Thursday, January 10, 2019

Moving- Davenport to Ankeny

We've known we were going to move for a long time.  Jon was asked to apply for this job and found out he'd gotten it clear back in July 2018.  The transition was unique, though, because his job at Headquarters needed him through year end close in November so his new job with John Deere Financial in Ankeny agreed to let him stay in the QC through year end, as long as he could do an audit for them in Brazil in October and a couple other days here and there.

Anyway, the move was a long time coming but that didn't really make it any easier.  It's always hard to feel "unsettled" and in transition.  As the timing worked out, it was also necessary to move over Christmas break, which also added to the hardness of it all.  Mostly, though, our last two moves have lasted less than 2 year each and I'm just getting tired of moving.  I am the type of person who needs to have close friendships and connections, and it is so hard to create those time and time and time again and then move.  It seems like it takes almost a year to finally feel like I'm in a good place with those relationships, and then a few months later I have to go through the heartbreak of moving and leaving.  As my kids get older and make their own connections, it's increasingly difficult to watch them go through similar emotions when they have to leave their friends and familiarity.  It hurts my heart.   However, despite all this, this move and job change seemed to be a good one for our family and we had heard great things about Ankeny so we have tried to stay positive.

Partly because it was a little bit of a bribe to help me feel more excited about the move, and partly because this transition was longer than usual, we decided to try and build a house this time.  Once it is done I'll be able to share more on this, but overall it has been exciting to watch our dreams take shape with this house-despite the stress involved with building.  Since we decided to build, though, that has added to our transition time with this move.  We needed to be in Ankeny for Jon's job at the beginning of 2019 but our home won't be done until, at least, end of March 2019, so that required us to find temporary housing for a few months.  We found a 3 bedroom apartment about a mile from where our house is being built called Avondale Trace.

We decided not to put our house in Davenport on the market until we had moved to Ankeny.  I've moved and dealt with showing on our house a few times and it is miserable.  With three kids and with the holiday season, I just didn't want to deal with it.  We decided to leave most of our stuff at our house, to keep it staged, and just move a few things we'd need for the first few months with us to the apartment.  Before we left for Christmas vacation in Rochester, we got the house show ready and packed a few things to take with us.  We filled Jon's car with stuff and then drove through Ankeny on the way to Rochester (adds about 1 1/2 hrs) and left his car in the parking lot of our apartment and drove the rest of the way to Rochester together in our van.

After the vacation, we drove back to Davenport on Friday night and finished packing Friday night and Saturday morning.  The Klemetsons watched the older three Saturday morning to help us out!  We got a moving truck around noon on Saturday and a few people came to help us move around 1pm.  Once we got all packed up and the house mostly finished, we checked into the Staybridge Suites in Davenport for the night.  It's a nice hotel, one of our favorites!  We stayed there when we moved to Davenport as well! We got some dinner and swam in the pool and then Jon went back to the house to work on some last cleaning for a couple of hours.  Sunday morning, it was my turn and I went back to the house by myself and put the finishing touches on the cleaning.  We checked out of the hotel, drove back to the house to pick up our last load of boxes, and then headed to Ankeny!

We had to stop a few times at some rest stops for the kids (and sanity) but made it in pretty good time.  We didn't really feel like stopping for lunch along the way so we decided to wait til we got there for lunch....which ended up being at like 5pm.   We were pretty hungry!  We stayed at the Hilton Homewood Suites in Ankeny and, once again, enjoyed some pool time!  Katie and Colton are finally getting the hang of swimming on their own, so it was fun to help them with that!

Monday morning, Dec. 31, Jon left early in the morning to go check in to our new apartment and to meet a few people from our new ward to help unload the truck.  Then we had to get internet installed, return the truck, get some groceries, unpack and set up enough to move around and settle in a little bit.  It was a super tiring day!  We were still able to pull of some New Year's celebrations though, so that was fun.

