Even though I thought we'd be in North Ogden a while, at the time, I didn't want to be. You can read more about my past thoughts on that here. But then I fell in love with North Ogden's charms: its views, its 'circled by mountains' feel, its community feel, my dear friends, my walking group, my book club, and my sweet youth. The last six months in our North Ogden home, I was finally feeling settled. I felt like our house was finally looking like a put together home, and I was resolved that we would be there a while.
Then my "settled feeling" got disrupted when Ben and I went on a walk in Pleasant View (five minutes from North Ogden) in March. We were talking about all the things we'd like in a future home: a big yard, established trees, character, a non-split-level layout, etc. As we were walking, we found an open house of a home we really liked. It surprised Ben and I how much we liked it, and it got the wheels turning that "wow, there really are homes with a lot of the features we like out there."
Even though the house excited me, I was not thinking of moving anytime soon. However, Ben began his ritual of looking at Zillow for different homes each night before he went to bed. When he found something "noteworthy," he would show me the pictures and we'd talk about pros and cons, but I didn't take it that seriously.
One night in May, Ben showed me pictures of a home he found in Farmington, which really excited me. I had told Ben I'd love to end up in the Kaysville/Farmington area if we remained in Utah because schools are amazing, there are good communities, and you are even closer to lots of fun things to do in Utah.
We looked at the home, and I loved it even more than I expected...then came decision time...to buy or not to buy? I wanted it to be right so badly. There are many things about that area that, long-term, seemed so much more appealing to me than the greater Ogden area. Ben and I both prayed about it and got a definite "you need to stay in the greater Ogden area" answer.
After getting our answer, I thought "well, that experience was just to confirm to us that we need to stay put in our home, which is great because, for the most part, I like it here, and there is almost no where else in the greater Ogden area that I'd want to live."
Two weeks later, Ben was doing his nightly Zillow routine when he found another home that had been listed the day before in Pleasant View. I looked at the pictures and was very interested, but I told him "If we need to stay in the greater Ogden area, I'd just assume stay here than move five minutes away from a perfectly good home." With some convincing, Ben persuaded me to go look at the home with him the next day.
The day of the home showing arrived. I went on my regular morning walk with my dear friends. As I was getting into the car to leave I distinctly heard "Your time is short here." It stunned me. It was like Heavenly Father was telling me "you're going to move really quickly, and you need to emotionally and mentally prepare yourself." I was trying to absorb that impression all day until, with great anticipation, we went to the house. We were so excited, and with my new impression, it felt like "this could be really happening!"
Instead, as we walked around the house we thought "cute, but it'll need lots of updating in the next few years....more yard work than we want....pink walls...etc." We told the realtor that we weren't interested and went home.
They must be right when they tell you need to "sleep on major decisions" because we both woke up with an intense desire to see the house again, and realized that doing some fixing up isn't a bad thing, we just hadn't prepared ourselves for that when we first walked in.
We saw the house again, and we were sold. It felt like we needed to be there.
From there, everything is a whirlwind.
We made an offer on the house, which was accepted.
We had our house up for sale a week later, and we had a good offer on our house the day after it was on the market...but we needed to be out in two weeks.
Without help from family and friends, we could not have done what we did in two weeks. And with so much help, we did it; we moved.
I think I am still digesting the fact that we really did it. We are really here. We are really not there. It's funny how you can move seven minutes away, but things can feel so different.
There are times where I miss the morning light flooding our old home, our kitchen storage space, the size of our master bedroom and closet, our updated sinks, seeing my ward friends, etc.
But then I think of how strongly we felt we needed to be here and that this is exactly where Heavenly Father wants us right now. He had so many critical steps fall into place at the exact right time for us to be here.
And so, again, I am falling in love.
I am falling in love with my beautiful view and can't believe how unique each sunset is I see from my window; I am falling in love with our closeness to the fruit stands on HWY 89; I am falling in love with our location; I am falling in love with our private, established yard that lets us harvest fresh nectarines, peaches, apples, apricots, blackberries, raspberries, and asparagus; I am falling in love with our little court yard; I am falling in love with the hominess and coziness that characterizes this home.
Heavenly Father has tried to teach me this in so many ways, and sometimes it's such an easy adjustment for me and other times, it's really not, but "you have to choose to love where you live." Because if you don't make that choice, it will choose to consume you.
Hello, Pleasant View. I love you already.
Our new home!
Our view.
Within the month time of looking at our new house, selling ours, and moving in, we followed through on some fun plans! Here's a picture recap:
Wicked fun!
Ogden Temple Open House. So, so beautiful. I can't wait for it to open next week. Like, I really can't wait!
My flowers thrived!
Our Logan Temple date night had the most mystical, stormy sunset.
Housewarming flowers from a sweet friend.
