2014

2014 changed everything for me and my family. No way getting around it.

I can remember thinking at Christmas before it started that we were having our last Christmas together as a family.  I tried to drink in as much as I could and savor the moment. And with good reason because once January hit...life started to move at Ludicrous Speed. (And yes...that is a real thing).

DJ finished getting his mission paperwork prepared, stuck a stamp on it and rolled the dice. It came up Tucson, Arizona of all places. We had to get him ready and drop him off in Provo the Wednesday after Mother's Day.   In the mean time, a couple of other things had to happen.

We found out Spencer had a chance to move in with Tyler. We had two months of getting clearance, switching him to a new school district, room prep and hoping that the boys would get along after a year break.

Tyler was going to walk at his graduation from High School.

All the while, DJ was the ward mission grunt. He spent almost every day driving the missionaries around to their appointments and learning the ropes.

May rolled around and we flew to Provo excited to send our little one out into the universe.

June through September we did a few more things:

1. found a place to live in Riverside.
2. Sold our house and left our community we've enjoyed for 13 years.
3. I got my insurance license and changed careers.

We've now enjoyed our new place and even had family stay with us! There is only one extra bedroom now. It has been delightful downsizing to our cute little house.