Goodbye Florida

Where have I been forever?!  Well, huge life change.  We had to keep it all quiet, so this is all back tracking.  My next many posts are what has been going on.  They are wordy (big surprise), but hopefully slightly entertaining. Come along on our 2 month adventure.  It definitely is one for the books!  

Well, it happened.  As things were changing at work with the merger, we kept asking ourselves, where do we really want to be?  With the old company, he was a field person back at corporate exactly on the path to make it back out in the field, preferably in the west.  In the new company, corporate people were corporate people, and field people were field people.  There was no cross-contamination.  He got stuck in the corporate spot. Corporate world definitely had it's perks.  It was a really good job and he was doing a fantastic job.  He could have gone far, but was it where we wanted to be forever?  Not really.  It's not where we wanted to end up.  Then again, it was also time for his "Job ADD" to kick in again. :)

So an opportunity presented itself (now this is the second time this opportunity has come along, and we passed it up the first time).  Mike immediately was ready to jump.  My 7 month bedrest, pregnant self was not up for any jumping.  I told Mike after the baby was born we could talk about it more.  Spencer was born at 6:16, the kids came and left, 8:30 rolled around and Mike looked at me, "So....."  I still was not totally on board.  Conference weekend was the next week.  (side note, Mike always calls Utah Zion).  The opening song on Saturday morning was "Come to Zion"  "Calling thee from lands of woe (Florida)."  I couldn't help but die laughing!   After further spiritual seeking and LOTS of conversations together, Mike and I decided it was time for a change. 

Years ago, we almost bought the Provo Baskin.  I was going to teach half day kindergarten (even had the job) and he was going to run the store.  PSS offered Mike the job the day I went to sign my paperwork.  4 years later, we had the opportunity again.  It was a chance to go back to Utah and stay there.  It was a chance to see Mike on a much less scheduled time frame.  It was a chance for Mike to get to go to kid Halloween parades and school programs (something he loves to do and he ended up missing most of in Florida). The day all this came in the mail was so surreal!  Was it really happening?!

As hard of a year as we had in Florida, it was still hard to see that for sale sign. I knew we weren't there forever, but another couple years would have been fun too.  Just like all the other places I have lived, I loved things about Florida too. As I tried to make a list of the things I won't miss about Florida, I really could only come up with a few:  Lice and fire ants, all the medical bills we seemed to acquire, lack of lots of my favorite foods, expensive groceries, and living really far away from family.  While I really did love Florida itself, we decided we love Utah more. (and by we, I mean, me, because poor Florida never really had a chance with Mike.  Haha!)

The night before I left with the boys.  April 2014

The day we closed on the house in Dec 2012

This house...I love to take pictures when we move.  It's fun to see, "The way we were."  In this house, this is the phase our family was in. Our family grew by two more little baby feet and our kiddos all grew a few inches themselves. Our grass and bushes got greener, our family unity grew stronger as we had one of our harder years and we had to rely on each other. My testimony grew stronger that my Heavenly Father knows me and my family and our needs. I saw so many miracles and tender mercies for our little family and knew they came from a loving Father.  I loved our ward and really saw what a "ward family" is about.  When your family isn't around, they take care of you just as only a sister could.  I absolutely loved the floor plan of this house (could use a coat closet and a 1/2 bath, but other than that it was perfect).  I LOVED LOVED LOVED my yard and neighbors. Despite linoleum floors and an ugly blue bathroom counter top, it was a wonderful place to call home.