Has it really been six months since I have last written? Oh my goodness life has changed in the blink of an eye and I need to write it down. However, it might take me all night. I don't have that kind of time right now so will try to summarize the best I can but still keep detail. Our lives are about to take a major change. The ride is fast and scary and as it gets closer I am wondering if I even want to get on. So much has happened....
We are so extremely blessed to live in this free country. I am so grateful for internet, telephones, computers, texting, pictures, family. I get the chance to talk to my children every day. sometimes it is only a text but the ones I cherish the most are the video calls. I love seeing their faces and their smiles. Cortnie is the one who videos us the most and I am so glad. I feel so alone for her many days as she does not have much of a life. Her new job schedule is such that she goes to bed at 7 each nigth to be up by 4:50 to go to work. She has to have her sleep or does not function well so she basically works all day, comes home for dinner and heads to bed. I am so proud of her though. She did not get her dream job but she was hired by the "mouse" as she puts it. She is officially working at Disneyworld as a seamstress but hopes to move up into designing. We miss her so much. All the kids are far away but we get to see them more.
However, our family dream vacation finally happened.! We went to Hawaii for 9 days. I was under a budget but just did not care. I wanted to spend money on the kids and to just have fun. That we did. We ziplined, kayaked, hiked, ate, swam in the ocean. scuba dived, went to church, walked in the rain, shopped and ate a very expensive meal right on the edge of the beach. It was so awesome. We had a beautiful condo, the plane ride was long but nice and we laughed. We were so exhausted when we got done. Our flight home was delayed almost 5 hours so we got into California about 2:00 a.m. only to be back to the airport by 9. It was rough couple of days but we had a blast. I will never get over the scenery that is there. It is so pretty and so peaceful. We had a few quirks with siblings caring enough about each other that they always wanted to be together and sometimes that did not happen. But for the most part, life was pure heaven for that week plus. I would have given anything to stay there longer and away from the life we have created for ourselves here.
In the mist of all the chaos, we had our final child graduate. Skyler graduated with honors and high grades on May 19th. He so did not want to go to graduation. He appeased me by letting his dad take graduation pictures of him while Cortnie was home and we even sent out announcements. He has received a full ride scholarship to Southern Utah University in Cedar City, UT. He will go there for a least one year before moving on. No family was able to come to his graduation but I tried to make the day special for him. A week after graduation is when we went to Hawaii and then five days later he took off to Connecticut to surprise his online gaming friend for five days. He was so excited to go there and surprise Jai. They had a blast. They hardly ever went to bed and played all day long. He bragged that he only showered one time the entire time he was there but I did not find that amusing. I am just so glad he go the chance to go. Then two days ago we took him to Cedar City to start his adult life. I was not ready for him to go yet and really wanted him to wait another month. However, other circumstances made it that he wanted to go now. He is hoping to find a good job before all the other students come back and start earning money now. He needs to as he will have bills and responsibilities now. I was so not ready to let him go. I just do not feel that he is ready. However, he has assured me that he is and that he will be fine. I did find out last night though that he has been crying the past couple of weeks due to being scared and worried. He is all alone in his apartment for at least a month. He seems excited about it now, but after a few days I think he will not like it. It is not fun to be alone. I cried a lot yesterday as I have done with the other three kids too. I just miss them so much. Last night I went into his room before bed as I have done every night for 18 years to give him his kiss. I knew he was not there but I went anyway. The hole in the heart is big and the prayers will never cease. I pray he will be okay.
As for us, another HUGE change is about to occur. We are moving in five days! It still seems so unreal to me that it is really happening and I am truly scared. Rob had some major changes with the school district this year and they wanted him to teach at a different school with a different subject. He has been at his school for 27 years. He was not even asked if he would go but was told he was. Our plan was to have him teach one more year than retire and move. Well, when all of this happened we looked into retirement now. The difference in the pay was not enough to have him stay another 4 months let alone a year. He decided to retire now. We both prayed and felt so right with our decision. We cleaned and purged and put the house on the market. It sold within 8 days for more than we were asking. Everything went so right so fast we knew and know there is a reason we are moving now. We have not figured all of that out yet as we have not been able to secure any type of job (and yes we will still need to work some) nor will we have a home to call our own. We want to wait to find out which area of Salt Lake or Utah County we will be working in before we buy a house. So for now, all of our precious stuff will go in a storage unit while we live in my parents basement. I am not excuted about that at all. I am thrilled to finally be able to live by our family again but hopefully it won't be long before we have a home again. I plan on making this my last home so want it to be my dream home. We might just build so that it is. We told work we were leaving which was hard. I have worked in this pharmacy fro 22 years. I feel like I have made it what it is today. This week we say good bye to all of that. I would like to stay with Smiths but I do not want to do retail pharmacy anymore if I can help it. I want to be in an office and have my same 8 -- 5 job Monday through Friday. Our house is all packed and ready to go. I need to pack clothes, and bedding . We have beds to take down and a truck to load. We had to talk in church today which was very difficult as well. I did pretty good until the end when I tried to tell everyone thank you for all they have done for us. We have been in this ward for 27 years. To say I am scared is an understatement. I am worried about jobs, a home, my children, our health, and so much more. However, when I feel overwhelmed I remember that peace we felt about three months ago when we made this decision. If it was not right our house would have not sold nor would the retirement be the same. We are taking a huge leap of faith and together crossing a bridge into a new pathway of life. I pray we can afford it as it costs so much more to live there. I pray we can make new friends and be happy. I pray we will be safe as we travel this next week to our new destination. I pray for peace as we embark on this new journey.
The ride is going to be wild. I will have to let you know how it really goes after we embark on it.
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