Change of Plans

Remember in this post how I announced we were moving to Florida?...well, change of plans! The day after Matt put his paperwork and some money down to accept his seat in Florida, we were blessed with a better opportunity! Heavenly Father knew our struggle with the distance of Florida and opened another door for us.

Matt received a phone call from Western University in Pomona, CA and they wanted to offer him a chance to come to their school. Right away a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders and I had to shed a few tears of relief, joy and graditude. I know our Heavenly Father is mindful of us!

For the last two weeks we have been jumping through all the hoops trying to make this happen for us. Going through all the formalities and such seems like it's taken forever. We didn't get the official word of his acceptance until today. Although yesterday, I spoke with one of the directors and she basically told me he was accepted, they were just waiting on some paperwork. (Paperwork we had sent, but must have been misplaced!)

So guess what I had to do today...I had to say goodbye to my husband for the next three weeks! (I hope it's only that long!) It was a teary goodbye on both ends! We don't want to be apart! He has to be in Pomona by Thursday morning for orientation, and school will start for him on Monday, I believe. It's been a crazy, stressful, emotional few days. I don't want to be away from him, we've never been away from each other this long, not even close to this long. We had to quickly buy a second car to get him there, and get him around. He's had to finish some work as fast as he could here. I had to make sure I got all his laundry done and we had to both hope that we weren't forgetting anything he would need to survive. It's been a whirlwind!

He's going down there with no place to live, and we hope that he can find a place for our family quickly. Malcolm and I still have to finish our own school here. It's finals week for me, and I have been distracted with all going on, and haven't gotten anything done I need to. I will be officially done Thursday afternoon. Malcolm will be done next Tuesday. I have the privilege of packing our whole house and then moving down at the end of the month with three crazy boys.

I'm grateful we have lots of family and friends here that can help me survive and get ready for the biggest move we've ever had to make. I am very excited for this adventure, but also very nervous since it's moving so fast.

I am so incredibly thankful to start on this journey of medical school, and I'm thankful to do it on the west coast. We'll still have lots of beach and sun, it's just a different beach and a different ocean then we thought we were going to.

I'm so incredibly proud of Matthew and all his hardwork getting us to this point. I'm thankful to have chosen such an amazing man for my husband. I'm also grateful for his strong faith and testimony in the Gospel.

We hope we will get lots of family and friends to come and visit us since we will only be a half an hour from Disneyland. If that doesn't entice you, then maybe Legoland would. Or maybe just a nice warm beach! Either way, you can have lots of fun visiting the Hardy Inn, it just might be a tight squeeze and not much privacy. But you can't complain when the accommodations are free!

Life's a beach...

...and that's where we'll be spending lots of our time when we move to Fort Lauderdale. Florida!

Matt's been accepted into Nova Southeastern University, and we'll be starting our journey of medical school. I know that we are suppose to travel down this road. I'm so incredibly proud of him. I've never seen him work so hard for something, and I know he can do it. We'll be moving in 9 short weeks! Scary!

All Moved In (Almost)

Well we finally got to move in to our own place at the end of August. It was so nice after living with our parents, basically all summer. Especially since we moved from one to the other and lived out of suitcases. It's been a crazy summer.

We've been really blessed with this move. When we decided to move back for the time being, it was a hard decision to make, period. It would be hard to leave the life we were used to in Pullman. Living by people all in the same circumstance, poor college students. Really hard to leave our best of friends (We miss you Poteets!), and hard to see our really good friends move away too (I love you Erica!!). We decided it would be best for us, and there was nothing going for us in Pullman anyways.

We found an apartment to move into here, but a week before the move, we found out that the Earl's were needing someone to live in their house while they went off on another mission. (Just got back from Peru, and now off to Madrid, Spain as mission presidents!) What a blessing for us! It saved us money, but gave us a TON more space. So it wasn't a hard choice to move in the Earl's and here's why. It's a HOUSE! It has a YARD! It has a fire pit. (We've already roasted marshmallows twice!) It's 3 story with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. The best thing of all, it's RIGHT NEXT DOOR to my in laws!!! Seriously, no competition to living in an apartment. Plus, it might be the biggest house we will ever live in. We had to take advantage of that.

