Gettin' My Move On Part IV: The Wedding, The Secret Stash, The Phone Call...

Remember that story I was writing about how we got to where we are? Well, I figure I better continue plucking away at it or else we'll have moved into another one by the time I finish it. Taking an unintentional hiatus from the world is good though. I wasn't really meaning to neglect this side of the universe....it just kept happening. Somewhere between single motherhood, unpacking Kyle's clothes....and a little West Wing my presence in the blogosphere disappeared for a while. And then Kyle showed up with a truckload of stuff, and I stayed away longer. Sadly, I'm still not done unpacking and I've come to the realization it will happen only when it is time to move again.

On a more chipper note, a special thanks to Al the Comcast cable man who hooked me up to the world wide web and to Kyle for setting up my "blogging machine" as he affectionately referred to it. I happily announce that after 5 months, the desktop is on a desk. Hallelujiah.

And so I continue...

The Wedding

My selection of rental homes was finally narrowed down to 3. In my mind I had decided the plain house with the good school within our price range was the best one, but it was still up for Kyle's stamp of approval. A few hours after taking a look at Option C with my sister, I picked up Kyle and the kids from the airport. The next morning we attended the lovely wedding of his brother Randy and now new sister-in-law, Kristen. The weather was perfect and the ceremony was beautiful. It's always exciting adding to the family tree, and adding Kristen to the branch was no exception. Kristen is the happiest girl I have ever met. We got to spend a weekend with her just before moving back to Chicago and it was apparent she complimented Randy perfectly. She smiled incessantly and laughed often. That still is the case now. You just can't help but be happy around Kristen. I even have proof. Look, even a good portion of the little girls (none of whom had taken a nap, eaten lunch, or been taken down the princess isle at Target at this point) are wearing smiles.

Five out of eight aint bad.

The happy couple

Nothing is cuter than seeing little boys in white shirts and ties...

After the ceremony and delicious luncheon, Kyle and I had exactly enough time to drive down to House C and be back in time for the reception.

Bad idea.

Why take a perfectly blissful, family-oriented day and mess it up with house hunting? Because I was anxious and Kyle was flying back to Chicago soon. Time was running out.

After we walked through and got back in the car I could tell by the look on Kyle's face he wasn't thrilled. I can't blame him, because I wasn't either, but still. I met his criteria, right? That should amount to something. Finally I broke the silence and asked, "So, what do you think."

"I'm willing to pay more for a better place."

What? Just like that. After seeing one place Kyle had already decided he was willing to hand more of his money over to have a "nicer" place. That was supposed to be my line. The guy isn't supposed to care about the fixtures and paint job and kitchen....right? I spent so many months finding places within the notorious X and all of the sudden he was willing to change the value of X just like that? So not fair.

That car ride up to the reception was far from pleasant. Tension was thick, exhaustion was apparent, and frustration was a given. Which brings me to another, more obvious epiphany: I would have made a rotten pioneer. I can elaborate on that later. Much, later.

The Secret Stash

That evening after the reception I pulled out a secret stash of papers: Print-outs of rental homes I wanted to live in but didn't think I could, simply because of price. Since that was no longer the case, I picked my favorite one and made an appointment for the next afternoon.

The next morning we took the kids and met up with Kyle's family at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. This was my first open house and I was thrilled to get to take Cade and Savvy with us. It was also a wonderful way to realign our priorities, and remember what life was about.

The name "Oquirrh" is a Ute Indian word translated as "The Shining Mountains" or "Glowing". You can tell by our squinted faces it was definitely glowing out there.

Savvy hamming it up in front of some flowers

Cade loves to do his own thing for pictures. After Kyle counted to three on this particular shot Cade shouted "Yay for temples!" Savvy wasn't quite feeling it though.

This is another original Cade pose. Apparently he thinks Jesus deserves a big thumbs up.

Grandma and Grandpa Berry with the chilluns

After the open house we continued to take advantage of my sister and brother-in-law's kindness and hospitality (We were living in their basement for the time being if you may recall) and dropped Cade and Savvy off there to play.

We pulled onto a quiet street in Lindon up to a nice rambler on a grassy, 1/2 acre lot. I walked in and fell in love. It had so much SPACE! I ran out of things to do with all the bedrooms. There was an adorable play room under the stairs in the basement, and other fun extras. I saw myself happily working away in my office downstairs while the kids played, and Kyle yacked away in his office. I saw myself cooking in the kitchen and even began picturing myself planting a garden in the back yard. Back up the dream bus a minute. I've NEVER gardened, NEVER had the desire to garden (other than the guilt-induced desire that comes around every time I read about how Ishould plant a garden) but in this house, I found myself happily planting a garden. It was nice to be able to see myself being superbly domestic. And gardening, no less.

Another plus about the home was the location. The home was situated in the area wanted to buy. How nice to be able to rent where you want to buy! That was the plan, but I never thought the plan would come to fruition.

Kyle and I walked out of the home feeling happy and excited about life all of the sudden. We kept replaying in our heads what we liked most about the home. Wanting to be sure, we checked out a few other homes from my secret stash, but ultimately, we fell to the first one. Happy that we both came to an agreement on a place we loved, we took advantage of the free time we had together and went to a movie and out to dinner since the kids were now at Grandma's happily making gingerbread men. Life was good.

We decided to take the kids to their new ward that Sunday to get acquainted with everyone. When I walked in though, I was quite confused. No one was sitting on the first 7 rows. I checked to see if maybe it was because they were reserved for a baby blessing or something. Nope. So we picked a row and sat. It seemed like a rather small ward and sure enough, we discovered it was a small ward. very small ward. It being fast and testimony Sunday (first Sunday of the month members of the congregation voluntarily get up to share their feelings about the gospel at the pulpit) we got a nice taste of the members. Our meetings afterwards were nice. I enjoyed myself in Relief Society, Cade seemed to like Primary, Savvy was thrilled with the nursery, but unfortunately Kyle was a little disappointed he was one of just 6 elders in Elder's Quorum. And we found out there wasn't a single elementary-aged child living on the street we were moving to. But I didn't let that get me down. It would only be temporary. And hey, there may not be kids to play with, but there were several babysitters just a stone's throw away. That is priceless.

The next morning the kids and I dropped Kyle off at the airport to bid him farewell for another few weeks. I wasn't in despair though. We had found our home. Straight from the airport I took the kids in to get their immunization shots. Nothing like welcoming ourselves back to Utah like a good prick on every limb. They were champs and oddly appeased at the gift of a tiny plastic ring from the nurse when their suffering was over. Bless their hearts.

The Phone Call

I was getting antsy that I hadn't received any paperwork from our new landlord. I needed it in order to register Cade for school and it was registration day. (See how on top of things I am? Cade gets his immunizations the DAY he is to register.) I sent the landlord a little friendly reminder to speed things along. A few hours later, right around the witching hour when the kids were hungry and the Tylenol for their immunization aches and pains was wearing off, the Landlord called to explain that he may have changed his mind about renting out the home. MAY HAVE?? Some unexpected "things" came up over the weekend. He asked me to give him another day to decide before he totally walked away from us. I said "sure I'll hang on another 24 hours", but as soon as we got off the phone, I let out a defeated, exasperated shriek (remember this post?) and I began pulling up homes for rent on KSL.

Again.