A little overwhelmed. A lot tired. But getting better.

Wow. Moving is so much work. And we only lived in a trailer. I am not looking forward to moving every so often when we finally get into the military. I guess I'll probably become a professional mover and get everything down to a science.

The week of packing went really well. I had so much help from friends, and so many offers that I couldn't even accept, with babysitting Nathan so that I could pack. Corey still had school of course so I was the one that packed most everything. Corey's mom came and helped on Thursday and my mom came and helped on Friday. On Saturday Nathan got sick. He threw up 5 times while all the guys were coming in and out of my house with boxes and furniture. All I could do was hold Nathan by the sink to create a little less of a mess, which we only made it into the sink twice. Poor kid. It only took the guys 1 hour to load everything into the truck. The shed, furniture, all the boxes, 1 hour. Amazing. Guess it helps to be organized. I still could have been a little better but almost everything was already boxed when everyone got there. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE. Seriously. Not even just the movers, all my friends who babysat, all my other friends who brought us dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday AND breakfast on Friday and Saturday. Seriously. I get choked up still just thinking about it.

Leaving the trailer was hard. It was our very first home together. The only home we've ever known. Nathan's first home. All our friends. Our amazing ward. The playground right in our backyard. Nathan's friends-Leah, Lana, Bridger, and others-which he tries to all say. Just hard.

When we got to the new place, we noticed that everything smelt kind of musty from the carpets being cleaned the day before. We started to air out the rooms and the smell went away except for in Nathan's room. Then we decided that the smell was really urine, dog urine. It was really bad and every time I walked in there I got more and more... uh... bugged... about the whole thing. Ugh. It still kind of smells like it, but it's doable and hopefully with more time it will go away.

Monday was our first day alone, handling things (i.e. the motel) by ourselves. It was pretty good. That night was hard. We went to bed and were woken up 3 or 4 times by people ringing the doorbell and the phone ringing. And then I got up at 2:00 and again at 3:00 for petty things. And then Tuesday was hard for no reason and by that night, I was completely beat, very stressed, and wondering what in the world we were doing. Tuesday was the day I also found a mouse in our basement. Yeah, welcome to your new home, here's a mouse. Wednesday started the first, 'Ok I can handle this' day. And everything has been really good since. I finished unpacking a lot of boxes on Wednesday and am working on finally putting things up on the walls. That always makes your place feel much more like your own. It's starting, slowly but surely to feel more like our place. I even cooked dinner last night for the first time in our new kitchen. I've done waffles a couple of mornings but hadn't done dinner yet. Things are looking much better. The motel is doing good and I feel like I'm really getting the hang of things. I now know how to make coffee. Funny, huh. It's for the breakfast that I set out every morning.

On another note, as I'm typing this I'm noticing, "Huh, it's pretty quiet. What's Nathan doing right now that he probably shouldn't?" I walk into his room and he had climbed into his crib all alone. I think he climbed up on to the rocking chair, then the arm on the chair, then pulled himself over the rail. Geez. Why do people ever have more than one kid? They are crazy! :) :)

BIG NEWS

Wow, so much as happened since Friday. Are you ready for this? here we go...

We are moving to Tremonton this weekend.

I know. Here's the low down.

BACKGROUND: For over a year we've been interested in taking over an apartment managing position at Old Farm Apartments here in Logan. The current managers are our friends and so we have been able to talk to them a lot about what the job entails and working with them on a timing schedule of when they would need a replacement.

CURRENT: Corey's dad, Lyle, called me on Friday morning to tell me about this motel, called The Sandman, that Corey's cousins (Bruce and Julie) own and they are looking for some live-in managers. He said that the apartment has been newly remodeled and is pretty nice. He really thought that this was something we should talk about. I politely said that I would talk to Corey, not really thinking much at first because 1)we've been waiting on Old Farm for so long, my heart/head was kind of set on that; 2)it's in Tremonton and Corey is still in school and commuting would be really hard. But, I told Corey and he was really interested so we decided that since we had time that evening we would go over just to take a look at it and talk to Bruce about what all would be involved.

The apartment is nice, 2 bed 2 bath, bigger then what we have now (the kitchen is like twice as big so for someone who likes to cook, I was way excited about that), and has a basement but it isn't finished. The apartment is hooked to the office of the motel so I will be 'home' while still 'working'. We would be paid an income as well as earn free rent and utilities. That sounded great because that income would go straight to pocket (as soon as other debt things are paid off, i.e. motorcycle and student loan, etc.). We decided we were pretty interested, but needed to go home and talk about it and I wanted to call our friends with Old Farm to see where they were on things. I would hate to have turned down the motel job and then not get the Old Farm job.

