"And I Say To Myself, What a Wonderful World"

We knew we wouldn't get a chance to celebrate our anniversary with how busy we were that weekend.

Andrew had arranged to take the day before off of work.

But Peter only has school for about two hours on Fridays.

And I had a couple of papers due that weekend.

I knew it would be a waste of his vacation time.

So we postponed a few weeks.

He scheduled a Thursday off so we could benefit from the kids school schedule.

We didn't get to go away, but we spent the ENTIRE day together.

It was splendid!!!

I actually had some CASA responsibilities to tend to first thing in the morning.

I left just as the kids were getting up for school.

Andrew fed them (he does that every day)

And got Ammon off to school (he does that every day, too).

He and Peter took a quick trip to Home Depot.

He finished up about the time I was completing my reports.

And at that point it was time to drop Peter off to play with his cousin Kambria.

I have been jealous of all of the beautiful Fall pictures I've been seeing.

I knew that one thing I wanted was to get into the mountains.

A friend of mine posted some pictures and told me it was Yellow Fork Canyon.

The canyon was here on the West side of the valley, so it seemed like a good option.

We had fun!

We had a nice, private walk.

We saw a few bikers and some horse back riders.

But for the most part, we were by ourselves.

We didn't walk far - about a mile round trip.

Our time was limited, so we stopped at the picnic tables and just spent some time talking.

We talked in greater detail about some of the things we face in our day to day lives.

I could feel some of life's stress just melt away.

I really realized how important it is to have date time as a couple.

It was nice to just be able to talk to each other away from home and kids.

I can tell Andrew loves me so much.

I'm basing that simply on the fact that he will let me take limitless pictures.

He doesn't even complain.

We picked Peter up from my sister-in-law just in time to feed him lunch.

Then we rushed him off to school and headed to the temple.

For more than three months we have lived two miles from the temple.

I'm embarrassed to admit, I haven't been since we've moved.

I was SO excited to finally go to OUR temple.

I know a sister in the ward who works at the temple.

I know that Thursday is her regular day.

I realized I still think of Jordan River as THE temple.

I was completely surprised to see her at the Oquirrh Mountain temple.

It was fun to have a neighbor there.

It reminded me again that this is home now.

Sitting in the temple was such a beautiful feeling.

I have felt strongly about heading in certain directions in my life.

Those feelings seemed to come more strongly and crisply in the temple.

It rejuvenated my strength and commitment.

I began to feel an overwhelming sense of joy.

I have been working on teaching Ammon and Peter scripture mastery scriptures.

It's a goal I've had for the past year.

We finally learned our first scripture this week:

2 Nephi 9:25

"Adam fell that man might be and men are that they might have joy."

I really felt that as I sat in the temple.

Heavenly Father loves us so much and has the ability to fill us with unspeakable joy.

It is a beautiful thing.

I began to feel excited about my upcoming birthday.

I'm turning 35 and I haven't been sure whether or not that was a good thing.

It seems like another landmark age.

Suddenly I just felt grateful for the added wisdom and understanding that comes with age.

I am excited to have 35 years of experience with a loving Heavenly Father.

A more enlightened view of His interactions, blessings and miracles than I did even five years ago.

Aging is a blessing.

After the session, we walked out and I was struck by the beautiful view of the Jordan River Temple.

We grew up in South Jordan and we were married in that temple.

It made my heart skip a beat to be standing next to my eternal sweetheart.

Eleven years later, we are happier than ever.

I feel so fortunate.

The view from Oquirrh Mountain is so beautiful.

I LOVE living in the Salt Lake valley!

We had a gorgeous view of the Draper temple as well.

After the session we picked the boys up from school.

We surprised them by letting them know they were going to spend the evening with their cousins.

They were SO excited!

(So were we!)

We dropped them off and headed out for some shopping.

(This was the part of the date Andrew was in charge of - he likes to shop.)

After hitting a couple of stores, we headed out to dinner.

We went to Chili's where we had the best waiter ever.

(My brother Dan - he's awesome!)

After dinner we picked a spot along the Jordan River Parkway.

We enjoyed these final moments together, walking hand in hand.

We even got in a good kiss or two...

I can't imagine a more perfect day.

Big thanks to all of you who helped make it possible.

And the biggest thanks of all, to my wonderful husband - whom I adore!

Week 3 Results

3 LBS

After three weeks I have hit the ten pound mark!  Yay!!!  I could seriously keep on this diet pretty much as long as I needed to in terms of not cheating.  I miss foods at different times, but I'm never hungry or tempted to binge eat.  Sadly, I have decided that I just can't afford it, so I have five weeks of food left and then I am done.  Hopefully I'll continue to have some good loss between now and the time I run out of "diet food".

This week my weight did the same thing as it did the week before - it kind of plateaued for several days, but then I saw the drop at the end.  The nice thing was I really starting to FEEL different in terms of my size.  I have always heard that YOU start noticing your weight loss at around ten pounds and that other people start seeing it at twenty.  I can say that ten pounds, though likely not that noticeable to anyone besides myself and my husband, felt great!  I just woke up yesterday morning FEELING skinnier.  It was awesome. 

Because this diet has such a severe cut in calories, it is recommended that you don't exercise for the first two weeks as your body adjusts.  I am now finished with the third week, and I have yet to incorporate exercise into it.  Especially knowing that I am going to have to quite this diet earlier than I had hoped, I really need to get on that exercise piece both to make the most of my potential loss and to redevelop good habits.  I used to walk three miles a day pretty much five days a week on a regular basis.  But I think it's been more than a year since that's been part of my regular routine.  Time to bring it back!

Halloween Cruise

This semester has found my children parent-less on Monday nights.

Andrew works until after bedtime.

And I was beyond belief frustrated when I learned that I had a class I needed to take during that time.

It has been hard on me to leave my children abandoned week after week.

So when I saw discount tickets for a "Halloween Cruise" I decided to jump on them.

And to celebrate Fall Break - my one week without a class - I took the boys.

I picked them up from school and we headed down to Orem.

After running a quick errand for my Grandma, we stopped for dinner.

(McDonald's - seriously gross, but it made me the coolest mom ever!)

My sister and her family met us at the cruise.

We were the first riders of the night.

The weather was pleasant and the boys had fun with their cousins.

The boys LOVED the pirate that "attacked" our cruise.

He asked if anyone knew any pirate jokes and Ammon immediately piped up.

