Butterflies and Houses

What a crazy couple of days. Sunday I broke the news to the Young Women. It was so incredibly difficult I can't even think about it without tearing up again. My lesson was all about the changes that happen in our lives. I compared change to the changes that happen to a butterfly. Just like caterpillars, we too have to experience changes and trials in life. Change…whether internal or external, whether spiritual or physical—can make us more beautiful. We also talked about the things that we can do to help make changes more bearable and how we can prepare for them becuase no matter what, they happen to EVERYONE.

I made some pretty cute handouts too.

Got me some cute fabric:

Cut some cute butterflies, sewed 3 together at time, starched the fabric, crumpled the butterlifes and glued some cute buttons on the clothespins: (Sigh....I SO need a baby girl)

On the back I added a tag that said:
"How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar." I wanted the girls to pin their butterflies in their rooms somewhere to remember our lesson. I think it went well....I hope it did anyway.

Yesterday Nate and I did a quick trip to Idaho Falls for a quick home hunting excursion. We had one small co pilot in the back with us. He was SO good...especially since he was in that carseat pretty much the entire day.

I thought for sure I knew which house we were going to go with before we got there. Here was a picture of it:

It's totally my style right? It even LOOKS a little bit like my house now. Things aren't always what they seem though. The problems with this house included:
1. Too small. Yeah, it has a unfinished basement but even with the basement DONE it was still only a little bit bigger then our home right now. I was envisioning the LONG winters with us all squished in this house. :-(
2. No storage space. One teeny closet downstairs....not going to cut it.
3. Next to an very busy street.
4. No fence in the backyard.

Busy street + No fence= brain damage for an overly anxious mom

5. The last problem with the house was the breaking point for me. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate animals but I do hate ANIMAL STINK. The house reaked of DOG. I saw a pee stain on the carpet and THEN.........I couldn't even believe my eyes when I saw it:

Yep....a free roaming TURTLE in the house. Pooping and peeing at free will all over the house.

DEALBREAKER.

The good news is I think we found a house. It isn't new. It isn't fancy. It has plenty of room for my wild and crazy boys. It has 5 bedrooms, a craft room, a huge food storage room, a big playroom downstairs, and a big backyard. Best part of it is.....it's so affordable.

Wanna see it? Yeah....I knew you did.

Here is the outside:

And here is the kitchen:

Not a huge of fan of the white appliances. We have lots of painting to do but HEY, I won't have any friends...I'll have plenty of time for that!

As we drove back from Idaho Falls last night and saw the lights of Boise on the horizon Nate and I both had a mini meltdown. It's so hard to come back home to a HOUSE you absolutely LOVE in a PLACE that you love even more.