A Heap of Livin'

It is time!  Time to do another update.  And there is so very much that has happened in the past months.

FEBRUARY  We went to Colorado and Utah for Mom H's funeral services.  It was a tender time for us and such a special time to be with all of Stephen's siblings and his dad.  All of the children spoke at the services as Mom had requested and the grandchildren performed musical numbers.  We had so many spiritual experiences around this time and are grateful for the outpouring of the Spirit that comforted us.  We miss her and are so grateful for all of the mothering and loving and caring she has shared with us during her life.

Most of the grandchildren at the graveside.

MARCH  Stephen had ankle surgery the end of the month for the 2nd time.  The surgery went well and the surgeon wanted him to put weight on it as soon as he could this time around.  So there was less wheel chair and crutches time which was nice.

Uggh!  You probably didn't want to see the ankle picture.

Much of March for me was spent preparing for the Stake Easter Music Fireside.  It was lots of fun to organize the fireside and be a support and help to the wards.  Each ward and branch had a choir or small group number that related to the Savior's Atonement, Crucifixion, Resurrection, visit to the Americas and testimonies of Christ.  I accompanied for several of the musical numbers.  I'll always treasure seeing the Spanish ward and branch so enthusiastically and faithfully practice Yo se que vive mi Señor.  We had a couple short video clips, a couple soloists and President Richards shared an Easter message.  The fireside was such an uplifting and edifying meeting.  Testimonies were borne through beautiful hymns and songs about the Savior.  It was a highlight of my Easter Sunday.

APRIL  Our wonderful son-in-law graduated from Brigham Young University.  We were so happy that we could be there to celebrate his accomplishments.  Congrats, Anthony!

Stephen was delayed a day in our travel to Utah plans because he had a mandatory work meeting.  He should have just traveled as planned because the "meeting" was just to tell everyone that the company was closing down operations and everyone was laid off of their jobs.

Heather and I enjoyed a fun Mom and Daughter day at the BYU Women's Conference, too.

MAY was filled with job searching for Stephen and quickly figuring out that we probably were going to end up moving.  There is only so much of worrying a person can do so we decided to make a South Florida Bucket List and enjoy some activities and sights we hadn't done before we moved.  Three of our close friends were in the same job search situation we were in so we had some people to play with during the day and between phone interviews and flying out for job interviews.  You've heard it before but it really does help . . . . When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

• Go to the Florida Keys {check} We went snorkeling off of Key Largo.
• Deep Sea Fishing {check} and Stephen caught a big one!
• Scuba Diving {check} Stephen used an underwater propulsion jet pack thing so that he could still enjoy scuba diving with a recovering from surgery ankle.  Stephen went on a once-in-a-lifetime dive to the Vandenberg off of Key West.  It is a ex-military missile tracking ship that has been sunk in deep water for an artificial reef.  It is massive and so cool.  He got to swim through it and said it was the best dive he had ever done!  I got a replacement PADI card and actually went for a short dive after 25 years since my San Diego dives.
• Service {check} Stephen helped out at the Bishop's Storehouse; I helped prepare and serve food for the temple site workers.  We housed a couple of specialty painters for a couple of weeks.  They had come to work on the temple.
• Game Nights {check}  We got a lot of game nights in with friends and enjoyed their company and the fun.

JUNE  The job search continued.  We listed our house for sale the last day of May and really got good at keeping everything in the house "show" ready.  If we had known that new employment would come at just the right time, we could have really enjoyed our semi-retirement era.  We had a lot of fun being together every day and doing things together.  And we were exercising our faith and doing our part to make the new job happen.  I pretty much finished up teaching piano lessons and referred my students on to another teacher in the area.  We checked off more of the Bucket List Items.

• Cruise to Key West and Cozumel {check}  We went with our friends and had a great time! We rode in a little electric car around Key West, played in the ocean, saw an old Spanish-American War Fort and went to an informative Eco Center.  In Cozumel, we took a 2 reef snorkeling trip and saw lots of awesome sea life.  And we did a lot of relaxing on the ship!