"Why does a pirate have a hard time learning the alphabet?"

"Because he always gets stuck at 'c'!"

On the way home we stopped by to drop some things off to my Grandma.

Peter couldn't stop talking about what a great time he had.

The details of every moment just kept pouring out of him with so much enthusiasm.

(Ammon was busy "helping" Grandpa play a computer game.)

The next morning it was Ammon's turn to share the story of our evening.

He had the same unbridled animation as he told Andrew about our cruise.

It was a fun night!

I wish Andrew could have been there with us.

In the mean time, I think it was a good memory for the boys.

I know it was for me.

Week 2 Results

3 lbs

I was hoping for a solid 4 lbs of weight loss this week  Last week I lost 3.8 lbs but my weight loss ticker had rounded it up as 4, so I went with it.  This week my weight loss ticker is at 7 lbs, which means if last week I counted 4 I can only count 3 for this week.  The reality is that this week was 3.6.  I'm actually kind of impressed with the consistency of the two weeks.  I am 8.4 lbs from my first goal which means I'm not on target to hit it in the 4 weeks that I was hoping for.  But I am starting to care less.  The weight is coming off, and at the moment, that is enough for me.  And who knows, maybe I'll be able to add in some exercise that would put me over the top and still allow me to reach that goal.

The second week started out kind of discouraging.  My weight just seemed to hover and stay pretty much the same for about five days (the end of last week and the beginning of this one).  My dad kept telling me that his weight did the same thing and that I was "due for a drop".  I kept with the diet despite not getting the motivating results I wanted.  And then the drop came.

This week I am also using  a George Forman grill to cook up my own chicken.  This is making it easier for me to have my "lean and green" meal at a better time of day rather than relying on Andrew to come grill up some food when he gets home from work at 8:30 at night.

I am getting less consumed with waiting for my next meal.  In fact there have been several times this week where I completely missed my eating time and had to hurry and grab some food.  I also realized that the diet allows me to eat every 2-3 hours.  Originally I was going every 3 hours on the dot and that made for a really LONG day.  I would eat my first meal at 7:30 in the morning and then need to stay up until 10:30 to finish the last one.  I have shortened it so that those last few meals come closer together and as a result I have been getting to bed earlier.  I like it.

This weekend I will be ordering another months worth of food.  The financial aspect of this still concerns me.  I feel like I am robbing my children of their Christmas because, seriously, I pretty much am.  Things are going to be meager in that way.  But Andrew is very supportive of this choice and as much as I feel like I am being selfish, I really hope that my children also appreciate having a more fit and healthy mom.  It might make Christmas a little less magical, but hopefully it will help me be a better mom to them overall.  Although I optimistic that I will be able to maintain the weight loss once I get there, I don't think I would be able to lose weight in a less extreme way.  I feel like I am still resetting my relationship with food and if I tried to just go back to a moderation and calorie counting approach, I think I would still find myself struggling and going back between starvation and eating the wrong calories/not getting the right nutrition.  At this point I am planning on four months of weight loss time on this program and then we'll see how the transition and maintenance phases go.  As those four months wind down, I think I will start switching out Medifast "meals" for regular food and see if I can establish "real food" substitutions that will work in my life.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Right now I am 14 days in and 7 lbs down.  I'm pretty happy about that!  

General Relief Society Meeting - Sister Burton

When we got engaged, I had already picked a date.  In fact, I had called the temple and scheduled our wedding.  (You can read about that here.) Imagine my disappointment when we realized that we were planning our wedding reception smack in the middle of the General Relief Society Meeting. We were faced with the question of whether or not we should change our date. It just didn't seem appropriate to have an evening where we would prevent others from attending such a special night. In the end, I couldn't give up my date. I really wanted to marry in September and there was just something about the number 29 that I loved. We realized that it meant a lifetime of difficulty celebrating our anniversary - that the weekends surrounding it would always be the General Relief Society Meeting and General Conference. We tried to stagger the time of our reception so that the bulk of it would fall after the meeting was over. We included a note in our invitations encouraging the women to first attend the meeting and then join us at our reception afterwards. The plan was that myself and the family members who were missing the meeting would be able to watch it later online. (I don't know about the others, but I am pretty sure that never happened for me.)

I still love our wedding date, and really the difficulty of it has been fairly minimal. With modest finances, we've always had modest celebrations. Last year we were able to get away for a couple of days, but we actually made that work during the week, so it was fine as well. This is the first year that our anniversary once again fell on the exact same day as the meeting. And without hesitation my husband sacrificed our time together and encouraged me to attend. I often attend with the women in my family. My sister's stake always puts on a really nice dinner and then we watch the broadcast together in their chapel. This year, however, both her stake and my stake were given tickets to attend the broadcast live. I had mixed feelings about this. It is nice to attend general conference and other such meetings live, but I've been blessed to be able to do that a lot and sometimes it is just more of a hassle to go downtown and fight through the crowds. My sister had some scheduling conflicts and decided she couldn't make it work. My sister-in-law, having just had a new baby, also decided she couldn't take that much time away either. I honestly didn't want to go downtown except for one silly reason. This was the first General Relief Society Meeting with the new presidency and I was excited to actually be there at the beginning of this new era in Relief Society. My mom, knowing how much I love Relief Society and understanding the importance of this to me, came with me.

We were sitting down on the main level over on the far right. That means we were able to see all of the general authorities and other people coming out onto the stand. Elder Anderson was the first one I spotted, busily going back and forth. After a while I noticed that President Monson's daughter was on the stand sitting next to an elderly woman who I quickly realized was the wife of our prophet. As the meeting came closer to a start, we stood as President Monson came out with both President Eyring and President Uchtdorf.

The meeting began with Sister Burton conducting. Once she told us the order of the meeting she began with these modest words, firm with understanding, "My beloved sisters, you have been on my mind and in my heart for months as I have pondered this challenging responsibility. Though I don’t feel equal to the responsibility placed upon me, I know that the call has come from the Lord through His chosen prophet, and for now, that is enough. The scriptures teach that “whether by [the Lord’s] voice or by the voice of [His] servants, it is the same.”

I love belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ and knowing that he has called women to lead with the inherent compassion, love and understanding that comes from the feminine heart. I love Relief Society and I love womanhood. It is something that took me a while to grow into, but I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has instructed us that gender is not accidental and that it is an inherent part of who we are - worthy of celebration and wrought with responsibility.

