Iowa

We arrived in Iowa on Sunday the 27th to a family reunion!  All of Jason’s sisters and their children were here.  Fun family time!

Someone was happy to see her kitty again!  Gary, Sandi,and their four kids around the table.  Very precious!

Rissie played with Liz’s hair – she loved it!   

Jason and Bec practiced some golf.  Bell and I supervised.

Brother LOVES Trevor!            Grandpa giving us a lesson on Eternal Families

TONS of games

Danielle and her kids headed back to Houston and that was our first good-bye.

Jason checking out his Dad’s riding lawn mower.      I love these flowers!

Cute Lizzy and Husky                My men

Grandpa and Sammi                                  Sammi loves the porch – the view is beautiful!

Soccer (kinda, sorta)

As in Kentucky, Iowa doesn’t believe in fences either, so I have to walk Husky (often).  I love the sunsets, the wild flowers, and the birds.  They perch on tops of houses and trees and sing their soul’s songs. 

Playing dress-up, delight in simple things

More games and chips – this girl LOVES chips and she knows where Grandma keeps them!

Double waterfall (fun),               Monkey see, Monkey do             A butterfly on my sock!

Jason had to go on to Louisville to work.  Saying good-bye.  Bella was so sweet with her Daddy.      Gary asked me what we would normally do on a Saturday.  My answer: Yard Work!Loved it!  Loved working hard and having my mind full of the task at hand.

Later friends from the ward came over.  We had more games and in the evening, s’mores.

Sunday we attended church.  Four pews of Turpins is a lot of Turpins!  (The girls weren’t that thrilled to be up so early!)    What a cool bubble maker in nursery!

My Joy

Tuesday is swimming day in the Bettendorf Ward.  So we have been twice!  Joy LOVES it!

Trevor and Alex saying good-bye.  The Baileys left for New York the next day.

Harvesting produce from Grandma’s garden

The Sutherlands and the Turpins headed to Houston for Christian’s Priesthood ordination and it was just us in this big, beautiful house.

Playing dominos

Daddy came home late Friday night.  We were so happy to see him!

Saturday we went to the Niabi Zoo.  Such a fun place – we all loved it!

Our sweet girls

In case you were wondering why we are still in Iowa – Weren’t you moving to Kentucky?  Doesn’t school start in a couple of days?  Why yes, yes we are and yes, yes it does.  And yet we are here.  We left Texas ready to close on our house.  The buyers had a last minute glitch and we would be closing in three days.  Great!  We gave my sister a Power of Attorney and hit the road. She would close on the house in Houston, the funds would be wired to Kentucky, we would close on the same day.  Perfect!  It didn’t turn out that way.  Problems kept creeping up.  As we sit right now, over two weeks have passed since our closing date – and they are now nowhere near ready to close on a house.  We have lost our house in Kentucky.  Jason has to be in Kentucky to work.  We have no where to live.  He lived in a tiny extended stay hotel this past week that should be accurately described as a hell hole. Our belongings are somewhere in some warehouse somewhere. All we have is three days worth of clothing.  My children want to start school on Wednesday.  Jason and I are pretty much at a loss of what to do. We are bleeding money it seems.

But I am grateful we are not homeless.  The Turpins have been so kind, opening up their beautiful kid free and pet free home to us.  They have been so kind and reassuring to me.  Letting us know time and again that we are welcome here.  I am so thankful for their kindness.  My family fills my phone with texts of encouragement and love.  In the midst of everything, we still have our families.  I am so grateful for that!