So much

Well, as you can imagine, there's no dull moments here right now. We're busilly trying to prepare for the move. We had the first garage sale of our marriage yesterday...and it went OK. We still have a couple of big items to sell before we leave, but we got rid of a bunch of little stuff. The Webbs sold some stuff, too, so overall it was successful.

We had a guy come lay tile in the lower bathroom/laundry room/walkway. So - that's been pretty torn up and I still need to replace the baseboards and get bigger bolts to put the toilet back. I jerked the toilet all by myself...are you impressed? (Aparently that's what you call it when you remove a toilet...who knew?) We had an issue with a leaky valve so we've had the water to our house shut off since Thursday. You don't realize how critical water is to everything you do until you have to live without it! Thanks to Darrel's brilliance, we've got it back on today...happy day!

Steve flew to Fresno right after the garage sale and spent yesterday afternoon-tonight (he's not back yet) with his mom and sister celebrating his new title "Master". They've had a wonderful time and I'm glad he got to go.

The kids & I went to Johnathan and Alex's basketball games yesterday. We had a great time! It was fun to see them play. Johnathan's team is comical to watch and Alex's team is quite good. Alex did a couple of really cool gymnastics rolls, too, right during the game. Daniel and Caitlin both fell asleep during Alex's game - Angela took pictures. Daniel fell asleep on the floor and Caitlin slept on my lap. We had a great afternoon. It was 68 degrees so between the games we grabbed some food and went to a park to play! Sometimes Vegas is GREAT!!!

The choir sang today in church, and since there was no Daddy to hold her, Caitlin came up with the choir. I tried to keep her still, but I'm afraid she was quite distracting (sorry, Ang). When we finished singing she said in no quiet voice, "That was COOL!". It was very funny.

Kenneth & Johnathan have been spending a lot of time singing/playing the piano together. It is really priceless to listen to them. Kenneth plays and Johnathan sings in his sweet voice. I love to listen to it. They wanted to sing in primary today, so I got the music for them. Angela and I and Caitlin went in to listen to them...they performed "I'll Follow Him in Faith". They did a great job and when they finished, Caitlin said, again NOT softly, "That was AWESOME!" Then, she kept saying "Awesome, awesome, awesome." It's funny to hear her use words like that.

Sometimes we are reminded just exactly where we live....like this morning....during our first church meeting (called Sacrament meeting), someone broke into at least 2 vehicles in our parking lot - braking the passenger window and stealing a purse/cell phone/wallet. How sad is that? When we first moved here, the men used to take turns patrolling the parking lot...I guess we'll have to go back to that. Bummer.

The past 48 hours we've spent entirely with the Webb family. Since our water was turned off I was worried about Sunday baths/showers and they invited us to sleep over last night. Then, after church, we just came back there and hung out/cleaned/rested there this afternoon/evening. I got the kids home about an hour ago and they were all entirely worn out. They are really really REALLY REALLY going to miss their cousins. And I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY going to miss Angela and Darrel. I've enjoyed so immensely living so close. We get along so well, and it's so easy to be with them. Angela has forced me into more "girls nights out" than I've ever had in my life...and it's FUN! I think our talents compliment each other and we work well together in all aspects of our lives. It's a good thing we can talk for free on our cell phones!!!

Tonight before I put the kids to bed I briefed them on what's happening this next week. Steve will leave Saturday morning for Seattle. Our lives will change forever. We'll ache for him until we're reunited, I'm sure. My prayer is that the kids can feel our love through all the chaos and change.