Swimming Lessons Session 1

We completed session one of our swimming lessons with Miss Debbie. We didn't sign up in time to get private lessons, but lucky for us we were able to get signed up in time for regular lessons. Miss Debbie's classes fill up fast because she does so well with the kids. The girls are very comfortable in the water, and Aaron loves the water, but isn't as comfortable "swimming." This summer we've consigned ourselves to finding a home and getting Aaron swimming! With four sessions of lessons lined up, we are hoping to get there! Isaac is my little buddy during lessons, he's too small to take a regular class, but I've signed him up for a mommy and me to give him a chance in the water, instead of always having to sit on the sidelines. Debbie has a playground and an in-ground trampoline, so there's plenty to do for little Isaac while the other's swim. I love water and swimming and I hope my kids will first learn to be safe in the water and second learn to enjoy the water. (I think we've got that second part down.)

By the last day I was able to get Aaron in to walk to the end of the board and jump or inch off I should say. His anxiety took over every time and we had to do some mental coaching to get him to jump. Every other day I had to drop him off. I can't wait for the day when we can really swim! Teaching swimming lessons when I was young was hard work, but also very rewarding. I have many memories of kids who were on the brink of really learning to swim. I LOVED watching them make it across the pool for the first time. It made me cry somedays. I can't wait to see Aaron make it across the pool for the first time.

My Parents are Saints.

My parents are truly Saints. We still haven't found a home and from the looks of the inventory where we are looking, it could be a little while. Not only are they letting us live with them until we find the right house, they are also acting as babysitters while we do the looking. A few days ago, I found our camera filled with the pictures below. Looks like when the cat is away, the mice play! :)

We are running out of steam when it comes to looking at homes. We get listings everyday and try to see them in the evenings. There were a few nights in a row that we were out looking at homes until 11 p.m. We have placed two offers on homes. One was a traditional sale of a new home that was just built, but after the builder countered our offer, we went in to check things out again and realized they had cut corners on many areas, so even though it was new there were quite a few things we would want to replace after moving in the home. We decided not to counter their offer. We placed another offer on a foreclosure, but the whole time the offer was being written I had this feeling that it wasn't right. I ignored it, and then decided to go over to the home again and check things out a day after. I had that same gut-wrenching feeling that this was not the home. I called Joseph and told him, and felt so much more peace about it after. I think the realtor we are working with is probably ready to ditch us right now, but that's okay, we want to find the right home. We've considered the idea of building with a semi-custom home builder where we choose one of their plans. We may go that route, but it would be nice to find an existing home. That seems to be where the better deals are and it would be nice to already have a lawn in, etc. We'll see. In the meantime, my parents have been very patient and have encouraged us not to rush. We feel rushed because it's hard to bombard into someone else's life and home, but hopefully it won't be too long. It's nice to have a familiar place to stay, where we don't have to lock ourselves into a lease or entangle ourselves with other commitments until we find the right landing spot.

Independence Day 2011

We spent the fourth of July with Joseph's family at his mom's house. The kids young and old had a great time on the giant slip-n-slide. We had a yummy dinner and then did a few fireworks on the basketball court and then when it got dark we headed for Adam's culdesac to see some of the big fireworks. It was great and low key to not have to deal with large crowds. That morning I had a breakdown of sorts, wondering what we were doing in Utah. I felt so lost, but after I got going and visiting with family, things got better.

Welcome to Utah!

We picked Joseph up at the San Diego Airport on July 2nd and headed straight for i-15 north to Utah. We arrived in Spanish Fork at about 2 in the morning and then headed to church the next day early to participate in the blessing of Josh and Melissa's new baby girl. We didn't really have church clothes because they were in the storage unit, so we had to round up what we could. We sat at the back and the boys must have thought we were there to play basketball. That's how they acted. I have to admit, I'm sure it made it pretty confusing to them to be wearing their little shirts with basketballs and soccer balls. We are glad to be here, but I must admit, every few days I have a deep sense of missing Oceanside and our life there. It was a good life. We will build a good life here, but there are so many pieces to put together and since we really want to find the right spot, we're being picky. Sometimes maybe a little too picky. We have written up two offers on homes and I haven't felt total peace about either of them. Both would have been just fine houses, but one they skimped on some of the finishing touches and the other didn't have a big enough yard, and I didn't love the floorplan. It's amazing with every house we see that isn't the right one, I think it gets us closer to finding that one that will work for us, because we figure out what's important to us. We are happy to be here. The kids have been with cousins every single day since we've been here. It's been great fun! They did point out to me today that we need a new name for our blog. Yes, we do! Hmmm, I'll have to get thinking on that one.

