Moving to Saratoga Springs!

For nearly three years we tried to buy a house in Kennewick. After 3 or 4 failed offers (I’ve lost track!) and finding the perfect lot to build a house, we found out we were going to move to Utah for Tom to be the  Salt Lake City branch manager of Senske LawnLife, located in Midvale.

We feel so lucky that our Heavenly Father has blessed us and guided us in the decisions we’ve made. It’s been a difficult road for me, and at times, many tears were shed and questions and frustrations were sent heavenward. I’m grateful that He hasn’t given up on me for at times, having a bad attitude and not appreciating what I did have, that many people in this world go without.

I put up with mice, no dishwasher or garage, a small and old two bedroom house for almost four years and it’s been worth it!Although we would have loved to have a house built in an area of Kennewick we loved, surrounded by some great friends that we miss and being close to both of our families who we love, this will be the house we will soon call home:

This is it!

Formal living room with just enough room to fit the baby grand piano I’ve missed for 5 years!

Hallway leading to 2 bedrooms and a bathroom and also the master bedroom and bath. The stairs go to an unfinished daylight basement and an additional finished bedroom.

Main bathroom with granite countertops.

Master bedroom.

Master bathroom with granite countertops, garden tub and separate shower with double shower heads.

Living room.

Slightly different view of living room.

Dining area and kitchen.

My favorite part of the whole house, the kitchen!

The kitchen has all the upgrades I wanted in a kitchen. Granite countertops, an island, alder cabinets, and stainless steel appliances. The laundry room, half bathroom and access to the 3 car garage is just past the wall where the fridge goes.

I love the view of Utah Lake and the Wasatch Mountains!

I’m thankful to have an amazing husband who has worked so hard to provide for our family. I’m looking forward to building many memories in our new home and this area!!

Washington, Here We Come!

 

Well, we finally know what's going to be the next step in our lives. We're moving to Kennewick! Tom has accepted a job with Jesse's Lawn Maintenance as a Landscape Manager. He's super excited. He's worked for Jesse for a summer before his mission and the first summer we were married, before we moved to Idaho.

I on the other hand am okay with it, but it's not exactly a place I really want to live. I just haven't ever been a huge lover of Tri-Cities. I swore I'd never live there! When I lived in Ephrata, that would be the place we'd go to shop. Never any luck for me there! Shoes were the WORST...never anything in my size. I'm really hoping shopping is better. Boise has a GREAT mall. I came to love Boise so much and I thought we'd end up there again. But, the Lord works in mysterious ways and my heart has softened to the idea. I know that's where He wants us to be.

I'm looking forward to being so close to our families. My parents live in Moses Lake, about 70 miles away and Tom's parents live in West Richland, about 22 miles away. All of Tom's siblings, except for Jake are living in West Richland and most of my siblings are scattered around the Columbia Basin. Since living here in England, I've come to appreciate my family even more. I want our kids to have a relationship with their grandparents and cousins. I enjoyed that when I was growing up and have many, many fond memories.

We'll be flying into Seattle the 24th of May and Tom has immediate plans. He'll be playing at Moses Lake's Springfest Basketball Tournament on May 26th. SHOCKING!!! He's crazy, I know he'll be really tired. That flight is SO long! At least we'll have all day Friday to lay low. We'll catch up with family and friends the following week and then Tom will be starting work on June 4th.

I can't wait to see those we haven't seen in a long time and hope to catch up with old friends. I'm getting pretty excited. Oh, the fun that will be had!

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

Brace yourself...this is a long one!

I may have posted our Home Sweet Home post too soon. We had decided on Tuesday to come home because after Tom finishes school the end of May, we will no longer be provided with a car and we need to move out of the house we rent through the basketball team by August. So after finding all this out we assumed the best option for us would be to come home since we didn't think we'd be able to rent a house or get a car because we don't have credit established here in England (we tried to rent another place after a couple months of being here, but were unsuccessful because they wanted us to pay 6 months rent up front and we didn't want to do that in case we needed that money to fall back on).

So, Tom went into work on Wednesday to let them know that we were planning on heading back to the States. He was planning on quitting that day so that he can focus this next month on his studies so that he can make sure to pass his classes since he won't be able to retake any of the classes next year since he won't be playing basketball.

He ended up taking on a full schedule of classes, even though he didn't have to because he'd be able to take classes next year, and also because the plan was for him to continue playing basketball next year. He's glad he did that because he'll be able to get his Master's Degree this year, as long as he passes all his classes.

Anyway, after he told the company he works for about our plan to head home next month, they asked him what they could do for him so that we would be able to stay. We didn't anticipate this since he just started working there the first week in April. So, he was told to go home and talk to me and come back Friday and let them know what it would take.

So we talked and thought we'd like to see what they could do for us because we've enjoyed living here for the most part (basketball season was long and stressful!). We also haven't felt we've been able to enjoy seeing different parts of England or neighboring countries because of basketball, school, work, etc. But is this enough to stay? We are so far away from our family!

Tom went in and let them know that we won't be able to get a house or vehicle on our own and that we don't have any furniture and that they'd need to up his salary a little so that we can afford a better place to live and a car to get us around. They felt like that would be easy enough to fix, and they'd be willing to figure something out because they see Tom being able to bring in a lot of money for the company to make it worth it. The owners of the company are going to come up with a plan and get back to Tom early next week.

So, now it's a waiting game and a lot of praying! We have that to consider and yesterday Tom was told he could return to his old job back in Boise, which he loved. We both really feel deep down that we'll return to Boise. We really love it there and we have great friends in the area and our families aren't too far away either. Too bad we sold our house!! Oh well, we needed that money to be able to get through these last 8 months. Thank goodness we stored our BIG American refrigerator though. (Note to self: post pictures of the appliances we use here in England.)

Sorry that this post is so lengthy. I get wordy in the wee hours of the morning and a little off track too. Probably because my thinker is so exhausted!

Home Sweet Home

Just a bit of news about us...we're moving back to the States!! Things didn't work out as well as we expected with the basketball side of things and so we decided the best option for us is to come home. We're still a little unsure about our future but we look forward to being close to our family and friends again. We'll keep you all posted with more details on when we'll be back and what our plan is afterwards.