The Time Has Arrived...We Are Off to the Desert!

(March 2015) We knew that the move was right when the Lord blessed us to sell our house on the very day we listed it. A LOT of painting, painting, cleaning and painting made the home absolutely beautiful and I was so sad to leave it. It was literally a "dream" home to me. Living among the trees and actual SEASONS. I cried every time I thought of the ugly desert landscaping in Arizona..the gross rock front yards. The people in Virginia were so great too. Because Andy was gone already, and I was getting the house ready to sell and packing all on my own, the wonderful Elders Quorum president, Karl Thorpe, arranged for several men to come help me finishing all the painting. I have never felt so overwhelmed with gratitude. I knew the Lord was taking care of me through them. I had been getting VERY little sleep trying to get everything done. I was exhausted, emotionally and physically. The following are pictures of the wonderful Brimhall family feeding us one more time, leaving our home in Virginia, and driving cross country to our new home in the desert.

 Even though I was Primary President at the time, I couldn't bring myself to walk into the Primary room as they sang a goodbye song to my boys the last Sunday that we were there. I hung out in the hall and cried.

 At the Brimhalls...they were always so good to let the kids cook their own dinner.

 Everything is done. The house is empty. It is perfectly clean. It is SO SAD! We are driving away from here for the last time.

 Wonderful memories were made in this house. Someday we want to move back to the East Coast.

 Hotel room for the first night after many hours of driving.

 The kids LOVED to cover their heads with blankets and have all the windows down while we drove down the highway. They called it TORNADO! ha!

 We stopped on our drive through Benson, AZ to look at the house I grew up in.

 We visited my Dad's grave.

 What a literally priceless picture.

 We made it! Our apartment barely fit everything! Our new home won't be built until summer time. (It is March).

 I won't go into the details, but our Beardie died a week after we got to AZ. It still makes me cry when I think too hard about it. The kids were heartbroken. Nana gave them some money to get two new beardies. Meet Spider and Bongo.

 The dirt lot that our house is to be built on.