BIG CHANGES COMING OUR WAY!

So last year, almost 8 months ago we moved up to Idaho thinking it would be a good thing for our family.  Of course we prayed about it first, alot, and we felt good about it so we jumped in and went for it.  It was hard at first and got a little easier but we always felt like Buckeye was home.  So the readers digest version, R's old boss called him a bit ago and offered him a M-F 1-9:30 pm job, the answer to many prayers to get him off the night shift, something we could never afford here and to be able to go to church every Sunday.  We prayed about it and decided it was a good thing so we are moving back.  Since then things have fallen into place so smoothly it's been amazing from moving trucks to schools and a house and place for our horses, literally everything.  We leave in 6 days.  We have alot to do and more that has to fall into place just right but I have faith that we are going where the Lord wants us to go and just like he has been, he will keep paving the way for us to get there, remember the Lord giveth no commandment save he shall prepare a way that you might accomplish the thing which he commanded.  I'm working at not being overwhelmed at all that has to be done this week and remembering that he will help me and looking forward to it all being finished with.  I wish that we could have stayed until September and enjoyed the summer after the miserable freezing winter but if we do the boys can't go back to Odyssey so we'll suffer through the summer there and it'll be ok and not only that but worth it.  We still don't know why we were supposed to come here and we may never know but I'm glad we did.  It's been a growing experience for all of us and not only that but has helped to settle us down so that now when we go back to AZ it's because that is where we want to live not because we have to  be there and now we know that.  I'm grateful for that.

ANOTHER NEW (TO US) TRUCK

So Ryan periodically gets a wild hair and gets to looking on craigslist and seeing lots of "good deals" and decides to sell our vehicles and get something better. The problem is it is incredibly stressful for the entire family until it's all over and so now, as if we didn't have enough going on with the move, he sold both of our cars to buy a newer 4x4 suburban. So we looked and looked and looked some more and decided to buy a crew cab dually instead. Then today we obsessed some more and instead, on the way to buy the truck, bought a 2 wheel drive sub. We got a great deal and spent 1200 less than we would have on the truck and it's in great shape and has been obviously well taken care of. So now we have a home to go to in ID and a way to get the fam there, huge weight off my shoulders!!! Now back to packing and cleaning!! no fun! Only 2 1/2 weeks till we leave.

MOVING ALONG TOWARD THE MOVE

We found out today that we got the house we were hoping for YEAH!! That is such a weight off our shoulders, now we have someplace to go. It's in a nice small area with good, small schools and Ryan will have a total 6.8 mile commute, another huge relief. It will be so nice for him to not have to drive 45 minutes each way to get to work not to mention the gas savings! So this is our soon to be new home.
and this is our new soon to be back yard with the barn and workshop and pastures and stuff behind. That is pretty exciting. Now I'm wondering how the furniture will fit into it, girl stuff I know.

On Saturday night R sold our truck, he sold his car last Tuesday night, thus leaving us with no vehicle. There were lots of prospects listed for sale but as often happens, pics always look better than the real thing and so after a full day of driving around town looking at suburbans he says to me, "Sorry if you hate me for selling the truck." I don't hate him but I hate shopping for vehicles!!! So stressful and time consuming. So now instead of looking for a place to live, we are looking for a way to get us there. Oh well, we'll find something, we always do.

WATCH OUT IDAHO HERE WE COME

All of my adult life, as long as I can remember in fact I've hated living in this valley. It's ugly(in my humble opinion), hot, the people are rude, the traffic is terrible etc etc etc. Then we moved to Buckeye. Over the last year, mostly, I've come to appreciate the beauty of this area. The mountains, well what we call mountains here, the wildflowers(actually I've always loved those), the sunsets( I've always loved those too). Our ward is AWESOME, the boys are in a GREAT school, we have INCREDIBLE friends and the list could keep going. So when the opportunity came to move out of here we went for it, almost out of habit, we've always planned to live somewhere green and small eventually. Then we started to think about it and realized we'd be happy to stay also, not sure when that happened but like I said...So now that we love it here, we are moving to Idaho in 3 weeks. Ryan was offered a job and we've prayed ALOT and decided to accept it. Actually he was offered 2 jobs. I wanted the one is Springerville and thought that was where we should be, Ryan wasn't so sure. He really thought ID made more sense for alot of reasons, primarily stability and financial ones. It took some doing and ALOT more prayer and now I can support him, not to say that I'm happy to be leaving everything I've known and my mom so far behind, but...I've been preparing for it, packing, selling furniture that won't fit in a moving truck, house hunting, etc but until today it didn't seem real. I don't know why but all of a sudden today it hit me... all of the wonderful people I probably won't ever see again. That's really the only thing I'm upset about. My heart is hurting and I'm trying really hard to keep from crying and be cheerful about it for my family's sake, if the kids see me upset they will be scared and upset even more. Now they are in bed and R is at work and tears are streaming. I REALLY LOVE IT HERE. I'm no fan of the heat but who is honestly especially the last couple of days 115 degrees, come on! Maybe the Lord is doing that to make it easier for me move, I doubt it but it's a nice thought. This is really going to be hard but it'll work out right?!

MOVING DAY

So the reason I haven't written is that I have been incredibly busy... moving. I didn't want to move so combine that with the heat, I wasn't looking forward to it. The thought of leaving MY house with my big back yard and wood floors depressed me. I am so grateful for my wonderful friends who encouraged me like Tisha who helped us find a great house that we like alot and then helped us move and set up and even hang pictures. Like Carrie and Nancy and Bobby who came to help us move and clean, in the heat of the day mind you. Like Scott and Joel and the young men and their leaders Daniel and Chris who moved almost our entire house in one load including the boys swing set in the back yard, THEY ARE AWESOME!!! and by the way, what a great example they set for my boys. They were joking and cheerful and hardworking! What great people we are blessed to call friends and to know!!! The new house is nice and almost everything is put away. By next week we should be back to normal, I think. I have ALOT of cookies to bake and thank you cards to write!