It's not the holidays without stress

This will just be a partial update. I have pictures to post and lots of stuff to talk about. But this will mainly be about my family. Like my parents. They sure have not had it easy since we've moved to UT. We have been here 6 years and just over 3 months. They started out at the south end of town practically down the street from Scott's parent's. Their ward was interesting to say the least. Some really nice neighbors and really good people and others are probably the Mormon "weirdos" most of us Californians thought occupied the entire state of UT. UT is definitely not what I thought it was growing up. Visiting you just see certain sides of people and some bad experiences kinda gave everyone a bad tag. I am very fortunate to live in an awesome neighborhood with awesome neighbors and lots of really great members of the Church. I don't how my parents did it in the last ward. My sister's Sunday School teacher basically told them they weren't going to the Celestial Kingdom because they weren't home schooled. He also told them its bad to drink Gatorade because Pepsi makes it. Well they make Aquafina too so can you not drink water? One neighbor used to always give her kids the Jesus guilt trip. Like everything they would do wrong Jesus wouldn't like that. I don't know I'm just not for that. I can't remember what Chloe said she used to hear her say but some of it was really funny. It was like, really? You're telling your 2 yr old that?

So the time finally came where they moved out of that house. I guess it was about 4 yrs after being there. Then they moved to a little town called Erda. It's north of us and closer to the freeway. The commute would be so much better for my dad. They'd have horse property. The house was nice and big but not like ridiculously big. There was room for my bro and the kids to stay when they'd visit. The neighbor who was also the landlord seemed like a really nice guy. He has lots and lots of animals. Cows, longhorns, a llama, he had tons of goats, mini donkeys, horses, chickens, dogs, cats and maybe more but that's all I can think of. So the plan was my parents could rent it for 2 yrs. He was only hanging on to it for tax purposes. Then he could sell them the house. Well it has been just about 2 yrs but things sure changed fast. He had started telling them that he was going to charge them $470k for it. So a few years ago that probably would be pretty legit but now it'd only go for maybe $340k-ish. Something around there. Prices have dramatically changed and my mom has heard its probably going to drop some more before things start picking up again. Crazy! So when my dad had brought the price thing up with him, he didn't budge. So he agreed to let them go month to month until Chloe was done with school. She'll be graduating this year. Well at some point that changed too. He has now decided they have to be out by Jan 1st. Seriously? You're going to kick my parents out during the most craziest, busiest time of year?

So the hunt begins. My parents are desperately working with this lender who did our loan and is awesome. He's helping them with some things and trying to figure out stuff as fast as he can. He's really good and got us our house in like 3 days. So he's working on that and they are waiting to find out what their options are. So they are just kinda looking and we're keeping our eyes open for something with horse property. They can build a new home on 5 acres starting at like $280k. That's pretty amazing. But it takes time to build. So much in the air right now. Most of this has come about in just the last week. My parent's and sister are kind of glad to be able to get out of their ward. They really have had bad luck with their wards. My dad has not had a calling the last two years in his ward. He's a high priest. Really? Who doesn't make use of what they have? The RS pres. even mentioned to my mom how they don't necessarily go by "revelation" when it comes to calling. There are a lot of families in the ward whose families have occupied the Tooele Valley for a very long time and most of them hold the positions. The RS pres didn't get any of the counselors she had prayed about. It was all people in relation to these larger families. I feel bad for her. That must be difficult to take the time and effort to pray for those things and then get turned down on everything. The YW program has a lot of issues. The kids don't even plan the activities. Have they read the handbook recently? Chloe got left out of a lot of things. They forgot her name on the flag for camp. She told my mom she doesn't bring her scriptures because they never use them in YW or Sunday School. I wanted to faint when I heard that. Seriously? They would forget to tell her about things. One time they told her about some camp awards ceremony but never told her the time. Well while I was over there a lady brought her stuff by and said we missed you. But Chloe was like, I was never told the time. I thought it might have been tonight. I think the lady felt bad. There were some really good people in their ward but sadly the bad outweighs the good usually. Good thing the Church is true! My family has really had some trials and struggles and have survived them all. I really wish we had horse property in our ward because we could so use people like my mom and dad to serve in their calling faithfully and to the best of their ability. Chloe would have a great YW program. Our girls are so awesome and there is lots of emphasis on Personal Progress and scripture reading. I really hope their new ward makes good use of them and is a better experience than they've had in the past. At least their last ward put them to work.

So this time of year will be a little insane. I'm sure I'll be told a lot not to help move or carry stuff. Yeah, right. Me not help. That's a good one. I'll be fine. I'll be careful and won't push myself but I will be of use. My mom still wants the kids to come up. I don't think my brother even knows yet. My mom didn't want him to stress out over it. One way or another it'll work out. So we're keeping our eyes open on properties and hoping my parents can get approved. They are gonna try for a USDA loan too if they can since Tooele is considered rural. The USDA doesn't have any restrictions on Tooele County. So our fingers are crossed we're praying for them and hoping we can still enjoy the holiday season. I just don't see how someone goes back on their agreement like that. Especially kicking someone out. Well my dad can be sure to take off the humidifier he put on. He did fix their hvac system too. He added a return and it works better than it did. He put a bigger condenser on so the a/c worked better. They did so much to keep that house up and improve it and they don't get any thanks. Oh well. Good riddance. On to bigger and better things!