Sweet November

November was a good month. It was full of thanks, and that's the way it should be. I often find myself wanting to post on this blog when I'm feeling frustrated or upset or otherwise ungrateful in some way, but I know that everyone feels that way time and again, and I don't want to practice being the person that dwells on that. I want to perpetuate the positive, and I am thankful that I'm able to do that.

I feel so blessed. I am home with my kiddos, even today, when Emma and Audrey are home from school sick, I love to be with them. They are good kids. They have good desires in their hearts, and I have to keep that at the top of my "list-type" mind to remember that they are kids, and they do what kids do best.

Amid all the mess, disorganization and occasional frustration that comes with a stay at home parent (I'm careful to use "parent" in that phrase because Tim was such a good stay at home parent and I don't discount the many, many dads that are at home with kiddos while moms work) I feel like I am new at this whole full time parenting thing.  I feel like I'm starting a whole new life.

It is a cross roads.

I can either choose to be dumpy about missing all my friends and family and familiarity of Gilbert, AZ now that I am home and could enjoy all that more, or I can get out, learn and enjoy all this area has to offer, meet and make new friends, and learn to cook, clean and keep a home with more depth and detail and happiness than before. 

So, as I am home with my kiddos, I realize the weight of consequence of the way I choose to spend my time.  I am still trying to figure out how my baby is 4 1/2 years old. I'm trying to figure out how to cook, where my creative muscles went, how to keep up with my running routine, and do it all with a smile in my heart, if not on my face.

I've never really been a good writer, but I aspire to improve.  I don't know if I want to be great, but I know as I work on the things I feel are important and are valuable, I will improve.  Writing is one of them.  I appreciate anyone who wants to read and give tips and/or suggestions or just spend a virtual moment with me here on this blog. We've been private for a few years, but I am trying out a different setting for a few posts and we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading.

Chapter 1, prologue...

Here we are. I posted over two months ago that we were moving to Georgia. Well, we did it. We. Did. It.

Here is the play-by-play version.  

July 17: Email from Atlanta, Georgia : "You serious about moving down South to work?"
July 23: Phone interview with folks in Atlanta, it went well...
July 25:  Another phone interview... These guys like Tim.
July 30: Skype interview, during the interview, they plan on Tim coming to Atlanta for an in person interview.
August 6-7: Interview in Atlanta, went well. They say they'll let us know in a week, but we don't think they'll offer us the position. Time to move on.
August 10: Email from Atlanta, " We need more time to decide on a candidate."
August 17: Phone call from Atlanta with an offer of work. Blew our expectations of pay and benefits.
August 18: We tell our family we are moving across the country. Lots of tears shed (both happy and sad)
August 20: I give my 2 weeks notice at the best office I've ever worked in. I cry. A lot.
August 24-26: House hunting trip to Atlanta, looked at some dumps, but found a gem!
August 29: Last day of work, many tears shed all week. Movers come and pack up our stuff
September 2: Send off party for Harper Family at the Harper's. Lots of amazing friends, family, laughs and tears.
September 3: My last run in AZ for a while. I sob the entire 3 miles. Finish packing for the 3 day drive. 
September 4: Leave AZ. Lots of tears, Tim drives our truck, I drive the van with the kiddos.  It was an adventure for sure, but if I could do it again, I would do it without a deadline.
September 6: Arrive in Woodstock, GA and sign for our rental house and stay in another motel, because we don't have our stuff for 3 more days.
September 7: Get kids registered for school.
September 8: Ward social, meet lots of amazing families and friends that are kindred spirits for sure.
September 10: First day of school/work/moving truck arrives/ Life in Atlanta begins, only two short months after offhandedly applying for a position as the Associate Facility Manager for the Atlanta Georgia Temple working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Wow.

And the long version of it will come from here on out as I attempt to resurrect this blog and get out my feelings as I take on a whole new challenge of at-home parenting and Tim works a very rewarding but very difficult job; all very far from home, family, and many things familiar.

I hope this blog will be noticed and read and sometimes enjoyed by those dear to us that aren't near to us for the time being.

We don't know how long we'll be here in Georgia.  We don't know how long Tim will be in the position he is in, he wants to advance and improve his skills and broaden his working horizons. He has great goals, but we also want to keep our main priority of doing and going where the Lord wants us to go.

I know we had it pretty sweet and easy in AZ. We were blooming there (which is why I put the beautiful cactus blooms on the background of the blog).  We were happy and could have been happy there indefinitely.  

I chronicled our experience of losing our home here, and that was a huge life changing event in our family.  That was 2 years ago this month.  We handled that well, knowing that it was part of the Lord's plan for our family.  It was hard, and a long dark tunnel we had to go through, but we had faith it would be for our good.  And it was. We are stronger and more faithful because of it.  Now, here we are, with another life changing opportunity laid in our path, and we chose of our own free will to take the chance to have some faith and make it grow.  It reminds me of a message shared in General Conference by President Henry B. Eyring called "Mountains to Climb". Well, that is a little bit of what Tim and I felt when we quietly received this job offer.  We knew it came from Heavenly Father. We knew that this was an opportunity for us to grow our faith, strengthen our little family unit, and smile in the face of adversity.  We knew that all the events that have happened in the last few years of our life have prepared us to accept this opportunity to grow and move and struggle and be blessed.

Well, we are.  All of that.  It has been a challenge for all of us, and I think the biggest challenge of all, is remembering that we chose this.  Remember that we chose to move away from family, to get closer to family out here. Remembering that we chose to leave our friends and make new friendships here.  Remembering that Heavenly Father has His hand in our lives, and that when we have faith and let Him lead us, we will be happy through the difficulties we face.

