Moving and such.

Last summer, I thought I found the house of my dreams. We had been casually looking in a certain neighborhood in Tempe for many, many years... waiting for a specific, rare floorplan to come up for sale. Well, it finally did, and it happened to be directly across the street from an old work friend of mine, and it happened to be a somewhat-affordable short sale, so we thought it was meant to be. I took pictures of EVERYTHING in that house, had the decorating all planned out, I had measured everything and brought friends and family to go see it... it was a done deal in my mind that this would be OUR house. So I thought. There was a part of me, however, that never felt at ease about the idea of moving into it right away - - so we decided we'd rent it out for a few years, and then move into it, finally, when the kids were ready for junior high/ high school. (I think it was N & I who wanted to live in Tempe so badly, but we weren't necessarily thinking about the kids - we were already making lots of concessions thinking "We don't need a playroom - and the girls can still share a room - and we don't need a big backyard, etc, etc") After 6 months of negotiating and waiting for banks and postponements and auctions and such, losing much sleep, getting our financing together and all our ducks in a row, the deal ended up falling through - - but after it was said and done, neither N or I were sad about losing that house. Go figure.

Less than 2 weeks later, N called me saying he wanted to go look at another house. In Mesa. (Bigger! Cheaper! he says...) I reluctantly agreed... I didn't want to waste any more of our realtor's time. But when I walked through it the very first time, (this was way back in January) I realized that THIS is where I wanted my kids to be. No question. This one just feels right, like the Tempe house never did. Located in east Mesa, it's is a diamond in the rough with an amazing floor plan, in a nice neighborhood, with perks I never knew I wanted (astroturf, anyone?) and we are so excited to live in it. I have grand plans for it - - and hopefully, someday, my wallet will be able to see all those plans come to life.

It tears me apart to know that I'll be leaving several dear friends, my volleyball crew, my free exercise class each week, the dynamic Finny-and-Joshy duo, and my very affordable current mortgage... my heart aches to think of leaving Janna or Jackie... but I'm very much looking forward to A & M having lots of LDS friends, A not being the only one showing up to Activity Days anymore, maybe having babysitter options, doing swim team at a city pool that doesn't have rowdy, potty-mouth inappropriate teenagers hanging about all the time, A & M each getting their own room and eliminating all sleeping-schedule conflicts, all the kids being in new, challenging school environments, and N being a bit closer to work, and me being closer to my business partner. (Seems that much of our social life and errands find us driving over to Mesa, Tempe, or Scottsdale a couple times a week - - silly - - why should I have to drive 45 minutes to go buy Costco cheese or a piece of scrapbook paper??) And eventually, when I do get the girls back into gymnastics, it will be less than 1/4 mile away from my front door, instead of 15 miles away. Oh, and we will FINALLY have a POOL! And for the first time in our married life, 2011 will see our Christmas stockings hanging from a mantle! (albeit an ugly one at the moment, but a mantle nonetheless)

Yes, we could have moved further west and gotten many of the benefits I listed (with a WHOLE LOT cheaper house to boot) ... but since N works in Tempe, the in-laws live in Scottsdale and Mesa... it was time to go east. I hope you'll still be my friend, Deirdre!