So our house went under contract this week!  Yay!  No more showings!!  Actually, there's a lot to be happy about.  We are out of uncertainty and we will actually get the house we offered on (the house that we wanted to buy was going to cancel its contract with us if we didn't sell this week)!  We will close on this house on October 25 and on the new house on October 26.  If all goes smoothly, we will move on the 26th and 27th.  We have to be out of this house by October 28 at 8am.  So now, with the exception of some packing, we just wait--some of us with excitement and some of us with trepidation.

Mariah came back late last night from a Cross Country trip to Boise.  Her team ran in the Bob Firman Invitational and out of 24 teams, they came in 7th!  They are a fast bunch!  Even though Homecoming was just last week, invitations for Sadie Hawkins started flying this week, so Mariah decided to join in the fray and invited Donovan, a boy from our ward.  So, she has plans going forward for that!

It was a misty morning for the race!  Team tents in the background!

Cali and Cheyenne had two matches this week.  In the first they played Mapleton, our biggest rivals, and played against a doubles team comprised of two very athletic families who we know well.  Then, they won!  Big momma pride right there!  They played super well!  They won on Thursday, too!  They wish they could play tennis all the time but try to stave off boredom with a little piano playing here and there, too.  They're sounding good!

They photo-bombed my other picture!

Beth and Ben are currently playing Minecraft together but the hordes of children who regularly congregate at our house has not diminished with the start of school--at least not during non-school hours.  We have between four and nine kids at our house everyday marshalled by these two.  It's a little crazy!  It's a lot crazy.

I talked to Savannah on the phone this week.  She was super happy about completing her first mid-term for her Information Systems class and a long paper for her Career Development class.  She's doing really well!

I surprised Megan at work this week!  She is a super-cute grill worker and she made me some terrific mozzarella sticks but the best part was her excited hug!

Sarah sent me this super-cute picture of her new nametag this week.  This semester she goes to nearby schools to observe teaching and help tutor so she needs an official tag!  She is also tutoring in the on-campus math lab and loves it!  She's found her niche.

We had lots of showings of our house this week.  We always have to leave for an hour when others come to look.  On Monday night, Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik were amazing and invited us over for dinner and homework during a showing.  Thursday was the busiest day with three showings!  The kids were gone at school for two of them and the one in the evening found us at the library doing homework instead of our kitchen table.  We figure they need time to think and pray and will all make offers tomorrow!  Don't you think?

This week was Homecoming week for Mariah, so we got a "Lady Red Devil" poster on our house to celebrate her Varsity athlete-ness.  She also attended the paint war on Monday night and the night parade and burning of the S on Thursday and the football game on Friday night.  Saturday was the Homecoming dance which she attended with Calvin and had, with eyes looking upward, "sooo much fun!"  She looked beautiful, too!

Cali and Chey had a mini tennis tournament on Tuesday and some practices when it wasn't raining throughout the week.  They just wish they could play MORE!  Piano lessons started back up for them and Beth this week, too.  I love hearing them play.

Beth and Ben had karate and walking to and from school and playing with the neighbors and Minecraft.  None of Beth's friends could play on Saturday (I know, right?  NONE of them??  There's like 400!)  Anyway, she was quite distressed and prayed that she would never have such a lonely day ever again.  One can hope.

Our college women seem to be doing well.  Sarah was hoping to meet her eternal companion this week but alas, has not, and feels she must resign herself to waiting for another semester.  Prospects couldn't be that bad, could they?  

Savannah has a lot on her plate with classes and lots of hours at work but she still managed a hiking date Friday morning and to fill in for her roommate at her temple shift Saturday morning.  

Megan got to go to the BYU football game on Saturday and was just 20 feet away from President Uchtdorf walked by!  I think it's been her favorite moment of college so far!

Yes, that is Megan with her dad in that second picture.  Kevin got to go to the game, too!  Not that the cougars won or anything, but still fun for them to get to go AND see each other!  Yay!  Go cougars!

Sarah came back to us this week and left us this week!  She traveled all day Tuesday and landed close to 10pm Tuesday night.  Kevin and I picked her up from the airport and we were all so excited to see each other!  The excitement continued the next morning when her siblings got to see her and hug her and then again that afternoon when we made a trip over to BYU to see Megan and Savannah!  Thursday she tried to shake off the jet lag and she worked on packing her stuff and writing an account of her adventures in Austria and she even went to our Relief Society activity that night with me!  Friday she and I got our hairs cut and that night Megan and Savannah came home and the kids made treats and watched The Sound of Music together so Sarah could show them all where she'd been!  If you'd like to read an account of her trip, you can see it here:  https://adventuretoaustria15.blogspot.com Saturday morning, all ten of us (Yay!) went to Brick Oven for lunch for our Sayonara Sarah party!  We had such fun being together!  Afterwards, Savannah and Megan went back to their apartments and Sarah took off in her car for her new apartment in Rexburg and the rest of us went back home so glad that we'd had the time together!

