We spent a plentiful 3 weeks basking in family life in Utah over Christmas and the new year. Each morning was spent rushing to visit dear friends and family we have not seen in too long, and each afternoon was spent rushing home for naps and quiet time. You would think that 3 weeks would be plenty of time to visit all people dear, but despite all of efforts we still missed going to many places including my grandparents houses. We were able to spend time with them at my parents house, but it’s not quite the same. My aunts gave us a very special presentation about my Grandma Law’s life. They made a book with pictures and stories told by all of her close relatives. As my grandma sat and listened she chuckled, “it’s not right to have a eulogy before you’re even dead.” She was flattered to be so remembered and celebrated, but she’s too modest to not be a bit embarrassed. The stories told of her amazing gardening and canning efforts of her pouring the cement of her own driveway, and her hand washing the clothes and putting them on the line to dry. She had 7 children. She never complained. She was always stalwart. Her family history work has been remarkable. I am honored to have her as my grandmother and to learn from her. I’m so glad my aunts put together the book so I can revisit it and teach my children. It is a treasure.
Here is a smattering of poor quality photos from Christmas. It was a great time even if the photos don't show it. 
For Christmas my mom asked me for help designing and remodeling her bathroom.
She had a good idea of what she wanted, but while I was there we did all the shopping and I did a lot of demo. I also let the kids work. I was impressed. They loved the tools. Joren was remarkably successful at his efforts to remove tile. I hope he doesn’t try to use any of his new skills at our house. Eirik really loved the safety glasses and made sure I ALWAYS wore mine. Of course, that’s no surprise, Eirik is ALL ABOUT GEAR! He’s always in full costume and equipped with all his weapons and gear.
Although it’s difficult to pick a highlight of a trip where you get to see all of the family you miss so much, I will admit that our 3 days in the fragrant, dreamy, heartwarming desert air of St. George was the best part. As I drove south the snow began to disappear and my chi came totally alive as I became one with the red rock hills and mountains around us. My lucky-dog sister gets to live there and she doesn’t even love it as much as I do. I was up at 5:00 AM going on walks every morning, doing yoga, feeling so ALIVE. I couldn’t believe how warm it was at midday even in January. Amy took us to a place for a nature hike that was perfect. The kids got to eat nuggets in this little red rock cave and then we hiked until we were all flushed with warmth and life and the sun had warmed our cheeks to nearly a burn. When we returned to our picnic spot we were all warm enough to take off our socks and shoes and dig our feet into that glorious red sand. Oh, I wanted to swim in it. I never wanted it to end. I didn’t realize until that weekend how ridiculously infatuated I am with the desert. I’m sure it doesn’t help to be thinking of it from the middle of a Michigan blizzard, but nonetheless, it was bliss and my heart is still there just a bit.
The hardest part about 3 weeks in Utah, were 2 weeks in Utah without Paul. Every day of the last week Eirik cried for his daddy. When Paul would call, Eirik would just cry and cry which certainly didn’t make it easier for Paul being away from us for 2 weeks either. We sure missed him. My boys traveled well. It was only VERY stressful as traveling with a 2 and a 3 year old is bound to be, but it was not debilitating. We did just fine. We came home on the 14th.
On the 15th we had an 11 week ultrasound and got to see a little tiny baby kicking and squirming and moving all around with a strong little heartbeat. It was so exciting. I almost felt like the baby was not possibly real until proven real with an ultrasound. We are now just over 13 weeks and I am waiting oh so fervently for the evening when I do not feel like going into a sleep coma to avoid the nausea. I’m sure it will be soon. The evening of the 15th we found a house that we loved and signed the paperwork to move in at the beginning of March. We also sent in the down payment for our new little puppy coming the first week of March. Then we talked to our friends about buying their van when the move in June.
On the 16th I was called into our bishop’s office and asked to serve as the Relief Society President. I was lucky to have had a premonition that this calling was on its way. About 2 months ago the Lord told me to prepare and I have been, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise. I am excited and happy to serve. I just hope I can do a good job. It’s reassuring to feel that the Lord wants me in this calling. I was only sustained 2 days ago and already there is a woman from our ward in the intensive care unit and a funeral to plan. I am moving in a week and a half with a puppy on the way and I’m still nauseous every night. I’m doing the decorations for 2 baby showers in the next few weeks, planning Eirik’s superhero birthday party, teaching part of a constitution class, coordinating a mid week relief society meeting for next week and trying to plan a play/ dinner party for March as well as teaching 2 preschool classes in the next 3 weeks. Our computer crashed and had to wiped clean. Luckily we learned from our last crash to back everything up and we don’t think we lost anything vital. We bought a new laptop which I am loving and slowly getting used to. But the Lord has confidence, so I’m trying to keep mine. It feels that life just went from relatively breezy to much more busy. I’m trying to remember to breath and I’ve started doing yoga again. (And you wondered why I haven’t posted in 2 months!)
I think we are going to really love our new home. It has a beautiful backyard with giant trees and a 6 year old coy pond with a heater and pump. It’s filled with self propagating fish. I can’t believe our luck at finding this house. It has a huge dog run on the back that opens from the garage. It has an electric fence. There is not a stitch of carpet in the house. (Great news for the owners of a massively shedding dog.) The owners of the house are leaving their dog kennel that happens to be big enough for a Berner for us. It’s almost like the Lord is saying to me, “Melody, I know you don’t really want to get a dog, but I’m going to make it really easy for you to give your husband this great blessing. Here you go.” I know Paul will be so happy having a dog. I have been reading training books and getting more ready. It’s one of those things where I think you just have to jump right In, ready or not. The house is an older house but it is all renovated. It has a gorgeous kitchen, a new beautiful sun room, great deck, basement and big bedrooms. I feel really blessed that we found this place.
I will really miss some things about this wonderful apartment that we have been in for 2 ½ years. Just for sentimentality sake, I want to list them.
The low utilities, warm carpet, quiet rooms, new everything, nice showers, carpeted stairs, good windows, open layout, small living quarters that forces us to be together all the time like it or not, nice private master bath, maintenance crew to come fix any problems and salt the walks and shovel and mow the lawn and take care of all the landscaping, spray for spiders etc, etc. We really have had it pretty great here.
As I have been packing I have really enjoyed having all of my lovely art and decorations in boxes hidden away. It’s nice to live in clean functionality for a while. I almost don’t want to unpack. I seem to do a great job of cluttering my life with unnecessary things. Every once in a while I just need a break so I’ll shift to my left brained functioning effective, efficient motality for a while, but before long my heart cries out and I just have to go back to cluttering everything all up again with loveliness everywhere. Why do I do it to myself. Why can’t I just kick back and watch TV at the end of a day like my friends do. Why do I always have to be planning and making something?? My house if full of cool stuff I’ve made that is too cool to get rid of, but I don’t really need it. I’m going to try to keep it simple in the next house and see how it goes.
