Life Happens

I haven't really sat down to write on this blog for so many months. To simply catch up on what's been happening lately, I'll share a quick timeline.

Mid-December 2016 : Rand is offered a new job at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. Ephraim is about two hours from our home in Eagle Mountain so we decided that our family would need to move closer to Ephraim. In the next few weeks we celebrated Christmas and the holidays and tried to get Randy ready to start a new job. He worked from home for over ten years and as all our neighbors know, his primary wardrobe was pajamas. He needed a completely new wardrobe.

January 2017 : Rand starts his new job. Because of yucky winter weather and the length of the drive, Rand rented a car (we only had one) and stayed in motels during the work week and came home each weekend.

We initially hoped to rent a home in the area. He started searching for a rental home adequate for our family and I started packing. Rand wasn't having much luck finding a rental. His brother Dennis helped me get our home ready to sell. By the end of January, the garage was loaded with boxes and the house that I loved was ready to list for sell. Our fabulous real estate agent sold it the first day.

We weren't having any luck finding a rental home and we started to considering buying a home. We found a house that needed some work but was adequate and we made an offer that they accepted. Everything seemed to be going just right. We would sell and buy on the same day and be able to move right into our home. Unfortunately, once we got the inspection back we started to be unsure about the house we had chosen to buy. We couldn't quite explain it but Rand and I both felt like we weren't supposed to buy it so we backed out and started looking again.

February 2017: We found the house hunt frustrating and unfruitful. As the date to be out of our Eagle Mountain home loomed we were getting worried. Eventually, we found a lot in Ephraim and felt good about building a home. It was an idea that we had been thinking about since we first decided to move to Sanpete County. It wouldn't be easy but we felt right about it. My brother Nick is an architect and he started working on plans based on our dreams.

Unable to find a house to rent in Sanpete, I found a house in Payson. It was small but would be just right for a few months while we built a house. It was close to the temple and the schools. It wasn't an ideal commute for Randy but it would be a place to live much closer than we were. Then, the day before we were to move out of our home in Eagle Mountain, the rental in Payson fell through. I hurried to reserve a storage unit for our stuff. Our neighbors and family came to help us move out and into the storage unit. We were officially homeless. While we were moving the last of our things into the storage unit. Rand got a call from a man from Manti, Utah. He was on a mission with his wife and heard of our plight. He had a rental home that he was willing to offer us but it wouldn't be available until April 1st. Relieved that we at least had somewhere to go eventually, the kids and I moved in with Rand's parents in Salt Lake City.

March 2017: I drove the kids from Salt Lake City to Eagle Mountain (an hour) to school for a week and a half. The older kids finished up the term at high school and junior high so they could get credit. Then, I checked them out. For the next few weeks, we spent our days doing field trips and work sheets.

I reserved a house through Airbnb in Moroni, Utah for a week so that I could check the kids into their new schools in Manti when the new term started. We stayed in the Airbnb house for a week.

The following week was Spring Break for the new school district so we returned to Salt Lake. We finally bought a second car.

April 2017: Our family came to help us load up two Uhaul trucks, my parent's horse trailer and my brother's trailer with our stuff from the storage unit to move it to Manti. I hadn't seen the inside of the rental home until we started bringing in the first load. It's an older home but completely satisfactory for our family and we are very grateful to have somewhere to live close to Rand's work and close to the kids' schools. It really couldn't be in a better location. Since then, we've tried to prepare the house and adjust to our new home. Deep sigh. I'm exhausted.