*Sunday, June 22nd--This was our last Sunday in the Farmington Ward (Beaverton Oregon West Stake). I should probably remember this day in great detail, but I don't. I thought I would have hugged people more, but I didn't. I don't know if it's because we still had another week living there or if I didn't hug people so it wouldn't be quite so real. I think it was more the former because I'm like "Lotso Lovin' Bear" from Toy Story 3. I'mma hugger!
It was a nicer, mild day, so most of us walked to church. On our way home, the cars that were driving south on 209th (the same direction we were headed), honked and waved or yelled good-bye as they drove by. It was sweet.
When we realized we'd have a week between selling our home and leaving Oregon, we seriously just figured we'd be camping in our tents on someone's property somewhere. Who on earth has room for an extra SEVEN people?? Turns out, Doran and Celina DeGraw did. They are a blended family and two of their four kids were going to be with their mom. Because Doran drove trucks at night and Celina worked, Celina said it would actually be really helpful to them for us to be there to watch the girls since school was out. Easy for me! But, it was only on the condition that I bought the food and prepared dinner each night. I didn't have to twist Celina's arm too much :)
For dinner that evening, we fried up some of the Alaskan halibut Jared caught a few years ago and shared that amazing experience with the DeGraws. We left the rest of the halibut and our little fryer with them so they could enjoy the fish our favorite way :)
We had a special visitor come see us one last time--Suzan Hanzel--beloved teacher/librarian from Butternut Creek Elementary. She had spent months gathering a variety of books and games and toys and activities and empty journals and pens/pencils, etc. in order to make a travel bag for each of our five kids. She had given me the bags the week before and I wish I had taken a picture of them...they were such a sweet labor of love and these were nice canvas bags, too with a personalized name tag attached to each. I'm really glad she swung by so we could get pictures and hugs one last time.
*Monday, June 23rd--By some miracle, the kids had swimming lessons after all, so that helped fill up time in the morning. We were blessed with some sunny weather, too. The end of June is so iffy in Oregon.
JJ and Calvin with Hannah.
Calvin and JJ with Jory.
Love these girls who are great lifeguards and fantastic swim instructors!
This was the day that I called State Farm to cancel our fire insurance on a home we no longer owned. And contacted Flagstar who held our home loan to give them our forwarding address so they could mail out our escrow check. Very important!
That afternoon, we headed to Forest Grove. This was the only chance I had to see my girlfriend Stephanie Morgan one last time before we left. Forest Grove is where it all began for us in 2004. We moved into the Forest Grove 2nd Ward and just loved it! We were only there for just over 2 years while Jared was in PA school, but I feel like I sealed myself to them because Jared was gone for the better part of that second year doing his rotations. I stayed back with Jake (5 years old and starting Kindergarten) and Cooper (2 years) oh yeah and I was 3 months pregnant with Karcyn. The FG2nd ward took really great care of us. I loved serving and being among them. Great times and great friends! We felt very fortunate to get a job in Hillsboro, about 10 miles away from Forest Grove when Jared finished school. This allowed us to continue to build and enjoy those friendships when we had just expected to move out of state.
Stephanie is one of those friends where I can't really say when we became so close. We just did. She and I are the exact same age and our kids are similar in age too, which makes it fun. Honestly, after we moved to Hillsboro, we didn't see each other a ton (might as well lived in another state) but we could get to each other in 20 minutes if we wanted to and that was the really awesome part.
*Tuesday, June 24th--The McCullough's foster kids were going to swim at the SHARC that afternoon and invited us to meet them there. So I took all five of my kids and Celina's two girls and we swam some more. It was a fun way to say good-bye in a non-sad way...with 3 hours worth of swimming and playing ;)
Later that night, there was a going away party given in Jake's honor by a friend from school. They had a couple classes together, including jazz band.
This was the first time we had been to Alyssa's house. As we drove down her street trying to count the house numbers, Jake suddenly and firmly said, "Uh, that's it." I swung my head around to see a garage with this message. So dang cute. I had to get a picture with Jake in front of it.
