Slightly Less Stressed

Wow!  You guys are good!  I mentioned that maybe you could pray that our house will sell quickly and we were under contract within the next few days.  Hopefully that will go through without a hitch.  I know that it's common for contracts to fall through.  It would be nice to have that off our plates.

So thank you for thinking of us.  I know we've had many prayers sent in our direction.  Besides the house, we've had a few other things fall into place as well.  So, again, thanks for praying for us.

I'm feeling blessed.

Here's a picture of Libby enjoying the heating vent.  We didn't have these at our old house (we had hot water heat) and the kids are just discovering how fun it is to lay on them when the heat is blowing out.  On a cool morning, which we really haven't had too many, you can find the kids spread out in the house, each on a different vent.  It makes me laugh because I did the same thing when I was a kid.

More From the Beach

Maybe you've had enough of the beach pictures, but I haven't.  It really was too nice of a day to leave it to one post.

 I suppose a lot of you are wondering how my actual life is going.  I know a lot of relatives read this blog who may not know what we are up to.  I will tell you.

Ethan has started training at Pacific Capital Resource Group to be a financial advisor.  He's had to do a lot of studying for it and the three tests that are required to become certified.  He's taken two of the tests and passed them with flying colors.  Just one more test to go as well as three months of training, which he started this week.

If you didn't already know, we've moved in with Ethan's parents to ease our finances as Ethan jumps into a new career.  If you think of us, please pray that our house in Utah will sell quickly.  That will help quite a bit.  Ethan's parents have been very good to us, patient and helpful.  They make us feel very welcome here.

The kids are having a blast living with Grandma and Grandpa Nuttall and Elise (Ethan's sister), although they miss their grandparents and ten cousins in Utah greatly.

We miss all the snow that's been getting dumped on our old home (though we don't miss the inversion),  but we do appreciate the warmer temperatures here.  The kids get out everyday to play in the yard.  It was 50 degrees and sunny a lot of the day yesterday.  That feels pretty warm to us!

The kids are adjusting to our new ward fairly well.  There's a lot more primary kids in this ward than in our old ward.  The kids who had an easy time going to their new classes were not the kids I thought would have an easy time.  We've had a bit of a struggle getting one particular child to go to class but I don't think that will last much longer.

As for me, I definitely miss the friends I had in our church in Utah.  It takes me a long time to get to know people and I'd finally got to know some really awesome people there.  I miss them.  But I know well enough to understand that there are many awesome people here too, I just need to find them.

This move has been quite a strange thing for me.  I miss my home a lot.  I miss my family a lot.  You may not know this, but I was within a half hour of my parents and each of my four siblings where I used to live.  I miss the beautiful valley I lived in.  I miss seeing those big, rocky mountains everyday when I look out the window.  I miss my house.  But, I know, without a doubt that this move is the right thing for our family.

Knowing it's right, though, doesn't necessarily make it easy, does it?  Although, I do feel Heavenly Father has been helping me, and all of us really, to make this big, huge, adjustment as easy as possible.

So now we are waiting and praying.  Waiting for Ethan to finish his training so he can start making money.  Praying that we can pay the bills in the meantime.  Waiting for someone to think our house in Utah is awesome and worth the effort to fix it up.  Praying that it won't take too long.  Waiting for the time we can have our own home again.  Praying that I can be patient while I wait.

Cape Lookout

Last week was a fun week.  Libby had a birthday and the next day we went to the beach.  I wish every week could be so fun.

This was our first time exploring Cape Lookout.  We loved it.  The kids had so much fun playing in the sand, in the little streams flowing onto the beach, and even in the waves.  The water was much too cold for me, but the kids played in it for a while.

They were sad when it was time to go home.  Beach trips are so fun, aren't they?  I think I may need to share more beach pictures soon.

February Beach

As much as I miss our old home and the many lovely things about it, I can admit that it is nice to be able to go to the beach in February.  

A Nature Walk: Jackson Bottom Wetlands

 We went on our first nature walk to the Jackson Bottom Wetlands, or as Libby calls it, Marshmallow Land (because she heard us call it a marsh).  We Utahns had a rough time negotiating the marshy wetlands.  Ethan, who grew up here, came out of it without so much as a drop of mud on his shoes.

 Libby fought the slippery mud and the mud won.

 All the kids had to shed their shoes when we got back to the car.  Two kids even ended up having to lose their pants as well.  

Mud aside, the kids are having a great time exploring the new area and all the different things it offers.

New Things

We've moved to the rainy Northwest.  And, as one would expect, it's quite different than the desert climate we came from.

We're having fun exploring all the new things around us.

Growing things.  Everywhere:

There are wetlands close to where we live.  We all pause as we hear an approaching gaggle of geese and run outside to watch them fly overhead:

The kids' reaction to seeing what seemed like thousands of geese flying over at once:

The kids are enjoying the nice temperatures.  It was -13 degrees when we left Utah last Friday.  When we arrived in Hillsboro, Oregon it was in the fifties.

We've Moved

We've moved.  And there is a whole lot of this:

Everywhere.  Moss in every nook and cranny.

I always meant to, but I guess I never did make an official post about our move.  We've moved to Oregon.  It's kind of an act of faith, really.  I should write a post on that some day.

The blog has been neglected during the moving process.  But I'm back now, and I'm sure that I'll have lots of things to post about as we adjust to and explore our new home.