So I called and we talked and it turned out that a bunch of things had also happened on their end just in the last couple of weeks. To make a really really long story only really long, they were going to decide between us and another couple and then let us know today or tomorrow. We told Bruce that and he said that he would hold the position for us and wait for our decision.

Well, as you might be able to guess, Old Farm chose the other couple (I really am ok with this and am in no way mad or upset with our Old Farm friends for those of you who know them). So, we called Bruce and told him we would love to accept this position. We are the managers of The Sandman Motel now.

I have been on an emotional roller coaster today. I feel so incredibly sad to leave my amazing friends both in the trailer court and in our ward and all of the other great people we know around here. I also feel so incredibly sad to make Nathan leave the first friends he has ever made. He knows their names and tries to say them and he gets excited when he sees them. But, I know that he is only 19 months and will make friends so easy. I also have lived in Logan for almost 5 1/2 years and love it here. Everything I know is here. And moving would mean I hae to change doctors and what grocery store I shop at and what park we like to play in and movie theater we'd run to. And then I get excited about moving somewhere nicer and bigger and getting to decorate a new space and possibly not having as many bugs and spiders to deal with. And then I think about the super fun enrichments that I've been to and everything I'm going to miss out on. It's a roller coaster, I tell you.

On the flip side, I can completely see the Lord's hand in all of this and from all ends. Everything really has worked out for the very best for us, for Old Farm, for the couple that got the Old Farm job, for Bruce and Julie, and the list could go on. Prayers have been answered all around and I think that this chain will just continue.

So now, my completely normal week of completely normal things will still be there but now I have to pack up our entire trailer and we are moving on Saturday.

BY THE WAY, we now have to buy a second car so Corey can commute back and forth. Stipulations: tops $2,000, good enough condition, not too concerned about # of miles (within reason), has to have good gas milage-ideal would be mid to upper 30s or higher. PLEASE, let me know if you see/hear/read about anything.

You're all great. Thank you and goodnight.

You really should watch this

A Little Preview

I finished Nathan's costume today and put it on him to see how it looked. I decided to go with a hat instead of a headband for the ears for two reasons: a)it's warmer, b)he's never worn a headband and I didn't know how he would take it, plus I thought it might look more Minnie-ish and less Mickey-ish. The hat/beanie is a little big and the ears are a little floppy, but he didn't really want to keep it on for very long anyway. Luckily, I think you can still tell who he is dressed as without it. Here's a little preview before our Halloween parties start with weekend, first a Primary party and then a Holmgren Family party! There really are two ears but I managed to capture these pictures just right to where you can't see both.

Then, I walked away for half a second (you know how it goes) and he had gotten into the peanut butter on the table. It was my fault for leaving it out after lunch and with the lid still off. I walked back in the kitchen and he looks at me and says, "Mmmm." while holding it up to show me what was so yummy.

Also, I never blogged about this, but I finally finished our wedding signing book. It only took me 3 years! All I had to do was trim the paper so it would fit in the sheet protectors. It took me a single afternoon, like 2 hours of that afternoon. These are the moments that make me happy I am done with school so I can finally work on these kinds of things that otherwise would never get done!

Progress

For 2 whole days now, in a row, I have done a personal study AND worked out in the MORNING. I'm feeling really good about this. Corey and I still do our reading together at night, but now a personal study in the morning. 2 days now in a row! Corey's been waking up early for a couple of weeks to study before Army PT, but I'm just getting started in doing both. I feel like this is already becoming a habit.

I'm making progress.

I've been doing the P90X workout program and am in the middle (technically towards the end, I guess) of week 3. This is the third time I have started this program and have never even made it past week 1.

I'm making progress.

Furthermore, I have indeed lost some weight already. Only a few pounds, but consistent with losing 1-2 pounds a week. My clothes still feel the same, and I can't really tell a difference in how I look yet, but I feel great! Well, except for some part of my body aching from various workouts.

I love the feeling of making progress. It makes me want to keep going to see what comes next!

**This isn't a super exciting post, and most probably don't even care, but I thought I'd share anyway because this is what's going on with me. What's going on with you?

Was it that bad?

I recently ran across these pictures of Nathan taken the day after his first birthday. The first thing I thought was 'How In The World Did I Let His Hair Get So Long?!?' I thought it was so cute, all curly in the back and by his ears. But, now I'm not so sure!