We've moved

As you all may have noticed, there has not been a weekly letter for the past couple of weeks.  My life has been a whirlwind of activity, which has left me too tired to think--and writing takes thought.  Don't worry--you haven't missed much.☺ By not writing, I have missed pointing out a couple of birthdays.  Happy Birthday Jieun, Maverick and Andy!  We are happy you are all in our family!!!

We have finally moved (and we picked the snowiest day possible to do it).

This picture was taken the 2nd day of moving--it snowed,
but not all day like it did the first day of moving.

You all know how I've worried about the house in Bountiful.  We had very little activity for the 7 months we had it on the market.  We took it off the market over Christmas and were going to wait a few weeks to put it back on the market, but someone saw it on Zillow (a web site that is apparently slow to update) and wanted to see it.  We hurried and cleaned up from Christmas and put it immediately back on the market--never dreaming that we'd have much action in January.  `We had three families view the home, and all seemed quite interested.  We got an offer that we were disappointed in.  We countered, and they countered again--only $10,000 above their original offer.  Roy and I discussed it and decided "one in the hand is worth two in the bush" and we told our realtor to go ahead.  Their realtor told ours that she would send the paperwork that evening.  It never appeared.  She texted about 9:00 and told her she'd been out for the evening but would send the paperwork over when she arrived home--she didn't do it.  The next morning, around 10:30 or 11:00 we received a 2nd offer that was $30,000 better than the first offer.  It had slightly more risk (the wife hasn't yet seen the home and there are a couple of contingencies,--but for $30,000 we decided to go with it.  The first realtor was very angry.  She told our realtor that we had a verbal agreement... I think she even made our realtor cry.  However, it was her fault, because if she'd been timely with the paperwork, we would have signed and been tied in to it.  I think she was angry because she had to go back to her people and tell them she had messed up.  Although my bet is that she colored it differently.  I didn't feel that we owed the first couple anything because they had definitely played a game with us.  They gave us a very low offer--a little insulting actually, and then they didn't call us or communicate with us for over a week.  Our realtor eventually called them back and that's when they agreed to go up $10,000, but they wouldn't budge from that.
We have felt greatly blessed to get a contract on our home--the very same day we were scheduled to move out of it.
Life has not been perfectly rosy, however.  You expect to have problems in a home that's 35 years old, but you're hopeful in a brand new one that you won't have any.  HOWEVER... Wednesday morning, Caitlyn woke us up at 6:15 (the first morning in a long while that I was actually still asleep at that time and not awake with nervous energy).  She told us that the basement was flooding.  We hurried downstairs to find that the water softener had failed--one of the connections had blown and water was spurting out profusely. Our utility/furnace room is right next to our theater room.  Our beautiful brand new carpet was soaked--into the media closet and about 10 feet into the room itself.  I put an immediate call into our carpet guy.  He came out a few hours later, sucked up the water into a wet/dry vac, threw away the ruined section of padding, and put fans on the carpet.  I was so glad I was able to get a hold of him, because the builder sent someone to pull up carpet, but he wouldn't have known how to cut it correctly (it had to be cut because I didn't know how to disconnect the media rack--and the carpet thankfully was dry underneath it).
We still have a few unfinished items in our home--we don't have a tub in our master bath, for example.  But so far we are enjoying living in it--though it sort of feels like a luxurious hotel.
I knew our home in Bountiful was large, but I thought I'd sorted through a lot of things and pared down reasonably well.  When we started unpacking, though, I realized I still had a lot to sort through and give away.  We had a lot more storage room in the Bountiful house (we had John cupboards in every bathroom, etc.)

Even though our routine has basically stopped while we have been moving, life has gone on, as it always does.
Benedict Dojin has been growing:

Benedict on the quilt grandma made for him

And he has met most of his cousins:

Benedict and Effie (5 months makes a big difference
at this age)

Finn with Benedict

Ori with Benedict

Max had a little too much fun in the hot tub.

Max and Maverick

Ori has been learning to ski.  Saturday she went with her mom while her dad took care of Effie.  She was especially excited because her favorite characters showed up at the lodge while she was there.

Ollie and grandma had fun together this past week as well.  We went to the homecoming for Emily Green (AJ's sister).  Ollie sat on my lap through all of Sacrament meeting.  It made my day.  I've had so much nervous energy and have been working so hard that I've forgotten how to relax.  Holding Ollie calmed me right down.  Granted, he wasn't feeling very well or he never would have been so still, but I'll take what I can get.

 Monday, Adrienne came over and helped me organize my pantry.  I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done it alone.  The boys played and had a good time.  Then they decided to be sick the rest of the week (all except Gunnar who stayed healthy).

Ollie can not look at a camera without making a face.

A week ago yesterday was the day of our move.  Roy managed to escape and go to a Pinewood Derby with the Elder's Quorum in his Singles ward.  And Wednesday I was able to go to Book Club, but for the most part we've been packing and unpacking non-stop.