Before completely introducing her talk, Sister Burton said, "As a new Relief Society presidency, we have sought the Lord earnestly to know what essential things He would have us put in our Relief Society handcart to continue moving His work forward. We have felt that Heavenly Father would first have us help His beloved daughters understand the doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we do so, we know our faith will increase, as will our desire to live righteously. Second, as we have considered the critical need to strengthen families and homes, we have felt that the Lord would have us encourage His beloved daughters to cheerfully cleave to their covenants. When covenants are kept, families are strengthened. Finally, we feel He would have us work in unity with the other auxiliaries and with our priesthood leaders, striving to seek out and help those in need to progress along the path. It is our fervent prayer that each of us will open our hearts and let the Lord engrave in them the doctrines of the Atonement, covenants, and unity."

In these words I expect we see the theme that will likely flow from these leaders mouths for the next five years. I have really only been aware of the last two presidencies in terms of their teachings and how they evolved, the second building on the first. The messages from our General Relief Society presidencies are like the messages from the prophets. We find that each has their own theme, but if you look back and consider what the messages being taught are, you find that Heavenly Father called certain people, inspired certain messages, and had it come together in a specific order, teaching us "line upon line". I was excited to have this new message revealed and consider how it has come to be built upon the foundation of the previous presidency.

In her talk, Sister Burton highlighted three main points about the Atonement. They are:

1. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

2. There is power in the Atonement to enable us to overcome the natural man or woman and become true disciples of Jesus Christ.

3. The Atonement is the greatest evidence we have of the Father’s love for His children.

I hope that I can live up to my responsibilities in deepening my personal understanding of these principles and then in teaching them to my children. What a blessing to have such great leadership to follow. There is so much power in the message that was shared, and this is just the beginning. Three more beautiful testimonies and teachings were shared. Thoughts on those will come in another post.

Big thanks to my husband for giving up our anniversary celebration so that I could attend this meeting.  Another big thanks to my mom who took the time to go with me simply because she knew it mattered to me.  I know that the spirit would have been just as strong had I been watching a broadcast somewhere else.  The messages would have been just as poignant and impactful.  But I now have a precious memory of sitting in the conference center next to my mom while these instructions were given.  Similar to being able to sustain President Monson in person, I feel fortunate to live in a place where I can have these sorts of memorable experiences.

Week 1 Results

4 LBS

The bulk of the weight loss I experienced this week happened right at the beginning of the week.  And I started my week counting a night time weigh in before my diet started.  To make my number more realistic, I went ahead and used the number from the morning of Day 2.  Even with that adjustment, the bulk of this weight was lost in the first three days.  I have been at the same number for a couple of days now.  It's kind of discouraging.  But the fact that I legitimately lost four pounds this week is awesome!

The past several days have been frustrating for two reasons.  One, I haven't seen any real loss.  Two, I am still in my ten pound range that I've been playing with for the past two years, so I don't really feel like I've made any progress whatsoever, yet.  I am about three pounds away from the point where I will start feeling like I am seeing numbers that haven't been on my scale for years.  That will hopefully feel good.

I am finding that losing weight is a mental battle.  Sometimes awesome weight loss is discouraging because I realize how much I still weigh even WITH the loss.  It is a huge reality check about how high I really let my weight get.  But I guess that is just all the more reason to stick with it.

This week I wasn't even tempted by a snicker's bar that a series of unfortunate events caused me to purchase.  It is still in my back pack. I made cookies with my kids, and didn't eat one.  (I did taste a small nibble of one, though, and I am not sure they turned out very well, so that definitely wasn't temping!)  I also attended a scouting dinner and stuck with my own diet bar an hour after everyone else had eaten (since that was the schedule my food was on that day.)  I think I've done well in resetting my relationship with food this week.  And it is getting easier.  I think having  some more pounds fall off in the coming days will really help keep the motivation up, so I hope that happens.  I knew the weight loss would slow, but the first few days seems to have such huge variances that I was really hoping to get rid of the first 16 pounds insanely fast.  I'm still hoping that I can accomplish that goal in the first month.  Those 16 pounds is my first "goal" because it puts me into the "overweight" category instead of "obese".  I am currently 12 pounds away.  Oh well, 12 pounds away is better than last week.

And seriously, four pounds in a week is awesome if not a little scary that it is perhaps not healthy or sustainable loss.  So I should be happy.  And although there are a lot of little voices in my head trying to ruin the celebration, there is a part of me that feels quite good about what I've accomplished.

What This Semester Looks Like

My sister-in-law recently e-mailed me with some cute questions, trying to get better connected with what I am up to these days. I decided that I would just post the answers here so everyone can know what I'm up to this semester.

I totally didn't realize you were already 2 weeks into school! How has it been??

So far school is going well. It is still just a major adjustment period. We have all sorts of crazy changes happening in our schedule right now, so I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants. In another week we should be done with all the changes and just ready to settle into the routine. I'm looking forward to that.

How many credit are you taking?

I am taking 11 credit hours and I'm kind of bummed to have so many. I only have 17 left to graduate, so I was going to take 9 this semester and 8 next semester. Unfortunately/fortunately, I realized I had a class I needed to add in for applying to the graduate program, so that threw in an extra three credit hours that doesn't help me at all towards graduation. Oh well, it's only for 4 months, right?

What classes are you taking? Are they ones you like, or do you dread some of them?

I have four classes. They are: Adolescent and Emerging Adulthood, Social Psychology, Social Work as a Profession and Field Study. They are all fun classes. The only thing I dread is trying to keep up on so many at once. I have always done best at school when I only have a few classes. My preference is to only have two at a time. Living at the U, I was required to have at least three. Throwing in the fourth class is kind of stressful for me when I still get to be the mom and do school around my kids schedule.

I have taken a lot of development classes, so Emerging Adulthood is more of the same - just about development in the teen years. I've enjoyed taking the different development classes. Last semester I was in Infant and Childhood development so I got to learn about the phase my kids were just exiting. This adolescent stuff might be a little more interesting. We'll see. This class is online.

Social Psychology is one that I am SUPER excited about. It seems to be dealing with the psychology of people in the context of different setting etc. We have a great book called Taking Sides that will give differing views of some of the major debates in the field. For example, last week we talked about whether or not it is ethical to have a study where the people in the study don't know/understand what is being studied. It was an interesting thing to consider. This class is also online.

