Day "101"

Our little family moved into our first home in December of 2007. We had planned to landscape our front yard in the fall of 2008, but as you are well aware, we were out of town for most of the season! :) For some crazy reason, I don't have a picture of how we left our home in November, but just imagine dirt and tumble weeds as the before picture. The rest are what we saw when we turned the corner and headed for home! Jeff was shocked and ecstatic! He asked me if I had drawn up the landscape plans because it was exactly what he would have wanted! In all honesty, I had nothing to do with it! The project was planned and carried out by the Little Valley 1st Ward members as well as several family members. I wish I had a list of those who helped so I could thank them individually, but I hear that there was a combination of young and old working together to create this masterpiece! (If someone does have a list, I would love to get my hands on it!) Anyway, I guess the grass is coming this weekend, and I can't wait to see the final outcome! It is very low maintenance and beautiful (which is great since I will be the one taking care of the place for a while)! :) My biggest worry at this point is keeping those cute tulips alive...I killed everything I tried to grow last year! My kids and I spent all morning and some of the afternoon in the sandbox (Kolten was afraid of our dog, so I couldn't have gone inside if I wanted to!)! We are loving the change of scenery and we feel very blessed to be home! O-ya...I almost forgot the big change inside our house! We are now sporting a surround system that shakes our windows thanks to some old high school buddies of Jeff's! I'm sure our neighbors thought our house was blowing up while Jeff and his brothers were watching U-571 yesterday afternoon! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We appreciate all your help through this crazy process. We could not have survived it without your prayers and support. In the 2008 October General Conference, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave an amazing talk that Jeff and I read several times over the last three months. In that talk he stated, "the Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude." Now, I am not sure how faithful we have been or how well we have endured the trial, but I do know that we have been blessed a hundredfold through supportive family and friends. Jeff has not had to walk a single step of this road alone. And for that, we will be forever grateful. I am sure that a lot of healing will take place here over the next several months! We are glad to be home.