San Diego Temple

Another one of our favorite places is the San Diego Temple. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we go to the temple to be taught, we make covenants, and receive blessings that the Lord has in store for us. Our children don't go inside the temple, but they can feel a special spirit by visiting the temple grounds. Everything about the temple lifts us and encourages us to look upward. Our family has many wonderful memories visiting the temple, and Joseph and I have many special feelings associated with attending this temple.

On the eve before Joseph left, we went to do a session together and we arrived a little late. Instead we did sealings and were taught so many wonderful things by the sealer. It was a perfect way to start the long month that we had ahead of us.

I will miss so much about this temple and the grounds surrounding it. The air is so wonderful in La Jolla where the temple is located. I love waft of balmy ocean air that hits you as you walk up to enter the temple. The sights and smells are indescribable.

Why did we move again?

Old Town~Mormon Battalion Visitors Center

One of my favorite places to visit in San Diego is Old Town. I love stepping away from the busy city and stepping back in time. My favorite landmark in Old Town is The Mormon Battalion Museum. It is definitely a spot I would recommend to anyone visiting the area. It's fun for the kids, and it's testimony strengthening to hear of the faith these early settlers had in Jesus Christ. It's a multi-media exhibit that is fun for everyone.

I am always amazed at the sacrifices of the men, women and children, and it leaves me with faith and confidence that I too, can do hard things, especially with the strength and help of my Heavenly Father and Savior.

Leaving Oceanside

The moving process is quite a long one. You prepare both physically and mentally for the move. This move was a little different because we hadn't found a final destination yet, but we knew that it was time to get our family re-united. Joseph had been living in Utah since the beginning of June. Originally he was supposed to start work in mid-April, but there were a few glitches with the acquisition that had to be cleared up before he could start. We decided a few months ago that we would let the kids finish the school year in Oceanside as well as all of their extra curricular activities. It was a good thing, since we started much later than we had anticipated.

The hard part of this move was that because Joseph was already gone, I had to help the kids finish off their final experiences in Oceanside as well as prepare the logistics of the move. I think I was in denial for a while because I called the moving company later in the game than I should have. Luckily they were able to squeeze us in and things worked smoothly that way.

While my parents were here at the end of June, they helped me prepare the house and they watched the kids while I organized and got rid of things I didn't want to move with us. They were so helpful. Dad was constantly heading to Home Depot for this or that and my mom was great to take the kids to the park and the pool. She even had a little garage sale with the kids in the driveway to sell our plaid couch. It looked a little ghetto, but it will be a memory they won't forget. I just need to find the picture.

The packers came to pack everything up on June 28th. I decided to get the kids out of the house, so we ran errands while the movers packed. I had everything organized so it was a really quick job for them. We had the option of staying in the home one more night, but I didn't want the boys messing with any of the boxes so we opted to go to a hotel. The Marriott Residence Inn became our home for the next 5 days. They fed us dinner on a few nights and breakfast every morning. I think the hardest part was at night when it was time to go to bed. I was so tired mentally and physically from being alone that I just wanted to go to sleep when my head hit the pillow, but the kids were always pretty wound up.

On June 29, the loaders came and put everything into the moving van. Everything went well with the exception of an ornery neighbor who was furious that the moving truck was in the front of the homes on our street. I happen to be there at the time, but let the movers deal with her. They left from there and met my mom the next morning in Utah at the storage units where we would be storing all of our belongings. Having to put things in storage also made things a little more complicated. It was really hard to pack. I had to ask the packers to label the clothing boxes and to put them at the front of the unit, in case we needed to access those boxes. We still don't feel we have everything we need, but we have enough to get by and I must say there is something satisfying about leaving all of your belongings and not having to worry about all that "stuff.'

