August was the start of a hectic several months.
We said good bye to the cows across the street.
We began packing and fixing the hole in the ceiling (from an earlier plumbing issue)
We celebrated Jacob's 4th birthday with Laura, Cody
Grandpa,
Grandma (p.s. who got a cake for Jacob with his name on it when it was Grandpa's birthday, too),
and Uncle Robert & Aunt Dortie.
We also had a smaller celebration at our house
Marie was pretty excited about it
This was us waiting in our car ... maybe to go back to the house after a showing.
Jacob helped me do some painting to get the house ready to sell.
Uncle Kevin got married, so we got to go spend time with all of the Kings in the Lehi area for a few days. It was such a great break from packing and cleaning!
here's Jacob sneaking off with some cookies, probably
and my parents - they were so happy to have everyone (EVERYONE) together for a few days
and Marie
and the whole group. Well, except for the three babies that are due in 2018 ... (Robyn in Feb, Me in May, and now Rachel in June or July)
and we visited Aunt Julie and baby Allie in the hospital (Allie had just been born, so we said 'hi' on our way to the wedding and then again on the way home). There was a really cool spiderman statue that Jacob was really excited about.
Jacob got to build with lots of K'nex and built some really cool things. (These were one of his few toys that didn't get packed).
This is Jacob's coloring - he got a coloring book and gel pens from his great grandparents. He worked very hard on this picture.
and one afternoon, we went by the Logan temple for a bit.
A long recap of why the moving - last summer, Spencer got walking pneumonia, which caused some inner ear damage (we've been told, but not 100% sure). He was on a short term disability from work for about 3 months summer 2016 because the ear problems caused vertigo, fatigue, and inability to focus. With some doctor visits and three months of physical therapy, he was able to go back to work. But, this summer (in June 2017), it came back a vengeance.
With Spencer's ability to work decreased, we looked into other work options for me and decided that it was a good idea for me to apply to teach at Weber State University (Spencer had been hoping to start taking 1-2 night classes there, so it seemed to be a good fit. I currently teach online classes). I applied at the end of June and was hired the next day to teach one class.
After much thought, prayer and consideration, we decided that it would be easiest for our family to relocate to the Ogden area, and when Spencer got better, he could commute back to Logan for work. At the beginning of August, we listed our house for sale.
Our realtor thought our house would sale within a day or two if it looked good, so we worked really hard to get everything ready the week before we listed it. It didn't sale until the middle/end of September, and we weren't 100% convinced that the sale would go through (it did, thankfully), so until a week before we closed, we kept showing the house.
To get the house ready to sale, we spent all August (both before it was listed and after), painting various rooms (walls, railings, staining kitchen cabinets, the deck...), beautifying the yard, packing up anything we could live without for a few weeks (we expected to unpack in less than a month ... didn't happen... most things are still packed in a storage unit 4 months later), and lots of daily cleaning for the daily showings (we were still living there, but needed to make it look not lived in for the showings. It was exhausting with a 2 & 4 year old). And then leaving the house every time there was a showing. Sometimes we went to the hardware store to get something for the house, and sometimes we spent the time with Spencer's family that lives in Logan. Spencer was still very ill during this time, so he helped by watching movies with the kids while I got things ready.
By the end of August, I didn't have the energy to do much more, school started (which started my 1.5 hour commute to Ogden 3 time a week), and we found out we were pregnant, which was very exciting, but has brought severe morning sickness, which still have :/ The focus then was to just have the house looking good for showings.
Spencer continued with weekly physical therapy. The doctor also experimented with two different drugs that are known to help people with different ear issues. The drugs didn't help, but made things worse. They did tell us that he didn't have Menier's disease and that we didn't know what was going on, except that the pressure in his ears was different. The doctor said he was an anomaly. The experimenting with the different drugs lasted about a month each, so August and September.
As school kept going for me and I kept feeling worse, as did Spencer. Our friends at church were kind and reached out to us. They asked if meals and help with the kids would be beneficial. About 30 individuals reached out to us, and over the course of the entire month of September until we moved to Ogden on October 14th, we had dinner brought to us every day I taught, and someone watched the kids most days when I was gone to teach (about 4 hours a day because of the commute). Additionally, they helped us move out all the boxes and extra furniture the day before we listed the house for sale, we got help taking care of our yard (recall, Spencer can't balance/drive... so he couldn't mow, and at this point, I was feeling beyond exhausted and bad morning sickness, too) with mowing and clearing out weeds; we got help packing, cleaning, and then again loading up the moving truck the last day we were there. Additionally, each Sunday, friends and primary teachers went out of their way to help me with the kids (because Spencer was still to ill to come to church).
The past four months have been very challenging, but we have been so grateful for the love and support we received before we moved. We felt so blessed and our faith has grown.
In summary, Spencer is slowly getting better. It's the end of November and he can drive about 10-15 minutes at a time some days. I have been given more classes for the next semester at Weber State and have some potential openings for positions with benefits. Spencer's job sent him a letter, after he had been on short term disability for required FMLA three months, letting him know that they could no longer hold his position, so we are extra grateful for the new opportunities I have at Weber.
Obviously, I'm starting to feel a little better (because I wouldn't be writing this otherwise), but I still have morning sickness. This means I can teach, but the apartment is still cluttered with boxes. We are so glad to be close to my work and I am SO glad that I don't have to spend 3 hours in the car anymore.
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