Gratitude Post....with a Twist

I realized it's been awhile since I did a gratitude post. This one is going to be a bit different than my previous ones. I was thinking this last week about all the times our family has moved over the years. I can't say that I've loved moving and starting over, but I realized I am TRULY grateful for each move and I can see that each one had it's purpose. So I'm going to tell you a bit about each place we've lived and why I'm grateful we were there.
~ Our first apartment...the four-plex in Bountiful. We lived there the first year we were married. We were close to Derrick's mom and we got to know her better. It was a great place for me to adjust to being in the city and away from my family.
~ The basement apartment in Sugarhouse (aka~The Murder House, different story for a different day). We lived here for a little over 2 years. While we were there I got to spend lots of time with my best friend Ann. I also had the best visiting teacher, who was an example of unconditional love and support.

I can't even tell you how long ago it seems since we lived here?

~ Next we bought a trailer in Woods Cross, we lived here longer than we have at any other place. This poor trailer needed a lot of work and to be honest, I really didn't want to buy it. Derrick did so much work to it, and to my amazement it became pretty cozy. We bought it cheep, and paid it off quick. This made it possible for Derrick to get through school with no student loans. While we were there Brock and Kaleb were both born. Derrick's mom was close and helped us quite a bit with Brock when he was a baby. Good memories, I can't believe we were here for over 4 years!

~ From there we spent a few months at a 1 bedroom apartment in Bountiful (yes, we had 2 kids and 2 adults in that one bedroom). I wouldn't mention this one, but my Great Uncle happened to be the Stake President there. It had been a lot of years since I had been active in the Church, and well, I didn't really want him to know that, so we started going to Church. That was the push I needed to make some changes in my life.
~Santaquin, where so I even start? When Derrick got a job in Springville I told him I really didn't want to go farther south than Spanish Fork. Our realtor found somethings in Santaquin that he wanted to show us, and we decided to at least look. We ended up buying a house that had been re-poed and needed some work. I KNOW we were supposed to live there. I made friends that I will forever cherish, they were both the examples I needed and a great support system. They cheered me on when I went to the Temple and cried with me when we decided to move. I doubt any of the people there really know the impact they had on my life, but they truly made a difference. I am also thankful that during that time I got to spend time with my Grandma and now that she is gone I am glad I got that chance.

Our first REAL house (I'm not sure why this picture scanned this way?)

~ From there we were off to Mona and honestly, I was not happy about it. I didn't want to leave Santaquin and even a spankin' new house didn't make it much better. We learned so much while we were building our house there (I was grateful for that down the road a bit). Kaleb was also able to get into the most awesome early intervention speech program. Now you would never realize that he struggled with his speech, and I think that program made the difference. Mona~ I have to look close to tell if it's the Mona house or our house now... We built the same one TWICE!

~ Derrick got a job in Fillmore just 18 months after we moved to Mona. Our house had an offer the first day we put a sign up so we knew this was the right thing for us, so off went to Fillmore. Derrick's dad and Sheri were generous and let us live in her mom's house while we were building, again!
~ That brings us to our last (hopefully for the rest of our lives) move. HOME! We both always knew we wanted to end up here and, well, it was a long road, but we're here. The things we learned building in Mona came in so handy when we were building our second house in two years, and it was much easier this time around. Most of our family is here and our roots are here. What good memories we have of each of the places we've lived and I can say, I am GRATEFUL to have moved 10 times in the almost 13 years that we've been married. Really the most important thing to me is that my little family is there and that's all that really matters in the end!

Home Sweet Home!

****Edited to add~ We also lived with Derrick's mom for a few weeks after all the drama at the murder house, and rented an apartment in Santaquin while we were waiting for our house to be done. That makes up the entire 10 moves that I mentioned earlier!