Amidst all that, Savannah and Megan started real college classes this week!  Savannah met with an academic counselor this week because she was thinking of changing her major and ended up dropping two classes that were making her very stressed and adding two that she was much more comfortable with!  So we are happy that she is feeling happier about her semester!  Most of Megan's stress came before classes even started with tales of how hard her classes would be.  She is still a bit stressed after going but seems to be doing better now that she can actually do some work and do something about it!  We know she will do great!  During one of our house showings this week, we came to her dorm and hung out in the lobby of David Hall.  Mariah was at cross country practice, but Savannah came over from her job across the street, too!  We made quite a racket amongst those studious college students!  Ha ha!

Cali and Cheyenne tried out for the junior high tennis team this week and made it!!  Yay Cali and Chey!  They've been good sports about the house showings we had to do this week and have liked hanging out with their sisters.  Thank goodness for the diversions because school is still just not their favorite thing lately!

Beth and Ben had Karate this week and played with their friends afterschool ALOT!  They've been good sports about having to leave the house for an hour or so everyday, too, but it is harder on them since that takes away from their "playing with friends" time!  They've still managed to do it a lot, though, if you ask me!  Lol!

Mariah ran in a meet Friday and did well!  Her legs were tired, though, she reports, and thinks it might have been the hour of basketball she played the night before!  She is taking the moving-out of her sisters harder than anyone.  Why do they have to leave?!

I vacuumed the house EVERYDAY this week!  Hello!  I don't know about you, but I do not usually do that.  What a lot of time that takes!  Kevin scraped and painted the ceiling of the carport.  That takes a lot of time, too, but it sure looks nice!  We had one showing a day all week and an open house on Saturday.  No offers yet, but we are hopeful.  I even forgot to mention that we had a showing on Monday which was Labor Day so we went to Provo (since then we could pick up our BYU students) and had a picnic and a short hike up Rock Canyon.  It was pretty and HOT!

On Monday, Cali and Cheyenne turned 13!!  They have been excitedly telling us that we will have 5 teenagers in our family for a whole month.  Pretty fun, right?!  It is fun and Cali and Chey are super fun new teenagers.  We love those girls!  We had a family party Monday night at the reservoir and ate sliders and ice cream cake and did a little paddle boarding before opening presents.  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came, too, and we had a marvelous time.  Happy birthday Cali and Chey!

Megan made them these shirts to remind them of rock jumping at Palisades. To "Jo" is to go and jump!  Sometimes you need to motivate each other to do hard things.

On Tuesday, Mariah ran in pre-regions for cross country.  She placed 3rd on her team and 6th--6th!-- overall!  That's out of all the varsity runners in our region!  She did so great!  She's been a bit tired the rest of the week.  She also got asked to Homecoming this week.  Fun times are ahead!

On Wednesday, Megan moved into her dorm room, 2217 David John Hall in Helaman Halls!  Talk about fun times being ahead!  She had to do more online training for her job and she and I went shopping for essentials and I had to be here while the carpets were cleaned, but after all that, she and I drove over and checked her in and brought up clothes and stuff and even did a little decorating.  That night, we went out as a family for dinner at Chuck A Rama to celebrate Megan then we went to see her new room and take pictures.  Since then, she has worked two more shifts at her on-campus job and has attended all of Freshman orientation, a dance, a soccer game, and a late-night viewing of a Cougar football game.  She's met some fun people and is determined to make this all work even if it is scaring her to death!  I'm proud of her.

On Friday, Elizabella's mom held a surprise birthday party for Elizabella AND Cali and Cheyenne since they are all friends and their birthdays are only three days apart.  Their friends all came, they were super surprised and they had a ton of fun!

On Saturday, Savannah moved out!  Since she'll have more room in her new apartment than she has here and since we are trying to move things out to make the house more "showable," she decided to take all her things to her new place.  Fortunately, we have lots of sisters to help carry things.  We even drafted Meg who had some time off.  Plus, Savannah had two friends who planned on helping, too!  In the end we brought the things into the apartment and they finished things up on their own.  She's staying at the Riviera.  It's super nice and I think she's going to have a great time!

Beth and Ben walked to school everyday this week and home MWF.  They're doing really well with that .75 mile walk each way!  They've been coming home pretty hot, though, and often change into their swimsuits and go back a ways to play in the creek with our neighbors.  They had Karate on Tuesday and Thursday and with everything going on, managed to get a little bit of homework done, too.  I'm calling it a win!

Sarah continues to see cool places in Austria!  The highlight of her week, I think, was going to Salzburg to see sites from The Sound of Music.  They even stayed overnight there in a hostel.  Such the savvy world traveler!  She misses us and we miss her, so though she's having fun, we can't wait to be together again!

Kevin and I continue to work on the house.  I painted baseboards and doors this week, Jim and Naoma came and fancied up the yard, Kevin's been packing and scraping down the carport to be painted.  I just really need someone to come fall in love with this place even with its shortcomings!  Being in limbo is uncomfortable for everyone, but it'll be worth it.