The last few months of our lives have truly been crazy...to say the least. After Briant passed the Oral Assessment for the foreign service on March 7th, we knew there was a slight possibility that he would get his security clearance in time to be accepted into the June 30th A-100 class for new Foreign Service Officers, or FSOs. It didn't seem likely because the security clearance process usually takes longer, so we were thinking that realistically, he would be accepted into the August 30th class. But just in case, we kicked things into high gear to prepare for the June class. Thankfully we did, because the security clearance went through about a month faster than Briant had ever seen (he and his OCD have been following the process for a few years now :) ), and apparently he was the last to be accepted into the June class. Deep down, we had a feeling it would work out this way.
And so, we had to get the house ready to rent (assessment showed that we would still lose a lot of money if we sold our house now), find renters, have the great purge of 2014 (garage sale and selling furniture online), and of course still homeschool the kids for the last few months of the school year. All of this was not easy, but we did it with the great support of many friends and family. I'll let the pictures do the talking. :)
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| The floors used to match the kitchen cabinets, but we had a dishwasher leak so all of the hardwood flooring had to be refinished. It was an opportunity to update the color -- we chose something darker. |
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| So now, on to the cabinets. We couldn't leave the cabinets as they were. This pic doesn't show it very well, but they were worn and the finish was coming off the front of the ones around the sink area. And of course it was time to update the orange oak look. Something had to be done... |
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And so my wonderful friend Susie stepped in and offered to help me paint them. Of course this was after hours of researching and indecisiveness. There is NO way I could have survived this week (or more) without her!!! She literally gave up hours of her life to help me. But that's the person that she is and always has been since I moved into the neighborhood and she became my diligent visiting teacher for about 4 years. Always giving, and so fun to be with. A painful process made fun with good conversation.
The great purge. Garage sale!! Bri and I estimate that we sold or donated about 90% of everything we own as we unwound fourteen years of marriage, ten years of parenthood, and seven years of living in a big house and accumulating stuff. Luckily, our good friends Byron and Rachelle took several dozen boxes of books for long-term storage (into their basement until Rachelle prevails on getting built-ins and gets the books back on shelves and in circulation -- Briant is very glad his children have gone to a good foster parent in his absence). The experience was painful at first and then almost blissful as we shed stuff and lightened the load in preparation for a life abroad.
My friends Louise and Claudia helped me pull this off. Again, my sanity could have flown out the window, but with the support of these two friends, I was able to hold it together with the stress of everything. My kids were pretty patient with all of these distractions! |
One of two pick-up loads of stuff we donated to an eagle scout project looking for stuff for a benefit garage sale
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| Thomas and his friends, Michael and Sean, sold lemonade. Michael & Sean were trying to earn the last of their money that Louise and Mike wanted them to contribute when they bought our arcade from us. Unbelievably, they made like $40! |
And now on to painting the inside of the house, replacing old white appliances with new stainless steel, putting hardware on the kitchen cabinets, and cleaning before I showed the house to potential renters. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I listed the house online to just get it up, showing only pics of the outside of the house thinking that I would show the house a week later. But the response was quick, and people from out of state wanted to see the house the next morning (needless to say, that the painting of the walls and doors did not get done before people saw the house). So once again, out of desperation, I had to enlist the help of my friends. Meghan came over the night before and spent hours helping me with the basement and then the next morning, Claudia, Susie, my visiting teacher Carlene, and wonderful friend Marc who is also our property manager (our incredibly capable "fix-it guy") came over a few hours before the first showing. We literally finished cleaning the last of things as the door bell rang! We had six showings that day and two more a few days later. From that group we found our renters! A blessing for sure considering that we are still living in our house with three not-so-cleanliness-conscious children. :)
Carlene vacuuming the house:
Marc adding handles to the cabinets:
Susie washing the windows:
We pulled it off--these friends were amazing to help me make the house presentable. I was truly blessed. There is no way I could have done it alone!
