Traditions

I am really looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I love church on Sunday, I do. I love those moments when you just feel the tingles well, that calming peace from above that just says, "I am here".

But it will be really nice not to have to take a child out twice during Sacrament meeting (GRR!). It will be really nice not to find out that 6 teachers are not here today, or that my counselors are gone. It will be nice not to hear about another crises that someone else is going through and silently grieve with them.

I am looking forward to having a big pancake breakfast together, complete with raspberry jam and bacon. Then, as we are finishing, we will turn on the tv and just savor the MoTab as we put away dishes. The kids will quietly play with their toys, the fall air will blow gently through the open windows. I will snuggle with my husband on the couch to enjoy listening to the word of God, straight out of the prophet's mouth. Aahh.

If that doesn't work, Saturday afternoon, we may just go for a long drive up in the mountains and hope the kids fall asleep while we listen on the radio. Even so, I love Conference weekend.

One shouldn't watch Fiddler on the Roof when one is moving

Yesterday I was listening to 4 children laughing and playing together, all about princesses and the dog and the trucks who were saving them. Two little boys and two little girls. Hovered around my coffee table, totally engrossed with the trains and princesses, discussing back and forth without argument.

I am going to miss this. I'm going to miss the kids running over to play with Berlynn and Paris, miss sitting on the back porch and talking with neighbors, miss Zoe peaking in my backdoor at 9 am to see if Bekah and Kyle can play, miss Kyle staring out the window to see if Asher is home. I am going to miss opening my door and letting the kids run to the park or having other little kids come running in. I am going to miss looking out my back door and knowing who is home, or the safety of knowing that even with Rob gone, I can always get help. I am going to miss that my kids believe that we have a dog named Chico, because "Aunt Chris" (my neighbor whom we have adopted) has one.

If I didn't know this was right, I wouldn't be doing this. I know things will change here. This moment will move on. But for this moment, I am thankful I am here. And I can't tell how much I am just praying that we will all find friends in our new home. Oh I hate moving. And I really shouldn't watch movies of people forced out of their homes.

I love September!

Who doesn't? And there is no better way to enjoy September than on a bike. Okay, I am no biker-chick. The LOTOJA race is definitely NOT in my forseeable future, but I love to try to bike where I want to go as much as possible. We even bike to church (and in case you were wondering... it's very easy in a skirt).

With so much going on in June and July, it really wasn't until August that I started biking again. And although I don't do anything really impressive (to Bekah's dance class and back is only about 8 miles), it gets me out exercising... especially when you consider I am pulling over 100 pounds in a trailer behind me. The kids are usually great and my favorite is when I hear them chanting, "Go Mama, GO!" (okay, I admit that sometimes, when it is hard, I tell them that they need to cheer for me).

Today after a bike ride, I even did 10 boys push-ups without any problem! And while I can hear my cousin Aaron kindly suppressing a chuckle (the one who probably runs straight up mountains just to warm up)... I am still pretty proud.

Labor day

I forgot to mention what a great time we had on Labor Day. Rob took most of the day off (whoohoo), and we went hiking with my parents. It was so much fun! I love hiking.



Okay, it wasn't this steep... this was just handing the kids down after they climbed up a big rock.

And the saga continues

So here is the latest on our house: It is again under contract. And this was even better than the first contract. For one thing, instead of having to be out in 2 weeks, we have 2 months. What a relief. So that gives us a little longer to figure out what in the world we are going to do.

This was a hard week for me. Tuesday, my 2 not-quite-so-little-ones both went to preschool. As happy as I am to see them growing up, it is still painful. It looks like they will both love preschool. It is also interesting to see the difference between the two, and to remember where Bekah was last year when she began preschool. She has learned so much! You know how I commented about how peaceful I felt all August. Well, for three days this week, I kind of slackened a bit... didn't really read my scriptures so well. By the end of the 3 days, I was stressed out and in tears over the uncertainty of our future. It reminded me (once again), that you stay close to God not to avoid the difficulties and trials - they happen to everybody - but to get through those trials peacefully.

Other little things in our lives: Rob and I went to the Greek Festival Friday night with some friends. That was really fun. Rob is working on his dissertation. Yeah! Rebekah had a barium swallow done at Primary Children's, which looked good. I canned peaches. We had a primary activity that went well.

What did I do today?

I went to a political rally. This was a first for me, but will not be the last. After watching congress spend more and more (at a time when people can pay less and less), I have become so sick of the lies, the corruption, and especially the waste. A couple of nights ago, I watched an undercover video of Acorn (a government funded program) actually counseling how to start and fund a prostitute ring and then how to launder money from it into a campaign account. Are you kidding me?

So I have joined in the 9-12 movement. Wow, things are changing. For one thing, I actually figured out how to download pictures from my phone.

New developments

Saturday morning we woke up to find out that the guy who was buying our home just lost his job, and so could no longer qualify for the loan. Hmm... 5 hours later, we have two potential buyers. Just waiting to hear offers from them. Crazy crazy, but I'm still reading my scriptures and so am as calm as a cucumber (I should say as cool as a cucumber, but I think I left the "cool" stage somewhere near the end of my 20's. No wait... I'm cool! Heck, yes!)

You know you've got a climber when

Climber vs. non-climber. Non-climber would be happily playing in the sandbox right now, not using the sandbox to climb up the 6 foot fence and scale it around the yard.

A definite plus side is that I never worry at playgrounds. My kids have climbed about everything they can. I'm pretty sure that they can handle something that has been designed to climb.

Moving on... just don't know where

We just sold our home. Back in June, when we put our house on the market, I told Rob that I really felt like we wouldn't sell our house until September. Well, actually it was September 1.

So the packing begins. Now we need to find a house, well first the job offer so we can qualify for a loan. Sigh. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. We may need to pack up things and put it in storage for a while. Only God knows. Again, I should be nauseous with worry, but I just feel so peaceful. So much to do, and only 28 days to do it.

So what did we do today? Spent all afternoon at the doctors office with a kid. Such is life.