The Big AZ!

So here I am in the state of Arizona, sitting in my air conditioned apartment wondering how I am going to live through the summer. It will probably get twenty degrees hotter than the current temp of 95 degrees before the summer ends! You go through life thinking about the future and think, "oh it won't be that big of a deal, living in a tiny apartment for a little while, eating hot dogs and ramen noodles, and telling your kids they can't get even a little toy at the store." But it actually is harder when you are going through it. Our apartment was supposed to be over 1300 square feet. I was excited because that is the same amount as our house. We didn't read that the square footage also included the patio and storage space, which has to be about 300 square feet! When the guy was showing us the apartment I went into the back room and cried and then realized how much I really did love my old house! Luckily the people in the ward here on campus have been super nice. We have received one dinner, one plate of treats, been to one dinner/swim party and been invited to Sunday dinner. I have a feeling we are going to really like our ward.

Weird things I have noticed in AZ-The elementary schools look like prisons! You can smoke anywhere outside a building (I believe in Utah you have to be 25 feet away from a building to smoke). Seeing all the girls and old women in their tiny little dresses (which I expected to see but is still weird). The fact that it is broad daylight at 6am and gets dark at 8pm is still making our bodies crazy. By 9pm we are both dead tired and want to go to bed!

The campus here is beautiful and we live a block away from the library and a couple blocks from a fun swimming pool. It has been an adjustment but we have almost got our house ready to go, so that makes us feel a little more at home. By the way, our apartment was made for someone with a wheel chair, so I feel like a monster while I am trying to cook dinner because the counter tops are so short and I feel really skinny when I walk through our doors because the are so huge! Here are some pictures of the last few weeks!

Here is the moving truck. Fun to see how little Jordann is compared to the truck!Swimming at Katie's birthday party. She was just so cute in this picture I had to post it.Hanging out with the grandparents. I think they were trying to get some time in while we only lived 2 1/2 hours away! Luckily we got to spend time with all of our grandparents before we left.Sitting on the front porch while the boys loaded the moving truck up.And the missing two front teeth! The extractions went really well and James has done well with no front teeth! More to come on quirky Arizona things!

Moving!!??

Why can't I start packing yet? Our moving truck is coming on Wednesday and I still can't seem to get myself going. The only reason anything has been packed is because Mark is amazing! Instead of packing right now like I should be I am blogging and leaving comments on everybody else's blog. Do you think I am still in denial or just procratinating? Maybe both! By the way, if anybody feels like helping us move, our truck should be here after 12pm on Wednesday. Even if you just want to say bye, come on over!

Denial

Has anybody else lived in denial. I'm not quite sure if I have ever truly lived in denial until now. We are supposed to be moving in a few weeks. But I just can't seem to wrap my mind around it. There are so many things that need to get done but it feels like I have all the time in the world to get them accomplished. When actually I don't have that much time, besides the fact that I have packed my schedule full of Dr. appointments and dentist and hair and everything else that I need to have done before we leave, I just can't seem to come to the realization that we are moving fifteen hours away from my parents and family. Maybe I am being a little dramatic but we have lived in Ogden for five years now and it is too weird to think that things are going to be changing drastically for us. When I think of moving to AZ, I picture me and the kids eating all of our meals outside our apartment like a picnic and going swimming half the day-to me, that just sounds too good to be true, like the vacation you really want to go on but you know is never going to happen.
I have two fears of moving to Arizona 1-that we will love it and never want to leave, thus pitting ourselves to living a long way away from our families and 2-that we will love it and then Mark will get a job in Idaho Falls and we will have to move from the hottest place to the coldest place. (Do you notice that both fears include loving Arizona. I'm dumb I know.)
Hopefully I can pull myself together and start packing and organizing and downsizing. I guess we will see if I wait until the day before the moving truck comes to start packing or if I will pull myself out of this denial to get going!