Last Night on Village Drive

Well tonight's the last night here on Village Drive and I took a few pictures of our last day here. It's been a busy day. I started the day at about 4:45 a.m. when I couldn't sleep. I lay in bed thinking about all of the things I needed to get organized and sorted through before the day was through. The movers will come tomorrow and boy am I glad, I don't think I can keep my kids from making messes with stuff here any longer. Even though I put away most of their toys and have put games and things away, they still manage to use every bit of creativity they possess in making tremendous messes!

Joseph arranged for our neighbor to come and undo our gas dryer and our washing machine, so I was madly doing every last bit of laundry I could find trying to beat the clock until he came. One of the boys wet my bed, so I had to take off my sheets and wash them and use my upholstery cleaner to clean the mattress. I sent the baking soda home with my mom so I had to make a quick run to Fresh and Easy to get some to sprinkle over the mattress to bring the odor out. We snagged some English Scones and drinkable yogurt for breakfast tomorrow since our refrigerator is completely bare.

On the way home I decided to take a few pictures of the fields surrounding our neighborhood. We live on the very norther edge of San Diego County. In our backyard is the Arrowood Golf Course, to the north of us in Camp Pendleton Marine Corp Base and we are surrounded by nurseries, orchards and avocado farms galore! The rolling hills are beautiful! (But we've definitely had to pay the price in brakes because of the rolling terrain of our area!) Here is the view we have up the street from our house.

We sorted and packed our belongings that we will take to Grandma and Grandpa's house (until we find a home to purchase) until about 5 p.m. and then we headed out to get some dinner at Souplantation. While we were eating dinner I realized that it was Monday night, and many members of our ward get together at the beach on Monday nights for Family Night. I decided it would be fun for the kids to play outside and see some friends again. I am so glad we went! It was lots of fun. Afterward, I took the kids to our neighborhood pool to get all of the sand off of them before taking them home for a bath. As I was doing my last load of laundry today I looked at my machine and laughed. It has seen more sand in the last year and a half than I ever thought a washing machine could handle. It will be a reminder of our time here for as long as we have our machines. :)

I will really miss this place. My mom asked me today which place was harder to leave. I was far more emotional when we left Woodland than I am about leaving here, but I can't say if one is harder to leave than the other. When we moved here I was filled with all kinds of anxiety about whether or not we could make it in Southern California because life here is pretty expensive. I could hardly function I was so stressed out. I have never been more stressed than when we moved here. It was really hard at first to jump in and give it a go because of the stress. I felt like we were starting over and I lacked the faith that things could really work. Joseph received an offer to go to Sacramento again (with a completely different company) right after we moved here, and it was seriously tempting to accept because it felt more familiar, but we didn't accept it. We realized that the potential was greater down here and and I am so glad that was our choice.

I have loved so much about our experience here and I have seen so many tender mercies that have been evidence of the Lord's love and watchful care over us. Joseph did remarkably well with work. He took an unprofitable building and got it running smoothly and profitably to the point where we actually realized we could have a good quality of life if we chose to stay here. I have never been more stressed than I was when we first moved here. I think I'm still hanging on to those 6 cortisol pounds that all that stress brought on. But it's amazing the peace I feel now. Even though he's taking on a new challenge with his new assignment, I am filled with more faith that I was before. I learned alot this year about putting your trust in Heavenly Father and realizes that he really will lead you. I have prayed for specific blessings and have received answers to those blessings with multiple options. It makes me want to keep better record of all of my asking and receiving to show proper gratitude.

I remember so many nights in bed talking with Joe about things I was worried about and then saying to him, "But you have to know that I would rather be going through this challenge than any other challenge." That's honestly how I felt. I know that our challenges aren't over and the stress isn't over, but I feel like I've been given an added measure of faith and hope in the future. I have faith that we'll find the right house an that Joseph will create a strong team at his new building and the Lord will continue to lead us. It reminds me of a quote by our past prophet President Gordon B. Hinckley, "It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. … If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." While my prayers were never specific to moving back to Utah, I feel that this opportunity is an answer to a plea I had several months ago.











Now as I sit on the deck outside my bedroom, I realize I'll miss the bullfrogs at night. It really is remarkably gorgeous down here.

Good-Bye Fallbrook 5th Ward

We have loved living in the Fallbrook 5th Ward! When we lived in Woodland, we lived in a smaller ward and had the opportunity to serve in a few different capacities while we were there. When we moved to the San Diego area and we attended church in our new ward, we realized it was a really strong and large ward. We wondered if we would have opportunities to serve. We did! Joseph served in the Young Men's Presidency and then also as Ward Mission Leader. I have served in the Primary Presidency the entire time we've been here. I served under two presidents, both of whom were amazing! I learned so much from them. It was hard work, but it always feels so good to give it everything you've got. I was given the assignment of writing the Primary Sacrament Meeting script. It took many hours and some sleepless nights, but my testimony of the Gospel from being able to help the primary children children share their testimonies though their speaking parts and their personal experiences. I love serving in Primary. It's my favorite place to be...right now anyway, I love being where my children are and learning what they are learning and seeing them in a gospel learning setting.