Social Work as a Profession is the class I need for the graduate school prerequisite. It is a great class and I am SO glad to be taking it. The only problem is that it was taught at TERRIBLE times. I only had two options about when to take this class, and the one I ended up with (because it was the better of two evils) is Monday from 3-6 at the U. So basically, I am gone on Monday from 2:00-7:00. Andy works nights, so this means I need a babysitter who can get my kids from school and feed them dinner. It just makes me sick to be missing in action that long on a week night when they are already fatherless every single night. But it is what it is. I have realized that it is a way bigger deal to me than it is to Ammon and Peter. My mom watched them the first day, but I got home super early because it was the first day of classes and it just ended early. Last week I had a friend from our old ward watch them. That made it not as long because they were with me during the travel time. Yesterday was Labor Day so I didn't have my class. But from here on out they are both in school so I can't take them with me which means it's going to be the whole time. I asked your mom to watch them the next two weeks since I don't think she starts her job until after that. I had considered the idea of getting a babysitter from the ward, but that would cost a few hundred dollars over the course of the semester and tuition ended up being a lot more expensive than we had planned. Plus, I just decided I was more comfortable having them with family. My mom's house is just as close to their school as our house is (just the other way) so it shouldn't be too hard for it to work out. Right now I am just taking it a week or two at a time.

My final class is called Field Study. I am excited about this, but it makes my schedule crazy. This is the class that pretty much takes my volunteer work and translates it into credit hours. I need to do three hours of volunteer work per credit hour. I am taking two credit hours which means six hours of volunteer work every week. In addition to the volunteer work, I also have meetings for class (about one a month) and assignments (a couple of papers) that I need to do. I think just taking another online psychology elective would have been easier and less time consuming. But this will give me quality experience and also look good on my graduate school application so it's worth it. I really had to talk myself into being OK with taking on so much stuff this semester and I am partly overwhelmed by everything I am trying to do. But it just feels like what I'm supposed to be doing so I'm trying to have faith in that and just do everything as best as I can.

Are you having to travel up to the U every day?

So this basically got answered already, but just to clarify - I only go up to the U on Mondays and about once a month on Wednesdays. It's not bad. But when we moved I didn't know I'd have to do the Monday thing, so that was kind of a bummer to find out.

Day 4 - Why I Like My Diet

I don't think I've ever spent more than about three hours attempting a diet.  I have always tried things that were less extreme.  I'm a big believer of the "all things in moderation" concept.  But I have never been good at finding the appropriate level of moderation.  Sometimes I would be TOO strict and run the risk of boycotting my weight by not having enough calories.  On days like that, I might grant myself some unhealthy food just to meet the minimum level of calories.  Other days, I might splurge on a treat or binge at the end of the day because I had room left in my diet.  So basically, I would often be super careful and strict to the point of unhealthy, and then find an unhealthy correction to the problem.  This diet keeps me in a schedule where calories are steadily and consistently rationed out to me throughout my day.  In addition, it gives me one meal of "real food".  The portions allowed are really generous, and I get to develop my culinary skills and taste buds to familiarize myself to healthier types of meals than I would usually eat.  I don't know if this diet is for everyone, but it's a great fit for me.

Day 3 - Getting Easier

I did it!  I heard that the first three days were the hardest, and I think I believe it.  Today I wasn't nearly as hungry.  In fact, after my lean and green, I was completely stuffed!  The food is getting more palatable.  It's amazing how good things can taste after you've spent three days starving yourself...

Anyway, it's been a good day for the diet.  Andrew and I were out today and I kept wanting to stop and get stuff.  You know - the stuff I probably wouldn't have really gotten anyway, but the fact that I couldn't made it torture.  I wanted a candied apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  I wanted a candy bar from the check out lane at Target.  I wanted a hot fudge sundae from McDonald's.  Don't even start to ask me about the dessert menu at Applebee's.  And then there was the pizza at my sisters house that her husband had loaded with extra toppings that looked amazing.  In fact, you should have seen me drooling over Peter's Kraft macaroni and cheese (I hate Kraft mac and cheese, by the way).  Anyway, I'm still experiencing a LOT of food triggers, but I did it and it's getting easier.  I felt good all day and was never really physically hungry - just emotionally wanting.  I have never really thought of myself as being a food addict, but watching myself go without it makes me see things a little differently.  It's been kind of fun and interesting for the budding therapist in me.

The fun thing about this diet is that I think it will help me learn to really love cooking an entirely new way.  I think I will learn more about flavoring with herbs and spices and how to cook more with vegetables and create deliciously palatable healthy things.  I figure I can start slowly by learning to cook these things on a small scale for my lean and green meal, but eventually I will feel comfortable with it and start pushing it on my family too.  Tonight at Applebee's I ordered a from their 550 calorie and under menu.  I had a steak and this delicious portabello mushroom stuffed with spinach and topped with a slight amount of parmesean cheese.    The flavors were delicious.  It tasted so rich.  And yet it was so low-calorie.  That's what I am hoping to learn how to do.  Tomorrow I want to make these great stuffed peppers that I have had before from SkinnyTaste.com  It will be yummy.   

Day 2 - Loss and Mourning

I was drinking water like crazy, so it wasn't really a huge surprise when I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom.  I was immediately depressed.  My entire day was being planned around my eating schedule, and yet I wasn't going to have any real food to speak of.  I wondered if I could really do this.  Again, I reminded myself that I was committed and that I really wanted to accomplish this goal.  I had started the program with a "let's try this and see" sort of attitude.  But as I went through my first day I decided that I would stick with it at least long enough to shrink out of the "obese" category and into the "overweight" category.  (About 18 pounds.)  I reminded myself of my first goal and recommitted.  Then I went back to sleep.

In some ways, the second day was easier.  I knew what to expect with the medifast "food".  I tried to keep myself occupied between "feedings".  I continued to drink lots of water.  My meal of real food wasn't scheduled until late at night so I could eat with Andrew.  It gave me something to look forward to, but kept me with a pretty bleak eating day.

Despite the struggles, it was an exciting day.  I knew that this was going to work if I would just keep doing it.  I spent the day dreaming about the thinner me and found myself incredibly impatient.  It was like pregnancy when you just obsess over every aspect every minute.  I tried to do some reading for school, and I did.  But there was a lot more I could have done had I not still been so distracted by all of the feelings associated with dieting.  There is hunger, excitement, depression, loss, and enthusiasm.

