Catching up!

It used to be when I got super busy that my journal was the first thing neglected. Now this blog is what is ignored. So much has happened in the last month. Let me do a "not-so-quick" run through.

#1. Most important, Jonathan turned 8 and was baptized.


He was so excited to get baptized by his dad! His smile didn't leave him all day.


Brian's parents and sister came for the baptism. That was very nice to have family here. They did a great job reminding him about the importance of what he was doing. The kids loved having family visit.

Brian's sister, Heidi, is very allergic to cats. She hasn't been to San Diego in 5 years because of it. This time it worked out well. The week they were set to come visit, we put our house on the market and were having people come through to check out the house. We all agreed it might be best to have them stay in a hotel. They were great sports about it. But I still think Heidi was very relieved, and literally breathed easier because of the situation.

Another milestone for turning 8 is joining the Cub Scouts at church. Just Jon's luck, he got in just in time for the Raingutter Regata.

Neither Brian nor I actually graduated from BYU, although I did attend for 1 semester before my mission. My kids are very loyal and act as if they have it in their blood. Jon was so excited about the making of his boat and planned his design weeks before his birthday. I love that they are so into scouts. In our family it's "no wings, no wheels". In other words, they don't drive until they earn Eagle scout. We just have to get them to that point before life gets more interesting than scouts. Ha!


#2. Family Traditions. Brian grew up in St. Louis, so going to Utah was a big deal. When the boys turned 12, they got to go with their dad to General Conference at the Tabernacle. Brandon thought that was a great idea and wanted to do the same. We told him he could go anywhere, but he chose Utah. I secretly think he was hoping for snow and could maybe get a ski trip out of it. Still he really enjoyed the trip.

He did see snow at the family cabin near Fairview, Utah. Don't let the pictures fool you, it's a beautiful area, but the cabin is as run down on the inside as it is on the outside. They had a great time hiking and being out in nature, but they didn't actually stay at the cabin.

They went on to Orem, Utah and stayed with some of our favorite friends, the Chuns. We've known this family since before Brandon was born. They are as close as family to us. And they took good care of the boys while they were in Utah. Brandon came home asking how come we didn't have a baby. Thanks a lot, Andrea! :)


Brandon was really impressed with Priesthood session of conference. I think it had an impact on him, and it definitely was a special time for he and Brian to be able to play and talk all weekend.

#3. We sold our house ... again. It's been the craziest ride ever. The day before Brian took Brandon out of town a house came on the market. For some reason we felt like this one could be "it". Brian filled out all the paperwork just in case I saw the house and wanted to put on offer on it. Before he came home from Utah, the offer was accepted and we were in escrow.

Our house was quickly put on the market and by the first weekend we had 4 offers, two of which were cash offers. (Who does that???) Mind you, Brian still hadn't even seen the house we were buying yet. The tenants of our prospective home wouldn't let us in to see it because they were mad the owners were selling and didn't want to do them any favors.

With Brian's parents in town, we thought it would be so fun to show them the new place, but the tenants weren't budging. They did say we could see the backyard once they moved their stuff out. Brian loved it as much as I did. It's a 1/2 acre lot with so much room for both work and play. As we were getting ready to leave the house, the maids drove up to clean the empty home. I was able to chat with them and talked them into letting us see inside ... there are benefits to speaking Spanish. So, 3 days before all contingencies were taken off our home, Brian finally got to see the home he was working so hard to buy. I'm telling you he is a man of great faith to put so much trust in my judgment. On my mission we used to ask, "es fe o estupidez?" In this case it was all good. The inside is as nice as the outside and he was 100% on board. Unfortunately the house was taken off the listing, so I have no pictures. I'll try to get some next time we have access to the house.

We decided to accept an all cash offer which means we are on hyper speed to get out. They asked for a 7 day escrow and we talked them into a 14 day escrow with the option to rent for an extra week. That means we have to be out by Halloween. The new house is vacant so we're hoping we can rent it starting this next weekend and start moving in. We won't know until tomorrow. If they don't agree to that, we hope to be able to put our stuff in the garage and then rent a hotel, or mooch off the kindness of friends. If that doesn't work, we'll have to put everything in storage and go with that mooching option for the family.

This is a lot of work, but all still feels so calm inside. The ward is much smaller where we're moving to, but that hasn't hampered our excitement. I'll try to update again when I know something ... hopefully very soon. Today at church we were asking the Young Women what they were going to be for Halloween. I think our entire family could go as homeless people ... literally! ha, ha! It's all for our experience and learning, right?!