Almost done

 We went to look at the house. It’s almost ready. We also went to the bank to wire the down payment.

I took a quiz and didn’t do great on it. Our new house won’t have wifi for three weeks. They have to lay the cable so that will be fun. 

5

Today is Cora and Ruby’s fifth birthday!!

Oh how I love those girls! They are my favorite red headed twins in the world!!💕💕

 

Moved

Here we are. 

It was super sad to leave Lu this morning. I cried. I wish this was different but it’s not. I hate when people say “it is what it is”, it sounds so indifferent but sometimes you really don’t have a choice. I hate that she’s in Florida still and I’m not there. More than I hate when people say “it is what it is” what does that mean Karen?

Anyway, the flight was good. I did school work. We landed. (The definition of a good flight)

We stopped at the National Harbor (on accident- wrong turn) It turned out to be a lot of fun.

We ate lunch at a yummy African restaurant, looked at the statues and the ducks and the stores.

 

that's a wrap

Tomorrow I will be living in MD. Crazy. Even though it's been a year since we found out we were going to move, and started the longest most drawn-out move ev-ah, I still can't believe it's here.

Grace and I spent the day together, except when she was at school. She makes me laugh. I am grateful she's here with Tom and Diana. They are good to her. 

Blake is working at 4 Rivers. We went to eat there so we could watch him scoop sides.  T&D, Isaiah, the kids, Sandy and Brian all came too. 

 Today was senior handprint day at school.  Every year the seniors leave their handprints on the ceiling. It's a fun tradition. 

Topiaries

Diana and I went to Epcot for the garden concert series. The Pointer Sisters were performing and they did an excellent job. It was a good show.

We enjoyed the flower and garden topiaries as well. 

 

last lake reams day

Today is Fast Sunday. Next week is general conference and I’m so excited to watch it with Rob. 

I said my good byes. Taught my last primary class. And that’s that.

Grace and I made dinner for everyone today and Jess and Isaiah came over. Dinner was delicious and it was fun to see the kids and play with Makayla mostly. Said goodbye. 😢, said good bye to Jess. I’ve loved living near them and T&D. It’s the only time we’ve lived by family in our marriage. 

Grace, Han and E and I chatted a little. 

 

3 parts

Last Saturday as a Floridian. This morning we had a RS activity at DS. It was a scavenger hunt which was really fun. 

Jasmine, me, Cayley and Daylin were a team!
 

In the afternoon Grace and Blake and I went to Typhoon Lagoon. 

It was a gorgeous day and it was so much fun to play in the water.

Lastly we went to Top Golf for Brian’s bday. He is 58. I had never been and no big surprise I wasn’t that good at golf but it was a nice evening. 

We had fun celebrating together. 

Farewell tour

Grace and I went to DS today. She had a job interview, I walked around. We shared an ice cream in a Mickey waffle cone. 

We took last pictures on Lincoln’s steps. Both he and Grace changed a lot since our first photo years ago.

Tonight I went to a party at Becca’s. It’s was a going away for me that was fun and sad. I guess if you don’t feel sad you probably didn’t do a good job at blooming where you are planted. It’s better to miss people than to never had made the friendships. Totally true statement, although it doesn’t make it any easier. 

 

One week left

The weather has been so dreamy and I have been spending a lot of time on the lanai. It is so peaceful out there.

Lincoln also likes it.

Anyway, Laurie and I went out to lunch today. We had a fun visit. 

This evening Diana and I went to HS. Our objective was to see Fantasmic, which was fantastic. So fun!

We also rode a couple rides. It was a nice night.

 

Count downs on

 Are we really closing in a week? Idk? It seems like there is a lot left to do but we’ll see. 

The days go fast. I started a new semester. The first week always seems to be the hardest one. It take a minute to figure out the pace of a class and what is expected. 

Today Sandy and I went out for an Indian food with Blake and Grace. It was yummy.

I helped Diana with a quilting project. It’s nice living here because we aren’t homeless:) Also it’s just nice. Tom and Diana are both kind and welcoming. D and I have a lot to talk about and get along well. Grace and I try to be polite and nice guests. I feel like it’s going well. My favorite part of their gorgeous home is the lanai and I go out often to read, study, sit, listen to the birds, or watch the fireworks over Disney. 

I seems like I haven’t given a general update recently. So:

Dani loves her job. Her coworker is having back surgery and D will be picking up a lot of extra hours for the next few weeks. Greg is over Covid. Zach, his brother is fighting cancer and Greg wasn’t a match for stem cells but Heidi and Emily are so that’s great. I pray for him often. Tatum had an orchestra concert last night. Val and Kenz went. Penny just started soccer and softball (coached by Greg) and Marshall is playing soccer coached by Dani and Ethan. Tatum softball & she’s old enough to go to FSY this year. What??