Then came the actual packing in June. Again, out of pure desperation (because this was a huge favor!), realizing that the kids would have a hard time with mom ignoring them all day to pack and get organized while they wanted to enjoy their lazy days of summer playing, Briant called his mom to see if she wouldn't mind taking the kids for a week or so. She was so excited about the idea. It worked out with the timing, that she would have them for two weeks! It was a great opportunity for the kids, considering that we aren't going to be able to be at the Platt family reunion in Oregon in August now. So the kids got to go to Oregon and spend time with their grandparents, and aunts, uncles, and cousins. They had a ball! So while we were doing this:
The kids were doing this:
Road trip to Oregon with Grandpa and Grandma Platt
Time and fun with aunts, uncles, and cousins too!
Trip to "The Enchanted Forest"
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| Early morning swim in Aunt Sara's pool. I couldn't believe it when I got the text! |
Most of these pics are with Aunt Sara's kids, although they also spent time with Aunt Katrina's kids as well and got to see Aunt Amelia & Jackson and their adorable dog Bruiser. In Rhea's words, Bruiser is "soooo cute! He's a special dog because his hair doesn't make me scratch."
So the pack out began, my mom came into town to help, and the kids returned from Oregon. She took the kids to do different things for a few days while I was focused on the pack out. Then the truck pulled away after three days, finally! So we finished getting the landscaping done (with the help of Grandma and Grandpa Platt and Marc fixing the sprinklers), sold the van, sold the last of our things, and had cleaners come in to do the carpet and house. Long days I have to say! Luckily we had a break on Thurs, the 26th, for Savvy's 8th birthday party and baptism (and farewell party for Thomas & Rhea with their friends at the same time)! It really was so fun, even for me. :) I set it up to be at Classic Skating since we were going to be packed out of our home. They did the pizza and ice cream cups and of course all of the fun was built in to the experience: Roller skating, climbing areas, bouncy houses, arcades, and prices for the redeemed tickets. Our good friend Josh, 11 years old, made the "Frozen" themed birthday cake that was amazing. It was such a gift to Savvy, but to me too. It was one less thing for me to worry about, and it was the cutest thing ever! I totally think he needs to go to culinary school someday because he has a natural eye and talent!
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| Here at the hotel in the morning on her b-day. |
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| A few special gifts that I gave Savvy: 1st, the Cabbage Patch Doll from Holland was one from my childhood in the original package that I have had for...30 years! Wow, I didn't realize it was that old until just now. Along with it is the cute Hello Kitty Bank on a bike with 2 smaller kittens in the bike basket. Again, 30 years old. These are things that Savvy has asked for me to give her. And so, it was time. I know...this new career change that limits how much we can take with us around the world will be good for my hording habits! |
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Grandma Buckwalter gave Savvy her baptism towel with her name embroidered on it
along with her scriptures and case and some clothes. She loved it all! |
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Thomas and his good friends Sawyer (whom he has known since he was 2 when we moved to Utah),
and Carter whom he met last year in the first month on school before we started homeschooling. |
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| Hayden and Breanna, wonderful mother of 3 boys, super sweet...she brought us a wonderful pork dinner while the kids were in Oregon despite her own busyness. |
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| Breanna and all her boys, Carter, Hayden, and Peyton. |
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| Josh's masterpiece! Wooden people a neighbor painted to be the characters of "Frozen," with his adorable frosting job and the words from the different songs that went with each character. Savvy LOVED it!!!!! |
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Brothers, Bryant (above) and Orson (below). Thomas' best friends from the
Waldorf program the kids attended on Tues & Thurs mornings. |
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| Cozette and Ruth |
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| Brittney, back yard neighbor friend and Rhea. |
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| Monet and Cozette Oaks, sisters, that are friends of S & R from Waldorf. |
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| Our little friends Libby and Daniel Dean--Janna's kids. |
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| Amelia Favro, our next door neighbor and one of Savvy's best friends. |
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Amanda, mother of these cute girls and Orson and Bryant (and baby Merrill that was sleeping during the fun). Wonderful, intelligent, capable, insightful friend. We're all so grateful that our paths crossed through
Waldorf so we could meet this great family! |
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| Savvy's Baptism! Hard to believe she's 8! It was a wonderful day with a lot of familial support. Most of Briant's siblings came, from Oregon, Texas, etc. to be there and to say good-bye to us before moving to VA, along with our parents. |
