Feeling Homesick

Bear with me for a minute . . . I am feeling sorry for myself. We didn't know that when we moved from Hamer to Othello that we were moving into such a wonderful place. We had heard how great the people in Washington were but doesn't everyone say that about where they are from? I am here to tell you that it is very much the truth. Our ward was AWESOME! They are true examples of how we should be as members of the church--kind, welcoming, service oriented, spiritual, etc. We attended church while house hunting (months before moving) and knew that we were in the right place. Everyone made us feel right at home. For the two years that we were apart of the Othello 1st ward we had the pleasure to be surrounded by great members of the Church. They taught us to be more selfless, loving, missionary minded, etc by their examples to us. When the move to Idaho was brought up our first thoughts were "We love it here. We love the people. We don't want to leave." Leaving was terribly hard. We have such great friends in Othello. We had the hope that we would have a similar experience with our new ward. And thankfully we did. The ward that we attended while in our rental house was excited to have a new family and welcomed us with open arms. Then we found our home in Paul which meant another ward, another stake. We looked forward to settling into our new ward and making friends. Granted it has only been a month and a half but we feel very much alone. Nobody smiles at us let alone says hi. The ward is made up of a lot of families that have been here for years (very much like Othello), and they seem to keep to their own families and don't welcome newbies in. Now I know that we need to make an effort as well, which is why we will be choosing a random family to invite over for dessert on Sunday. But it sure would be nice to be welcomed in. Matt and I left church Sunday feeling very sad. We wish we hadn't left Washington. Don't get me wrong . . . we love being closer to family, the financial securtiy that moving has given us is great especially during these tough economic times, and the more rounded education our boys are getting, but we have to wonder if it is truly worth it. We have talked about waiting the year we are required to be here and then finding a position back in Othello. I never would have thought that Washington would be my "home" but I have to admit that I truly felt at HOME there.

Matt is having a similar experience with work. He enjoyed the people that he worked with. Everyone got along (for the most part) and respected him and his opinion. He liked going to work. Here it is the opposite story. There is so much contention at work, nobydy listens to what he has to say. He dreads going to work everyday. It makes me sad to see him not enjoying his job.

Ok, I gues it is time to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, I just needed to write my feelings down. I do want to say to all our friends in Washington thank you for your examples, your kindness and friendship. We are truly better people by being surrounded by you. Friends are truly a gift! You are AWESOME and we miss you tons!

Moving day

The last week of September will be one of the saddest weeks for me for a LONG time I'm sure! Matt, the boys, and I got home from Burley Tuesday night (Sept 23). This would be our last real night in our house. Wednesday morning the moving company came and started boxing up our house. It was amazing how quickly everything in our house disappeared into boxes...they moved quick! They had the whole inside of the house in boxes by early afternoon and had moved onto the garage. Wednesday night we were surrounded by boxes all over. Thursday morning the movers showed up and finished the garage and then started loading the semi. The original plan was that we would be packed up Wednesday and Thursday, loaded on Friday, and then delivered/unloaded in Burley the following Monday. Well, the movers had other plans. The driver wanted to unload us Friday morning. We were very disappointed with this news because we had hoped to go to church and say our goodbyes to our friends. Instead we had to rush to get to Burley in time. After they got the semi loaded and headed on their way we were left to clean up the house. Thanks to Becky Jones and Roger and Maureen Roylance we were able to get it all done. It was strange to be in our house with none of our stuff. It felt very empty. We said our goodbyes to the Roylances and shed a lot of tears as we drove away from our first house for the last time. We were on the road at 6:30 pm (we had to be in Burley to meet the movers at 9am). We drove with a few stops here and there to eat, potty, gas, and walk to wake ourselves up. We finally arrived at our rental house at 4:30 am. Matt and I quickly set up some air mattresses and we were asleep by 5-5:30 am and then up at 8am. Saturday was a crazy day of directing the movers where to put things which was quite frustrating as we moved from a 2600 sq ft house to probably a 1200sq ft house. So we didn't know where to put a lot of stuff. After they unloaded the stuff for the house they drove down to our storage unit and dropped the rest of it off. We have slowly been getting things unpacked one room at a time. I am finding it hard to get movtivated to do any unpacking now that Matt has returned to work. I will post pics once I have things looking presentable (which could be a while).

It is very strange to think that we no longer live in Othello. It seems like this is all a dream and that I will wake up and find that nothing has changed. I know, however, that this is NOT a dream, unfortunately. Thank you to all of our wonderful friends in Othello. We appreciate your examples of service and love and for your friendship. You showed us how to be better ward members, friends, parents, etc. We love you and miss you!