The kids wanted a really basic, unappealing meal again, and though it would have been against my normal routine to give it to them, I took the easy way out for my second night.  And when Andrew came home he grilled up some delicious chicken that I ate with a cucumber and lettuce salad complete with a homemade salad dressing mixed with a little teriyaki sauce.  It was delicious and worth the full day wait!

In the mean time, Andrew spent this day remembering that he had opted against the diet because he felt comfortable doing his own thing, so he determined that he had better get started on doing his own thing so he could lose weight with me.  It's great to have such a supportive spouse!

Day 1 - What Was I Thinking?

I really thought I'd have this diet thing licked.  No big deal.  I had been using DoTerra's Slim and Sassy oil which I felt really did help reduce cravings and even feelings of hunger.  My dad talked about being always hungry on this diet, but he eats a lot more than I do and he wasn't using the slim and sassy.  And he had stuck with it, so it couldn't have been that bad.  I woke up excited to eat my first "food".  I had "chocolate chip pancakes".  They were N.A.S.T.Y!  Disgusting!!!!  They tasted like protein powder and it was hard to get them down.  That was the first time I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

But I was going to lose weight!!!  I could do it.

Three hours later, when it was time to eat again, I was hungry.  I pulled out a Lemon Meringue granola bar.  I had heard that most of the food was pretty terrible, but that the bars were what made this diet do-able.  I was excited to have branched out to a citrus sort of flavor.  I had to gag it down.  It was terrible.  By this time I was feeling pretty deflated.  And hungry!  My slim and sassy, which had been great for me in days prior, was no match for this diet.  I started to mourn the loss of all food and wondered if I would ever be able to have anything yummy ever again.

The way the diet works is that you eat five of the medifast meals and then you have one "lean and green".  For example, I am allotted six ounces of boneless skinless chicken breast and 3 cups of lettuce, so a salad is a great option.  I can have two tablespoons of dressing and a couple of other random extras during my day.  I started playing with the idea of ordering a salad from Wendy's.  I knew that my dad did a lot of restaurant salads for his lean and green and the diet was working for him.  When I looked it up, I was surprised that the salad would more than double my daily calories.  And it didn't exactly fit the diet requirements.  On the other hand, it would put my daily calorie total at 1230, so really, that was healthier.  On the other hand, if I was going to commit to medifast, then shouldn't I try it their way?

In the end, I felt that I "needed" something to get me through this first day.  I asked my grandma more about what my dad was doing for his lean and green meals, and she confirmed that he did a Wendy's salad all the time.  So I went ahead and had a nice lunch out with Grandpa.  I took the entire day of any school responsibilities and just gave myself that day to make the diet work.

I quickly realized that I was a social eater.  Every time Andrew would call home on a break, I would be triggered into wanting to make a food plan for when he got home.  At one point I even found myself daydreaming about him and me ordering a pizza to eat later that night after the kids were in bed.  (Something that we have rarely if ever done, so it was a weird thought.)

I had planned ahead and allowed the boys to have quick and easy microwaveable dinners for themselves.  They were super excited and thought it was a special treat, and I didn't have to cook for them.  That helped.

I drank tons of water, which means I was constantly in the bathroom.  Every time I went to the bathroom, I would step on the scale.  I wanted immediate results.  When I looked at the depressing number, it just reaffirmed how much I really needed this diet.

I went through some major feelings of loss, mourning the fact that I would NEVER be able to eat real food again.  I missed the idea of nachos.

By the end of the first day, my weight did seem to already be down a few ounces and it helped.  The day had been a lot harder than I expected it to be, but I had done it.  I was excited to keep going.  I had heard that my Aunt says the first three days are the hardest.  But my dad said it never got any better for him.  I decided to go with the three day theory and decided that if I could just get through the first three days, I'd be good.

I went to bed hungry, mourning the loss of food, and excited about the weight that I hoped would be falling off of me.

Diet

My dad recently went on a diet.  He has been fighting with type 2 diabetes for several years now, and he was at the point where he could no longer stave off the need for insulin.  Having daily insulin injections is something he absolutely did NOT want to do.  So, despite his love for food, he went on an extremely rigid diet.  He must have been really motivated, because he stuck with it!  And the pounds started falling off.

On the other hand, I was monitoring my weight closely, and though it kept fluctuating in a five pound range that I was able to kind of manage, it was at the very top range of any weight I'd ever been at in my life.  And it kept jumping to the top number a lot quicker than I was  happy seeing.  I suddenly realized that if I wasn't careful, I would soon outweigh my 6'3'' father.  

I just couldn't let that happen.  The diet my dad was on was something he had heard about from my Aunt.  I was interested in it when I had seen her on it, and after seeing my dad's success I became even more interested.  I started playing with the idea of going on the same diet.  It was going to be a huge financial commitment as it is one of those programs where you buy their food.  I called Andrew up and asked, "What if we just tried it out?  I can order a months worth of food and you and I could each try it for two weeks."  He wasn't thrilled and asked if we could talk about it when he got home.  My biggest concern was the money.  But I quickly realized that his hesitation was different - he just didn't want to try it.  He's always been more successful about managing his own weight on his own than I have.  So I tried again.  What if I just try it for a month?  He said that it was up to me, and if I wanted to, he would support me.

And so, for the first time in my life, I invested a couple hundred dollars into a diet program.

I was excited.

I thought, "I can do this!"

And I waited anxiously for the food to arrive so I could get started.

While waiting to start the diet, Andrew and I made one final caloric splurge on Astro Burger.  I felt gross and the scale knew what I had done.  A couple of days later we had a more acceptable binge as we split a Red Mango.  The next morning my diet began.

The diet I am on is Medifast.  I ordered it before I realized I had some concerns about it.  The biggest concern I have is that this diet reduces your calories to under 1200 a day.  Everything I have EVER heard about dieting is to never drop below that magic number because your body will go into starvation mode and start hoarding fat instead of releasing it.  But I've seen this diet work first hand, so even though it was scary and a little bit unsettling to pursue an option that seems so contrary to common advice, (and since I had already ordered the food) I decided to try it.  The way it works, you eat at regular intervals, every three hours, all day long.  I think this constant incoming of food is what prevents the body from going into that starvation mode.  Andrew's biggest concern was that I will be able to lose the weight on this program, but as soon as I go off of it, I will gain it back.  I'll admit, that's my concern too.  But there is a good transition phase and then maintenance phase that is designed to help.  I guess I'll face that challenge when I get there.