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| We appreciated all of the supportive grandparents that traveled to be here! |
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| My sweet visiting teachers surprised me by showing up to support us and say good-bye! Carlene Schultess (left) and LaRae Woolsey. Carlene taught me how to make THE BEST peach pie for Rhea's baby blessing get together about 6 years ago. She is a good cook! LaRae is 89 years old and amazes everyone with her diligence to attend church and perform her callings, not to mention that she always looks so nicely dressed with her hair and make-up looking beautiful! They both have taught me a lot through their experiences & examples. |
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| The Brownings (Robert and Laurel) surprised us too! Brother Browning is a retired police officer that saved us years ago when I was pregnant with Rhea when we accidently got locked into Thomas' room on the 2nd floor. I happened to put a phone in my pocket before we went into the room, so when I realized that Savvy locked the door, I called a neighbor who came and looked for an unlocked window or door to get in, to no avail. At the same time, Bro. Browning was driving by and saw what she was doing, and asked if he could help. He grabbed a ladder and climbed up through our window and picked the lock. We always refer to him as the man "who saved us!" He's also known as the man who does the magic and jokes around with the kids. About 3 or 4 years ago, he was pulling a long, light blue tarp or something behind him after he checked on his horses around the corner, and the kids asked him what he was doing. He quickly, without missing a beat, said that he was putting a piece of the sky back up that had fallen down. My kids looked up to the sky with somewhat confused looks, but nodded their heads, doubting nothing. In their eyes, Bro. Browning can do anything! He always kept us laughing and smiling! |
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| Bro. Lundquist, counselor in the bishopric, along with Greg, Logan, and Preston, our across the street neighbors. Logan was assigned by the ward to speak on baptism. |
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Bro. & Sis. Woolsey. The kids loved visiting them. They are so sweet and inviting and
would let the kids play in their backyard playhouse. |
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| Auntie! (Shirlene) So sweet of her to come, and she brought Savvy a beautiful CTR necklace! She's always so generous and complimentary of the kids. They (we) all love her. The kids just recently asked me when we were going to see "Auntie." :( |
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Bryon & Rachelle, our good friends that we got to move to Alpine so they could be closer to us. :)
Byron is Briant's childhood friend and still his best friend. Rachelle & I always end up cleaning
the dinner dishes while they go "check out the basement" (epic ping pong games). |
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| Byron & Rachelle's sweet daughters, Abbie (12) and Ellie (8). The kids will miss playing with them! |
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Emily (16) and Brenna (14), cousins. They are beautiful and so sweet! They are awesome
examples for Savvy & Rhea! Savvy wanted Brenna to conduct the music at her baptism.
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| How they've grown! These same girls, 8 years ago, holding Savvy a month after she was born! |
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Savvy wanted Dad and Thomas to play a duet with their Irish whistles. They played "When I am baptized." After the baptism, we had them play it again so we could record it. :)
THE GOODBYE'S BEFORE LEAVING UTAH FOR VIRGINIA :( |
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| Saying good-bye to Grandma after spending the week with us. So glad she was able to come! She was such a help with the pack-out and kids, and was great to have her at the baptism. We will miss her!! |
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| Saying goodbye to Savvy's primary teacher, Sister Crook. She wasn't able to come to the baptism so we caught her before she left for church to say goodbye. She had a sweet gift for Savvy. MaryJo is an amazingly strong and capable person. I will be grateful for what I learned from her! |
Now this lady...Janna. The hardest to say goodbye to. I just wanted to bring her here with me, and her kids. We have had an amazing journey together the last 7 years. A time of growth for both of us. She saved me many times, emotionally, spiritually, and physically! She has an amazing spirit. She was truly the second mother to my children (on top of her nine kids)! She has been my sister, therapist, teacher, and friend. Our kids have played together for the last 6 years or so. We started out doing some playdates and then finally got smart and did the babysitting swap once a week, to help take each other's kids for 3-4 hours. Then that developed into less and less babysitting as we would go to drop the kids off for the swap, but end up talking, laughing, and crying as we talked through life's issues. It's impossible to summarize Janna into words, but what does come to my mind is pure. She has the purest heart of any woman I know. Constantly humbling herself every day, tapping into the power of the atonement to strengthen and purify herself so she can be a vessel of pure love and light for her children and those around her. Like I said, she's amazing! I don't know how it would happen, but I will pray that our paths cross again!
