Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

I still don't know the answer to that one, but I do have fond memories of playing that game in my Granparents' (the Bergers) basement on old school Macs.

So it's been almost 3 weeks since we departed from Illinois and I finally decided to say something about it. There isn't as much mystery involved as to where we ended up...

Yah, that's right.. we made it back to the fold. We are no longer lost sheep. Go us!

Back in April, I kept nagging encouraging Mike to help make a decision about where we were going to move. Mike likes to take the wait-and-see approach, whereas I get all OCD proactive about upcoming decisions. Mike's position on the matter won this round.

With Mike's show being up, we had some time to make it up to the Chicago Temple to do an endowment session together. Before the session began, let's just say that I had had my confirmation that we were going to get an answer that day. After the session, as we had just sat down in the Celestial room, Mike leans over and whispers, "I really think I need to call Sean in Utah and tell him I want to work for him again." My reaction = tears. And these were not tears of joy (Mike complaint is that I end up crying whenever he tells me about any revelation he's gotten while in the temple. He may be right.. guess I'll have to work on that in the future. In my defense, I'm pregnant and usually de-stressing after being stressed throughout the endowment session that I am going to mess something up. I hadn't even gotten the chance to meditate on the subject at hand).

Honestly, I have loved living outside of the Holy Trinity of Mormonism (as I call it... consisting of Arizona, Utah, & Idaho). I love my religion, don't get me wrong. But, I also love diversity and I really do believe that there is a difference in Mormon culture in and out of the Utah sphere (2 years prior we couldn't leave it fast enough... and now we were going back). Maybe it was that we just had a really great ward in Evanston and I didn't want to give that up. It could be that I was going to be really sad not to see all the Hasidic Jews in Skokie. I was also really going to miss that Japanese super store out in Arlington Heights. I was just going to miss the Chicago area and the people there. And Utah was the LAST PLACE ON EARTH that I wanted to live.

I had to swallow my pride (Just 5 months prior I had been telling my Mother-in-law Cindy about how Mike and I would never be caught dead in the Holy Trinity again.. yay for eating my words!!) and abandon my plan of living somewhere warm and new to explore. Discovered a lot about myself in the process and pinpointed out some personality areas that really do need improving.

Mike called Sean and secured a job and then we started the process of packing and wrapping any loose ends up in Chicago. Mark flew in the night we set out and the three of us took shifts as we drove straight from Illinois to our destination in Utah. Haha... never again will I do that trek, pregnant. Great company... but it took me several days to recover from that expedition. We weren't exactly the Mormon pioneers, since it took us only about 24hrs to make it, whereas it took them several months. But a similar trek... we skipped the religious persecution part, in favor of a job.

We were greeted in Utah, by Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Siblings, & Grandparents. They all helped us unload the truck and some even left us some nice groceries to get us through the first couple days we were here. We have a wonderful Aunt that has allowed us to crash in her now semi-empty home for the Summer as we do some searching for a place to live (thank you Ange & Thad for taking an internship for the Summer... promise not to ebay your stuff while you are gone).

For now, life isn't going to be exploring exotic areas around the world and stealing world treasures. It's going to be slightly less exciting than that. But, there will be lots to look forward to here in Utah and lots to be grateful for.

I'm grateful for:

1. A husband with a job! Also, that he is very happy where he is working and sees endless possibilities of where the future will take him. Got to love being able to do something that you have always wanted to be doing.
2. Having amazing family nearby. And a few choice friends that are in close proximity.
3. There are a million flecks of gold worth of blessings that I have seen and continuing to see. Truly the Lord is blessing us (even if one of those blessings is taking me a bit of time to really love).
4. Dry weather... humidity was not as fun on a daily basis.
5. Clean grocery stores, with fresh produce. Ah... Macey's how I love thee.... AND... $1 cheaper gas prices... woo woo!

What I am looking forward to:

1. Finding the parts of Utah/Mormon culture that I can handle.. and exploiting them for all they are worth.
2. Having crafty relatives nearby that want to share their wonderful knowledge with me. Also, just getting to know some relatives better and all their crazy outlooks/philosophies on life and their plethora of interests.
3. More musically talented people in the area who will teach my kids things like the violin & piano. Hopefully at a much reduced rate then the ones I was seeing in Illinois.
4. Exploring Utah a little bit better. There is lots of outdoor Utahness to see.
5. Creating a Mike & Petra crew niche that I can be proud of. 
6. List can go on and on and will...

So... we are here. And 99% of the time we are happy about it (few kinks we are still working out). But it will be GREAT, because we are going to make it GREAT! Life is what you make of it.. and I've got my new mantra for our Utah sojourn.