The moving part ended up going very smoothly. The day after everything was moved out I had someone come clean the house and the carpets. Again, there was no way I would be able to physically get it all done by myself with all of my kids. The cleaning crew worked all day. (You would have thought we were all slobs with the time they took, but they had the place sparkling.) My friend Julia watched the kids that night so I could do a walk through with the owner. This is where things were not so smooth. I have to admit, I was in a tender place, I was preparing to move from a place that I loved. I had no idea where our family was going to be landing long term. I had been by myself for almost a month, so I was tired and spent. To make matters worse, my hormones were reaching their emotional peak for the month. The carpet cleaner decided to take a job earlier in the day far from where we live and it put him 3 hours later than he had told me he would start. This meant he wouldn't be finished when the landlord arrived. He charged me $700 to clean the 3700 square foot home. At 6:30, the owner and his wife pulled up. (I have to pre-empt this next part by mentioning that the garage is covered in epoxy flooring, so it's easy to clean and doesn't let the oil penetrate, I had wiped up and vacuumed out the garage beforehand.) He walked in the door and before he said anything he said, "There's a little grease spot on the garage floor, are you going to wipe that up before you go?" I got a lump in my throat and said, "Yea, I have paper towels in the car." I knew from that point on that it wasn't going to be good. The house really looked perfect and they didn't say one thing about how clean it was. I was so mad that I just wanted to leave as soon as I could. They were trying to make small talk as they nit-picked about this and that, and then the wife asked me if I had changed the filter on the refrigerator. I gave her a look of bewilderment and then told her, "No, there was no manual to be found, I didn't know I was supposed to." She said, "Well, you could have found that online." I was DONE! The landlord then said, well, I'll go ahead and deduct from your deposit that little bit of grease and have my maintenance guy wipe it up. At that point, I didn't care about our $3000 deposit. All I wanted was them to say, 'Thanks for having the house so clean." I seriously could have taken a swing at both of them. I was not feeling good feelings. As I left the house, they started to say, "Well we're going to miss you guys." Which I took as We're going to miss the nearly $3000 in rent that you pay every month, always a week early. Yes, the money in which we are pocketing because we haven't been paying our mortage for 2 years and we are going to deduct as much as we can from your deposit so we can pocket it also. The home received a foreclosure notice on it a few weeks ago, which makes me even more upset about this whole ordeal. He has no obligation to repair anything in the house. We had to keep our contract because our contract had nothing to do with the contract he made with the bank.

Anyway, according to California Renters Rights he has 21 days to return our deposit, before we can take him to small claims court. We'll see what happens. Honestly, I don't want to fight them on this, I would rather say good-bye to the money because I forgot to mention he is also a slimy attorney himself, so I think that even with the short-sale, foreclosure of the house, there is some under the table stuff going on. He would figure his way out of it.

I got in the car and started sobbing. I called Joseph, who was in Sonoma on business and started sobbing. He was at a restaurant having dinner and had to leave the table, I think I was that hysterical. By the time I had gotten to Julia's house to have dinner and pick up my kids I had pulled myself together a little more, but I talked things through with Julia and felt so much better. The silver lining in all of it, was that I was DONE with those people. I didn't have to go back to the house, as much as we loved living there, it was actually a blessing, because it made me ready to go!

We spent the next couple of days playing in the pool at the hotel, running last minute errands and saying good-bye to our favorite places in San Diego.

**I have to add a little post script and say that the 21 days he had to return our deposit came and went. In fact, 28 days came and went. I was still feeling some of the same awful feelings. I kindly emailed the landlord and reminded him that I expected a receipt for the repairs that he made along with the remaining portion of my deposit. He quickly responded that his wife had mailed it the day before. It arrived the next day with a kind note about them missing us and their best wishes for our new life here. Included was the full deposit for $3000. At first I read through my original feelings and felt I was a little overly emotional and maybe spoke too harshly. I wanted to erase them because my heart had changed, but I decided to leave them because my feelings were real then. They might not be the same now, but that's what they were then. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.