I've scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed this house. I like to know that the dirt I see is MY dirt. I'm weird. Toothbrushes are seriously my best friend when I clean, can't live without them in my cleaning bucket. I'm not all the way done cleaning though. I haven't even TOUCHED the basement, and since we really aren't using it as a living space, it's the last thing on my list right now. We still have some boxes at Matt's parents, so we're not all the way moved in, technically. I have unpacked most of the stuff we have here though.

The Earl's still have all their furniture here, so it's been really interesting to add our stuff to it. Not that we have a lot, but we've had to figure out where to put things, but it's looking good. They already had two dining room tables in the house, so we've put ours out on the deck. It's a nice touch to the deck, and if anything "happened" to my table, not a big deal, since I bought it for $50 at a garage sale.

Anyways, I'm loving the house. It's great to have so much room. There's too much room in fact, I could never fill all the cupboards. I'm also loving have a room dedicated to a playroom. If the kids don't help clean up, I lock it and they can't play! Ha! I'm mean!! I also LOVE having a laundry room. I've always wanted one!

So if anyone wants to come hang out with the Hardy's and stay for a while, we have plenty of room for you!! Thank you Doug and Connie for being so generous and letting us call your house home!

So I've only taken a few pictures when I've been outside with the kids. (I love that I can send the older boys out by themselves, but Winston needs a little outside time every now and again.)

This is the view from the pergola. (I just learned this word from my mother in law. I had no clue what it was called.) It over looks this waterfall my father in law built in the back of his yard. Matt just power washed the pergola out and also power washed the hammock, so I'm looking forward to some relaxing times out there.
This is the view from the kitchen window and off the deck. I love to look out a window while doing dishes!
I was reading a photography book while watching the kids outside, so I had to get my camera out and play a bit. I just loved this macro shot!
These other pictures are just some random pictures I took this month, but didn't have any real post for them to go in.

My mother in law has tons of orchids in her house. I love orchids, thanks to her, and had some of my own, but they didn't like apartments, so she's inherited all mine as well.
Winston is so adorable. I love this little beast. I'm afraid he's going to be the child I always worry about. He has no fear, and doesn't learn from climbing stuff and falling off. His hair is getting so long. He looks so cute, but seriously has the mullet going on. Since the mullet isn't coming back in style, along with all the other 80's trends, I think it might be time to cut it. I'm dreading it though. His hair has cute blond highlights from the sun this summer. I had to look back through the blog when his last haircut was, it's been since April. That's a long time without a haircut!

Almost Forgot!

I forgot that I wanted to post this picture of Winston. While the boys and I were back home packing, the boys were so excited to be back with their toys. One morning while Malcolm and Quinn were playing with their cowboy guns, Winston brings me these holsters and wants me to put them on him. He thought he was just as big as his brothers with those things on. He wore them around for quite a while!
P.S. Don't mind the Christmas jammies in July. That's what happens when both your older brothers are born in July. When they were 18 months, it was Christmastime. So what does Winston get when he's 18 months, a whole lot of cozy and warm clothes, along with Christmas jammies!!

MOVING ON UP!

At the end of July we moved away from our home of four years. We have been in Pullman for the majority of our marriage, and really the only place the kids remember as our "hometown". It was a little bittersweet to move away. We had to leave behind some of our best friends, some have already moved on, and lots of fun memories. It was a good, small college town to live in, with some fun stuff to do though.

We moved back home for the time being. We're hoping it'll only be for a year, while were waiting to get into school. Since it's not up to us if we get in, it could be longer. We thought we'd like to be close to our family, since we don't know where we will end up for sure. We moved all our stuff into storage for the time being, while we wait for the house we are renting to be ready.

