Sentiments By Sophia: best year ever

This is a day of mixed emotions. It's a day of sadness for me because I stayed home with Quayd instead of attending the funeral of my sweet sweet friend, Norma. It is a happy day, also, because Norma is free of her ninety-nine year old body! Norma was my favorite lady friend of the Senior Singles that I was blessed to serve for four years in Smithfield. This calling, as I've said many times, changed my life. And these women were the main reason. But, Norma... my sweet friend, Norma... she made an impact! It's Norma's donuts that we make on Donut Night every year. Before moving into an assisted care residence, Norma gave me a punch bowl and several tableclothes and goodies to entertain with that I will totally treasure for the rest of my life! Norma will be thought of with every chocolate covered peanut that I eat for the rest of my life because she always made sure to have some when I went to visit her.

Norma passed away, at the ripe age of 99, last Thursday. Her daughter, Marcia, is one of the most wonderful women I've ever met. Marcia and I went to lunch with Norma and my own mother and became instant friends. This morning, I sent an email to Marcia, apologizing and explaining why I would not be there, but I wrote it with tears in my eyes. I love these two women! So, with sadness, I write that I am missing her services today while I take care of my boy.

My boy... Oh my! I set the alarm to check on him at 2AM. He was sound asleep. I woke up at 5:45 and woke him up to see if he needed something for pain. He said that he was fine. He's sleeping a lot and seems to be doing great. He did wake up and eat two puddings. Eating is not something that he misses out on! But, I'm so grateful that he's doing so well! He asked me this morning why he's doing so well. My response: A priesthood blessing and lots of prayers in his behalf. I even took him for a little drive to Sonic for a banana slush at noon. What a blessing because I worried that this was going to be very hard on him!

And last... on this day, one year ago, we closed on our new home! After almost two weeks of living at Alan and Jill's so that our buyers could get situated and move in before the birth of their first child. On this day, we began that rough few days before the previous owner's children emptied the house while we were moving in. After a flawless mortgage process, it was a crazy few days but the beginning of the best year of our lives. I've thought about it a lot this week... last week, as we were driving someplace, ZJ said, "I love our home! I love that we live in Logan! I love our new friends! I love the kids in our ward and how they just accepted us right into the group! I love going to school in Logan! I love our new life!" That pretty much sizes it up. We are all very happy...but it was not an easy transition! We loved our old home, we loved our old friends and neighbors, we loved our life.

We could never have imagined the wonderful impact that this move would have had on our lives. I have, literally, no regrets for the decision to move. I am able to function better in this home without the stairs and the ups and downs every day. I love our new home and everything about it. I love having a hot tub that I can get into and give my foot some relief throughout the day and night. I love our wonderful new neighbors and this incredible ward that has been so welcoming and wonderful and accepting! I love living in Logan again. I'd forgotten how wonderfully convenient it was to be just a few minutes from everything.

Honestly, we never imagined leaving Smithfield again in our lives. But, things happen that require change. I think that that bathroom door falling on my foot was the beginning of the most unexpected changes in our life. If it were not for that, we would not have left our orchard of fruit trees, good friends and the place that we called home for seventeen years. BUT! We did leave and we love our life in ways that we didn't realize possible! And there are no words for how much I love the actual home. I go to friends homes that are larger, that are newer and I always come back happily to my own home. It took months and more work that we ever dreamed, but it's home now and we couldn't be happier!

So, today, I'm listing my top ten favorite memories of our first year in our new home...

ONE

that first few months that we were able to spend so much time with Alan and Jill while they re-did walls, floors, ceilings, lighting, electrical, plumbing, and every other little thing that Alan saw a need for or whim I had.

TWO

meeting these amazing neighbors who have become some of our dearest friends and absolutely have captured the hearts of our children

THREE

the hours and hours of service and help from good friends as we renovated our home

Buddy
ETA:For some reason, I checked my this morning, I notice that none of my Liza and Buddy pix or any others from last March loaded. They are in my photoshop, but no where in my files. So they are added a day later.

Ryan and Jamie

Kristy

Dan

Travis

Natalie

FOUR

working together as a family to see our new house become our home

FIVE

our first Christmas and holiday season...with friends and family, decorating and making new traditions

SIX

thanking Doug a gazillion times for making the move and making my life easier... crying the first few times I did laundry without having to go up and down the stairs a dozen times in one day, soaking in the hot tub for countless hours with Doug, the kids, good books and alone in my thoughts