Life is Good

Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed with the joy in your life?  Sometimes I am not sure what to do with these feelings.  To ignore them seems ungrateful.  To acknowledge them in the wrong setting seems boastful. Hopefully this setting isn't completely inappropriate.  For some reason I just feel compelled to share some of the thoughts I've had recently.

One thing that has taken me completely off guard is how much I LOVE my house.  I mean, it's just a house, right?  But it's not.  It's MY house.  Every time I back out of the driveway and pause just for a moment I am struck with the fact that my house is amazing!  It is modest and humble, but cute in it's own way.  I love our yard, even though there are plenty of improvements we want to make to it someday.  When we first moved in, I never even went downstairs.  I genuinely didn't know how to live in this much house.  I am acclimating, though, and last night I found myself inside, feeling the same way I do when I look at my house from the outside.  I love being IN my house and just living here.  When we first looked at this house, I didn't really think this house was my dream, although I knew it was among the best we looked at in our price range.  But after living here, I found that this house IS my dream because of the way it fits us.  We feel so comfortable and content here.  When we first got married, I was afraid to buy a house this size.  I remembered being part of an eight person family and outgrowing a house this size.  I didn't want to get stuck in something so "small".  But my family didn't grow to be nearly the size I had originally imagined or anticipated, and I have found that anything larger would be overwhelming for our family of four at this point in our lives.  I LOVE how perfectly matched we are for this house and how well suited it is for us.  I just didn't know that a person could be filled with so much joy and love for an inanimate object.  It's just a house.  But it fills my heart on a daily basis - and the feeling surprisingly grows in me and is getting bigger and bigger every day.  I feel so blessed.

Another part of life that sometimes surprises me is the amount of romance I feel on a daily basis.  We are coming up on our eleven year anniversary, and I sometimes feel like we are still in the newlywed phase.  (Or maybe back to the newlywed phase would be more accurate as married life hasn't always been a pile of roses for us.)  Just as my house fits our family so well, my husband and I fit each other so wonderfully.  It is a great blessing that I don't go a day without feeling awed by and grateful for.  In some ways, Andrew and I are really different.  Somehow we seem to compliment each other in our differences, though.  His weaknesses are my strengths, and my weaknesses seem to be his super powers.  In other ways, we are so very very similar and it is nice to have common goals, ideals, and perspectives on life.  I love having a husband who flirts with me every day, kisses me often, and always tells me he loves me.  Over the years we have learned about each others love languages, and so we can sometimes adapt to certain forms of communication when the other is feeling particularly low and needs some extra love and attention.  But for the most part, I feel like love just pours out in all of the different languages and is a constant, flowing part of our daily interactions.  When he is gone at work, I listen to love songs and sigh like a love sick teenager, anxious to be in his arms again.  Once he is home, we usually spend our time together.  One advantage I always felt we had by living in apartments together for a decade, is that we never learned how to be apart at home - there was never room.  We do so much together - the chores and the play.  It suits us both and we like it that way.

I can't write a post about my good life and not mention my precious children.  They are each such a blessing to me.  My favorite teacher was my third grade year and Ammon seems to be following suit.  Every time I ask him the best part of his day he tells me, "My teacher."  Ammon had a really great first grade teacher who I know just genuinely understood and loved him in a way I thought only his mother ever could.  When you love someone so intently, it's always nice to have someone else see them the same way that you do.  It is validating and so rewarding to know that someone so precious to you is seen as precious to someone else.  I thought the experience with his first grade teacher was a once in a life time deal in terms of a teacher/student relationship.  But he seems to be blessed with another great teacher who day after day is noted as being the highlight of his day.  It makes my heart happy.  Likewise, Peter seems to be with a teacher that works for his personality.  It is so fun to see him taking on the responsibilities of homework and diligently working on getting his handwriting just right.  He loves everything about school, from the schedule, the routine, the sociality, the responsibility, the learning, and the play.  He and I spend many mornings playing Uno and SkipBo together.  I love the time we share.  So often I wish I could get a recording made of him working on his homework or playing games.  He has such a personality!  (But he always acts differently when I turn on the camera.)  

I know that the joy in my life comes as a great blessing from Heavenly Father.  Sometimes we say things like that and it seems to imply that when we aren't in such a "cup runneth over" with joy phase, that perhaps it is because He doesn't love us.  That's not true.  I've had plenty of phases when life has been more of a struggle than it is right now, and He loved me through all of those times, too.  Sometimes, letting us go through those harder moments are actually the demonstration of His love.  The strength and peace He gives me through the hard times as well as the indescribable joy He showers me with in the good times are both great blessing for which I am extremely grateful.

Back to School and Other Fall Activities

Ammon started the school year off with a bang.  When I went to pick him up from his first day, he wasn't there.  It's our first year at his new school and even though he has a history of disappearing on me, I was getting pretty upset when I couldn't find him.  I searched around the building.  I checked in with the office.  They paged him.  I searched inside the building.  I checked back at the car.  I looked in the office again.  No Ammon anywhere.  Ammon's teacher came down to the office to talk with me.  The office workers asked if we should call the police.  I said I would call my mom instead.  I asked her to go searching the roads between the school and home.  I didn't want to leave the school grounds until I knew where he was.  We paged Ammon a few more times.  His teacher searched the building while I searched outside.  I kept waiting to hear back from my mom.  I tried to call her and didn't get an answer.  I didn't know if she had forgotten to take her phone with her or what.  After checking out by the car again, and realizing that the school had turned into a ghost town, I started to lose it a little.  The people in the office encouraged me again to contact the police, so I give the go ahead for them to make that call.  I spoke with the detective.  I called Andrew and filled him in on what was happening.  I still hadn't heard from my mom.  The police sent out two detectives - one that would go straight to my house to look for Ammon, and one that would meet me at the school.  By this time there were enough people at the school looking for Ammon that I felt safe leaving the grounds to drive around myself for a minute.  Just as I was getting into my car, I received a text message from my mom saying she had found him!  For some reason one or both of our phones just wasn't connecting right and our calls just weren't getting in touch with each other.  I ran back into the school to let them know we had located Ammon.  On my way into the building Andrew called to tell me he was coming home.  I let him know that we had JUST located the boy.  Ammon had decided to walk home and at least he had headed in the right direction.  I was worried that he wouldn't be sure.  By the time my mom found him he had actually missed one of his turns and was coming back, a little confused.  I'm glad it turned out OK.  This is just a classic example of Ammon's adventurous spirit.  He has had a lifetime of heading out on his own and just not worrying about whether or not I know where he is.  Ammon is just fearless that way.

