Feliz Navidad in August

The classic version of Feliz Navidad (the José Feliciano version) is currently playing in the family room.  This is not an uncommon occurrence at our house, it's Leo's favorite Christmas song.  Feliz was played and replayed and then replayed in December.  When the holidays came to a close, he couldn't quite give it up, so nearly every day we enjoy the mariachi goodness of Feliz Navidad. 

As a side note here, the rest of the album is really good too.  It's mostly made up of acoustic guitar versions of the classic carols.  Check it out, it's on Amazon Prime.

You would be surprised at the amount of toys that two toddlers and one mom can pick up to one playing of "Beliez Navi Duck," as Leo calls it.  That is one of those phrases that I hate to correct because I know how quickly the time passes and he grows up and stops saying things like "ambliance" (ambulance) and "snoot snacks" (fruit snacks).  He is growing and changing so fast that I just want to enjoy it for just a moment.  Who knows when the last time he'll ask to hear "Beliez Navi Duck." 

So, if you stop by the house around 6, there's a very good chance that you'll hear the peppy guitar playing of a classic Christmas song.  You'll see us dancing and cleaning because around here we celebrate Christmas all year long. 

 

Sick Days

Last month, I spent a full week sick with a sinus infection.  Oh joy, just what we needed.  With all that time at home, we had to entertain ourselves somehow..... 

New House

Our last day in the hotel.

It's been a whirlwind week here.  We closed on the house on Wednesday and signed a 2 inch stack of documents.  We are officially mortgage holders and home owners.  It feels so grown up.

We moved right into the house, even thought the truck with all of our belongings wasn't set to arrive for a couple of days.  Camping in our house seemed way better than another night in the hotel.  32 nights was more than enough for me, and for the kids too.  We took ourselves to Costco and bought a mattress (because, living here, we know there will be more than enough friends and family to visit us in the coming years). 

The truck came on Friday and within a matter of hours, all of our belongings filled the house, minus one missing shotgun (which we are told was found, just in Utah).  We have started the dance of unpacking, trying to find things and settling in.  I have never been so happy to see my pots and pans in my life.  I didn't think I would ever miss cooking but after weeks of frozen and not quite satisfying meals, I was dying to cook my own food.  I even cooked waffles this morning, which has maybe happened 3 times in the last 5 years.  I'm not a huge breakfast fan but after eating them week after week at the hotel, I really like them. 

 

 Leo and Amy have been loving the new house and all it's space.  Leo runs circles round and round and wants to ride his bike all the time.  They have immediately started sleeping better, which is a welcome change around here.

This house feels different.  We have been in the temporary for so long, not just the hotel but even our condo in Logan, that it is a relief to be in a place that is permanent.  Heber has been dreaming up renovation ideas and I have been painting and painting and painting. 

I have been feeling like quite the flake lately.  I don't have the time or energy to put anything together, my house isn't in any state to invite anyone over and I have a 4 day turn around on emails.  Really, this is maybe the second time in a week that I've sat down at the computer.  I am hoping that as things come together, I won't feel so overwhelmed by it all and can get to the business of building our real life here. 

All things considered, we are happy to be here.  We miss our people, but still feel strongly that this is the place for us. 

The In Between

The phrase "in between" is exactly how I would describe my life lately, maybe even for the last year.  For months in Logan, we were waiting for things to resolve, for Heber's job situation to become what we moved for, for some sign to come that would make it feel ok to settle and buy a home in Logan.  This feeling never came.

We decided to start looking for work outside of Cache Valley.  Heber applied for jobs all over the country and we ended up with 5 job offers in Northern Virginia.  Five.  The one he accepted is a job worth moving for, he's so excited.  Now, Virginia is a great place to live, lots of things to see and do, good people but....it's not the easiest place to live. The decision to return was difficult but we felt like it was the right thing.

I imagine that many wonder why we would make a second cross country move in a year and why we would return to the same place.  The answer is complicated.  Would I change the way that I did things?  Absolutely not.  There were some deep lessons I learned through this whole experience, perhaps too deep for the blog, but I would do it all again. 

As for continued "in betweenness," we are currently living in a hotel.  There just wasn't time in between accepting the job, selling our condo (!) and moving to plan a trip out to find housing.  We came out blind with a month in temporary housing and hope that it would all work out.  While this is not the ideal situation with two very young children (I'm trying not to lose my mind), it hasn't been too bad.

