The last five weeks have been some of the best five weeks I could have ever asked for. My brother-in-law graduated from ASU in May. They came to stay with us for what we thought would just be a few days before they went off to California while Cuyler hunted for a job. I prayed that I would have some time with my sister before they moved away, but didn't expect it to be long, especially the closer their moving date got. They got here May 22nd. Their house had been really sick with a stomach bug and it hit our house within the next few days. We celebrated Joseph's birthday but he got sick that night too, so we spent the next week trying to recover. We had a do-over birthday for Joseph doubled up with my nephew Andy's birthday celebration on Memorial Day.
The week after that Joseph was headed off to Europe so Sarah's family stayed for that. We treated that week like we were on vacation, mostly by eating a few too many desserts. Sarah & I started working out together the week after they got here and she invited me to a Meltdown Challenge which is a health competition where you try to lose 4% of your body fat in a given time, which in our case is 4 weeks. I had been working out before they got here, but wasn't seeing any results. This health challenge has helped me stop my tendency to snack on chocolate several times a day and has helped me make more healthy choices about my food. I've been working out 5 days a week for the past 4 weeks, which I know is helping... but this challenge has only been going for 2 weeks and I've already lost 4 lbs! Here's to being healthy!
Cuyler took some family pictures for us while he was here. He also taught me how to change my guitar strings... maybe now I'll start playing again.
The kids spent the last 5 weeks playing basically from the time they woke up until bed time every day. We are so glad they got to spend so much time together building their friendships. (This picture was at the Visitor's Center at the Mesa Temple... the only one missing is Melanie.)
My sister's family moved to California yesterday. I'm not going to lie, I've cried several times already about it. Sarah moved down to Phoenix just after Austin was born. She's lived less than an hour away from me all this time and we've always been able to get together on occasion. We've been blessed to spend so many birthdays and holidays together during that time. We've gotten to visit each other in the hospital for the births of several of our babies. I feel like I have pretty much come to terms with the fact that she's moving, but I'm slowly realizing all of the things we're not going to have anymore and my heart sinks a little with each realization. I am so blessed to have her in my life. I love that we are close in age and got to grow up sharing a room, that we both ended up at BYU and even got to be roommates for a semester, and that we've both been in Phoenix for the past 6 years when she really only intended to be here for her one year of Grad School. Thank goodness for modern technology that will make it so easy for us to keep in touch.
Sarah once gave me a gift with a quote that said, "I loved you too much to just be your friend, so God let me be your sister." I have often thought of that quote over the years and I am so grateful that God let me be her sister... out of all of the girls in the world he let ME be her sister. I will be forever grateful. Even though the living together in Phoenix chapter of our lives is closed, I have so many happy memories to think back on. Dr. Seuss once said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I think that's what I'll do. :)