JULY was an emotional month.  It was really important to us to stay busy and anxiously engaged in doing good things throughout the whole "find a job and sell the house" process.  

• 4th of July Celebration {check} We attended the City of Plantation celebration with friends and staked out a great spot on the soccer fields for a picnic dinner.  We had a great time listening to the live music, talking and waiting for the fireworks.  And what a great fireworks show!
• Thank You Dinners {check}  We wanted to make sure that our home and visiting teaching families knew how much we loved them.  We hosted a few dinners in our home to thank them and others for being such wonderful friends.  It was so very hard to know that our time in South Florida was limited.
• Go to Naples, Florida {check}  I always wanted to take a drive to Naples on the West Coast of Florida.  We went a step better and brought some friends along and enjoyed a segway tour of the historic district of Naples.  We even saw some dolphins in the wild from the pier.
• Mini-Lobster Season {check}
• Paddle Boarding the Intercoastal {check}  It was quite the ab workout and totally awesome to see the sights from a paddle board.

Stephen's dad remarried the end of the month and with all of the uncertainty in our lives, we weren't able to attend.  But we are very happy that Deloris is a part of our family!  And we welcome her with open arms.

A little rest and relaxation was called for this day!

Finally, the last week of July everything started to come together.  We got a job offer that Stephen was excited about in Kansas City, MO; our realtor called to tell us we had two offers on the house and she thought we'd sold it for the price we wanted; Stephen accepted the job and got a start date of August 15th (the exact day our severance package ended). 

And the very most exciting part of July . . . Devyn got engaged to Miranda!  We're very excited to have her be part of our family.  We love her already!

AUGUST can be summed up in a word . . . . MOVING.  Goodbye Florida and Hello Missouri!  Sweet friends invited us over for wonderful meals and friendship.  We about cried our eyes out the last Sunday in our ward.  And the High Priest Social the Saturday before we moved was wonderful.  There are so many great people in the ward that we love so much.  The HP group had really bonded over the time since the ward was realigned.  

The moving truck was loaded on August 12th.  We spent the night at Todd and Judy's home.  Thanks, guys!  And Jon and Holly drove us to the airport on August 13th.  It really hit us when we arrived at the airport and Holly and I started crying and hugging.

Kansas City was like a whole new world to us.  Everyone thought it was hot and humid and we were wondering what they were talking about.  We were getting chilled at night when the temperatures cooled off.  One of the first things we did was walk barefoot in the grass.  Such a difference from the St. Augustine type of lawns in SoFlo.  No one honks their car horns here unless there is an emergency (like a car is about to drift into their lane and hit them).  And people are very, very friendly and nice.

Our Florida home sale was supposed to close on August 23rd.  It got delayed for a couple of weeks and I was getting stressed out that it would fall through.  Stephen was the voice of calm throughout the process.  It finally closed on September 6th.  We had found a new construction home that we wanted to buy so we were able to put an offer on it.  The house was still being built so we were able to schedule a closing date in early October.

I'm in my pjs but we were having fun together!

SEPTEMBER  I took a trip to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit Heather and Anthony and see their new location.  It was such fun to see them and to play with Alena.  They had just moved to a new apartment so I got to help Heather organize the pantry and kitchen cupboards.  We went to storytime with Alena and visited the Farmer's Market and Heather reupholstered her piano bench and we got to see Anthony's school room.  He is an awesome 6th grade math teacher!  Stephen adjusted to working again after 3 months of playing.  We are so grateful for his employment and the great company he is working for now!

OCTOBER was moving again after 2 months in a hotel.  We closed on our house on a Thursday but our stuff wasn't going to be delivered until Monday.  So we camped out in the house for the weekend.  We were that eager to get into our home and out of the hotel.  We spent the month getting things unpacked and organized.  And we're working on getting to know our neighbors and ward members.  It has been great to find ways to serve and help out however we can.  We've invited some people over for game nights.  It has been a nice way to get to know them better.

And now it is NOVEMBER and we are filled with gratitude for the Lord's watchful care of us.  Life is good with all of its ups and downs.  And we are definitely finding joy in the journey!