Bye-Bye Summer, Bye-Bye House

*Play song, "As I'm Leaving" with this post

With the close of summer, we also said goodbye to our house for the last 4 1/2 years. 

We did summer well this year, with a big trip to the annual Chromosome 18 Conference, lots of trips to the local pool, and just fun outside in the desert heat of Utah. 

 And no, my mom and I did not plan our matching suits!

We only ever made it down the slide once (this time in the picture NOT being it!). Apparently they have a rule that even though an adult is going down with the child under 4 ft, they still have to have a life jacket (which they told me I could purchase one in their gift shop... but wasn't going to do that since they charge at least twice as much!) So, we didn't go that day and I bought her a life jacket at Walmart for next time, and was able to use it the whole day the next time we went (though the place was really busy that day, so going down once took 45 minutes). But when we went back another day, they said it wasn't approved through their facility, meaning they'll pretty much only approve ones you buy through them! Needless to say, she was only able to go down the slide once... stupid!

 Tutu made for her by another Ch18 mom (Shyanne Prince)

Dress given to her by my grandma Andrews

So, at least we had fun enjoying our summer, but saying goodbye to the house was really hard for me for many reasons. I guess the main two being: 

1. when we bought this house, we figured we'd be there a long time, therefor made it really our own by buying custom furniture, and adding all the custom touches that made it "us". Basically we put a lot into it. 

2. This is the only home Emarie has known. I was about 4 weeks pregnant with her when we closed and 8 weeks when we moved in (but still hadn't told anyone). So, I always imagined her growing up there, and now I'm afraid she won't even remember it. 

I hope we said a proper enough goodbye... if not, we sure tried which has to count for something. When I took these pictures, all the utilities had been turned off, so that is why most of them are too dark.

 View from entrance to front room

 Kitchen/dining area (view to the back, which is crazy how fast those weeds grow when not properly taken care of!)

 This is probably the biggest superficial thing I'll miss about the house, the bathrooms were HUGE! AND there were 3 of them!! We are now living in a place that only has one, hard thing to adjust to!

 Another superficial thing I'll miss is the garage. It's hard going to a car that is sweltering hot! And pretty soon, I'll be having to scrape off the windows... silly I know, but you take certain things for granted until you don't have them anymore.

And my little sweetie saying goodbye to the first (really only) home she's ever known. But, I'm pretty sure she knows the new place is home now. For awhile we were back and forth, clearing out all the stuff we didn't have room for (had 2 yard sales, gave a lot away, and had countless trips to D.I. which is a good will place. Also, still had to end up getting a storage facility, which we wanted to avoid), cleaning and such. And when we would pull up to the house, Em would get angry and seem annoyed we were there. But quite the opposite when we pulled up to our new place, probably because most of her things were here when we started sleeping here, so that she could understand that this was her new home. 

And for those of you that don't know, we are living in a basement apartment, not far from our house... actually 1.4 miles when I clocked it on the odometer. When we looked at the place and met our landlords (who live upstairs), a lot of circumstances led us to believe this was the place we were suppose to live for the time being. For one, Maile use to work at the preschool and even was there when my sister was there... she remembers Breanne, which is enough of a reason for me, but I also know her daughter. Had a thought all along that first day we were talking with them... not because of any specific thing they said, just had a thought that she might be Cali's mom (whom I had just recently got back in contact with on facebook)... but when I posted on facebook that we had maybe found the place we were going to live and some of my colleagues inquired and I told them about Maile, that was when Cali chimed in and said that that was her mom. So, that was when we made the decision and the place was ours. By far it was the best place for the price that we looked at. And although it's about half the size of the place we're coming from, the rooms are all nicely sized, as well as the kitchen, there's a lot of storage, and we were able to fit in most of the important things. 

So, although our situation has not been ideal- we lost our house and are now living in someone's basement. And I don't know what's more embarrassing, the fact that we're nowhere near to unpacked (which is why I'm not showing pictures yet), or the fact that when the bishopric (leaders in our church) came over to introduce themselves, they thought we were newlyweds, because that's the type of people that normally live in a place like this. Maybe I should be flattered that they thought that, like we look young or something... but I'm sure the reason they thought that is because of where we live, they actually asked if we'd been married long enough that our records would be grouped together... I said that I was pretty sure that 8 years, and an almost 4 year old daughter is long enough. 

So, it's like we're moving backwards, or even starting over. Either way, I know it will be a long time before we own a house again... at least one that is as nice as the one we left behind- nice floor plan, fairly new, awesome location. But, I think I'm coming to be ok with that... or at least I will be soon. Can't really change anything, and although what lead to this was not really our fault, I really am blaming the health care industry for this. It's really not fair that we've had to pay around $25,000 out of pocket for medical expenses in one year.... no one should have to do that. Hopefully things can be different from here on out... we can only move forward from here... I have to believe that.