Back to Blogging

Wow it has been a really long time since I blogged.

So much has been going on in our lives and I want to document it so I'm buckling down and am going to do lots of brief updates from the past...6 months.

Our most recent adventure is that we moved again!

After being in good old Rockford, Illinois for 8 months it was time to pack up and head to the last rotation with Marty's job.  And that rotation brought us to...

NORTH CAROLINA!!!

We got to stay with family in Indiana on our way to North Carolina and it was so nice to have a chance to spend time with them, even though it was just one short night.  Thank you Shawn and Cami!

We also had the HUGE help of Don, my father-in-law, with our move.  He flew in to Illinois and helped us pack and then drive the moving truck down to NC.  He was incredibly helpful to have here once we moved in.  He knows so much information and was able to fix things, install things, watch babies, and much more.  Then Vicki, my mother-in-law, flew into NC to help us unpack but we surprisingly got most of the unpacking done before she got here so she was able to play with the babies and help make our home a home.

We've been here for 2 weeks and have absolutely loved it.  Mainly because we can actually go outside because it's not -20 like it was for the last 3 months in Rockford.  We took the babies on a walk and I realized that it had literally been 5 months since the last time we went on a walk with them (with the exception of Christmas in Florida).  Our children have been so deprived of the joys of good weather and we are taking full advantage of it every day we've been in NC :)

We have loved it here for more reasons than just the weather though:

1. Southern hospitality - I have been called "Ma'm" numerous times already and I love it.

2. I FINALLY have a legitimate excuse to say "y'all!"

3. There are lots of great things to do here - man-made whitewater rafting park, tons of beautiful parks, hiking, the beach is 3.5 hrs away, the mountains are 2 hrs away, and I'm sure we'll discover more things.

Below are a couple of pictures from a hike we went on recently

4. Our new ward is fantastic!

That is one thing I have genuinely come to appreciate with all of our moves - that no matter where in the world you go you are guaranteed to have an automatic family in the ward that you move into.  For people unfamiliar with the LDS church, our church is organized in a way where you are assigned a specific church building/unit (or a ward) based on where you live.  That organization has TREMENDOUSLY blessed us because it helps us meet people, allows us to get involved, gives us responsibilities, and we know that people will have our backs.  On the day we moved in we literally pulled into our driveway and people from our ward were waiting with dinner for us and helped us unload our truck.  Great people have helped me get involved in a play group, people have had us over for dinner, and we have just felt so welcomed into our new ward. We have truly been blessed with the wards we have moved into throughout the last couple of years.  

5. We have a house!

We are just renting a house, but we still have that "first home pride" that comes with moving into a house.  It is SO wonderful to have more space for the babies to roam around.  And we have an extra bedroom for people to come and visit (hint hint)!  The house definitely needs some TLC but we are working hard, making it our own, and coming to love it.

This is the pic we took of our house when we were house hunting.  We're getting grass soon (yay!) and we're doing lots of other things to make it our own!

We are so grateful for this next adventure in our lives.  We have been remarkably blessed throughout this experience with the people we've met and opportunities we've had to explore different parts of the country.