SUNSHINE!

So you know that St. George trip we took I mentioned in that last post?  Here are some pictures from it!  I never used to have seasonal depression, but as I get older I think its affecting me more and more.  Beautiful 60 degree weather and beautiful bright sunshine made me feel FABULOUS!
     I was listening to a talk by Brad Wilcox called "Learning, (not earning) Heaven" and he talked about feeling like "Why can't I just be ok for a while. . .why is there always a trial around the corner".  His wife lovingly and wisely (being a nurse) said "Brad, when you flatline, that's bad. It's the ups and downs on the monitor that tell you you're alive".  Isn't that great?!  I loved that! 
   So a day at the park was SO invigorating to me.  We had races, played Frisbee, climbed trees, absorbed plenty of sun, played on the swing set and went down the slides.  It was bliss.
     I'm grateful for so many awesome people in my life.  My kids bring me so much happiness.  Sure, AnnMarie pukes in the hotel room and the boys fight in the car about who touched who first, but I'm trying to absorb every second I have with them.  They are growing up so fast. 
     Lately I've been really pondering about the magnitude and importance for us to have trials in our life.  You can play out as victim to it, or you can give it all to the Lord and use each one as a teacher. Because of the trials in my life, and first hand seeing the lessons and faith that I NEEDED to learn, I've realized that if I were to choose it again. . . .I would.  I don't think we were as ignorant in the pre existence as some claim we were.  I don't think we didn't understand the magnitude of what earth life meant. 
    I truly believe we KNEW the refiners fire for what it was and were ok going through it, because we saw first hand the lessons and experiences capacity to teach us.  And I think it is why were were anxious and determined to follow the Lords plan and go through this life.  I've never had a trial that I didn't learn something imperative to my growth. 
    I highly suggest reading or listening to the talk by Brad Wilcox.  It's brilliant. 
  

Once upon a time there was a house. . .

The beautiful dream home we were going to move into. . . . .about that. . . . .
I've been avoiding writing about it.  My heart feels a little anxiety everytime I think about it.  sigh.  So here we go. . .
     The amazing family we have fallen in love with as much as we've fallen in love with their house, moved out of their house several weeks ago on a Friday.  That Saturday we drove by it, sitting there empty, calling out our name, and ready for us to begin moving things in. I swear it sang me a song as we drove by.
      Scotty called them, ready to get our key, my heart was already sitting in Sandy, and I was anxious to get the boys enrolled in the new elementary school.
    Scotty called me as soon as he had hung up with the homeowner.
   
    He told me to sit down.

The family had indeed moved into their new home.  The first night in their new mansion, water started coming through the roof.  The furnace went out.  They quickly found out the beautiful million dollar home they had already put money down on, . . . .was a lemon.  A MAJOR one. 
    They were frustrated, freezing, and decided to have a family fast.  Sunday morning, the family of 11 decided Sandy is where they belong, and Monday morning they hired movers to pack up and move them back into their home.  My beautiful dream home.  My home I was going to have a Newfoundland dog, an acre in the heart of Sandy, and a massive wrap around porch.  No wonder they couldn't part with it.  It is their dreamhome too.
    So we had some options.  We could continue negotiating the offer we had on our home, sell it, and move into a rental until we found another home.  But why do that?  The only reason we wanted to move was to get into that house.  So we took our house off the market and have decided to plant our roots a little deeper into Herriman.
    The next week the kids were enrolled back into school, and I started fixing up the house for ME. It feels good.  A few new lamps, some fresh towels, and re arranging some furniture always freshens things up and I'm good with staying now.  Heartbroken, but peaceful. 
   
    To get out of our gloom we've decided to head to St. George for 2 days.  Scotty has a job fair he's recruiting for Food Storage Chef, so I told him we might as well all head down to get some fresh air, sunshine, and a little warmth.  SLC has been miserably cold and the inversion is awful.
   SOOOO we headed out to St. George.  Oh man was it cold as we left.  We stopped by Dennys and grabbed some dinner and about 30 minutes before hitting Cedar City, baby T started screaming.  Totally not like my little guy.  He can sit through a 12 hour drive and not make a sound. So by the time we hit Cedar, we were done and pulled into the closest hotel. $33 bucks later we were happy just to get in and warm our frozen little tootsies.  It was great until annmarie face planted in the snow and started screaming.  I got her up to the hotel and got her in the covers and then she worked herself up in such a fit she projectile vomited all over the bed.  That was pretty awesome.  Finally got the kids to sleep and around 1a.m. Tommy woke up soaked in poop.  Great timing to forget the wipes.  A warm wet towel had to do (the cleaning lady is SOOOO going to invite us back).  Around 3 a.m. he woke up again screaming and I pulled him into bed with me, his little body frozen. Would've been ok except the mattress sagged in the middle and Scotty and I couldn't really move without elbowing eachother.  As I type this I realize. . . . .no wonder I woke up cranky!  
   So Scotty took off for the jobfair and left me with the kids to grab breakfast and head to St. George.  They have been great and now we are comfortably settled in a home owned by our friends have GRACIOUSLY let us stay in tonight.
    I'm sitting here thinking about the five trillion things I need to get done for work, the paperwork that is supposed to be in tomorrow, the house that is nothing less than nationally declared in a state of disaster, and I am so discouraged again.  And then I get frustrated that I've allowed myself to be discouraged.  I feel like the past few months have had some big setbacks and discouragement. I know this is what life is about, and I know I'm only telling you about the frustrations I've been dealing with.  So a change is in order.
    I'm taking a 30 day challenge.  You can look up the 30 day challenge on the TED sight.  Add something to your life and do it for 30 days.  My excuse for not doing it in February is that it only had 28 days, so yes, my OCD self says 'oh well if you can't have a perfect 30 day month then you best not do it at all'.  Laugh it up. But that seriously went through my head.  So I chose the month with 31 days.
    So I think my goal is going to be to post a blog post every day with a picture from my day.  Definitely won't be entertaining, but it'll be a good goal to shoot for. 
   Tune in.