I was also assigned to be over Cub Scouts. Wow! I knew nothing about Cub Scouts and so I dove in and learned all I could through the online training that Boy Scouts of America provides as well as the world wide web. We called a pack committee chairman to help get our pack functioning and communicating a little better, and had a great year. I'll now have an idea of what my boys are getting into in a few years. I've loved the people that I've been able to get to know through church service.

One challenge of being in the Fallbrook 5th ward was the distance to church. We had to drive 3o minutes each way! There were buildings closer to us geographically, but the church here goes by school boundaries and we were in a Bonsall School District, so we were in the ward with Bonsall and Fallbrook, even though we lived in Oceanside. It was so worth it though! The drive to church was beautiful and the people even more so. It was also a drive to get to "Faith In God" activities for Brynn, but again, there were so many wonderful girls for her to associate with, it was worth every minute spent in the car and every dollar spent on gasoline. :)

One thing I think Isaac will miss is the year-round outdoor/indoor Nursery. There are probably few places where you can have nursery outside all throughout the year, but in San Diego County, you can! It's really never too hot nor too cold to have nursery outside. It was heaven for the kids and I'm sure it was for the leaders too! Good-Bye Fallbrook 5th Ward! We'll miss you, but we hope to visit as often as we can!

Babysitting at Sea World

While I was with the girls at an all day rehearsal Mom and Dad decided to take the boys to Sea World for the day. Abby finished a little early, so I drove to Sea World to drop her off with Grandma and Grandpa. I had to do it secretly so Isaac wouldn't see me and want to come with me. My mom said that a couple of times during the day he said, "Where's my mom? I want my mom?" Thank heavens there are a million distractions at Sea World so it was easy to get his mind off of me. Mom and Dad then took them to the Embarcadero for some seafood. They all had a great time.

I was so grateful for their help. They are both so great with the kids and so helpful here. We played hard and also worked hard from sun up until sun down. Dad made numerous trips to Home Depot and was always so quick to observe when something needed attention. It was so nice to have them here to help ease my burden as I prepared for the move. I am very appreciative to them.

Buccaneer Beach

I took the kids to Buccaneer Beach on Saturday afternoon. It was nice and relaxing after our busy ballet week and with all of the work we had done to prepare for the movers to come. I am really going to miss living near the ocean. I don't love sand, but I've learned to tolerate it. I do love the water though. As I watched the waves crash yesterday, I started to crave a ride on the bodyboard. There were some perfect waves, but I was afraid my boys would try to follow me out into the ocean. I ended up watching the girls ride the waves. I feel like I'm on a vacation or at a party and someone has told me it's time to go home, but I'm not quite ready. I can't wait to come back and visit!

San Elijo Dance and Music Academy Recital

Amidst all of the craziness that is our life right now, we had Brynn and Abby's ballet recital last week. It was beautiful! Abby did a cute ballet pieces called "Alewander." Brynn has danced with the conservatory program at San Elijo and did a number called "Petite Symphony" as well as a conservatory finale with all of the conservatory dancers age 8-18. She also did a number called, "Sea of Love" and "He Lives in You" with her Lyrical Company. All of the numbers were amazing! We enjoyed it so much.

Mom and Dad came down for the week to watch the girls and help with the boys while I was with the girls at rehearsals and backstage. Joseph flew in on Tuesday night and stayed until Thursday morning. It was so nice to have him here after being gone for about 2 1/2 -3 weeks. I realize that my happiness is up to me, but I must say that my joy is full when he is around. I can't wait to be all together again!

We are very grateful for the friendships we made through dance. We met some great people and learned lessons from so many of them. We will really miss San Elijo Dance and Music. Because of the opportunities we were invited to be part of, it felt like a family. We will cherish and miss those friendships. I started to cry as we walked away from the theater on the final night. Everywhere we've lived we've really tried to invest our whole selves and because of that, it's always difficult to leave.

Oceanside Pier

On the day before Emily and Stephen left, and the night before the last day of school, we headed to Oceanside Pier to take some pictures of Emily and Stephen and to eat at Ruby's Diner on the Pier. That's one of our favorite activities to do as a family. I played with my Macbook and edited out some of Stephen's battle wounds on some of the pictures, as well as some of the surfers, but I had to leave a few battle wounds to show how rough and tumble my boys are. We had a great time with Emily and Stephen here and were so sad to see them leave.