And the move continues...

Today, the missionaries moved out.

They moved in with a woman in the ward whose husband passed away a few months ago,

and who is really happy to have someone else in the home,

especially at night.

We're sorry to see them go, but in a couple of weeks, there won't be a spot for them here.

As you can see, the garage is full of things to give away.

As we continue to sort out and make decisions, we've found that we have a lot more

stuff than we really need.  So we're condensing and discarding.

One thing we had to make sure we had a record of was the bedroom door with

all the family pencil marks for height,

starting at the bottom with Jane, and continuing up through Alastair, Marta, Emma, Brenna, Connor, and our children.  Even Lily has her height marked on that door.

And now it has all been transferred to some computer sheets that are attached.

And for Catherine's benefit, here are some pics of the finished dining room.

With flash...

 ...and without.

Our update:

The contract has been signed; things are finally moving forward--though the formal announcement STILL has not been made.  So really, we still should not be telling anyone--but that's hard to do when we're hoping the truck will be here to pack us in 2 weeks.  This is getting more and more real!

I have a hard time going back to sleep if I wake up in the night

because of the adrenaline surge that comes as I begin to think of all that still needs to happen.

We've decided on a different school for the girls--they won't need uniforms after all.

They also will probably have an hour commute on a nice bus (a dedicated tour-type school bus).

Poor girls--they'll have laptops (Mac books), so they could do homework,

read, sleep, text, etc., while on their commute. 

We found out the other school had lost a lot of high school students, so all that are left (about 7-8 students per grade) are Koreans who ignore the English-only rule and stay together in a group.

That would not be very fun for the girls--especially Elizabeth as a senior!  

Kevin has been looking for a place for us, but so far it's the typical "good location/bad house" or bad location/good house".  There is a nice house with a tiny yard, but it would be a long commute for Kevin, and to do any shopping, I'd have to use the driver (which I am loathe to do, though I know it will be necessary at least some of the time).

Or there is an apartment, close to work and within walking 

distance to all kinds of shopping, but it's a dump.

Literally.

So we're still looking.

I went to the temple this past Friday with some women from the ward, and suddenly realized that I might not see the inside of the Nauvoo Temple for 3 years.  I will REALLY miss it!   I have so enjoyed sessions there, as well as being able to help clean when our ward has the assignment.

Being able to vacuum those rooms when no one else is around is pretty special.