Quick Update

Ahhhh!  I really don't have time for this, but I don't want to get too behind.  So I'm just going to type a few highlights and worry about posting pictures and making it sound cute later.  This is just a rough draft of my life!!!

• We bought a new van about three weeks ago.  Dave got it in Utah and drove it back for us.  It's a red 2006 Chrysler Town and Country.  It's very nice.  HOWEVER, ever since we got it, Josh has had a problem with motion sickness.  I don't if or how it's related, but I have to keep a "throw up bowl" with us at all times. 
• We bought a home in Layton.  It's wonderful.  It reminds me a lot of our house here, but with a finished basement.  It's 3200 square feet and has 6 bedrooms so we're excited to have all the space!  The yard..not so much space there.  It's only .22 acres, but it's lovely.  In some ways, I'm sad.  Whenever I look out my kitchen window and see my kids out in our huge yard, I have to fight back the tears.  But when I look at the weeds everywhere, I'm less sentimental.  Dave commented the other day that we're not going to know what to do with all of our free time and money once we get a small, animal-free yard.
• Our current plan (and plans change sometimes) is to move out the day after school ends.  School is out on Wednesday the 23rd.  We'd like to fill the truck on Thursday, clean the house that evening and the following morning, and close at the title company on Friday afternoon.  We then have to wait for the funding to clear and everything to get set up on the Utah side, so we'll spend a few days living with Grandma and Grandpa Gee and a few with Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  Our furniture will spend a few days in a storage pod or something.  The big question for me is what to do with Cookie (the cat) for that week.  I guess two different boarding kennels is the best option.  Yikes.  If I could give her away or help her find "a better place" I would, but Alison's having a hard enough time as it is without losing her cat, so she's coming.
• My emotions have officially come to the surface.  I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to cry for the next two weeks.  It's silly because I'm actually excited to move, and I love our new house, and I know that people move all the time, and I know that my friends and I will stay in touch, and I know that we'll be visiting often, but none of that seems to matter to my tear ducts!  I went out to dinner with two of my very best friends on Saturday night.,  We had a great time and laughed our heads off, but as we drove home I lost it.  I walked in the door sobbing and Dave was like, "Um, so...how did it go?"  I got released from the Primary presidency today, which I knew was coming - I'd even given all my stuff to my replacement already, but I was surprised by how hard it hit me.  I cried all through church, especially when they made me come into primary so they could give me a small gift and sing a song for me.  Seriously, I was ugly crying - gasping for air and all!  Silly, but true!!!  At least the primary kids are used to seeing me cry.  In fact, I assigned one of the primary kids to cry at least once a week in my place.  I hope she takes her job very seriously. 
• I'm packing about 5 boxes a day.  Just taking it kind of slowly.  It hasn't been too horrible.  I'm purging like crazy while I'm at it.  We're going to have a garage sale next Saturday, followed by a huge drop off at the D.I.  I've also been fixing things here and there - painting the outdoor steps, minor plumbing fixes, etc.  I'm really quite handy!
• We met the people who are buying our house today.  They're great!  It's a young couple with a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girl.  They're so excited to live here. They love the house, especially the kids painted rooms, and they're thrilled to have the orchard and the pasture and the coop and everything.  I feel so much better about leaving our home knowing that it's going to be loved the way we loved it. 

Enough for now.  Time for bed.