The big annoyance we had was that night, after all of our stuff was in and we'd unpacked quite a bit, to find that the carpets were FULL of dog hair.  Super gross.  It kept getting all over our clothes and blankets and everything else that was on the floor.  Including our baby who was scooting around!  We have since filled our vacuum with dog hair 5 times and finally seem to be getting to the end of it.  If we hadn't already moved all our stuff in and weren't so tired, we probably would have demanded they come wash the carpets.  We thought they did that between tenants anyway, but apparently not.  We also had our downstairs neighbor come up the first day and tell us we were too loud, so yeah.  Oh well, it's only three months!  The apartment, in and of itself, is not too bad.  Sure it's smaller space and we don't have all of our stuff, so that takes some adjusting but overall it's ok.  The hardest part is not having a garage (especially in the winter), being on the second floor, and having neighbors we share walls (and air) with.  Grocery shopping is a huge pain because it takes multiple trips up and down the stairs in the freezing weather to get all of the kids and food inside.  Still, I won't complain too much because I know it is temporary and it could be much worse.  I'll just say this, we will be SUPER excited when our new house is done and we can finally move in!

The ward brought us a few meals to help as we settled in.  That was very helpful and nice to get to know people.  The kids seem to like their new school for the most part and are making a few new friends.  Hopefully, that continues to go well!  Despite the hardships, we do feel like we were led in many of our decisions that brought us to this job and even our specific lot, neighborhood, and builder here in Ankeny.  We are grateful for that guidance in our lives and will just have to keep having faith that we have good things in store for us!
Katie's last day of school at Eisenhower Elementary in Davenport- Kindergarten, Mrs. Hansen

Katie and Malia


Katie's Class, I helped with the Christmas Party this day and did the santa beard masks with them.

Colton's last day at Eisenhower Elementary- 1st Grade- Ms. Carstens

Davenport Home on Duggleby Ave, our 4th Davenport address and 2nd Davenport home


She did so good on this trip, thank heavens!
First time at a pool, rocking the swimsuit 💗


She loved the hot tub!





Hotel fun



Most recent picture of our house!  It's coming along!

Christmas Pictures

Our annual Christmas pictures for 2018.  I'm grateful for these cute kiddos of mine! 
(Madison- 6 1/2 months, Zachary-3 years old, Katie 5 years old, Colton 7 years old.)


























Wednesday, January 9, 2019

The Holidays

With the busyness and stress of moving, the holidays this year were a bit unique for us.  We weren't able to do all of our typical traditions or celebrate in the ways we usually do, but we still did our best to enjoy them and make them fun.  Note to self for the future though, moving over the holidays was not so fun.  Avoid it if possible!

Thanksgiving:

We didn't want to travel because we needed to spend most of our Thanksgiving break deep cleaning our house and working on projects to get it show ready!   Thankfully, we were lucky enough to be invited over to a friends house for Thanksgiving!  It was wonderful because it took a ton of the stress off and allowed us to enjoy the day without worrying about the clean-up afterwards or traveling.  Our good friends, the Klemetsons invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner as well as our friends from our first time living in Davenport, the Larsen's-who drove from Lincoln, NE to celebrate with us!  It was a lot of fun getting together with friends and catching up.  I always love potluck Thanksgivings because it gives me a chance to taste and sample other peoples recipes for the Thanksgiving foods and get new ideas and recipes!  

We got a huge snow storm the weekend of Thanksgiving break.  It was over a foot of snow that fell on us!  Church was cancelled that Sunday and school was cancelled Monday and we all had fun playing in the snow and enjoying the extra long break!  It also gave us the opportunity to sit down and take a quick family picture.  I was wanting to get professional pictures taken this year but with moving we just ran out of time.  So, instead, we just took some pictures in our front room so we could at least have a decent picture of all six of us for family and to put on our Christmas cards.  





















Putting up the tree- always something we do over Thanksgiving break!

A new ornament this year!  One for each of my babies :)

Christmas List- Another tradition for Thanksgiving break!  Zach insisted on coloring his entire thing- a bit of a phase he's going through.  