We have been in Virginia for a week now.  In that time we've searched for house, found one, put an offer in, counteroffered, accepted and applied for a mortgage.  I almost can't believe it myself, which is why I write it down. As you can imagine, this has led to several sleepless nights because I've been so worried about it all.  Did we make the right choice on the house?  Should we have seen it again before purchasing? How can anybody sleep while going through this process?
 
We went over to the house for an inspection on Saturday.  As I walked into the house, I loved it.  It's not perfect but I could picture a good life there.  For the first time in perhaps a year, I feel calm.  We found a house in less than a week, we sold our condo in Logan in less than a week and I feel like I can see the hand of God in my life. The long winding journey is starting to make sense in my head. 

Yay!

Our soon to be new home!

Our trees!  Always been my dream to have trees of my own!

The real reason Heber liked this house, the garage.

In all of this, Heber started his new job and has been liking his first week, I'm interested to see how he likes it when he gets to the actual work part of this adventure.  I've been visiting my old haunts and connecting with old friends.  The whole things has been rough on the kids but it will all even out when we get settled into the house next month.

The in between is not my favorite and I'm looking forward to being somewhere, to settling down.  It's all coming together!  More pictures to come.

Home

We just watched a documentary on the "tiny home" movement on Netflix called "Tiny."  It chronicles a man building a tiny home and interviewing people who have chosen to live that life.  I haven't really given much thought to tiny homes, and by tiny I mean less than 200 square feet, especially now that we have 2 kids and their stuff alone would fill at least 500 feet (I'm sure).

One of the main themes of the movie was about the concept of home.  Identifying home was always easy for me because I grew up in the same town for my entire life, up until college.  I know that is my home because that's where my roots are, my family, my history.

The question that haunts me though, is where will my children call home?  Can your home be a place you haven't lived in for more than 10 years?  Is home where you currently are, even if you've only been there a few months?  How about, home is where the people you love are.  But what if they are all over the country?  This idea of home quickly becomes complex and complicated.

The guy in the movie had been in a military family and so lived everywhere but his family always took trips out to the west during the summers.  He said that the deserts of the west made him feel at home.  I never had the experience of having to choose a place to be home, my always just was.

I thought that we would call Logan home.  We've lived here (on and off) for the better part of a decade but the time has come once again to move along and it feels permanent this time.  We are leaving Utah and don't forsee returning.  That is a bit scary because this is been my home for so long.

So I guess my definition of home will change.  Perhaps home will be where my husband is.  Or where I've worked to build a life and friends.  I'm not sure. 

What's your definition of home?

Our Humble Abode

This is a post I have been meaning to write FOREVER. I've had all the pictures and such for months but just didn't get it up on the blog. It's been several months since we moved and I have yet to post any pictures of the new place. Our families have been bugging us to see what the place is like, so here are a few pictures.

The living room. Thank goodness Heb's company was closing down an apartment here and donated some couches. They fit in great and made it so we didn't have to buy too much furniture.


The Dining Room with Heber's beautiful table that we finally have a space large enough to use it. I'm still experimenting with the lanterns, the chandeleir was not centered over the table and it's a pretty boring space, so I was trying to make it a bit more exciting.

The random area off of the kitchen.

The kitchen. Pretty nice!

Our bedroom upstairs.

See, I'm finally getting pictures on the walls.

There are two more rooms upstairs (I know! We are living in such luxury). One is our office that we share. It is in a constant state of messiness - how can an office be clean and organized all the time? I just don't think that way. And the second room is the baby's new room....a work in progress that will be revealed in due time.

Our stairs...that is one thing this house has a ton of is stairs both inside and out.

We also have the basement area that is serving as storage/we have no idea what to do with this area kind of space.

So there's the new place. Pretty nice. This was totally not what I was expecting when we came house hunting in the area. I expected something quite small. We did have to make some location sacrifices - like a further distance from the city but it's such a nice place.

And now you can see, we really do have space for you to come and visit....

My Walk This Morning....

The Best

You know there is one really great thing about living in VA. Since we've been out here, I've been seeing a lot more of Heb. He's home at 5 almost every night. Totally unheard of and I am one happy camper.

It hasn't brought anything big, we just get to spend time together. We get to laugh while cooking dinner together. We make trips to home depot and work on hanging pictures together. We talk about our new baby and what he's going to look like. It's all just small things.

I guess we really are the only people ever to move to DC to slow down. So, so glad it worked.