A few pictures of our empty apartment. I could have cool pictures of all the boxes, moving truck, the men loading it, me cleaning, but I didn't take them. Matt took these, so it's what I have.
It's always weird to see your house empty. This is the last of everything and the last place we were cleaning.
It ended up being a crazy time to move. We would have liked to have moved the end of June, but we didn't know if Matt would have a job, and if it really would have been a good time. Matt ended up being able to work with his dad, so when we went home for Father's Day weekend, we ended up just staying. So basically all summer, we lived out of suitcases.

After my California trip, the boys and I went home for a week so I could start packing and getting boxes. It's really hard to pack by yourself, and still take care of three kids. I have some nice neighbors and a few of them took the older boys for a few hours.

I also went home by myself once from a Sunday night through a Tuesday morning, and packed some more without kids. I got a lot more done, and nearly finished up with the packing then. Besides the odds and ends. Those are always the worst.

Finally Thursday, July 30th, Matt and I, and Ryan and Stephanie went down for the move. I can't believe we were able to do it all that fast.

Even though it was such a crazy move, it was such a blessing that we waited to move until that time. Matt's parents neighbors and best friends, the Earl's, were just getting back from their mission in Peru, but were called to be mission presidents in Madrid, Spain. So they needed someone to live in their house. So with the perfect timing we get to live right next to my in laws, in a big beautiful home. We just had to wait a few weeks to be able to move in, while the Earls came home to report on their mission and spend sometime at home.

Thanks to everyone who helped us move, and watched our kids in the process! We have some great family and friends!

I took some pictures on my trip back from Pullman, when the boys and I went by ourselves. It's a long and boring drive to Pullman, but it sure has some beautiful farm land along the way.



We will miss you Pullman and all our friends! We will always have some great memories there. Especially the birth of our 3rd son, and the amazing hospital he was born in. I sure will miss that hospital!!

Not Much To Say

Is it already Friday!?! Where has the week gone. I don't have much to say, just had to post a little about last week.

Last Tuesday I was going to go home. We were moving into a bigger apartment and I wanted to start the cleaning and packing. I woke up on Tuesday really sick. I can't remember the last time I ever felt that sick. I could barely function and walking up the stairs was HARD! I would get to the top and have to sit down. I'm so glad that's over.

We moved from a 2 bedroom apartment into a 3 bedroom. We just moved across the parking lot in the same complex, so the layout of the apartment was the same just another bedroom and bathroom. On Wednesday Mom, Brianne and Leisha were all so kind to come and help me for the day. Leisha watched the kids, while Mom and Brianne cleaned my new apartment. I had great plans to move one room at a time since it was the same layout and everything could go in the same place. On Thursday morning the kids slept in while I got ready, I thought the day was starting out perfect. Then Quinn got up and wasn't acting like himself. He ended up throwing up, so I knew I wouldn't be getting much done. Thursday night Matt talked Tom (Brianne's husband) to come with him and help him move the big stuff. They worked like mad men and moved almost everything over that night. We even slept in our own beds in the new apartment. Although they ruined my plans for nice organization, they got it done.

Mom and Pop came down Friday night and spent the night. Mom helped me clean the old apartment and get everything cleaned and organized in the new. It wasn't a bad move, since everything already had it's place. I can go home to just having to hang pictures. Thanks everyone for the help...I really needed it and it made it go so fast!

The boys were worn out. They were both asleep within 20 minutes. (It's hard to take a picture while your driving!) Matt rode his motorcycle home, and I was nervous the whole 2 hours. At one point he kicked off one of his side panels to the bike and I had to turn around and get it. That scared me!

These are all the 3 year old cousins at Mom's on Sunday night. How cute...and they all suck their thumbs. (Although Malcolm isn't in this picture.) This peace and quiet only lasted for about 5 minutes.