T-minus two days.

Here we are, Tuesday the 31st of May.
We are picking up the moving truck in the morning...
loading tomorrow and taking off on Thursday.

Wow! It has come fast and it has come slow.
At this point, my brain is a pile of mush and I still feel like there is plenty to do.
Mostly, I am excited right now.

Let's get this party started.
The farmgirl fam's new adventure is about to begin!!

I'll save feeling sad for Thursday, right now I am happy.
This is a good thing and we are excited.

Wish me luck...these next two days are going to be a doosey!!
:)

Okay, fine. I'll admit it....

After giving my talk yesterday
and listening to Mike give his talk yesterday
and knowing our days are really numbered
and fighting a headache all day
and REALLY, REALLY starting to empty the house
and packing up the last of the things that can be packed at this point
and looking at my bare walls and rooms beginning to empty---
I am ready to agree with Robyn and Anne.....

My House is Depressing.

The flood gates are getting weaker.
I keep telling people it's not time for me to be sad about leaving yet,
there's still too much to be happy about.
We still have time.
Well, with only a little over a week left I'm starting to feel it.

Please excuse me whilst I go have a good cry.
Probably the really ugly kind.

Okay, not really.
I still have to be a mom for a few
more hours.
I'll suck it up for a wee bit longer.
Cuz that's the kind of
responsible parent I am.
:o}

And thus began the beginning of the end...

I have given my last Sharing Time in Primary...
Last Thursday I hosted my last book group...
Sunday was our last first Sunday of the month...
There's discussion of who will fill my place in the Primary...
My running buddy is scouting out new partners...

All these things are just as they should be...and thus began the beginning of the end.

Things are beginning to wind down, well, not things so much as time.
We are running out.
People are telling me things I never knew.
I've always known how great Mike is, how amazing he is with the boys--his scouts--I have watched him influence lives and known that he is making a big difference.
But me? I'm just the supportive wife.
I've never thought I was anything nearly as amazing as sliced bread.
Maybe I never saw it in myself.
Maybe I wasn't looking.
Not really.
Don't get me wrong,
I know I'm good.
I know I'm good at a whole lot of things.
But, now that time is winding down and people are telling me things I never knew, I am realizing that maybe I am something pretty special too.
And it's nice.

That is something for me to work on...tell people things. Really tell them.

This whole beginning of the end thing, it's tough.
We are so happy about our decision to move.
It is absolutely the right thing for us and we are excited.
But...this whole beginning of the end thing, it's tough.

I am moving back to my home ward, but in so many ways I feel like this is the ward I have done the most growing up in. I was just a young thing, with two itty bitty kids, when we landed here. It was the first place we ever lived that I knew--for sure--that we wouldn't be picking up and moving again any time soon. We were putting down roots.

I feel like this is where I learned how to live life.
Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes just blah...life is, well, life.
"My life has been a good one, with just enough heartache to make me really appreciate all the good and happy times that have come my way." These are the words of a lady I once knew, written in her journal.

I think that's how I feel about my St. G life.
It certainly hasn't always been easy, nor has it always been hard.
But, it has been a good one with just enough heartache to make me really appreciate all the good and happy times that have come my way.

For the record,
it's getting harder to
stick to my
'no crying until the middle of May'
rule.

The new other woman.

My husband is a passionate man. He loves fierce and he loves deeply.
While I will always be his number one squeeze, over the years his attention has wondered.
Rhiannon has a place in Mike's heart that I fear I will never recover.
Meet Rhiannon.I wouldn't get on board with naming one of our daughters Rhiannon, so Mike created this work of art and got to use the name...

Rhiannon is Mike's electric guitar. He built her from scratch. They have a special bond...something a wife just can't understand, I suppose.


I have referred to Rhiannon as "the other woman" since the day he finished building her.

Well, my friend Rhiannon, there's a new girl in town...and I'm afraid she's gonna win out over both of us for a time.

I am pleased to introduce you to my hubby's latest and greatest love affair...
Over 1,000 square feet of burnin' love, his new shop.

I'm not kidding.
He is in love.
He thinks about "the shop" a minimum of 15,000 times a day.
I think he dreams about "the shop" at night.
He is so excited to set up shop in "the shop".

But first, to give you a real appreciation of how amazing and how far "the shop" has come,
please allow me to show you before and after pictures.
We took a trip to Idaho in March to check out the new abode and finalize the decision.
This was "the shop" then....

Even at this point he was super excited, couldn't wait to get the place spiffed up.
We made plans to go back up over Easter break to paint "the shop". Between our visit in March to our visit over Easter those AMAZING people that we will soon be calling neighbors (not just family) emptied THE ENTIRE THING.
W.O.W.!!!
That was a whole lotta work!
But, all their hard work made it possible for Mike to accomplish this, over the weekend....



Are you amazed? Cuz you should be.
He has drawn up floor plans as to where all of his tools will be placed.
He is planning on putting the little fridge and microwave he used to have at his office in "the shop".
Once we move up there, he may never set foot in the house again.
The children and I will have pack a picnic and visit "the shop" in order to have a family dinner.
That is, of course, if we are privileged enough to cross the threshold....