Good Day, LA

The day we never thought would come finally arrived. Mark graduated from law school and it was time to leave our sunny, smoggy little slice of heaven. Here's Mark heading out to his last day of class (I didn't mean to make it black and white, Bennett messed with my phone settings and I didn't realize it).

Since Mark was busy with finals, I packed 95% of the apartment by myself - No small feat with a toddler underfoot. Parenting at its finest: Bennett strapped into his high chair, having a Blue's Clues marathon.

Our moving crew - the missionaries, plus the Brother Young and his sons.  

These guys were seriously an answer to our prayers and I wish I could have adequately thanked them. Mark and I had been working for days (he mostly studying, I packing and us moving almost every single thing out of the apartment and into the garage to pack while Bennett ran around). We were exhausted and I honestly wasn't quite sure how we were going finish without falling apart. Our moving day fell on the same day as church cleaning and all of the Cannon guys were in Idaho (considering they make up about 75% of the able bodied men in the ward...yeah, we were worried). Katy took Bennett to her house to play for the day and Suzy made sure that enough guys were diverted from the church to our apartment.

Our truck was only 16 feet long and even with my amazing packing skills, I just kept looking at the giant pile of stuff that still had to fit in the truck and I was 100% convinced it was not going to fit. I'm still not sure how we did it, but we did. It took so much longer than I thought it was going to and we were bruised and battered (I even had burns on my shoulders from touching the hot roof of the truck whilst cramming stuff in the top), but we made it through. Thank you everyone that helped us, we can't repay you but we'll be sure to remember you when we pay it forward (LDS people are great at helping one another move :))

 

I thought I'd really quickly blog about some of the most important people from our lives in LA. Apologies if I didn't get to everyone, I'm trying to be brief!

Bennett and Connor hanging at the beach. Two of the cutest (and whitest - notice the giant sunhats) babies you could ever hope to meet!

 

Bennett's besty, Jack. Jack is such a sweet, sweet little boy. I wish more of that sweetness had rubbed off on Bennett. He's several months older than Bennett, but they're the same size and with that fluffy blonde hair and blue eyes, people often asked me if they were twins. I'll miss watching those high energy little boys bounce around my apartment together!

This is Bennett with his nursery leaders, Sisters Urrico and Landaverde . They are the most amazing nursery leaders I have ever seen. Mark and I were joking about wanting to pack them along with us! They were so loving and patient and kind. When Bennett started nursery he cried the entire time. The whole time - and not just little sobs either, loud, gut wrenching, panicked crying. They not only let me leave for the entire two hours, but encouraged me to abandon them to his screaming. After about 5-6 Sundays a switched flipped and Bennett realized that nursery was awesome and I think these sisters were a big reason for that. 

I have almost zero pictures of Mark with his friends (guys aren't big on snapping photos...why is that?), but here's Mark with a couple of his favorite basketball buddies, Chad and James.

Justin and Mark having way too much fun at Halloween a couple years ago. (Unplanned) Coordinating mustaches. Two peas in a pod.

 Lori East - is not actually that short, I'm just wearing really tall shoes. Lori was the secretary in our RS presidency and yikes, was she the most organized woman I've ever met. She organizes people for a living, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but Lori has a way of constantly surprising me. She's one of the most spiritual women I've ever met. You know that saying, "Be the kind of woman who, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says, 'oh no, she's up!''? If every woman in the church were as hard working as Lori, there'd be nothing left to do at the end of a week.

Janet Johnson - I didn't know Janet at all until about a year and a half ago when she asked me to be her second councilor in the Relief Society presidency. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I figured since this woman and I had never even had a conversation together, it must be coming from the Lord, not her. Janet taught me a lot about what it means to really be a disciple of Christ. She reminds me a lot of President Monson in the way she looked after our sisters just by making sure they knew she cared about them. She visited so many women every week, on top of working and other obligations, I have no idea how she did it! It was a lesson I hope sticks with me for a long time: how can you minister to the needs of His children, if you don't take the time to get to know them?

Loretta Au - I dragged her up a mountain side and she convinced me to raise a butterfly. I think that sums things up, in a weird way. Loretta is always up for anything and if she has a comfort zone, I'm not aware of it when she leaves it. She's smart and motivated and unique and spends most of her time helping her three genius children become even more genius. I'm constantly in awe of the cool things she dreams up to do with them! I'm glad I have Facebook so I can continue to stalk her adventures for inspiration. :)

Heather Lawrence - Heather and I were two of the only moms in the ward with only one baby, which made for easy bonding. Everyone else was busy with work, or older kids so Heather and I spent lots of time together walking and talking or beaching it up with the baby boys. Heather is brazen and blunt and about as chill as a girl can be. I'm going to miss her!

 

Oh Suzy Jeffords - I wish more people were like Suzy! I'm never the worst over-sharer in the room if Suzy's there and I love it. She is funny and never boring AND a spiritual giant. That's a tough combination to find. I think the best thing I can say about her is that she has four kids and they are all fun, sweet, genuinely good, spiritually minded and hard working. She didn't just luck into four kids like that, she taught them how to be awesome and I think that speaks volumes about who Suzy is.

Katy Cannon - I hate this picture of Katy and I (she looks good, I look a little...bedraggled). I was looking through my pictures of Katy and I and none of them are that great because we never remember to take a picture with each other until the very end of whatever event it is we're working on. Katy and I always seem to find ourselves in charge of activities and parties and so by the end we're both looking a little worse for the wear. Oh well, at least we had fun, right? :) I don't want to get all mushy about another married woman, but seriously, Katy was a godsend. Her husband Justin was a year ahead of Mark at Pepperdine Law so we were instant friends as fellow "law school widows". Since leaving home at 18 I've moved a lot and made lots of friends out of convenience, but Katy is one of the first friends I've made since then that I would consider a life long friend. She's intelligent and fun and the first person to step up and offer you a helping hand. I'm going to stop before this gets way too cheese ball, but I really hope fate puts Katy in my path again someday because 1) I'm really going to miss her and 2) I'd really like to pay her back for everything she's done for me and my family over the last few years!

I know I missed so many people (Taryn, Amy, Charne, Alicia...too many to list), but this entry is turning into such a behemoth and it's time to quit before I cry. Goodbye LA, we'll miss you (except for the traffic, I'll never miss that famous LA traffic)!