We had fun at Ammon's first pack meeting with our new troop.  They welcomed him and he even got to select a scout cheer.  We had a police officer come and talk about honesty.  It was a fun activity.

We had fun going to the hospital to meet the third of three nieces being born this summer.  My brother spoils me with his beautiful red-headed daughters.  I just adore them!  This little girl is no exception.  Of the three babies, this was the only one we were able to meet in the hospital.  It was fun to go see her so tiny and new.

One crazy Wednesday evening, my sister invited us to attend the Brigham City open house.  It was a crazy hour long drive each way in addition to several hours at the temple itself.  We did this after school and after Ammon's first piano lesson with his new teacher.  We got home around 10:00 at night the night before Peter's first day of Kindergarten.  I was skeptical about whether or not it would be worth the exhaustion and potential crabbiness.  It totally was.  The long night and tired next day are already forgotten, but the memories of the temple remain priceless.  Ammon was big enough that I could easily whisper in his ear and tell him about the different things we were seeing.  His favorite part was the mirrors in the sealing room.  Although he confessed with amazement, "I thought they were special mirrors, but they are just two ordinary mirrors that hang across from each other."  Peter had a great time scoping out all of the pictures of Jesus throughout the temple.  He was particularly excited when he recognized the picture that is in the front of the Book of Mormon.

Peter's first day of Kindergarten went well.  He somehow managed to be in the opposite class of pretty much EVERY kid in the neighborhood.  But he did luck out and get his cute cousin in his class.  They were completely precious on the first day of school.  I'm happy for him that he is already so comfortable and content with going to school.  He has always loved being out with other kids his age.  I can tell that he takes his school work very seriously and he even works very hard to make sure his coloring is as neat as possible.

For the second month in a row, we attended a baby blessing on the first Sunday of the month.  Little Emma had one of the more memorable baby blessings I've seen in that the Bishop actually forgot about it!  The Sacrament hymn had started before Emma's daddy had to go remind the bishop of the schedule.  As it turned out, there were also some newly baptized members that needed to be announced as well.  Afterwards we enjoyed a fun afternoon with the extended family who were all there to celebrate this little baby.  

After years of hard work and effort, we finally had the opportunity to celebrate Peggy's graduation, passed test, license and new job in the nursing field.  When Andrew and I first started house shopping we told her that if we had a new place, we would love to host a party for her.  Well, we got our house, and we were excited to be able to follow through on our offer.  Everyone in Andrew's family was there.  We had great food, fun and games.  Kara made her mom a Texas sheet cake from a family recipe.  Jennifer planned some great relay races for the kids.  It was a great night!

Pictures from July

While we were moving I kept thinking I should be taking pictures.

But I didn't.

So Ammon and Andrew changing out the fan in Ammon's room represents the transition to a new home.

Two years ago we moved on June 30 and by the 4th of July we were exhausted.

I swore to never do it again.

And then I had to eat my words completely.

We moved on the exact same date.

Still, we were able to have a fun holiday.

We spent the morning with my sister in Riverton enjoying their festivities.

That evening, my brother invited us to his house for fireworks.

We live so close to him that we rode our bikes there.

After we came home from his house, we found an awesome neighborhood firework show.

Then that ended, and we ran into some OTHER neighbors doing fireworks.

It doesn't quite feel like a holiday to me when I don't cook.

And I didn't.

Andrew had to work that day, so we didn't even grill.

But it turned out to be a fun day of celebration despite it not quite feeling like a holiday.

We enjoyed a lot of firsts in our new home.

The first time the lawn was mowed,

the first time we used the new grill,

the first time we had people (my parents) over for breakfast,

the first time I made fudgy oatmeal bars.

It was fun to start making this home really feel like ours as we started to really LIVE in it.

As a parent I have had massive library fail.

It is a secret guilt of mine.

I grew up loving to read and I attribute a lot of that to the time my mom spent taking me to the library.

Somehow, in our new home, the library seems more accessible than ever.

The drive is easy and inviting.

We have spent so much time at the library in the last month and it has been awesome!

One evening we went and inadvertently discovered the parrot show.

We have also gone to various libraries for the magician, the reptile show, crafts and more.

It's been a fun change in our lives.

In July we had swimming lessons.
(I'm not sure why I don't have any of those pictures made into a collage yet.)
My niece was in the lesson before us.
Then we arrived and Ammon had his lesson with another niece of mine - the cousin he is closest in age to.

The next lesson was two other cousins from the Shadel side of the family.

After they were done, Peter had his lesson with two more cousins that are his age, and another cousin (the niece of mine who had the very first lesson) who was the class helper.

A time or two we were invited to a swimming party with the Shadel cousins after lessons were over.

I spent one of those afternoons playing with my camera and the baby while the older kids swam.

For the 24th of July we spent the evening with - you guessed it - COUSINS!

Can you tell we are loving being so close to family?

We have gone on group outings and run into my sister-in-law with her kids.

We have driven down the road, only to see my brother driving up the street the other direction.

We have been able to trade kids, have play dates, and help babysit.

It's been a blast!

We are loving our new home, enjoying our neighborhood and ward, and having so much fun being able to spend tons of time with family, and then have the quickest and easiest drive home afterwards!

Despite not having any big trip or vacation this year, July was a fun month!

Finding Our Home

Buying a House part V - continued from Nevermind...

By this point, house shopping had become pretty exhausting, and we were losing our motivation.  We were in a good situation, we loved our neighbors, and I still had another year of school.  Part of me felt unsettled at the idea of staying, but a bigger part of me was really excited and almost even relieved that things were going that way.

We still had e-mails filtering in to us every day letting us know what was newly listed, but nothing really caught our eye.  We went out to see a couple of more houses, but really started to realize that it was West Jordan or nothing for us.  And even within West Jordan we were finding things we just weren't interested in.

