Our Family Project

We didn't have to wait long. The next morning the agent called us and explained that the renters chose to rent the house to the other people who applied. Drat. Well, there goes that idea. We kept looking. We got word on the rental on Thursday, and that night Jon found another house that was about 30 minutes away from work. So, we emailed our realtor and asked her to show us that house on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, we continued to look at houses ... hoping for the straight sale that could close quickly, hoping probably in vain. On Saturday we piled the children in the van and headed to Cave Creek, Arizona to look at a house for rent. The length of time we would rent the house would be for a year. Something our realtor wasn't too thrilled about because, well, she's been helping us find a house for almost three months and she wouldn't be getting paid for it. Anyway, we walked through the house and it looked nice and like something we could totally live in. While there, a...

I think we saw around eight or nine houses. The first two houses we saw were completely trashed. I am not kidding. I've never seen houses so trashed and torn apart that someone was trying to sell (at least at that listing price). We walked out of those two right away. Then, we went to a third house. A house that looked better, but the highway was just across the street ... the noise would have scared away any potential buyers if we were to sell the house again. We ended up driving further north and west to see a few more houses. At one point we got to a house and the owner/occupant was still there. Weird. I don't think they were doing anything to try to sell the house either. There was laundry all over the house, a huge dog barking at us from the backyard, the master bedroom was torn apart (we could tell it was the bedroom they gave to the god), there were toys and things cluttered everywhere; we couldn't even go through a door because there were things blocking t...

After we got to Phoenix, we had very few things for a week. Basically, we only had everything that we packed in our vacation bags and that was it. Because we were moved by Jon's company seven years ago, I remembered a few things that I really wish we'd had in corporate housing, so they were packed in boxes which were to be dropped off at our temporary housing. It's interesting what companies believe you need in an apartment. The most interesting is what they think a family of seven requires. For example, when we first walked through the apartment I noticed two bath towels in each of the two bathrooms. Hmm ... four towels for seven people??? Thankfully, the company that had stocked the apartment had put an extra two towels in our closet. And, in addition, we had the towels we used the night before the move that were packed in a temporary housing box. But, it sure would have been interesting to see how many times I'd have to wash towels so we could all bathe throughout th...

*The next few entries share our experiences over the last few weeks ... I haven't had time to keep up as things have happened ... but I want to get back on track!* It's a been a few weeks since all of this happened, but I want to blog about it so I remember it all. This whole adventure has been a whirlwind, and it's still not over. The above pictures show the last of the load for the truck. I meant to take pictures as it was happening, but because I was the go-to person for the moving crew I was running all over the place, and also trying to stay out of their way. Our house was filled with boxes ... my neighbors can testify as they came over to say good-bye on the day the packers came. Here is everyone the day we drove out of Minnesota. Despite some of the appearances of boredom, everyone was in "vacation" mode and ready to go on a trip. Forget the fact that we have the last of our possessions that didn't make it on the truck above our heads atop the car. Here...

Andrew turned six the day that we arrived in Phoenix. Consequently, we've been able to celebrate his birthday three times amid all of the chaos that moving entails. Here are a few things to know about Andrew: 1. What he misses most about Minnesota: The snow, the park, our old house, and his friends: Lukey, Tyler, and Oliver. 2. What he likes most about Arizona: House hunting. 3. Favorite song: Heavenly Father Loves Me. 4. What he hopes to be when he grows up: A rockstar. 5. Favorite past time: Play on the computer. 6. What he hopes to accomplish this year: Go bowling or go to the movie theater. 7. Favorite thing to do with Daddy: Wrestle. 8. Favorite thing to do with Mama: Play at the park. 9. Favorite thing to do with his siblings: Play Little Big Planet. 10. What he likes the most about himself: That he's getting better at reading. What I like the most about Andrew: I love that Andrew is such an affectionate child. Even though a year has gone by, he still comes to me randomly...