Life Update

We feel so overwhelmingly blessed right now.  About 4 weeks ago I was feeling a huge burden on my shoulders.  We'd moved out of the house and really hoped that our house would get an offer soon but I was full of worry.  Would we continue to pay a mortgage on a house we weren't living in?  Would we be living in my parents basement, being a burden on them, with out even saving any money?  The housing market is only continuing to decline about 1% per month.  I knew that moving out was the right thing, but I was still full of fear and worry.  I would wake up in the morning with my chest so tight that I could hardly breathe.  There was some extra family drama and, of course, the baby news.  Why was Heavenly Father choosing to have us add to our family at this time (because we had chosen NOT to do that)? 

Then I read an article in the Ensign about a woman who had undergone some horrible trials (her temple marriage of 27 years and 6 children crumbled and she was full of anger, despair, betrayal, hopelessness, etc.)  She said how it finally came to her that "fear and faith cannot coexist".  I have always known that is true, but it is often easy to forget.  That moment was a catalyst for me and I decided that I would have only faith and refuse to let fear enter my thoughts.  I knew that we were going in the right direction and I also knew that the Lord had a plan for us.  The only problem is, I didn't know the Lord's timeframe for us.

We prayed about the right things to pray for.  We decided to fast at the beginning of this month that we would have an offer by the end of the month.  Many homes in our neighborhood have had a difficult time selling.  Its that way all over.  We realized that we have to have patience with whatever the Lord had in store for us and agreed to patiently accept His will, but we also know that the Lord expects us to think things out on our own and come to Him with logical questions and desires--not just blindly ask what to do or for Him to help.  As we felt it would be very best if we had an offer by Oct 1st, that is what we sincerely prayed for many times.  Every time I did, I felt a peace.

Last Friday I spoke to our realtor for about an hour and was feeling a lot of pressure from him.  I know he was just trying to explain things as they are in this crazy market but I really felt pressured that if we didn't drastically lower the price of our house (and we had already lowered it $12,500 from our original price), that the house would not sell and that we might be looking at having to do a short sale or something like that.  I talked to Jason and we were really grappling with what we should do.  We have no equity in our home but know we need to leave.  Even though I understand short sales and do not judge or blame anybody who has to do that or foreclose on their home, but the whole idea made me sick to my stomach.  So, all weekend I just kept praying and trying hard not to let any fears or worries creep in.  I kept thinking about the scripture from the Doctrine & Covenants 6:
    22 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might ^aknow concerning the truth of these things.

  23 Did I not speak ^apeace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater ^bwitness can you have than from God? 

 

Sunday night I checked my email and found a note saying that our house had been shown on Saturday.  The next day, Monday, we got a call from our realtor.  We had received an offer on our house!  It was a bit low so we countered.  By Tuesday afternoon they had accepted the counter-offer and we were under contract!  Yesterday (Thursday) was the inspection.  Hopefully that comes back fine.  There is nothing wrong with the house that we know about.  We are quickly working on moving the things that we had in the garage into storage.  An extra blessing to all of this is that the offer is a cash offer.  They want to close by the end of the month!

I feel so very blessed.  I know that something could still possibly go wrong and I also know that next week might prove to be a little stressful--especially if there are things from the inspection that they want us to take care of--but I feel such a burden lifted from my shoulders.  I have faith in the Lord and I know that He answers our prayers.  I know that often our prayers are not answered in the time frame that we would like.  In these cases, we have to exercise our patience and remember that, as Isaiah quoted the Lord in chapter 55 of his book:   

 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ^aways ^bhigher than your ways, and my ^cthoughts than your thoughts. 

I knew very well that there may be things that the Lord needed us to learn about patience and endurance while waiting to sell the house.  What a tender mercy that in this case, our thoughts and His thoughts were the same and that He has blessed us so.

Deedle

Little Deedle.  How I love her.  Why is she so angry?  Is it her medulla oblongata?  I don't know.

The first few days of school she was very happy.  I was thrilled because it was a new school and she was going all-day so I had been worried. Here she is on her first day.  

My joy (and hers) was short lived.  Soon she began to tell me that her teacher is mean and that everything they do in class is "baby-ish".  Even the playground, she says, is "baby-ish".  In kindergarten, although she was very smart, the class was structured in such a way that Deedle was rarely bored and could be pushed on each activity above the minimum requirement to keep her interest.  Doesn't appear to be so in this classroom. I'm afraid that it has already turned into the typical situation you hear of where a kid is very bright (ie reading the Book of Mormon outloud during family scripture study) but is forced to sit quietly at her seat at school while she is taught what sounds each letter makes and then forced to practice writing one letter to fill an entire page.  Its not really working for her and apparently she's getting yelled at a lot.  We try to get specifics on why she is getting in trouble.  She says over and over, "I don't know."  Until finally she'll admit, "well, sometimes I just kind of forget that I have to keep looking at the board because I'm bored of looking at it but I have to keep looking at it."  Hm....a far cry from the Montessori school I tried to get her enrolled in (but weren't selected).