Definitely hard to miss that house!! ;) We're still so touched that Alyssa and her mom (who had only met me once before asking if they could throw Jake a party) would open up their home to honor Jake. Says a lot about my boy.
They talked and laughed, goofed off, hung out and jumped on the tramp. When it got dark they played Murder out front in the cul-de-sac. They were having fun running in the street and behind cars and houses when I pulled up around 11pm. Then we had to get a final group picture. We're missing Brett Durrant though--he had left just a little bit earlier.
Left to right: Lisa Jackman, Aaron Jackman, Lainey Van Frank, Ashley Bangeter, Dallin Marsh, Alyssa Bui, Asa Gonzalez, Jake
And this is a picture of Jake and his best bud Asa. We had stumbled across that hat with Asa's name on it a week or two before. It stands for American Soccer Association, I believe, but it works for Asa too!! The Gonzalez family was so good to us. We're going to miss them lots!
*Wednesday, June 25th--We spent some time making and playing with GAK :)
I had the privilege of being the visiting teacher to an amazing woman named Kathy Tawzer. She has suffered a plethora of heartbreaking experiences. Many of us will never have to endure even one of those trials in our own lifetime, but she has had one after another after another. Yet she continues to be faithful and true and clings to the Savior's atonement for strength. It was an honor and privilege to serve her in the 18 months I was her visiting teacher. I tried so hard to align my will with Heavenly Father's because only He knew what she needed and I wanted to be that vessel for Him; to ease her burdens. In the process, we forged a strong and special friendship that would never have happened had it not been for the visiting teaching program. Even with the craziness of her life, she made time to swing by the DeGraw's house that morning to bring the kids another goody bag filled with activity books, crayons, stickers and travel treats. The kids were in heaven! It was such a sweet gesture.
A little before noon, my dear friend Terri Prestwich along with my adopted Oregon mother, Vickie Hansen, came by and picked me up for a farewell lunch at Red Robin organized by my friend Clarka Hill. There were about 15 amazing ladies who came and dined with me one last time. I'm so grateful for their friendships and support and love over the past 6 1/2 years!
We went to see the Giles Family later that afternoon one more time. Our families moved into the Reedville ward (after Jared graduated and we rented a house) in Hillsboro at the same time. In fact, I can't remember who was there first. If it was us, it was only by a week or two. At the time, they had two boys and we had two boys and a little girl. So we started to do a date-night swap with them. We did that for a couple years--adding Calvin and Millie to our families who are just 2 months apart--in the meantime. School/work schedules slowly ended the date night swap, but we sure loved it while it lasted! Our kids always had fun when they stayed with the Giles. I'm not sure I can say the same for their kids when they came to our house though...
From left to right: Sam Giles, Karcyn, Cooper, Ian Giles, Calvin, Millie Giles, Jake and JJ.
Jenn and Amanda.
Millie and Calvin. These two cuties were preschool buddies. Calvin was being soo obstinate. He didn't want his picture taken with a giiiirrrl.
Cooper and Tony wrestling one last time.
*Thursday, June 26th--No swimming lessons that day. The pool was closed until further notice. Oh well. Fortunately, the cost was so cheap ($30 for 10 half hour lessons for the first kid and $25 for each additional in the family) that it wasn't a big deal. I was just bummed they couldn't expend energy swimming.
The night before, Jake had gone running with a friend from our ward, Peter Dickinson. Peter's family was going on a big white water rafting trip the next day and sweet, thoughtful Peter invited Jake along. Once I verified that Jake hadn't invited himself...I agreed he could go.
So Jake was gone the entire last day in Oregon....white water rafting down the Deschutes River...and had a BLAST! Jake was in a canoe with another teenager for part of the trip and they were doing great, until they hit class 3 rapids they weren't expecting. They capsized and he was a little nervous at first, but said it was fun. He did, however, lose his BYU hat in the process :(
The day was a blur for me. I know I did laundry and started doing a sweep and gathering our things from around the house.
