We finally had another girls' night October 5. It's been much too long since we all got together, and we had a fantastic time. We celebrated Rach and Danielle's birthdays by going to Mimi's Cafe for dinner, then heading up to Holly's for cake, ice cream and lots of chit-chat. I stayed up way too late of course, but couldn't have had more fun. At times like these, I am so happy to be back in Utah, even though it's been really rainy and cold. I just hope more of us can make it to December's outing! 
Maryann, Patsi, HollyRachael, Paige, Christy
In other great news, all my plants and paintings made it safely up here from my folks' house this weekend. My peace lily, prayer plants, and baby rubber plant obviously suffered from a lack of regular watering, and my philodendron and dumb canes were never rotated while in my mother's care, but a little trimming, replanting, water, and open blinds has already helped so much. I'm just grateful my mom was willing to take on the task of plant-sitting for the last month. Home just wasn't home without 'em.
We're alive and in Utah. It's been a rough couple of weeks, but we managed to survive. One day when I have internet at my house and some time to tell you all about it, I'll dish. In the meantime, get excited because my first Utah OB appt is October 4, and then we'll get to find out what we're having! We have not prepared one single thing for this baby other than get a free bottle from Babies 'R Us and take Bronson's old carseat off Katie's hands. Now that I'm approaching the mid-pregnancy mark and people are expressing relief that I'm pregnant and not just getting fat, I'm starting to feel like some baby preparaton is long overdue.But we still need a few weekends to finish getting settled, so the baby will have to keep waiting. I did finally call my Vegas OB's office to find out where my refund check is for overpayment, but they said I had a zero balance. After spending twenty minutes on the phone and speaking to three different people, they discovered that I was correct and they do owe me the $26.15 I had calculated, so they're sending me a check. Cox Communications, you're next.
Katie and Bronson left me yesterday. Even though I got to sleep without socks and pj's on last night, and now I don't have to feel guilty for keeping the a/c above 80 degrees, I was sad when Bronson wasn't there to greet me this morning. I'm gonna miss that little boy. I'm so pleased it was *my* stairs he learned to climb. It's like I got to make a permanent mark in his ever-changing world.
Today is supposed to be my first official "get serious about packing up to move" day, and all I've accomplished so far is washed two loads of laundry and read up on everyone's blogs. But the packing will resume soon, very soon. I'm going to repack the guest bedroom and bath first, then do the up- and downstairs closets. There are 5-6 boxes in the garage on shelves that I want to go through before I relocate them to the "ready for moving" side of the garage, and then I'll start boxing up the kitchen dishes I don't use often. I have a lot of bedding, cleaning supplies, house plants, and misc items to freecycle, so those should be gone in the next few days, and I started one bag of clothes for the Big Brother, Big Sister dropoff last night.
I'm so grateful I have these next two weeks to take some time to go through everything and not drag it all up to Utah with me. I'd go crazy if I had to sift through all of this stuff before I could settle into my new home.
School is over! Well, for now it is. My final was Thursday, Aug 2, and I think I did well. We shall see when this semester's grades post.
What comes next? The big move. We have to be out of our home by August 31, so I've already begun boxing things up and stacking it all in the garage. The guest bedroom and bathroom are empty and ready for me to clean, and the computer room and hall closet have almost reached that point. Biggest shock so far? The amount of bedding we have. Worst fear? Going through our bedroom closet.
It's actually been a lot of fun for me to go through things, organizing and getting rid of some stuff. Josh has sold some valuable geekware on craigslist, but I've listed most items on Freecycle for people to haul away if they want it. I've taken down my paintings, bubble-wrapped them, and will store them at my folks' house in Toquerville so I don't have to worry about throwing them in the back of the moving truck. I'm also nervous about moving my houseplants. My mom said I could temporarily store them at her house while we get settled, but I have 24 total, and I don't think she's ready to take on that kind of responsibility.
We've gotten several bites on our housing wanted ad on Craigslist, and are looking at a home in the Daybreak subdivision in South Jordan and one at Traverse Mountain in Lehi. They both have the space we're looking for at the price we want. The home at Traverse Mountain is actually in a better location for us, but I've heard it's very windy out there. Anyone know if that's true? Josh is now working in SLC full-time, so we want to find something soon, get an official move-in date, and get serious about hauling all of our junk up there. Fun, fun!
Maryann, Patsi, Holly
