June 1st 2023, leaving Grace

 Easily one of the hardest days of my life.  

I had spent months going through so many BIG emotions.  Cried so SO many tears, been excited, sad, and all the things inbetween - going through so many HARD, HARD things.  And then the day was here.  

We were supposed to have movers moving us, they called the week before to verify what we had and told us then that we had only reserved a certain amount of space on the truck - I was devestated because I now had to sell even more of my things to fit into the area. I held a massive moving sell and sold so many things - some of which I really wanted to keep but jI ust couldn't.  The day came - a few days before we had to be out- for the movers, they showed up and told us it was going to cost almost $10,000 - this was after I had litterally sold my whole life and had very little left...so devestating.  So, we had to fire them, loose our thousands in deposits and scramble to find a U haul at the last minute.The only Uhaul available was the largest size and because we had sold everything was only about half full, one more devestation as I realized I could have kept some of those things that were important to me.  It was so HARD. I kept thinking that there better be big 'ol pot of Gold somewhere in SC because I didn't know if I could go through many more hard things.  We finally got everything packed into the Uhaul.  

LeGrand had to go into work June 1st so that he would get insurance through the end of June.  We were up bright and early finishing all the cleaning and little things.  I cried all morning.  Leaving my dream house, in the most amazing location, in a town I truly feel like became my home was SO. DANG. HARD.

I picked LeGrand up and took a couple last pictures.  The kids missed their final day of school - the last day of school picture looked a little different than normal.  It was a HARD day!

The last night was a big slumber party in our room as we had the whole upstairs already cleaned.  As I went through the house the last time my heart felt like it would break, I hope I never forget the view from those bedroom windows - we truly lived in a heaven on earth and I hope I seared those views in my mind forever.  This labor of blood, sweat, tears and so much love we were leaving behind to do the Lords will - my heart felt a little of what Nephi must have felt leaving his home for the wilderness, loosing his possesions, home, gold, to do the Lords will which included a lot of HARD things along the journey. 

Grace will always be my home.

Hard Good-byes and 'lasts'

The last month in Grace was a bit of a blur, I cried a lot of sad sad tears.  We had a lot of hard hard good-byes and did a lot of 'lasts'.  These YW have become my own.  I have been so blessed in my life to spend many many years serving with the YW of the church - they all have taken over a piece of my heart - we had a little good bye night for Loa and I at 3C grill, with ice cream and brownies and me sharing the story of why we were leaving.  It was a hard day.

We visited some of our favorite Grace spots and tried to take some 'last photos'- I think this place will always be home.

It felt like there were lots of hard days - each one a little harder than the last.  We had to find a new home for our Couver dog.  He has been in our family for 7 years, we wanted nothing more than to take him with us but just couldn't figure out how.  Plus, as we discussed it, we decided he would be much happier staying in Grace if we could find him a farm to live on.  We were SO SO blessed to have our good friends the Hatch's offer to take him.  We left a piece of our heart with the Hatch's but we know our Couver dog will be loved and well taken care of.  Dang those next few days were extra hard - Maggie was lost without Couver and I was so sad to look out the door and not see him in the yard.

Loa had her 'last' Grace Jr. High choir concert.

We took a quick trip to SLC and said some more hard good-byes, we visited my friend Pat Wyman from my Real Estate days, Got to catch up and say good -bye to Jen and met up with Don and Paige for a good-bye dinner...more HARD things!

The kids had their 'last' week of school in Grace, SO HARD.  Linq was able to go with his class the Lava for his last swim trip - I was grateful to be able to chaperone.  He got to hang out with his friend Jentz and I got to spend the day catching up with Melanie

LeGrands work had a good-bye lunch for him, I made everyone pose for a picture.  These guys have been the best co-workers he could have ever asked for, he loves his job and everything he does - this only makes the move that much harder!

We felt like memorial day was the perfect day to 'lay to rest' Oma and Opa.  We took their ashes and spread them on the plots that his Dad had purchase (the month his Mom died) in the Grace cemetary.  I couldn't get over the amazing sunset that evening, it was incredible - I know they are happy together, I'm so grateful for the time we were able to spend making memories with them.

We stopped at the Grace sign for one last picture, Grace really is a Great place to live!

 

A quick trip, spring snow & Mothers Day!

 In April LeGrand said he felt like we needed to just GO to South Carolina...I always hoped he would get a job and that would help us determine which area we were supposed to be in, but that wasnt happening.  We both seperately had kinda been drawn to the Spartanburg/Greenville area of upstate SC so we decided we should just take a trip.  I told him we should wait until his next weekend off because I wasn't quite ready - he informed me I would never be ready, he was probably right!  So away we went!  Thank heavans for our Gma Susie who always is so willing to help out - she kept and eye on the kids and we made a quick 5 day trip to find a house.

We too very few pictures - but LeGrand had to hold up traffic for a picture for the Belchers - ha!  We had some yummy food and drove and drove and drove - looking at all the houses on the market.  I decided to reach out to the local stake through FB and post that we were looking for housing and a Job - we were so fortunate to get the Tolmans to respond and invite us to dinner.  They were an amazing resource as Mike was the former bishop in the Inman ward and had great information for us - helped us narrow down our search and focus in a bit of a different area.

We didn't leave with a house, despite our endless effort.  I was discouraging and sad.  It was a long trip home and hard to tell the kids it hadn't been fully successful. The week after we got home we ended up putting a new-build house under contract.  We were wanting to be in a specific school district and stay in the inman ward with the Tolmans and the Walters (their neighbors they introduced us to) - the house said it was in that school district and the realtor also told us this...later we would find out that it was actually in a much bigger school district - not exactly what we wanted but I just kept feeling that there must be a reason because we worked so hard to be in the other and thought we were, then we weren't.

We got home just in time to 'enjoy' a spring snow storm...the endless snow was getting ridiculous -ha ha!  I kept reminding myself it was the last winter we would be having like this...at least for awhile!

The girls were awesome and made me some fun surprises for Mothers Day!

Track Season

 Laexin decided not to do track this year but Loa had a good time - mostly because she got to hang out with her friends.  Her favorite event was the triple jump but she also got to do hurdles and long jump.