Post Moving Thoughts

Well it's been almost 2 months since our move to Idaho so I thought I make a small post about how things have been going so far!  

The first thing that I love is having more space.  It doesn't feel like we're living in a storage unit!  Our last place had no storage room so every nook and cranny was crammed with stuff.  Now our closets can actually be used for clothes, I don't have to keep my sewing machine in our room, I'm not afraid of things falling on top of me when I open the girls' closet, and I just feel like there's more room to breathe!  Our upstairs looks pretty good and normal, but our downstairs still has some boxes and looks very empty because we haven't gotten furniture to put down there so it's basically a big playroom.  Eventually we'd like to get a nice sectional for down there, put our TV down there, find a piano and make the upstairs living room a sitting room/music room.  

It's also very nice having a backyard because I can put Millie out there if I know we're having company over and I can let the kids roam around back there without getting worried they're going into the street.  The backyard has been a huge project that I've kind of taken on while David has been at work.  About every 3 days I have to go pick apples up off the ground (which wouldn't be so bad if the apples were edible, but the previous owners didn't do any pest control so the apples are pretty wormy) and I try to pick up pine cones from our huge pine tree.  Hopefully we'll be able to have the power company come take the trees out for us soon which will help our yard be much easier to take care of!  About 2 weeks ago I did lots of preparation to reseed the lawn and now it's starting to sprout!  I was so excited when I saw that!  It'll probably take a few years to really make the lawn nice, but we're willing to put in the work.  It's actually really satisfying seeing something good come of hard labor!

Something I've noticed for Asher and me is that our skin is much softer.  We both have really sensitive skin and the really hard mineral Utah water didn't do us any favors.  For about 2 weeks after we moved both of us had really tough skin that I was worried we'd have to go see a doctor about, but I think our bodies were just getting rid of all the junk because once our skin got used to Idaho we both had much softer skin!  I don't break out hardly at all and my skin is much less oily.  David couldn't even tell that I wasn't wearing any makeup one day!  I don't know how much he recognizes that normally, but it made me feel good!  So my skin is grateful we moved to Idaho.

I've been able to do a lot more with my family.  That was always a motivating factor to moving back to Idaho.  Asher loves his cousins and has especially loved that I watch his cousin who is his age after Kindergarten so he gets to have a friend over for about 4 hours every day!  It's also nice that a lot of the activities are much cheaper here so we can afford to do more things.

David loves his job here.  He loves teaching at a high school and with a program that has some amazing players.  He loves being able to go in depth into the music with them.  He also feels so much support from parents and the community, something he didn't have a lot of in West Jordan.  He has lots of projects in the works and is excited for this year.  He also already has 5 private cello students, and we've done zero advertising for it!  We tried pretty hard to get David's name out in Utah but nothing ever really panned out.  It's nice to have that little extra money every week!  I think we're actually making more money now than when we lived in Utah, not something you hear every day!

A couple less positive things are things we kind of expected, but don't make it much easier.

About a week after we moved into the house Asher asked me when we were moving back to our regular house so he could see his friends there.  And he still asks me that about once a week.  It breaks my heart every time I have to explain to him that this is our new house and we're not moving back.  And every time he tells me he misses Monty and that he misses our regular house I have a moment of thinking "Did we do the right thing?"  I know it was a good move for us and it was the right thing to do, but it's been very hard on Asher.  He has already made 2 good friends who are in our ward, all in the same class at school, and all ride the bus together so at least there's that!  It's taking some time, but he's slowly getting used to living here.

One last thing is that David doesn't get to see his family as much.  When we lived in Utah David's brother lived right down the street.  I was able to see them a lot because I watched their little boy and it was kind of fun to be able to know what's going on in their life.  David also has a Grandpa and Grandma that still live there and lots of extended family.  We haven't been back to Utah yet, but will hopefully be able to see some more of David's family soon!  His nephew just started school at BYU-Idaho and we've been able to spend some time with him, and that's been really fun.  We've been saying it for years, but we may just have to crack down and budget out a trip to his parents house soon!  Especially before the girls get too old and we have to pay for 2 more plane tickets...

Overall things are going pretty good.  It's been crazy busy with David starting his new job, having to juggle 3 schools and building up programs at each, Asher starting school, me watching my nephew, the girls getting into everything, and everything that comes with owning a house!  I go to bed every night exhausted and wake up every morning stiff, but it's a good feeling knowing that things are finally starting to look up for us (knock on wood...)

We have a park just down the street from us, so it's nice to take a quick trip there when kids are getting grumpy!

Piggies!  I had to wait until her hair filled in on one side, but it finally did!

Ava can be so annoying sometimes....she loves to chase Mia around and tackle her!  Sometimes Mia laughs and thinks it's hilarious, sometimes she does not like it and cries.

Asher and Ava.  These girls still love their big bro.

I don't remember if I posted this or not, but here's a first day of school picture!  It's like pulling teeth to get him to tell me anything about school but I think he likes it!

Asher and his cousin Sorren.  Asher loves having Sorren over and I think Sorren is helping Asher adjust to the move.  They play together so well and hardly ever fight.  They are in different elementary schools, but will be able to go to school together once they hit middle school!