Now, I'm not professing to be a great writer, but I feel the weight of necessity to record our experiences here so that we can remember, enjoy and also look forward with faith in this plan for our family.  I hope I will be able to balance my time spent here as well as on my new full time job of at-home-parent and through my records and reflections, I may be able to enjoy, learn, grow, but most of all... Remember.

So, here at the beginning, I want to remember. I want to soak up ever last drop of joy, heartache, growth, tears, laughs, and memories. And I want to share it here. 

So I can remember.

Moving to Georgia, y'all!!

Well, this post marks the end of an amazing chapter and the beginning of a whole new one for the Harpers.  When I renamed this blog 4 years ago, we decided to put USA in the name, because deep down somewhere we knew we would be leaving beautiful AZ for a new adventure with our family.  Well, here we are, and we are getting ready to say goodbye for a while to our close friends and family, then start a new life and new adventure in a whole new area in Georgia.  I will be at home with the kids, and Tim will be working full time and it will be away from family and most things familiar.  It will push us all out of our comfort zones, but we are up for the challenge.  One of my goals at home will be to record all our amazing adventures, and what better place than to revitalized my USA blog and share our adventures with our family and friends. We are excited, scared, humbled, nervous, sad, and most of all ready for a great adventure. Come along with us!!

In my quest to discover and nurture my "passions" (I learned about this from a passion guru) I am trying to be more in tune with the way I feel when I talk about something I do or like or am interested in.  What is a passion you ask? It is something you would do every day if you never got paid. I've defined 2 today, well I've known about them, but they came out of the mist and cleared up in my head as actual passions in my life. They are as follows, (with more to be revealed later):

• My kids and husband
• Health and wellness
• Running. period.

I separated health and wellness from running because I get a different "feeling" when I think of running than when I think of health and wellness. When I think of running, I get all tingly.  When I plan for a run, I am happy and look forward to it.  I define a 'good' run as putting on my shoes and treading long enough to get sweaty and clear my head. Sometimes it takes only 20 minutes, sometimes it goes for an hour.  It doesn't matter how fast or slow I go, or how many "pick-ups" or "sprints" I complete, just that I feel like I've centered my head for the day. 

I stopped, or fell out of habit of this blog because it wasn't my passion.  I felt it was taking me away from my passion, which is my kids and Tim.  I discovered recently a blog and the author has a way of writing and cutting through the distractions and defining how to make the most of time to be spent on what matters most.

That is my passion.

I knew it all along, but have just realized it. Good thing it's not too late. I can make the most of today, today. Yay!!  So, as I make realizations, I'll share what I can. I haven't been totally off the record, I actually dusted off my old Journal out of my bedside table and have been writing in that consistently since January.  I continue to search for clarity, and now have decided that the search can be as amazing as the discovery.  

Hopefully more to come soon! 

I found hands free mama blog online. It is my new favorite. I'll find the link, the other  one was broken or wrong.
 Here it is: it is the facebook, with links I think...
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hands-Free-Revolution/148689625181672

Here's the album.... Cross your fingers it works....!

What's up with the Harper's? Click to explore...


Open the album and click on the slideshow, hopefully I'll figure out how to add a slideshow directly to the blog, but this is a huge step for me.  There is more, but this is a small snippit.  We are so blessed to have healthy girls and a happy family, and I love to share and document as much as I can.

What we've really been up to...

I think I've managed to make a picasa web album of our doings of late, at least some of them.  That is coming... but most importantly is Emma's baptism today.  She was so beautiful and the day was nearly perfect.  Emma was really in tune with the Spirit, and was just so sweet.  She has a special spirit about her, she is one of those Spiritual Giants who just knows. 

Where are we?

That is a GREAT question!  When I have the answer, I'll let you know.  We are a busy family.  I don't know how we got to this point.  I guess it's not a point, rather it's a phase of our family. I'm so blessed to be working 5 days a week right now.  It's a kicker on the body, but at least the finances are not as scary.  Emma is out of school and just turned 8. Her baptism is scheduled for July 9th and we are so happy for her.  Audrey and Kennedy are just so much fun at ages 5 and 3.  They all keep us busy, more Tim at home with all of them while he's working on graduate school/employment/cars/being amazing.  I'm running a little bit still, planning for a half marathon again in November, but the hardest thing for me is the time away from my family when I go training.  I have terrible "working mom" guilt.  I'm sure that it's just in my head and I should just forget it, but that's easier said than done.  Until then, I try to spend as much quality time with Tim and the girls.  My life feels like a bullet point list these days.  Most of it stuff I feel like I need, but don't want to afford (example:  new running shoes and possibly a visit to the chiropractor because of an injury caused by my 350 miles old shoes...etc! both of which will cost $hundreds$) But, it is all important, so trying to decide what is not as important is really difficult for me.

 My biggest challenge lately is the time vaccuum of digital toys...ie music/mp3photos.  I would love to be able to listen to the latest and greatest music and I love to listen to the Ensign Magazine on my phone, and share amazing pictures of my girls and family, but I am seriously BACKWARD when it comes to that kind of technology.  I don't know if it's because I am not into buying the latest greatest mp3 or phones to do it (because I am a Frugal Franny) or what, but I end up spending time I don't have (which at this point is more valuable than the money).  Maybe I just need validation that it really does take a lot of time to do that junk, but I can't see how it is worthwhile to waste that much time.  I never thought I'd say this but I wish I had my old cassette walkman and my mix tape recorded form the radio!!  I'd rather believe I'm just so technologically declined it doesn't work for me, because it's me. And that's all the time and patience I have to talk about it.