I'm really happy right now.
I don't know if it's the extra sunny sunshine or the drastically decreased amount of "stuff" in my life or maybe it's that my husband is retardedly in love with his job, but I'm having a hard time wiping the smile off my face lately.
Things have changed since my last update, thanks to a huge tender mercy, we aren't having to live in St. George & have Matt commute, we are renting an awesome house in the Centennial Hills area (Northwest LV) from my sister-in-law Jennifer's parents who live down here. They have been so completley welcoming & sweet, it's like having built in family already. Our ward and neighborhood here are also wonderful & very welcoming. Las Vegas is a huge city, but somehow it manages to have a small town attitude. I find the desert extremly peaceful, which is odd considering how un-peaceful the part of Vegas is that most people think of. It's much more than the Strip, and I love it.
There are a huge amount of awesome homes in our price range, but I'm finding myself being really, really picky as I look. Like "I-have-developed-multiple-styes-on-each-eyelid" picky. It just feels like we'll be here for a good long time, and I don't want to find myself in a home I like in an area that I don't. I don't want to put up with a home design/yard/neighborhood/ward that is anything less than awesome. We honestly just left the best ward & neighborhood that I have ever expericned. It was bliss. Sooo hard to leave. It's not even about getting the fanciest house, or a huge house (goodness no, I don't think I'll ever want a huge house, not my style) I'm seriously just trusting in the Lord to help us find the neighborhood that He would have us be in. That's my priority.
Well, that and a house that I can picture our family loving life in.
This post by the always inspiring Sarah of Clover Lane is helping me refocus my intentions right now. Perhaps that is another reason for the lightness of my heart lately.
I've been living in a state of gratitude. I've been ever so conscious of how mindful our Heavenly Father is of us, little us, and it blows my mind. The move to Layton, the
people we met there, the children I'm so lucky to have, the timing (and
loveliness) of Abram's birth, which ultimately lead to Cydney being with us, even the miscar
riages I went through, Matt working at Advanced Title (with Kirsten's husband Dave! a junior high pipe dream come true!), Matt running into
Jake & setting us down this path of moving to Vegas, so many other little things that simply didn't happen by accident! All these things have "worked together for our good".
Doctrine & Covenants Section 90 Verse 24 (this reference is inscribed into Matt's wedding ring by the way.)
Search diligently, pray always, and be believing,
and all things shall work together for your good,
if ye walk uprightly and remember
the covenant wherewith
ye have covenanted one with another.
Regardless of the reason for the smiles, I'm certain that staying in that grateful mindset will keep 'em coming, no matter what comes our way in the future.