Arizona

I have been staying in our home in Arizona for the past 10 days. It has been wonderful to be here again close to the boys and their families. I spent the first few days unpacking boxes that have been sitting in the garage for the past several months and then trying to sort through what is left and trying to decide what to do with it all. I have many pieces of furniture that I no longer want and so I started by advertising on Craigs List but after one full week I still havent sold anything. I will probably end up giving it away.
Today Graeme and I spent the morning swimming and then watering the garden and washing down the back patio. We then drove into Mesa and did some shopping for Fathers Day (tomorrow) and then we went to San Tan Mall for lunch at Paradise Bakery. Salad and a sandwich was very refreshing. On our way home we decided to call out to Queen Creek to see if Glenda and Darwin were home. Luckily they were and so we had a nice time catching up on what our children are all up too. Nicole called and wanted us to meet her and Mike for dinner. We enjoyed a nice meal together and then we came home to a messy backyard due to a nice big dust storm that rolled through this afternoon! So all our work of cleaning this morning was useless as it is just as bad now after the storm!
I have spent the past few hours going through a box of memorabilia and reliving events of years past gone. It is amazing at how much I have forgotten over the years and it is so good to read about them and gradually have these memories come back to my mind. Some good and some not so good. Like the time I few back to Australia from Portand Oregon (where we were living at the time) with 3 young children. A 9 month old baby, a 2 year old and a 4 year old and me, by myself. In those days the fight went from Portand, to San Francisco, to Honolulu, to Fiji, to Sydney, to the Gold Coast. During this flight I had a 10 hour layover in Honolulu! as well as a coupe of hours in San Francisco and Sydney! I wanted to go home so badly to see my mother who was in hospital after suffering a stroke, that I was prepared to do anything. Any wonder that my family in Australia thought I looked worn out and exhausted when I finally arrived!
Gee, it is late. I have spent several hours going through the boxes and lost track of time. Off to bed for now.

CHANGES

Who would have thought I would ever get back onto this blog? I have a private Evans Family blog that I contribute too and so this one got put on the back burner. So much has changed over the past 3 years that it will take way too long to give an update. So I will try to just start from now and see if I can incorporate the family changes as I go.
The most exciting thing to happen is that my youngest child graduated from high school and Graeme and I are officially "empty nesters" YEAH!!! Now I love my kids but after having kids in the house for 42 years and getting kids through school for the past 37 years, I am ready to enjoy the next phase of our lives. Our youngest, Emily, will be starting college but for all intent and purposes she is really on her own. She is going to be living on campus and I wont be around to hound her to get up for classes or tidy her room etc. Also our second youngest, Kelsey has been living in Australia for the past 3 years. She studied for her beauty diploma and has been working as a beauty therapist for the past 18 months but she is now ready to go back to school and study some type of social work. (So technically, we still have 2 in school)
Graeme and I are planning on doing some traveling over the next 6 months so I will hopefully give updates on where and when we do that. One place we will be going to is Finland where our son Steven and his family are now living. They moved to Helsinki 7 months ago and will be there for a total of 3 years before moving back to the USA.
Right now we have 3 sons in Arizona, one daughter in Colorado, one daughter in Utah, one daughter in Australia and one son in Finland. So you might guess we have some interesting trips planned in the coming 6 months or so.
We also have a big move coming up. After living in Utah for the past 6 1/2 years, we have decided to move back to Arizona. We sold our house in North Salt Lake and for the past 6 months have been living in an apartment in downtown SLC. When the lease is up at the end of the year we will move back to our home in the desert in Arizona. I am so excited. I love our home in Arizona. It is so quiet and peaceful and beautiful.
Now I dont want to "overdo" this post so I will close here and get back to it tomorrow ( well we shall see!)