MOVING

we moved this week and we are LOVING our new casa! it's almost twice the size of our teeny apartment and it has a big backyard of endless dirt, which makes luc a very happy kid. today we even had a cloudy, cool day to enjoy, which was amazing! we went out at 7am and watched it rain from the porch, it was heavenly. i'm so looking forward to winter. we are going to live outside! we are still in the process of unpacking/organizing so no pictures yet, but hopefully soon. moving/unpacking with two kids is no joke. all i want to do is get it all done as fast as possible, and i can't because i have to keep stopping to take care of the kiddos. which of course, is fine because they are most important, but the controlling side of me is having a hard time leaving things undone. i keep reminding myself that it's a process, and it's ok if it takes awhile. 

conference was incredible this weekend. it always is, but this year there were two talks on that really resonated with me. i've already listened to them again and probably will several more times over the coming months. i'm so grateful that i don't have to travel on these journeys of womanhood and motherhood by myself, that i have personal revelation and the encouragement of prophets to help me along the way. it makes all the difference in the world!

here's to a new home, a new week, and a fresh start to be better!

ARIZONA SO FAR

we've only been here two weeks, so i know it's a little early, but i have to say, so far we LOVE it! it's definitely super hot during the middle part of the day, but the morning and evenings are really nice, plus it's prime swimming weather all the time- even at ten pm.

-luc loves the pool and the splash pad, and i love that we have so many things to do when the mountains of boxes are driving us crazy.

-it's hot, but not that hot. maybe i haven't experienced enough of it yet {and it isn't july either}, but compared to the humidity of ohio summers, this isn't miserable at all. we have had to switch up our usual daily schedule- in ohio we used to have a slow morning and then leave the house around 11am for a playmate or errands or whatever. then home for nap time, playtime, papa's home, and dinner. here we get up and are out of the house by 8, playing at the park or taking a walk and enjoying being outside for a few hours. then we are home by 10am and we stay inside until after nap time. then we usually go swimming in the afternoon when it's really hot. it's a pretty good system we've got going on, i like it! though by 4 pm, i'm usually beat haha. this early morning exercise is going to take some time to get used to!

-the sky here is stunning. i feel like it's more blue, and the contrast with the red rock and dirt is beautiful. plus orlando and i both mentioned the other day that somehow it feels closer, like you're actually touching it all the time. not sure why, but that's totally how it feels.

-we love our apartment. it's a bit smaller than our last place and has required some creative storage arrangements but it is SO NICE. it already feels like home! i haven't hung any pictures yet, but we're ready for visitors, so everyone come see us!

-our ward has been one of the nicest wards we've ever been in. we've had several people tell us that they found this ward and then bought a house here and they've been here twenty years and they're never leaving because it's the best in the world. everyone has been really welcoming and social, and there are lots of toddlers and playmates for luc and i, which is a huge bonus. we really lucked out!

-i live three blocks from a super target AND a hobby lobby. jackpot! {my bank account is in trouble}

so far, we're happy here and excited about the future. thanks for being such a gem, AZ!

MOVING IS NOT MY FAVORITE

just thought i'd get that out there. it's one of those things, you know, like going to the dentist. you do it because you have to, but nobody ever really wants to. sure, you may want to live in a new place or buy a new house or whatever, but do you really want to pack, move, and then unpack the boxes? no, you don't.

we've been married six years and we've moved 4 times, with 2 of those being cross-country. safe to say, i'm ready to go NOWHERE for quite awhile.

all that being said, i have to say that we have been so incredibly blessed with this move. we left ohio on may 20th for a long summer of bar study for orlando and single motherhood for me, and sometimes it felt like it would never end. but it did! and over this past week i can see so much more clearly why things have worked out this way and how Heavenly Father has blessed us more than we even asked for. orlando was offered an amazing contract-to-hire position here in north phoenix that he's really excited about. the start date was september 8th- a full 6 weeks sooner than any other job he had interviewed for. the pay is exactly what we hoped and the company is awesome to work for. the hours are flexible and the overtime is unlimited for anyone who wants it- and while that means long work hours for orlando, it's a huge boost to our finances after a summer of unemployment.

then, when we arrived in phoenix to find an apartment, we spent an entire day looking at everything in this area we thought we would like, but we hated it all. too expensive, too old, not family friendly. we were striking out left and right and i was starting to feel the panic rise in my chest. we were staying in a hotel and we couldn't do that forever- we needed to find a place to live, pronto! the next day, we wandered around a bit and came across a neighborhood that we instantly felt so good about. we found this amazing apartment- it has a splash pad AND a movie theater- and it turns out, there are three other young families from our ward who live here too, so it's toddler play date central. cha-ching! our first sunday at our new ward was great, everyone was really inviting and friendly, and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES, luc walked right into nursery- didn't look back once- and stayed the entire time. no tears! he hasn't done that once since we left ohio- instead i've been attending nursery full-time all summer long. and as an added bonus, we are only ten minutes from the brand new phoenix temple that's opening in a few weeks.

so far things are just working out really well- better than we could have planned. i always knew Heavenly Father was mindful of us and that things would work out ok- if there's one thing law school taught me it's that. we would not have made it from semester to semester without His help. so i knew He wouldn't leave us to do this big move alone, but sometimes over the summer i wondered how and when it was all going to work out, and i got impatient to be at the end already. now that we're here {and i can most definitely say i'm happy to be here} i'm so thankful for His constant care. i can't overstate what a blessing it has been to us this year. i have a sure testimony that He knows us- ALL OF US- and that He wants us to be successful, and if we ask, He will help us get there. He cares, even about those temporal things that might seem unimportant to Him, like an apartment with clean carpet or a ward with friends for my toddler. He understands that sometimes it's those little things that make it feel like home. 

another blessing- luc was an absolute ANGEL the entire 6.5 hour drive to arizona. it was seriously the happiest, most content mood i've ever seen him in, especially when cooped up in the car for so long.