That evening, we were going to meet Jared at his office to say good-bye to the girls and then swing up to the McCulloughs. Jared would be living with them after moving us to Texas and wanted to drop off the Civic so they could pick him up in that when he flew back home on Monday, July 7th.
This is a picture of me and my favorite medical assistants. (Left to right: Shirley, Jenn, Elizabeth and Dawn). They were the reason I loved my job. When Dr. Hicken appointed me the staff manager after working there part time for a few years, I was worried how the other staff (who had been there longer) would react. But these gals were and are incredible! They were so supportive and so kind and so genuine and they are the reason I kept going. On a personal level, they were always interested in our family's life and have watched our children grow up. They would check in with Jared frequently to see how the kids were doing and were among the first to see our last three kids right after they were born. When the time came, they all drew straws to see who would have to give our kids their immunizations because none of them wanted to be pegged as the "mean MA who gave shots" :) They are life long friends who we miss dearly. They were all smiling because they didn't have to say good-bye to Jared just yet. They still had him for another month. :)
After we said good-bye to the gals at the office, we headed up to the McCulloughs to drop off the Civic and face a painful parting. This amazing family has so much love to offer so many people, yet I still don't know how the Hough Family managed to become a part of it. It was the night before our departure from Oregon for good and I hadn't cried any tears when saying my farewells to sweet, dear friends. But Bev just squeezed them out of me. We miss, miss, MISS these peeps like crazy. And could never begin to express our love and appreciation for them and the way they've loved and supported our children.
When we got back to the DeGraws, Jared showed us what had been delivered to him at the office. Kent Bond at Impact Physical Therapy located just down the road from Hicken Medical Clinic had his girls make this basket for us. Jared was a big source of PT referrals for Impact and Kent wanted to show his appreciation. He also told Jared "You can't go all the way to Texas without any goodies!"
This was our thank you picture that Jared sent to Kent.
*Friday, June 27th--we had originally planned to leave bright and early. Our first stop...the Boise, ID area. We were staying with our friends Eric and Sara Wells (she's co-author of Our Best Bites) but they had been out of town and were just returning that day and wouldn't be home until later in the afternoon. (Seriously--so sweet of them to put us up for the night with their own crazy schedule!) So we were actually able to get up leisurely that morning without feeling rushed. And it was going to take a little time and great manipulation to get the burb packed so that we could actually close the tailgate.
We were quickly running out of room in the burb for all of these amazingly thoughtful treats and care packages! But it was a good problem to have!
We must've held our mouths right because it closed! We were packed to the gills though, not just in the cargo area but in the topper and all around the kids. It was tight! The kids were good sports.
And then we were off! The non-twins situated in the back with JJ and the two big boys in the middle with a little bit more leg room.
We felt it very fitting that we left Oregon when it was 65 degrees and raining. But it cleared up the further east we went. Good-bye to the windmills in the gorge.
We made it to Eric and Sara's around 5:30 pm. In time for a lovely deli dinner on their back patio. (Only Sara could make deli sandwiches feel and taste like gourmet!) It was great to visit with them and watch our kids play together while they ran and romped in their park-sized backyard. After we got the kids down, Eric and Jared played their traditional NCAA football game on the X-Box. After Eric's traditional win, we called it a night and graciously said good-bye because we'd be getting up SUPER DUPER early in the morning and didn't want to wake them. Sara had a variety of breakfast cereals and dishes all laid out for us in their second kitchen downstairs where we were sleeping, so we could at least get something in our stomaches before we hit the road again. It was perfect. She thinks of everything!!
2 comments:
Having never lived anywhere for 6 years I can't imagine how attached you became to all the wonderful people in Oregon (and they to you) but it sounds like you were well taken care of. Moving can be so hard, but so much fun to go and build new relationships too. I smiled when you talked about FG2 ward, it was such a great place to be!
I too haven't lived many places for very long but it is hard to move and leave friends. I am glad that yours sent you off so packed to the gills with love. I'm looking forward to how you package up your busy past year for the Lee Family Chronicles Greg is putting together for distribution next month. Love you!
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