Sierra has been working from home at least part time and her office just said everyone has to come in to work. That is a bummer. Chris is working hard. Ethan likes to spend time with them. 

Jenna and Clayton are getting ready for a European cruise. They just got chickens, the old ones had to become dinner because they became egg eaters and I guess once that happens there is no stopping them. Cora just got a cute haircut, the girls are turning 5 next week! And Darcy is the cutest little button💕💕

Sawyer changed majors to something computery. They are excited about the possibilities this opens up. He had a birthday last week, shout out to Sawyer!!, Hannah is due next month and I am super excited to go spend some time in Idaho with them. Can’t wait to see that baby Poppy!! 

Ethan is enjoying his freshman year. He is busy and doing well. He got. Summer job as an FSY counselor, which I think will be really fun. 

Grace is going to school. Her mental health has really taken a turn for the better and I am so grateful for that! She is excited to graduate.  Blake started a new job today at 4 Rivers. Grace has been job hunting. 

First Day of Spring

Diana, MaKayla, and I went to Magic Kingdom today. It was really fun.

The weather was surprisingly cool, and a little crowded. Keke was in a good mood and so cute so it was fine. 

We went over to the Grand Floridian and saw the chocolate Easter eggs. They were beautiful!

 

Stake Conference

 We had stake conference this weekend. Since our stake is still building it’s stake center we can’t all fit in the chapel for the general session so it’s broadcast. We did get to

Go in person however because Blake was speaking and Grace played a clarinet piece for a musical number. They both did amazing. 

Without reservation I will say that was my favorite 5 minutes of our whole clarinet journey. I love watching the band but this was just Grace (and Becca on piano) playing a beautiful medley so perfectly. It was beautiful in the way that only sacred music can be. 

Conference was good. I enjoyed many of the talks a lot, and all of them a little;)

After church Diana and I played phase 10. I helped with dinner and Jess and Isaiah and the kids came over. 

Airports

I have been spending a lot of time in airports. 

There was a time when I enjoyed flying. I thought it was exciting and worry free. Not that I did a lot of it. 

When Rob and I married I began to fly more. Now I feel like I fly a lot.

One day I felt nervous. For no good reason. No trauma. No mildly bad experiences. Once I felt nervous it sort of escalated. I wouldn’t want to fly and so I’d worry ahead of time. Then I’d be more nervous. It got to the point where I literally felt sick. One time I even went to urgent care thinking I was having a heart attack. Super lame. 

So I began to pray for help. Eventually I was indeed blessed with a flying miracle and I felt better about flying. Like many of life’s miracles it requires work on my part. I have things I do to help myself. I have a list of pilots that I know and like, and who I don’t think of as reckless. I remind myself of them: Rob, Wade, Al, Steve, Steve, Sterling, President Uchtdorf. 

I have my song that I sing. I studied flying. Not the mechanics or engineering but other stuff. And it turns out it is really safe. So I remind myself. 

I also have games on my phone that I only play in the air. It distracts me. 

I also accidentally did some exposure therapy on myself since I didn’t stop flying. 

All those things help the miracle. 

And I am calm, and grateful. Although I still don’t like to fly. I do like the going places and seeing loved ones!

Today almost changed my mind. Here are some things you don’t want to hear your pilot say: “there’s a lot of rough air so they are rerouting us, don’t worry we have enough gas to make it.” I was NOT worried until that announcement. “Folks, that’s turbulence. Buckle up, I didn’t see it and we are flying through the storm” I didn’t see it??? “I’ll let the planes behind me know”, okay??

We did land. So there’s that.

 

St Patrick’s Day

We didn’t do anything special for St. Patrick’s Day but I enjoyed seeing photos from the kids.

When we lived here before we wanted to go to Monticello but it is kind of far away so we never did. 

We decided to go today and I am glad we did. 
 

It was a good visit. I learned a lot and we had an amazing tour guide.

We also went to watch an interpreter who was amazing. He’s been playing Thomas Jefferson for 40 years and was outstanding.

On the way home we stopped at Red Robin, Yumm!

MD

 Look at this sweet almost big brother. I can’t wait to hang out with him for a week on his home turf. Hopefully we can become best buds!

Today was fly to MD take two. Flight was delayed but we eventually took off and now I’m here:)

Pi day

 I went to the airport today thinking I was flying to MD. When I went to print my boarding pass, at the airport, I learned I was 26 hours early. 

My flight is actually tomorrow. 

That was super Annoying. I wasted a whole day in flight preparation and now I have to do it again tomorrow!

Grace was not too far away so she turned around and picked me back up. We went to DS and met Blake for pizza. After they went to a birthday party for Chris Milazzo and I went home.