to Phoenix in two days and we are completely un-prepared. We are going down to look for a house for the transfer. We have been weighing our options and we want to make sure that we are doing what is right and following the Lord's plan for us. Our house here in Tooele had hit a stand still when it came to showings and so after lowering the price a little, we have 2 showings tomorrow. I am so stressed about it though because I don't feel that the house is ready to show tomorrow. This week has been especially hard for Matt and I. We have had so many different feelings and emotions that we are not sure exactly what to do with them all. We are scared to leave Utah and our friends and family. On the other hand we are excited about the opportunities that going to Phoenix could bring. It is so hard to be in a position where you feel like either option would be okay but you don't know how they will work out. I guess that is where our faith comes in.