It has been awhile since I last wrote and a lot has happened in that time. We moved on May 5th and 6th, but that wasn’t without a lot of stress. Less than two hours before we were supposed to close on our new home, the mortgage company decided they wouldn’t honor the interest rate that we had agreed upon, but would be happy to give us a new loan at a ½ % higher. We had to put off closing and Chris began scrambling trying to find someone else who would finance our loan. When he called to tell me that all of this was happening, I just couldn’t believe it. I was sick to my stomach and so disappointed. We had already had so much disappointment with the other house that we lost, that I couldn’t believe it was happening again.
Another immediate problem was that we had told Patrick and April Mattson, the people who are buying our house, that they could move in over the weekend of the 5th and 6th–as we were moving out supposedly. They had moved all of their stuff out of their BYU apartment on the 2nd and into study and we had moved everything of ours from the study down into the dining room. We were pretty cramped all week long.
The builder was kind enough to let us move in to our new house without closing if we would pay rent until we closed. We had a bunch of people come and help us move Friday night and finished most of it then. We slept at our old house that night and began moving again in the morning. My job was cleaning and of course taking care of you, though Karra did come on Friday night to watch you while I was busy packing and moving. Patrick was so helpful in helping us move, he probably did more than anyone else. Perhaps he had a greater incentive–the sooner we moved, the sooner he could move his family in. After we moved all of our stuff, Chris went back to help Patrick move his stuff out of the extra bedroom. We are glad that they are moving in to our house; we like them so well that we wish we were closer neighbors. They also have a little girl who is 8-months old named Kaitlyn.
Chris was successful in finding a mortgage company that would completely take over our loan and we were finally able to close on Wednesday the 10th. What a roller coaster ride the last couple of weeks have been.
We were the only ones who had moved into this part of the development for about three weeks. The house on the other end of our building was finished at the same time as ours, but it is now available. I guess things fell through with the bank. We certainly know how frustrating that can be. We weren’t even getting any mail for a couple of weeks yet or any cable. We got two fuzzy channels–one of them was a BYU station so we can still get shows like Sesame Street and Arthur. Every so often I will let you watch Barney.
Being a mom sure is challenging at times. Sometimes I think one of the greatest challenges is not getting stuck in a rut and wasting time watching TV all day long. I have had a lot to keep me busy over the last couple of weeks, but there are days when things get a little mundane. Taking care of you is basically a three-hour cycle. Feed you, change your diaper, put you to bed, get you up, play with you, and then start all over.
We usually go on walks during the day. When the weather is nice we take a walk in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. In the morning we just walk around the development. The road goes in a big oval shape and Chris measured the distance for one lap to be 7/10 of a mile. We do three laps most days. In the afternoon, we usually walk to a store or something. It is usually quite a distance, but I tell Chris where we are going and he stops to pick us up on his way home from work. We have walked to Wal-mart, Fred Meyer, Shopko etc. You fall asleep at some point during the walk. It has been a bit cooler lately with a lot of wind and some rain, so on those days we are pretty much confined to the house. I think you actually miss our walks when we don’t go. I know I do. I am trying really hard to get back in shape.
I was wearing out the tires on our stroller quite quickly, so we bought a jogging stroller from Wal-mart. It is not your favorite because it isn’t as comfortable and it doesn’t give you quite as smooth of a ride as your regular stroller, but it works well.
You mainly just drink milk but your dad gives you the occasional popsicle, which you love. You have started noticing that we are eating however, and watch us rather intently. I imagine, once I start feeding you, mealtimes won’t be too peaceful.
In the past couple of weeks, you had rolled over a couple of times, but didn’t seem too fascinated with it. And then all of sudden, one day you know how to do it lickety-split and anytime I put you on your tummy now you promptly roll over. You favor your right side most of the time. It is hard to believe that you are almost 6 months old already. I have a hard time remembering what you were like as a newborn. Good thing I have kept this journal-it helps me remember a lot of little things I would otherwise forget.
Your hair is quite thick on top, but pretty sparse in the back and on the sides. It is starting to grow though and you have a lot more hair than some little bald-headed babies. There is one spot on the top that is quite curly and twice as long as the rest of your hair. I put a berette in it which looks quite cute.
On Monday, Memorial Day, you screamed for the first time. It was just a short little scream, but a real one just the same. Brad and I were sitting on the couch talking and you were lying on the floor and out it came. Still, you are so cute.
We went to our new ward for the first time last Sunday. We are not really excited about it because I don’t think there are many wards in the church that compare with the Provo North 2nd ward. We have loved being a part of it and sharing in the love and friendship. We are now in the Provo North 1st ward boundaries and go to another church which is a couple miles away. It is in the same stake as the 2nd ward, but we now meet in the “Brown” church. We hope that it will be a good experience for us.
We have new neighbors to the right of us—two doors down--Brandon and Kristen Fish.
They are expecting a little boy in about a month. They are very nice people, and Chris and I hope that we can be good friends.