I'm hoping to go observe her classroom some time soon to see if its really as bad as she says.  I have a feeling it is.  Its tough.  Deedle has such a strong personality.  Luckily many of us are inexplicably drawn to her and her fiestiness often has us in fits of laughter (she told Chancho that her science is stupid and baby-ish because they don't even get to use chemicals...you know..."the kinds you mix together to make potions and stuff".)  I think all of my sisters adore her, even when she's at her worst...but I can also see how she might just rub wrong with some personalities.  Maybe this is the case with her teacher.  I don't know.  I know we're here temporarily so its hard to know if I should do something like make a fuss and change teachers or try to homeschool her for a few months until we move to Texas or if we should just let her work it out and remind her to think of the positives, count her blessings, and remember that its not going to be forever.  Hm...  I don't know.  Any advice?  I sure do love this child.

Rovin' Gambler

This is the song that Finn seems to find irresistible.  It starts and no matter what he's doing he has to stop and dance.  Its awesome.

18 Months

Finn turned 18 months old today.  That child is such a joy to our family.  If only he wouldn't wake up with the roosters, I think he would be perfect.  He is now walking.  I was about to say "finally" but I don't want to make him feel bad when he reads this someday.  Yes, he is a little on the older side for walking, but that's okay.  John said that the longer he crawls the better hand-eye coordination he'll have as he grows up.  The way he's going, looks like he might be a football player.  We're counting on him to bring in the big bucks someday.

I think my parents have enjoyed having him around.  He is much more comfortable with them now that he sees them every day.  Whenever we walk in the house, the first thing he does is reach towards the kitchen to see if either of my parents are around and shouts "HI!" while waving one or both hands wildly.

Finn loves music and his body starts moving to a beat when he's not even thinking about it.  There is a particular song that whenever I turn it on, he involuntarily starts bouncing up and down and then sticks out his elbow and moves his hand in a manner that can only be described as "soggy-bottom-boys-ish".  Super cool.

Some of the words he says are "MOM!" (at least 9,000 times per day), "Dad", "Grace" (Grayy), "Addie" (A-ee), "Andre" (Dray), "Grandma" (mama), "bottle" (pronounced perfectly, even the "l" sound but often accompanied by dottle as in "Mom! bottle dottle!"), "touch", "no", "Go!", "car", "cracker", "cookie", "hi","ball", "hello", "ow", "please", "more", "bath", and our newest favorite "love you" (luuu zhu). He will also mimic almost any word we say at his leisure.  We will stop and say, "did you hear that?" and we'll ask him to repeat it.  But he usually won't.

I adore this child more than words can say.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for allowing me to be his mother.  Please help me to do a good job.

(Thanks for the photos, Deedle.  On your camera days you usually use at least 2/3 of the camera memory on your baby brother.)

August Easter Egg Hunt

Today we had what the kids considered to be one of the best Family Home Evenings we've ever had.  It has taken me some time to be prepared emotionally to do this.  I will explain that more later. The kids had an egg hunt out on the lawn.  Each egg had treats inside but also a word for a mystery they had to solve.  The words were each numbered.  Just take a look at the photos to see why the kids found this FHE activity so enjoyable--and surprising!

Some of our Happenings

This summer was the fastest that I can ever remember and I have documented hardly any of it at all. That's sad. In any case, here is a little of what has happened recently. We moved out of our house and into my parents basement. Their house is the same home that I grew up in and my parents have always made it clear that it was, is, and will always be MY home (as they tell all my siblings, as well). There has been so much nostalgia being here.

Once we finally go the house cleaned out and were settled in here, I was able to relax and enjoy one of the best things about my childhood home. That would the backyard! My parents live on 1.5 acres and the backyard is such a happy, beautiful place.

Before school started, I would go out with Finn every morning to pick apricots and then sit in the rising sun while he played. Sometimes it would just be the two of us, but usually the other kids would come out to join us. I am not a huge fan of apricots, to tell you the truth, but Finn is. He will eat 3 or 4 or them chopped up for breakfast every morning. He'll be sad when this little morning ritual is over, but soon after the apricots are gone the peaches should be ripe, so I think he'll find himself quite happy again.

Changes

"There is nothing wrong with change--if its in the right direction,"  Winston Churchill.

I have not posted for over a month now because we've got some really big changes going on and I go to bed every night feeling exhausted and wake up every morning with a pit in my stomach thinking about everything that needs to be done.

On April Fool's Day my little sister, Megan, was trying to think of something funny to do on my facebook so she posted: Good luck on your move to Dallas!  Of course that raised a few eyebrows because we had not told anybody about any move.  No worries, we told everybody, its just an April Fool's joke.  But in actuality, Chancho and I had our eyebrows raised in surprise because we had been talking about possibly making a change and had begun to pray about the idea of moving...to Dallas.

Well, the decision has been made.  Our house has been on the market for two weeks now (only showed it once so far though).  We have feverishly been cleaning and packing and storing.  We plan to move into my parent's basement by the end of the week so that we can have the house empty and clean so that when we have to show it, the house is uncluttered and I don't have to panic about having it spotless.  Our realtor says he can sell an empty house much easier than a full one.  I hope that is true.  Anyway, our PLAN is to sell the house quickly (although we're not sure how to plan that), live with my parents until about January or so, and then we will move to Dallas.

Why?  You may ask.  We love our neighborhood and our ward and our friends and the mountains and living so close to so much family and we have a nice home and Chancho has a good job.  So, why?  I'm too tired to try to answer.  And the truth is, there isn't a logical answer.  The only answer that I can give is one that you really can't argue with.  We have actually felt drawn to Dallas for over three years.  Recently the feelings became very strong.  We fasted and prayed and we believe that Dallas is where God wants us to go.  We believe it is right.  So, change is happening and much more change is coming for our little family.