Elannah received her mission call to the Tennessee Nashville Mission (English-speaking), and she's very excited. As her parent, I'm selfishly excited that she's going stateside. The world is getting weirder and weirder, and I like that she will be closer to home should something even more weird happen. Plus, maybe her father and I will get to go pick her up when her mission is over. While she won't get the opportunity to live in another culture and learn to communicate in another language, she is going to another part of the United States with a distinctive culture and accent, so I'm sure it will feel a little bit like going somewhere exotic while still being able to hit up a Walmart on her day off.
Because her preschool para job ended when schools closed for the summer, Elannah applied for and was offered an outdoor maintenance job with the city. She is now in charge of pond maintenance for a golf course. It's a 40-hour-a-week job with pretty good pay, and that's what she wanted in order to save more money for her mission. She'll also build up her muscles before she rides a bike on her mission for 18 months (she was specifically told she'll be on a bike). After just one week on her new job, she is already very tan despite using sunblock and wearing a wide-brimmed hat; but she's always been able to tan very easily. I don't know where that gene came from, considering her ancestry is from very pale people of Great Britain and Sweden.
We only have a couple weeks to go until Sophia's wedding. Sophia and I took a second trip yesterday to her venue to finalize decorating plans, and that helped calm her nerves a little. She's no bridezilla, but she knows what she wants. I'm very proud of her because she has worked hard to make things on her own so that she doesn't need to spend hundreds of dollars on items that can only be used on the wedding day. She's figured things out, including designing and printing her wedding invitations and putting together all the flower arrangements, among other things. She splurged on her dress, but it's the perfect dress; it's like it was designed to fit her exactly. Husband and I splurged on the photographer/videographer. We want her to have fabulous photos.
Joseph is finally taking driving school so he can get his license. He paid for it himself, which is only fair considering how much we're going to end up paying in higher insurance rates, but I'm proud of him for taking the initiative. He doesn't know it yet, but my in-laws are planning on surprising him by giving him one of their cars because...
...my in-laws are moving.
They recently went on a short trip to Indiana to visit two of their other sons, and when we picked them up from the airport upon their return, I knew they were going to move. Something just told me. It was so obvious to me that I had a hard time not casually talking about them moving during normal conversations and had to keep biting my tongue, though I did talk about it quietly with Husband. They themselves didn't figure it out until a week later when they called Husband and I over and tearfully broke the news to us that they had just decided that day that they were selling their house and moving. When we told them we already knew they were going, they were relieved that we weren't angry. Of course we aren't angry! It makes perfect financial sense for them to move, for one thing. They bought their house here at a steep discount nine years ago because it was a foreclosure in a buyer's market. Now it's a seller's market and the house has appreciated over 100%, so they will be able to outright purchase a home in the lower-cost market of their new destination in Indiana, have enough money to pay off debt, and still have enough set by to allow them to make a few more trips to Great Britain to see their other four children. With debt paid off and no mortgage to worry about, their British pensions will be enough to support them now that the exchange rate has rallied a bit in their favor.
The other reason it makes perfect sense is that they'll be moving close to two of their sons who have never had the chance to live near their parents during their married lives. One of them--my youngest brother-in-law--has two little girls who will get to develop a close relationship with their Nanna and Grampy as they grow up. The other son--Husband's next younger brother--is so excited to finally share holidays and family dinners with his parents, something he's wished for for a long time. How can we begrudge him that joy when we've been lucky enough to have them close by for nine years?
While we will certainly miss their presence just down the street, their move does give us an excuse to make a road trip once or twice a year. I love road trips. After Elannah leaves on her mission, we'll only have the boys living at home, so I want to make more road trips even if Little Gary complains he doesn't enjoy long drives. Suck it up, buttercup. Mama wants to drive to green places and see new things while I still can.
