wide open spaces

Throwback to 5 years ago. We were living in Rupert. I call it "Anticipation"

Oh my goodness. Has it really been almost a month? That is crazy. Where has it gone?

Dave ended up having his kidney stone surgically removed after having missed work for a week. It was a miserable week. He was either in pain or asleep because he was taking pain meds and the stone hadn't really moved much. So we got it out so he could start feeling normal again. Mostly he does, though now he is working weird hours so his sleep is still a little off.

We took a whirlwind trip to Rupert a few weeks ago. We went up on Saturday after Dave got off work at 8 a.m. and he slept most of the day while the kids played with Grandma and Grandpa. Sunday was a family get together in honor of Dave's nephew who recently returned from his mission.  I have the best in-laws. Seriously, all of Dave's family rocks and I love them all.

Saturday evening we drove out to his sister's house. She lives a few miles south of town surrounded by farm land. Being September, the fall harvest was in and winter wheat was just showing its pail green stems. For just a moment we stopped and listened. You know what we heard? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The evening air was silent. The sunset glowed beautifully.  Homes dotted the farmland and the mountains in the distance looked beautiful in the dusk. It was glorious.

Of all the things I could have missed while living back East, there was one thing that kept coming up. I missed the sound of sprinklers on a field. I missed the flat farmland and the distant mountains. Vermont is rural, for sure, and there are many things my heart misses so much. But it isn't flat. And they don't need sprinklers to water the crops. And I missed it.

We are really happy we are here in Salt Lake. I love that there is a WinCo and a Target and a temple all within 15 minutes of my home. There are tons of hiking-trails and museums and parks. The sunsets over the city are amazing, and we truly love our neighborhood.

But the truth is, we are not city people. We love the country and the open spaces and the lack of traffic and the quiet.  Rupert reminded us of that. We headed back around bed-time and within an hour all 3 kids were sleeping soundly in the backseat, so Dave and I talked. It had been far too long since we had a talk like that. We talked about our kids and our future. We talked about opportunities and expectations.  We came back feeling much lighter. The country is good for our souls.

(As an aside, I just spent the better part of an hour looking at old pictures of my older kids. It is crazy how little I remember of how I felt about my job day in and day out. Instagram takes most of my photos these days, but looking through those ones reminds me I need to pull out my good camera and capture my kiddos in this stage of life.)

last week of summer

With taking the kids out of school early for our move, this summer has been LONG. I am ready for school to start next week.

As this week was approaching I kept vascillating between what kind of a week we were going to have. Was I going to get my nose to the grindstone and have the kids work work work all week to make the house all nice and spotless or was I gonna just relax and let them relax and have fun. My "what good mommy's SHOULD do" radar was telling me to do the first. But my "Erin" radar was telling me the latter. All in all, I decided somewhere in between. We spent yesterday at the zoo and Monday at a park and I think I will take them to a museum this afternoon. But we do need to clean bedrooms first because as it is they won't be able to find anything come the first day of school. Ana, through diligent teethbrushing earned getting her ears pierced. She had been begging and so I figured we could compromise and she could earn it. It does look pretty cute.

On Tuesday Dave got off work early so he could go to my doctor's appointment with me. I ended up waiting for FOREVER because I guess I wasn't checked in, even though I thought I was and so that was a pain. But it was pretty exciting because we found out:

So, that's pretty exciting. I was thinking girl, so I was surprised. It definitely makes the sleeping arrangements easier because Ana was really petitioning to move upstairs with the baby. But now it is settled nicely.

The kids found out who their teachers are for school and are exciting because they each have a good friend in their class. Dave and I were reflecting last night about how blessed we have been to find this neighborhood. When deciding our rank list, I was especially worried about finding a good neighborhood here in Utah that would fit our needs. One of our main concerns was the social aspect for Ana. In Vermont, we did not go to church with even 1 little girl her age. She had great friends at school and church, but we lived so far away from them that it was hard for to really form good friendships. We prayed that we would find some place that had good friends for Ana: kids her age that she could run around with all summer and still see at school and church and have that continuity of friendships. Finding this place has been perfect. The kids in the neighborhood are kind and fun and they want to play with her.  Not all of them go to church and not all of them go to the same school, but they all have welcomed her.  The ward is great. Everyone we talk to really likes the school. Plus it is a short commute for Dave. I know that we could not have found such a perfect place without God's guidance. We were led to it.

We have a few more fun activities planned for the weekend. (Since Dave has the WHOLE WEEKEND OFF! Hooray!) and then school starts and it will just be me and little Katie for a few months before little brother joins us in January. Things have a way of working out just right.

2 days more

Want to hear a story?

Yeah, me too. Truth be told I can't form two coherent sentences. I am so anxious for match day on Friday, when we find out where we matched for residency. I am wandering around my house thinking that I probably should be cleaning house and doing laundry but then I walk past the big map of the United States in our dining room and all I can think is "Where?" So then I compulsively look up houses in various places so that on Friday morning when we open that envelope I can have some peace of mind knowing that we will find a place to live that will be wonderful for our family.

In other news, Ana has attended school 1 1/2 days in the last week due to a snow day, a teacher in-service day and now she is sick. She is now watching Frozen for the 2nd time. I love that movie!

This is how we waited out the snow storm

If you want to watch the Match ceremony, you can follow this link. It is Friday at 12:00 Eastern time.

https://www.uvm.edu/~comvideo/podcast_folder/show.php?fn=/2014.03.21_MATCH_DAY.mp4

omaha (or iowa or salt lake or albuquerque or tucson) on my mind

My favorite place on earth: Shelburne Orchard

 Dave is in the midst of scheduling interviews for residency. Starting in November, he will be traipsing all over the country telling various places how awesome he is.  This whole thing is a little nuts.  In February he will submit a ranked list of all the places he interviewed, they will go into a computer along with the school's ranking of all their interviewees and ... VOILA! ... out spits a "Match," which we open and read in front of his class in March. It is exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

In trying to decide where to apply and weighing the pros and cons of individual places, I have been (self) assigned the task of researching different programs: benefits, cost of living, commute time, schools, etc. Some programs I get really excited about and typically every week it is a different program that I am determined it is our number one choice.  I know that really now it is a waiting game. My research helped us determine where to apply and now I need to wait for Dave to go and check out the programs himself. It is hard not to get caught up in the "when we move..." mentality.

On the flip side, I recognize that this likely is our last fall here in Vermont and I want to be present. The weather has been gorgeous and I have been trying to soak it up, fitting in trips to the orchards, leaf-peeping drives, and long afternoons at the park. It has been glorious.

My mind is mostly muddled and my attention span is about nil. Just while writing this post I stopped once to look up news reports on the shutdown deal, and another time to look up flight prices between two of Dave's interviews. It has taken me significantly longer than it should have. And I have a toddler to take care of and laundry to finish and dishes to wash.