We survived Phase I of this crazy move of ours. Barely! When the kids and I arrived home from Canada, we had two weeks to pack up the house. This doesn’t sound like much time but I had been slowly chipping away at it for months, starting with a month-long purge in January. The real stress began about five days prior when we were finally able to pack up all those last-minute items like the kitchen and clothing/bedrooms.  I helped my friend Lisa move and paint her closet last year and she returned the favor by helping me pack up the kitchen. The irony? I remember thinking when I helped her that I was so glad I was never going to move.

Jamie’s sister Lisa helped with the other half of the kitchen. Julie, a sweet lady from our ward, runs a storage unit and loaded us up with packing supplies. Eva was a godsend and arrived with her kids several hours before we were to load everything in the POD and helped us shrink-wrap all the furniture and bubble-wrap our artwork. Around 6 p.m. our slew of helpers arrived: Uncle Chris, the Larsons, Haymonds, Phillips, Huntleys, Schmidts, Agnews, Uncle Chris, Jenzchs and I’m sure I’m forgetting others. Bode’s bestie Nicky’s mom Julie brought over a going-away cake, we ordered 10 pizzas and the loading frenzy began!

The challenge with this move is our house won’t be finished until late-September and we’ll be in a rental in Park City until then. So, we had to divide our belongings up into two categories: staying and going. We thought since we had sold most of our furniture on our main level (two sets of couches and two dining room sets), we would be able to fit everything into two PODS.

How wrong we were.

Two hours later, we still had a load of C-R-A-P sitting in our garage and in our family room. There was no way to get it all in so we had to drop another $1,500 to rent another POD, which wouldn’t arrive until sometime the next day. Eva thankfully took the kids for a sleepover and it seemed like a Herculean task to load up the remainder of our items; I felt certain we would need to push our move back another day. All we wanted was to lie in our fluffy bed and watch the Olympics and all we got was our bedroom floor. We had all the windows open downstairs as we ran our attic fan and I observed to Jamie, “we should probably lock up the house,” to which he responded “or what? Someone will come in and steal everything? Let them!”

Yup.

Our bed for the night

The next morning, I left to help with the media day open house at the Fort Collins Temple. Much more on that later but that few hours brought the peace and clarity I needed. I arrived home at noon and the third POD arrived shortly thereafter. Jamie’s sister returned to help us organize everything so it didn’t seem so overwhelming and Eva’s family, Darrin and Ariel (Lisa’s husband) came later that afternoon to help us load the third POD. Truly, we couldn’t have done it without them. I grabbed Panera Bread for dinner and it was depressing as we sat on our floor soaking in our final moments together. They have been among our closest friends in Colorado and they saw us through to the bittersweet end.

With everything loaded, we survived the flood of boxes that still remained. Remember my obsession with collecting them from our neighborhood? I literally had over 100 boxes left over and that was after giving many, many away. It was lightly raining as we loaded them and our carpet scraps in our trailer. Julie had given us permission to load them into the dumpster at her storage facility and we had a good chuckle when she emerged in her robe to find the kids jumping on them in the dumpster while it rained. Talk about a final Colorado adventure!

We spent our final night in our wonderful home. I probably would have been more emotional had I not been tapped out physically but we still had several hours of loading our cars and trailer, as well as cleaning the house ahead of us. Thanks to another friend Lisa and her daughter Alex (Hadley’s bestie), we were able to finish everything before noon.

My heart went out to Hadley as sweet Alex presented her with a going-away present. They’ve literally been friends since birth and Alex knows our house (and pantry) as well as her own. The good news is Alex has three siblings at nearby BYU so she’ll be coming to Utah a lot. In fact, her brother Mitch is getting married this week so Alex is spending the night with us in Park City.

As I walked through the empty house for the final time, that is when the outpouring of emotion came. This is where we became a family. This is where I became a mother. This is where we brought our children home from the hospital. This is where they spent their entire childhood. This is where, when I walked in the door as a young newlywed, I marveled at the wonder of it all and thought, “I will never be unhappy here.” And, despite all the storms that have been thrown our way during the 12 years we lived there, joy has always prevailed.

Family Room

As we closed the doors for the final time, we huddled in prayer in the garage. I was a sobbing mess and Jamie gave a beautiful prayer of gratitude for the beautiful life we lived there. Before we pulled out, I posted the following on Facebook:

5337 Parfet Street was where we became a family and honestly where I thought we’d live until we died. Thank you to all the wonders who worked around the clock to help us with this disastrous move; you are what we’ll miss the most about glorious Colorado. Now, excuse me while I cry the entire drive to Utah.

I did cry most of the way but when we stopped for lunch in Wyoming, I read the wonderful comments so many dear friends had left me. One, in particular, came at the exact moment I needed comfort. When Jamie and I were newly married, I taught the Old Testament in early-morning seminary to 16-year-olds. One of my students, Sariah, was super attentive and mature beyond her years and shared something I had said 13 years ago that she’d never forgotten.

 I remember you telling our class about this house in seminary before you bought it. You wanted the other model house with the loft, but you both prayed about it and knew you should take this one. I remember you saying you were trying to pretend the other was the answer: “But Jesus wants the loft!!” I remember you sharing your testimony about choosing what God wants instead of just what you want. I’ll always think of that when I think of you and houses. Much luck and love in your new one!!