Meghan Bolen--another one of my best friends in Alpine, with her 3 boys and 1 girl. Our kids have played many hours together while we visited and helped each other stay sane. We first became friends when I was assigned to be her visiting teacher. I loved her realness as a convert to the church, never trying to keep up with the 'Utah Mormon way.'
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| Susie Hansen, Meghan Bolen, and Sheryl Cormier wanted to get together before I left. Great friends and ladies that have been a part of my life in Alpine. We went to the Blue Lemon. I have appreciated their friendship! |
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| These women were the wonderful ladies I served with in the Stake YW presidency: Shelly Evans president, me the 1st counselor, Anne Jennings secretary, and Mindy Vance-Okuno as 2nd counselor. I learned so much from them and their selfless and optimistic attitudes. Amazing women that I was lucky enough to learn from! |
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Mary Favro and her children Amelia, Adam, and Darrin. Our direct next door neighbors. I enjoyed getting to know Mary. She got her degree in curriculum development so she had a lot of great input on books to read with the kids. She presented at the BYU S.T.E.A.M. conference last month that I was able to attend during the craziness of moving. She did a great job speaking on character development through the use of the arts. She has a lot of great insight and gospel perspective which I appreciated in my two years of having her as my neighbor. She served in the primary with the kids at church.
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Last dinner with the Martins at their house. Hard to believe how these kids have grown over the years!
Abbie (12), Ellie (8) and Bryce (about 14). Byron was one of Briant's childhood friends and as adults, best friends. They worked together at Strong and Hanni for 3 years. Rachelle and I enjoyed preparing clothes/toys to sell together at the JBF sale she got me into for a few years. We will miss our association with them and celebrating our anniversary with the Martins as we have for the last 3 or 4 years going to dinner and the Christmas Mormon Tabernacle Choir Performance! |
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Craik and Erastus Evans--Shelly and Kelly's boys. They were wonderful to come and help with the landscaping
while the packout was going on. They helped to lay bark where we needed it. Such a help! |
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Our adopted parents and grandparents, Julie and Marc Nielsen. Marc always took such good care of us, helping us with fixing the house over the years. One of the major projects was converting Savvy's room to the new laundry room upstairs. He did a wonderful job! His help was key over the last few months in getting the house ready to rent. Painting, fixing, rocking the fireplace, installing new appliances, cutting down aspen trees, etc. He always brought fruitsnacks for the kids to give them if they told him that they loved him. :) He also helped teach Thomas some woodworking. They built a wooden tote that I felt we needed with the homeschooling to hold all of our supplies. They also carved a tulip out of wood that Thomas wanted to give to the Woolseys. He also volunteered to be our property manager for our house while we're gone...for free! He is very generous with his service. Most amazingly, a few weeks ago as I was getting ready to drive out here to D.C. with my dad's help, he offered to drive the car out for us! I felt bad at the idea of him doing that long drive, so I said I would think about it. My dad and I concluded that it would be the sane thing to do and would be the best thing we could do for everyone involved. And so he drove the car from Alpine, UT to the airport in D.C., and we flew in the next day and picked it up to drive to our new home here in Falls Church. The process could not have been easier! I will be forever grateful for his sacrifice!
 
Marc started painted the basement as well.
Briant had to leave for Virginia to begin his A-100 class a few days after Savannah's baptism while I stayed in Utah with the kids to attend the Buckwalter family reunion in Midway, Utah. After the reunion, my siblings and their families hung out for a few more days to play together before returning to CA. We had fun hiking up to Stewart falls in Sundance, going to SLC and seeing the temple, going to Provo and going to the newly renovated Monte L. Bean museum and eating snow cones, etc. 
We appreciated the time we had with our friends and family before moving. It will be hard to be away from them for so long as we love to Virginia and then abroad, but with Skype and emailing and magic jack, we feel comfort that they won't seem so far away.
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