What?! Moving you say?!!

So around Jan. 20th Ken comes up to me and says that he feels Heavenly Father wants him to go back to school. I started screaming. Not at the top of my lungs, but screaming none the less. Ken then told me that he had been sitting on this information for 3 months because he had expected that I would react this way.

He will be studying Structural Engineering. He looked at lots of different schools including WSU and the U of I since they are within 15 min. drive of us, but felt like he should attend the U of U. I immediately commented that he couldn't go to the U of U because the rest of his family would never let him live it down. After all he did attend BYU (though he graduated from UVU). He agreed that his family (half of which are U of U football fans, the other half BYU football fans) would probably tease him, but what else was he supposed to do.

I will admit that I was skeptical about his feelings/promptings. I went and prayed about it. Dang, he was right. That's when I started crying. I really don't want to put Ken through school again, though I'm happy to be moving back to Utah. I liked it a lot when we lived there. I also prayed about what we should do about housing and finding Ken a job down there. No answers and no idea what we are going to do. Hope and pray like crazy, basically. I also prayed about whether we should put it up for sale immediately or fix the few tiny things around the house first to make it as desirable to the first walk-thru's as the last. Answer came back as put it up right away. So we have been working on our list of fix-its over the last three weeks as well as showing the house. I put 'For Sale By Owner' signs in the windows on the front and back of the house, Ken put an ad in Palouse Ads (a local Craig's List online) and a House For Sale sign by the road on the other side of our hedge.

We have had 5 nibbles. One of those turned into a bite on Saturday. A young couple in Albion (5 min. from Pullman) came for a second walk-thru with his parents on the 12th and told us they would be submitting a bid the following week. They are pretty serious and have started the loan process. So today Ken went to the bishop to ask to be released as Scout Master. I started talking to RS sisters asking for packing boxes.

The tenative plan is to start (and finish) packing over the next two weeks; Ken's father will fly here from Utah on the 24th to assist with the move; Ken will pick up the U-Haul moving van on the 25th; we will load it that day; and (after the girls get home from school) I will drive them and myself in our minivan, Ken will drive the moving van, and his father will drive his truck to Richland, WA (2.5 hours away) to my parent's house where we will stay the night. On the 26th we will load the boxes and furniture that is stored at my parent's house (since our move from Utah 2.5 years ago) into the moving van and leaving our cars, me, and the girls in Richland Ken and his father will drive to Boise to stay the night, and get to Utah on the 27th for Kory's 16th birthday (Ken's little brother). On the 28th, Ken will unload the moving van into a storage unit, return the van, and start looking for housing for us. He will fly back to WA on the 2nd or 3rd of March and have a relaxing weekend before he starts the renovations on my parent's house that they have requested of him before we 'disappear to Utah'.

Between the kitchen remodel and the remodel of a couple other rooms in the house, we will be there for 1.5 to 2 months. I need to fill out paper work to register both girls in the Washington Online Public School system so that they continue school during the interim. At that point we will pack up our girls, our stuff, and our two cars and will leave at last for Utah. By the way, we will take this drive within 1-3 weeks of my due date. Scary thought. But what do you do. Drive with a nine month pregnant woman or a brand new baby. Both ways will be miserable.

The Lord will bless us for our faith (and suffering) and obedience. Sacrifice is the giving up of something good for something great. I'm looking forward to finding out what the great is. LOL.

In other news: Ken finished the awning he was working on for the property owner here at our trailer park yesterday. It looks cool. We noticed today on our way to church that he left his tin snips on the roof. LOL. He'll be dragging his ladder back over there tomorrow morning to retrieve them.

Oh, by the last ultrasound two weeks ago, it might NOT be a girl. The images were...inconclusive. What an elusive child we have coming. We haven't been able to get a definitive answer from the last three ultrasounds. More later. I'll keep updating this when we have more definite plans and an accepted bid.

We had a quiet (and surprisingly enjoyable) Christmas here. Our first time not going to see family for Christmas. It was a new experience. This was also my first time cooking Christmas dinner myself. We had four of missionaries over to enjoy it with us as they didn't have any dinner appointments that day. Sad day to be away from your family and no food either. So, I invited them. It was entertaining! LOL

We had friends over to play games on New Year's Eve, but everyone went home by 8:30pm (tired kids). We got to bed early on New Year's for once. It was a good thing though because the next day (the first of Jan.) my niece, Elise, in Spokane was baptized. We drove up there after lunch and attended the baptism, had dinner with my brother's family and other relatives that showed up, then drove home that night. Lily will be turning 8 this year so I'm trying to get her psyched about her own baptism.

I had an ultrasound on the fifth. It looks to be a girl. Ken is still crossing his fingers for a boy, but isn't optimistic. We have been tossing names back and forth in preparation (Amaryllis, Rose, etc). Know any pretty flower names that would work on humans too?

We played games with three other couples on the 7th. We played How To Host A Murder. All eight of us play a different suspect and try to figure out 'Who dun' it?'. It was fun! Life has slowed back down now that the holidays are over. Ken is working on an awning for the land owner of the trailer park we live in. He poured cement last week because it didn't snow for once! We've had a lot of snow this winter. Today we got rain though. I love the sound of rain against the roof. It lulls me to sleep. So peaceful!

One of my New Year resolutions is to read a new book each month. That way I will have expanded my mind by 12 different books by 2012. New ideas and points of view. I'm starting with a book my mother gave me two years ago that just sat on my bookshelf gathering dust till now. It is called Putting On The Armor Of God by Steven A. Cramer. My mom liked it so much that she bought a copy for each of her kids. I don't know who (if any) have read it, but I'm finally getting to it.

For past years resolutions I have picked an author and read all their works. After a few years of doing that, I got tired of spending a whole year with one author's point of view. So I stopped doing that resolution for two years. Now I'm doing 12 different books. I haven't picked them before hand or anything. It will be just what I feel like reading that month, that I will pick up. I was going to read the first volume of "History Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of L.D.S." for January, but I'm having issues finding a copy (our church building library closed too soon last Sunday to see if they have a copy I can check out). But I became curious about reading that book because last year I read the D&C/Pearl of Great Price, and this year I'm rereading the BOM. In the seven pages before first Nephi starts I read some interesting history and had a couple of questions about this person or that witness etc. Ken couldn't remember details, and I being the history lover that I am would like to answer my own questions. We'll see if my enthusiasm makes it till February though. I'm running our of Jan. too quickly to start that book this late in the month.

Today is Lily's helper day at school (she's in second grade). For the helper day she gets to pass back papers, be line leader, and share a treasured object (like show and tell). Each kid gets to have one helper day each month, so its a big deal to them. Lily was frantic yesterday trying to decide what she was going to take today. She decided on a pink fairy doll that plays music when you wind her up. Holly and Ken brought the girls one each when they came last August to visit. Dalia's is blue. Did Grandma Cook send those or are they from Holly? I don't remember.

Dalia has grown again. She is still the shortest in her class and matches the kids in build and height that are one year younger than herself, but she is learning to read and etc. like the rest of her kindergarten class. My kids are so average! LOL