November 6, 2010

Where do I begin?  How about with the ending? (for now anyways)...

WE MOVED TO A PERMANENT HOME!!!!!!!!  And it’s AMAZING!!!!

So, now if you don’t want to read the rest, at least you know we are FINALLY settled.  The last couple of weeks have been exhausting – mentally and physically.  We have had quite a few long days looking at different areas & homes.  We even had a realtor show us some different areas and homes for sale & rent.  No, we are not going to move here forever, but often times owners that have their property for sale will also rent it do to the real estate “crises” here – sound familiar?.  It’s been a hard decision because we came to Portugal for a few specific reasons and so we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to find just the right house in just the right area. But, I think we made the right decision.  About 2 weeks ago we had pretty much come to the conclusion that we were going to take the house in Vila Nova de Poiares – which was the home I talked about in a previous post.  It seemed like just the right place to me.  But, not everyone in our family agreed with that.  And we had looked for so long that I was ready to move there or give up completely.  Well, the day before we were going to let the landlord know that we wanted to move in Rick found a home via internet that was on a lake in a small town.  He was tired of looking at homes, but I said – “no, let’s go take a look just to be sure” (or something like that).  So, we packed up the kids once again and took off on a day trip to go check it out.  It was about an hour and a half drive.  The GPS couldn’t get us directly to the house, so the lands keeper met us up the road and took us to the house.    Devan instantly loved the lake, Tanner ran around the property exploring, I fell in love with the grounds (although the house was way too big), Rick liked the whole set up, but Kaylie was still stuck on Poiares.  I was torn between the two homes because there are so many great things about both.  And they each offered different great things.  So, then it put us into a position of choosing between the two, which confused us even more.  That was 2 Saturdays ago.  We hadn’t brought clothes to change into for church the next day (or we could have stayed in a hotel), so we drove the 1 ½ hours home and drove all the way back the next morning to check out the ward.  When we pulled up to where our GPS led us, there wasn’t a single car parked in front.  That was kind of weird.  But, there was a plaque with our churches name on it, so we knew we were at the right place.  We got our stuff and headed in.  Come to find out, after being greeted by 2 missionaries, we were supposed to change our clocks.  I guess Portugal changes theirs a week earlier than Utah.  Funny.  So, we were an hour early for church.  And then the second thing we find out - it’s a “branch”, not a “ward”.  So, sacrament meeting only had a total of 12 people (counting us).  Crazy.    Poor missionaries.  They do everything.  One of them is the President (Elder Sagebin) and one is the 1^st Counselor (Elder Tanner).  Elder Tanner usually teaches Primary (which has 2-3 kids, depending on the week), but this Sunday he taught Relief Society because the Relief Society President didn’t show up and there were no Primary kids.  We had taken off to drive back to the house to “clock” it and check out the area in the daylight.  We figured we’d come back for sacrament, which is the last hour of church.  Church usually starts late because 2 ladies have to take the bus and it gets them there late, and the other families usually show up late.  They have to be pretty flexible since they have that small of a group.  Anyways, sacrament was cool because Elder Sagebin gave an impromptu talk half in Portuguese and half in English (I wonder why).  That was pretty cool, for our kid’s sake.  The missionaries were pretty jazzed that we were considering moving in to the branch.  Before sacrament started the Counselor in the District Presidency (who was visiting the branch) took Rick aside and was trying to convince him to move our family there because of the lack of Priesthood.

Well, the next week was pure torture (ok, not really).  It actually was pretty cool because we decided to have a family meeting and pray about it.  Devan said our nighttime family prayer, then we all slept/contemplated it.  Then the next day Rick read a scripture about asking in faith and receiving either a “burning in your bosom” or a “stupor of thought”.  We knelt together and each of us took a turn praying about which house would be the “right” one.  As much as I was still hoping to move to the house in Poiares, I really “felt” like the lake house was the one.  And so did Rick.  But, one problem with the lake house was that it was more money than we were wanting to spend.   I guess Heavenly Father knows best because the owner of the lake house sent Rick an e-mail letting him know that he’d drop the price for us.  I guess it was meant to be.

Well, we made the deal with the owner and planned to move in over the weekend.  Then he called us and told us he was going to Spain for the weekend and we wouldn’t be able to move in until the following week.  Then he called back and told us he’d meet us in Coimbra to bring us the key and we could move in whenever we want.  Pretty nice considering it was at least an hour to an hour and a half drive for him and he was leaving for Spain the next day.  So, while we were in Coimbra we rented a truck, headed home, packed up the next morning and moved.  Pretty crazy!!

The house is great.  But, really, it is too big for us.  Each of the kids has their own room and bathroom, we have an awesome master suite, and then there are 2 completely empty bedrooms.  And one of them has 4 twin beds in it. The family room is gigantic with a huge fireplace, and the dining room seats 12.  In other words – plenty of room for guests.  So, if you’ve ever thought about going to Portugal NOW IS THE TIME!!  We have plenty of room (and time) for you.  And we’ve discovered that you can fly to Paris and back for like $25.  So you could even take a day trip to Paris (we’re considering that).  Now that’s a thought!!

Well, we moved in on Friday.  We had to get our rental truck back to the company here, in the nearest town (called Tomar – another thing you can google, if interested).  So, we dumped all of our stuff in the entryway and headed to town, before they closed.  Devan had decided he didn’t want to come because he wanted to fish and hunt crawdads.  So, we left him at the house.  We returned the truck and walked around the town to see what food it had to offer and we run into….     The missionaries!!  So, they tell us about this Italian restaurant that they heard was great; and, we head over with them for a VERY yummy dinner.  While at dinner I get a phone call from Devan.  He was stuck in the PITCH black of night on the dock.  Pretty freaky.  Literally pitch black.  Poor kid – he waited out there, in the cold, for about an hour and a half until we got back.  It’s not a super long walk back to the house, but it’s uphill, on a trail that’s surrounded by bushes and trees.  And without a decent flashlight – you’re hating life.  Guess what Rick purchased the next day?  Yep – a good flashlight.  And I plan on purchasing a few more.  Because the house is big and the grounds are big – the kids were a little freaked out the first couple of days.  But, they are adapting quickly.

Well, I’ll end this now, because I’m sure you’re sick of reading.  In the next post I’ll tell you about Halloween here in Portugal and our weekend.

Love you and miss you (and my GIGANTIC ward back home)

Denise