2015

It's now New Years Eve 2015, so I suppose it's time for an update! Probably a long one, so if you just want the highlights, scroll to the pictures and don't read the whole post! This year has been a whirlwind of a roller coaster, but it's been a great adventure and I've learned and grown a lot. In February, Adam was really hitting a breaking point with work. He was working ridiculous amounts of continuous over-time, and his team was being treated very poorly by the upper management. At the same time, I was feeling like maybe we needed to be exploring more out-of-the-box ideas. I had had a friend approach me about joining his network marketing team for doTERRA Essential Oils multiple times and every time I turned him down, but this time I decided that maybe we should consider it. We loved Essential Oils and I found myself sharing them with people I didn't even know, so I decided that maybe we could make a little money off of my work. We joined his team in February and were off to a great start. I was teaching classes 1-2 times/week and sharing oils like crazy and loving it. It was really fun to see other people use them and see great results and get excited. Right after we signed up, I had a terrible allergic reaction to the skin care products which contain Melaleuca (which I knew I was allergic to, but used anyway). I was never able to get over that allergy and soon it go to the point that I was unable to be around any essential oils without some kind of reaction to my skin, so we were more or less forced to walk away from doTERRA. In the meantime, we had been praying about Adam's work and where to go from there and seeing that doTERRA wasn't the answer we had hoped for, we searched other options. We felt strongly that we needed to sell our home, though we weren't sure why or what was in store for us. We talked to a realtor and were sure we were going to need to short-sale (sell it at a loss) in order to be able to sell since our housing market was just recovering. I felt uneasy about a short-sale, but also felt like we needed to sell. I think I had hoped that by selling our home, we'd feel more able to seek out other job options out of our area, and we were also bursting at the seams in that little 3 bedroom house with 6 people. After talking with the realtor and praying about how we were going to make it work, we decided to just take a leap of faith and see where it landed us. We put the sign in the yard and the next day, before getting it listed online, the realtor came to me and said that he had run the comparables differently (our house was 100 years old, but completely remodeled about 20 years ago, so the remodel changed the way we'd list our house) and we wouldn't need to list it as low as we thought and we might even make some money on it. I agreed that if we could at least break even, I'd feel much better about it. The house was in great condition, but we fixed up a couple of small things and got it listed. The listing was live on Friday, we had a showing on Saturday and an offer on Sunday. By Monday night we were under contract for $500 less than our asking price! It was crazy how quickly it went and we were shocked, but excited. We had decided that we'd move in with Adam's parents until we decided where we were going. In the meantime, Adam had just taken a job with an electrical company that was working on LDS temple remodels and would be traveling to California for 2 weeks at a time to work. It was bitter-sweet because we knew the work environment would be amazing and the people would be great, but of course, he'd be gone a lot. He quit his other job, and prepared to go to California. He was supposed to leave on a Monday and on the Wednesday before a former co-worker told him about a job in Logan. It was more or less a guarantee that he'd be hired, but the guy who did the hiring was out of town until Tuesday. So, we had a choice to make.... Go to CA and skip this opportunity, or stay home and hope it worked out. We prayed and went to the temple and went straight from the temple to tell the other company that Adam was not going to take the job in California. Everything went great with getting the local job and Adam is still loving it.  That was in the spring. We moved out of our house at the end of May and in with Adam's parents. We had a lot of fun living with them and being near family for the summer, but with Adam working back in Cache Valley, and liking his work again, there was no reason for us to stay there and it was silly for him to be commuting an hour each way every day, so we started looking for a house. As we searched, we (I) started to get a little discouraged because what we though we wanted was a large yard like we had before, but a much bigger and newer house and it was hard to find that without living in an area we didn't like or a house that wasn't what we wanted. While spending the day looking at houses one day, we both commented that maybe we needed to just keep looking because none of them felt right, or we needed to change our expectations. There was 1 more house to see, so we decided to go see it, but I was dragging my feet a little because it was back in Providence not far from our other house and I was kind of hoping to start fresh in a new and a more rural area with a newer house. As we got closer though, I got more excited about it. We pulled in and the minute I walked in the door I felt like I was home. It was nothing like the other newer houses we'd been looking at that felt cold and not very welcoming. It was just like our other home which had such an inviting feel to it. We walked through the house but Adam and I had already pretty much made up our minds about having this house. We told our realtor that we wanted to put an offer on it and move in as soon as possible. We closed on the house the end of July and moved in mid-August. It is about double the size of our last house with 3200 sq. feet and 6 bedrooms! We are loving all the space we have and the yard is exactly the same size as our last. We'll have a lot of work in the spring and summer to get our yard where we want it with gardens and fruit trees, etc, but for now it is beautiful with mature trees for the kids to climb, hills to sled on and a little fort built under the grapevines for them to hide in. We are about 4 blocks away from our last house, which puts us just far enough away to be in a different community, but close enough to see our old friends and have the same small town feel. Our neighbors and church family have been so welcoming and loving and we couldn't be more grateful that we followed the promptings we had this year and ended up here. The kids are growing fast, of course. Deegan and Griffin began piano lessons in October and are loving it. Deegan is a natural and has picked up on it much faster than his teacher expected. Griffin plays really well, but has a hard time staying on task (he's 5, what did I expect?!). Deegan is in 2nd grade this year and joined with a few other homeschool families in a distance learning charter school that he attends on Mondays all day and then we do his regular homeschooling the rest of the week. We are both loving it. It gives him some time away from the house to be with friends and experience new things and it saves me from stressing about doing all kinds of projects and extras to keep him busy. Griffin is in Kindergarten and loves being home with me to do his school work and play with his siblings. He's a smart, smart kid, but boy does he hate to sit still! He has more energy and goofiness than all of my other kids combined! He's very clever, and consequently very funny and he knows it. He tells us all of the time that he knows everything, how to do everything and that he's so funny (and he's mostly right, if we could only get him to KNOW how to stay on task!).  Ritter is a typical 3 year old with emotional ups and downs and all arounds. He had surgery in June to repair a hernia and did amazingly well. He was in and out in just a couple of hours and up and running shortly after that. We were scared for complications (See Griffin's whole 3 year old year-2013), but all went well. He is our natural athlete. If there is a ball, kicking or hitting involved, he's on it. He loves basketball and soccer and obsesses about bowling. Ellsie is... our wild card child! She's nothing like any of the other kids! She was the easiest and happiest baby, but once she realized she could move and get around, her red-headed personality came out. She crawled at about 7-8 months and started walking at 9 1/2 months. It was only a few weeks after that that she learned to climb over the child gate, out of her highchair, wiggle out of buckles in the shopping cart and throw a mean tantrum! She is very attached to her mommy, has her daddy wrapped around her finger and is adored by her brothers. She turned 1 on Nov. 2 and has the stubborn determination of a 16 year old! Life is finally feeling like it's back to normal, but of course, I'm sure it won't stay that way for long before I get bored and get myself or my kids involved in something else! We have been so blessed this year and are so grateful for all who played a part in that (especially Adam's parents who rearranged their lives and house for us over the summer). My testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has grown immensely and especially my testimony of prayer. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to talk to my Heavenly Father as often as I need and that I know He will listen and guide me in the way I need. Here's to a new year full of new adventures and learning!