Here’s to hoping….

This entire summer has been a whirlwind and I haven’t told even a small portion of the story yet. But one of the reasons for all the delays has been that I was asked to help with the social media promotions for the new LDS (Mormon) temple that will be opening its doors very soon. As many of you know, temples are super sacred places for us and a new temple is opening in Fort Collins, which means for a limited time, the public is invited to tour the temple.

Fort Collins Temple

Below is the press release I posted at Mile High Mamas today:

Salt Lake City temple

Have you ever been intrigued to see inside an LDS (Mormon) temple?  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is preparing to open the doors of the new Fort Collins Colorado Temple to the public for an open house. The temple, which is the second Mormon temple in the Centennial State, is located at 2180 Majestic Drive, on the corner of Trilby Road and Timberline Road.

The general public is invited to tour the temple from Friday, August 19, through Saturday, September 10, 2016, except Sundays (August 21 and 28 and September 4). To make a free reservation for the open house, visit www.templeopenhouse.lds.org or call 1-855-537-2000. Tours will consist of a 10-minute video followed by a 40-minute walking tour through the temple.

Dedication and Cultural Celebration

Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated on October 16. It will then be closed to the public. The dedication will be preceded by a cultural celebration featuring music and dance by local youth of the Church, to be held on the evening of Saturday, October 15, at the Hughes Stadium on the campus of Colorado State University. (It breaks my heart we won’t be here for this because Hadley would have LOVED to participate).

Background Information

Latter-day Saint temples differ from the chapels or meetinghouses where members meet for Sunday worship services. Temples are considered “houses of the Lord” where the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ceremonies that unite families for eternity.

Will everyone need to have a ticket to participate in the Temple open house?

It is highly encouraged that everyone reserve a ticket on-line before they come. This will help the tours to go more smoothly and be a better experience for their guests. However, no one will be turned away. The tour is wheelchair accessible and all ages are welcome.

What will the tours be like?

The tour will start in the Trilby building with a short video and then guests will be escorted across the street to the temple where they will be taken on a guided tour. Time will not permit asking questions while in the temple. At the end of the tour, guests will end in an air conditioned hospitality tent where there will be displays and additional information about temples and visitors  can ask questions and take photos in front of a backdrop of the temple. There will also be a display of materials used in the building of the temple.

How long will the tour take?

The entire experience will be approximately 1 hour.

More information about the purpose of temples is available on www.mormonnewsroom.org.

Welp, we’re in full-blown GO mode here. I have a few blog posts I’ve scheduled over the next few weeks but I won’t have a stitch of time for real-time updates until our move is final. Here are a few things coming down the pipe:

• The kids and I are back from a great 2.5 weeks in Canada. Many, many updates to come at a later time. Or not. Maybe the rest of my life will be crazy.
• Not so fun: 50 hours as the lone driver. Normally I leave B.C., overnight in Boise (about 12 hours) and then stay in Salt Lake City with my in-laws (4 hours away) for several days before returning to Denver (9 hours). Because of our move, I had to drive back from B.C., overnight in Bozeman and drive straight through to Denver. That was 24 hours of driving in two days. I wouldn’t recommend it. At all.
• Normally I have several days to recover and don’t travel again for a few months. But we’re moving in less than 2 weeks so that is not an option. I have a sore throat and am wiped out. Not surprisingly.
• Our house in Midway won’t be finished until late-September so we have to rent a couple of PODS to avoid loading everything in a moving van, unloading it into storage, reloading it again on our actual move date and unloading it. PODs are more expensive but are much more convenient.
• We’re downsizing on our main level so are selling a lot of furniture: two sets of couches and both of our dining room sets. Dear Craiglist purchasers: please buy pronto!
• Fat Kitty will inevitably be traumatized because he hates the car. We bought him a huge crate and this week, Jamie brought it upstairs, put his blanket in it and Fat Kitty loves napping there. Jamie has been christened The Cat Whisperer.
• Our awesome friends threw a going-away party at their pool for us this week and our neighbors are throwing us a bash next week. My heart physically hurts at the thought of leaving these people.
• Our POD arrives Aug 13, we’ll do our big moving party on the evening of August 15, I am helping with the Fort Collins Temple Media Day on the 16th and then we official leave Colorado on the 17th.
• We’ll stay with my in-laws for a few days in Salt Lake City while driving to Midway to finish up the last of the kids’ school registration, pick up their laptops, etc. Pretty cool that every child gets their own computer for the year!
• The bad:  Hadley’s school starts at 7:40 a.m.; Bode’s doesn’t start until 9 a.m. and there is an hour difference at the end of the school day. This won’t be a big deal once we’re in our house and they can ride the bus but we’re staying a half-hour away so I’ll spend 3+ hours of my day chauffeuring them back and forth, not to mention after-school/church activities in town.
• The good: In an ideal world, we would have been in our house by the time school started, which is what our builder originally projected. But everything has been delayed: the sale of our house, the permits for our new one so we are essentially homeless for 1.5 months. Of course, staying with my in-laws is an option but that is an hour drive. Enter: my Snowmama friend Kristen who is renting us her luxury 3-story townhome in Park City for a fraction of her nightly rate. It will still take about 30 minutes to drive to Hadley’s middle school but the timing of it all worked out perfectly and is an answer to prayers.