One evening we had a batch of about three houses come through, all in West Jordan.  Two of them were split entries, which we hadn't really even looked previously.  One of them didn't even have pictures up, but the location it was in was perfect.  Andrew was about to jump out of his skin with excitement over it since it was Bingham High School territory.  House shopping in West Jordan had meant that we were setting up our kids for going to our rival school.  This resolved that dilemma for him.  To me, the area was a toss up in convenience to my special yellow house.  I didn't have the same concern about raising West Jordan jaguars as he had.  And the house wasn't any closer to my parents home than the yellow one.  The yellow one was newer, bigger, had the same sized lot, and really, at this point I was kind of in a yellow house or nothing frame of mind.  But we talked with Terry to set up showings for us anyway.

We went to the first house and immediately knew we didn't want it.  We weren't fond of the area it was in, and it had a weird, funky smell to it.  That was the rambler.  We went to the second house and it was set into a neighborhood with weird access.  It was a split entry and the condition was poor.  Andrew, Terry and I all left that house muttering, "They are seriously asking that much for THAT?"  And we were down to the third house.  We hadn't seen any pictures, but the posting said it had been updated.  We knew we liked the area, but had no idea what to expect.  And I still just wanted to wait it out and see what happened with the yellow house.  I was in no rush to jump on something.

We started driving - Andrew in one vehicle so he could go to work immediately afterwards, and me in another.  We were driving South on Bangerter - a road I rarely use when I had this overwhelming feeling that  I was driving home.  I couldn't shake the feeling so I called Andy and said, "Do you feel like you're driving home?"  I was strangely excited.  Something felt really right.

We got there and the house seemed very plain compared to my beautiful yellow home.  But it was nice.  We walked in and it reminded me of the home I lived in from age five - twelve.  I have good memories of that house.  The house smelled of new carpet, which was great.  It looked really nice.  The kitchen had been billed as updated, but I could see that the counter top was the exact counter my mom had in her home 30 years ago, so it didn't seem very updated to me.  Andrew is impulsive and I am very cautious.  I was liking what I saw, but didn't want to rush into a judgement.  Andy was walking around squealing with delight at every turn.  He walked into the master bedroom, peeked into the master bathroom and said, "Jenny-girl!  This is YOUR house!"

Based on our previous experiences, we decided we had better make an offer immediately.  But I was still uncertain as to what I wanted.  If we went into a contract on this home, it meant giving up the yellow home.  I had some serious thinking and decision making to do.  We rushed to Terry's office to write up the offer.  He had a limited amount of time as he was on his way to a funeral.  From Terry's office, Andrew headed to work and then I went to my mom's house to tell her about our morning and to talk over the pros and cons of each house.

to be continued...

Nevermind...

Buying a House Part IV - continued from The Perfect House

The day after we were accepted as a back up offer on *my* yellow house, Terry took us out again.  He had one house he was particularly excited to show us.  He felt that it was very similar to the house we loved so much, and the seller had just dropped the price to be more in the range we were looking at.  He had his reasons as to why this house was actually better than the other one and he wanted to know what we thought.

He was right - they had a lot in common.  In the moment, it seemed that there were a lot of pros and cons.  The biggest, most obvious pro was that it was available!  I was reluctant, still having my heart set on that yellow house I was so in love with, but Andrew and I agreed to go ahead and write the offer.  We saw the previous weekend that a slightest delay could cost the sale.

Throughout the day Andrew and I continued to talk.  We felt confident that this house was ours for the taking, but did we really want it?  As the day wore on, our enthusiasm weaned.  Yes, it was among the nicer houses we had considered, but at the same time, it really wasn't what we wanted.  Finally, with a small sense of guilt, we decided to retract our offer.

As it turned out, three other offers had been made that day and ours wouldn't have been selected anyway.  Our arrogance was ignorant, and we really began to see what a tricky market we were dealing with.  My focus began to shift back to staying put for another year.  That was the original plan anyway.  I felt like we could wait and see what might happen with the yellow house, but otherwise, we should just keep our eyes out with the plan to move the following year.

To be continued in Finding Our Home.

The Perfect House

Buying a House Part III - continued from The Search Begins

On the Friday night after we started looking with Terry, I saw a LOVELY yellow house listed.  It wasn't a short sale and the listing indicated that they were priced to sell.  Terry had an obligation the following morning and we had a soccer game for Peter, but we planned to go see the house as soon as possible - Saturday afternoon.  One of our goals in our move was to be closer to family, and though we were trying to keep an open mind to do what was best for us, we really kept coming back to the idea that what was best for us WAS to be closer to family.  We just love having easy access to the people that we enjoy sharing so much of our time with.  This house was not only adorable and beautifully landscaped, but it was in the most ideal location of anything we had looked at.  I was giddy over the possibilities!  I nervously sat through the soccer game, showing pictures to my brother and sister (who each had a child on Peter's team) and anxiously waited for our chance to go see the house.

We went to see it and I was immediately in love.  It was everything I had thought I wanted.  It had great curb appeal and was just adorable.  We LOVED the backyard with a large wooden deck and beautiful trees and paths around the house.  There were some seemingly minor flaws to the house, but I couldn't acknowledge them - I was so set on wanting to buy it.

From the showing we went directly to Terry's office to write up an offer.  We had burst a little above the price range we were shooting for, but we could still make it work.  And for this house, we decided, it was worth it.

But the bad news came.  An offer had been made - and accepted, that very morning.  Still, we could try to be the back up offer because sales fell through all the time.

So that's what we did.  We put in an offer on a house for the first time in our lives.  It took a little while to get everything going.  We had to put down earnest money and sign all the papers.  Andrew was so nervous.  I wasn't nervous at all - it didn't seem real since it was just a back up offer and I was positive I wanted this house if we could possibly have it.

I think this is when the prayers really started.  I was extremely emotionally invested.  There were things that were completely outside of my control.  I wanted what was best for our family.  And so I began to pray fervently that we would be able to progress with confidence and be able to be blessed with the house that Heavenly Father wanted us to have.  I have such a strong belief that Heavenly Father leads us to different places in our lives and that His plan for us is always better than our own plan for us.  I wanted to see His plan fulfilled in our lives and I knew that miracles could happen to make things work out exactly as they should.

The following Monday we learned that we had been accepted as the back up!  That news felt like we were just one step closer to having His miracles fall into place for us.  It was an exciting time and I just continued to pray my guts out.  And while we waited for the situation to unfold, we continued to keep our eyes on the market and to go out looking at the houses that were available.

To be continued in Nevermind...