The Bakers (with 1 B): Moving onto 27

Just before my 27th birthday, I left Greg (at home) and the kids and I went to Seattle and then to California for two weeks. It was great. I got out of the horrible humid Southern summer and hung out with my mom a bunch. She helped me start some crafts to help beautify my home and make it feel more like my home. And then when I got home, Greg got me two small home decorating magazines for my birthday, which silly as it seems, were amazing. He is really good at giving gifts. I drooled over those magazines for months, imagining and planning my perfect house that we would one day buy. Then my friends lied to me a whole bunch and all showed up on my front door step for an amazing surprise party. I may have lost Provo, but I really did get some amazing friends. I'm tearing up just thinking about how awesome they are.

Soon after that I got a realtor and Greg and I started house hunting. We had planned to live in Greg's parents' house for a year, and that year was fast ending. We looked at some beautiful mid-century ranch homes that I just LOVED but none of them felt right.

In Septemeber, Rex started Joy School two days a week. This was great for me. I now had something to do two days a week. Monday I spent cleaning, so that left only Thursday and Friday for me to fill. One of my problems with moving to Charlotte was how bored I was. I had spent 2 years finguring out stuff to do in Provo just to have to start over in Charlotte. Add to that that I couldn't walk anywhere (not even to my mail box due to the giant and aggressive St. Bernard that lived next door without a fence) and everywhere was at least a 20 minute drive. I digress. I loved Joy School--I stressed over teaching but I secretly like being stressed about stuff like that and I loved having two mornings with just Alice, since Rex was a rather demanding toddler/preschooler.

The kids getting ready for a craft day

In December, one of my rich friends moved and mentioned that they would not be buying another house but would rent. Rent, I thought, that's only for poor people and young married couples (see I have these crazy ideas sometimes). But the more I thought about it...then my sister came to visit for Christmas, which was fun. I really really really miss my family here, still do. The day I get home from Utah every time I go is always the worst day of my life because my family is so far away. My sister and I talked a lot about her moving to Wyoming and where they were going to live. The more we talked about it, the more I thought about moving myself. I knew that moving out of the Charlotte area wasn't an option (Greg had just started yet another new job), but maybe a fresh start in a different house that didn't have all the negative energy of the past year would be good. I casually started looking for rentals near Greg's new job.

Then one Sunday morning in January we woke up to no water. I took it as a sign. A sign to move. While Greg worked on fixing the burst pipe, I started packing. I packed up all of Rex's room, (I had never bothered to unpack Alice's room), and half the kitchen before Greg with the help of the Wheatley's fixed the pipe. I didn't unpack. We moved June 1.

That move was not a tender mercy of the Lord: it was a giant blessing of the Lord. It was timed just perfectly to put Becky Wheatley in my backyard. Becky is a soul mate (I can have more than one soul mate). She too is from Utah, more so even than I am in that she actually grew up there, and stupidly married a boy from the South who dragged her unwillingly back. She too fantasizes about moving back to the West Coast. Only she's been here for 18 years. She has become my mother/sister/cousin/friend all wrapped up into one. She showed me how to be happy despite my physical location. I have a giant crush on Becky and all things Wheatley, but I'm also pretty sure I've fangirled about the Wheatley's whole ton on this blog so I'll move on.

Within a month of moving onto the Wheatley compound, I finished my last class at USU and graduated from my Master's program, found out I was pregnant, and packed for an epic trip to Utah.

The kids and I were gone for 2 1/2 weeks, Greg joined us for about a week, but other wise, he had to slave away paying for my extravagant lifestyle. The kids and I stayed at my grandparents at night, but spent our days in Provo. I did all my old Provo favorites--the Rec Center (ok that was built after we moved but still), the library, J-Dawgs, Cafe Rio, Kneaders, Temple Square. We also spent several afternoons working on our house in Provo trying to get it ready for the new tenets moving in. Greg joined us for a few family reunions (one of my favorite things--nothing, I mean NOTHING is better than family, especially mine), then he flew home.

I spent my 28th birthday scrubbing my Provo house top to bottom trying to please a semi-picky new tenet. The rest of my 28th year was spent trying to please that same tenet while being super grateful for our own wonderful landlords, the Wheatley's. Good thing we have the no other gods before me commandment or I might seriously build an alter to the Wheatleys.

*Apparently I've lost most of my pictures from this year. I only have a few from the move and then lots of my epic Utah trip.