December/Christmas:

We wanted to spend as much time with family as possible over Christmas and we also had a photographer coming in to take pictures of our house to put it on the market over the break, so we worked really hard and got our house totally show-ready before we left.  We also had packing to do so December was very very busy and tiring!  It was also super busy because I was in charge of our Ward Christmas Party on Dec. 8th so I wasn't able to focus on anything to do with moving until that was over.  We did a 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' Theme and had everyone wear pajamas.  We had the YW do program, and I wrote a spiritual 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' Poem that we had a member of the bishopric read and then we sang some songs.  I didn't tell anyone (besides my friend Hannah, who told a couple other people) that I wrote it because that's embarrassing I and felt like it would be more powerful to leave it anonymous. I thought it went over pretty well!  I mean, I'm no professional poet, but I used to really enjoy writing so it was kind-of fun to pull out and brush off those skills again a little bit.  It was a busy night, and I wouldn't say it was the best Christmas Party I've ever done, but I think everyone had fun so I'll call that a win! 

Again, it was a bit of a bummer that with everything going on we were so busy that we were left with little time for any fun Christmas activities or my traditional White Elephant party.  It was also a bummer that, because we were just going to have to clean it all up again before we left, we weren't able to put up many decorations.  We put up a lightly decorated tree and our stockings and that's it.  Jon and I are huge Christmas lovers so it was hard not to be sad about that!  Did I mention that moving over Christmas stinks? 





Ward Christmas Party


Decorating Gingerbread Men





We were able to pull off getting things done and we headed up to MN Friday the 28th- driving both cars to Des Moines first and then leaving Jon's (packed with stuff) and driving together up to Rochester.  We had a good time with family there, as we always do.  Jon's sister Amberly and her family flew in from Utah and it was fun to have them there.  There wasn't enough snow for sledding this year so that was a little bummer but oh well!  We still enjoyed some good chatting, movie watching, cousin time, and shopping around town! 

Christmas Day was lots of fun!  We had good food, lots of presents, and lot of family.  The kids were all excited about their presents and it's so fun to experience Christmas through your kids' eyes!  










New Years Eve/ New Years Day:

We spent all of December 31st moving into our apartment in Ankeny and running around taking care of things!  It was exhausting.  We didn't plan to do much for New Years Eve since so much was going on and we were so tired, but last minute we ran out and grabbed a few hats and blowers and food for chocolate fondue.  It wasn't quite as extravagant as our usual celebrations, but it was fun that we were still able to pull off a couple of our traditions.  

Overall, it wasn't the most fun holiday season we've ever had, but we still managed to have a pretty good time.  We are just grateful we could all be together, spend time with family, and make memories together.  We are, however, super looking forward to celebrating the holidays next year without having to move at the same time!  









Colton spend most of New Years Eve/Day working on this gift he got for Christmas.  He got to paint and the build, with real screws and tools, his own tractor!  He loved it!


Twas the Night Before Christmas by: Emmalee Day
‘Twas the night before Christmas
in old Bethlehem
not a creature was stirring 
not oxen, nor lamb.

Good Joseph held Mary
gently with care
knowing the baby 
soon would be there.

The shepherds were watching
their flocks in the night
beneath brilliant rays
from a new star so bright.

When what to their wondering 
eyes should appear
but an Angel proclaiming 
the Christ child was here. 

More angels came 
filling the sky throughout 
The Glory of God
shone round about. 

Hallelujah, Good Tidings
on earth did they sing-
Great joy to all men
the Savior will bring.

“Let us go find the babe,”
the shepherds made haste
to Bethlehem’s stable
not a moment did waste.

And there in a manger
on a bed of soft hay
the sweet baby Jesus 
In holiness lay.

His face shone with glory
His presence spoke peace
all felt that His love
never would cease.

The sign of His coming
that heavenly star
brought others to praise Him
wise men from afar.

They brought gifts for the baby
gold, frankincense, myrrh
but finding their King
was the greatest treasure. 

As Christmas approaches
each year after year 
we too can find Jesus
we, too, need not fear.

His love never faileth 
His joy fills all hearts
He comforts and heals 
and never departs.

This season of giving
when hope fills the air
Let us celebrate Jesus
Let us find ways to share
His message of peace
His love and His light-

Merry Christmas to all
and to all a good night!