April and May Newsletter Submissions

What a lucky girl I am, my husband said he would write the newsletter submissions for me this month. I missed April, so we did a combined one. He did a great job getting the really important stuff and saved me from the headache of trying to do both months. Thanks to the blog, he also had a little bit easier time remembering what happened.

We have had a fully eventful last two months, so I’ll apologize now if our retelling of the events sounds a bit abbreviated. April began with Ellen’s sixth birthday. She wanted a princess theme (she’s had this theme planned out since she was three), so we invited a bunch of her friends from her primary class and held the party in our ward’s cultural hall. We had a great time playing “Pin the Crown on the Princess” (a game thought up by our own princess), having mini-manicures (thank you Aunt Audra), and just running around with friends. We are so happy for each day with Ellen. She is so bright and full of energy and loves the stories of the gospel. A few days later, after much anticipation, we heard back from Landon’s interviews in Salt Lake City that he was the final candidate for one of the positions he was up for. This set in motion the plans we had been making for months about selling our home and moving on to a new phase in our lives. We starkly aware of our Heavenly Father’s love for us as our house was only on the market for three weeks before we had settled on a selling price with buyers that were excited to move into our home. We just had to find the place where we could call home next. We have felt since spending time in the town earlier that we wanted to move to Tooele. With the help of Heather Roxburgh and the patience of our children (and dog), we looked at a few handfuls of houses and decided to make an offer on two of them. We were sure that one would come back quickly as we were offering what the bank was asking, but the one that responded was the one we were hoping to get a better price on. Interestingly enough, this house was also in the first neighborhood that Katie and I drove through and felt strongly that this place could be our home. It is a beautiful house with room for us to expand and we hope that we’ll be able to host each of you as you visit.

Levi had his second birthday in the midst of this craziness. We actually celebrated his birthday twice, once with family and then with the kids from our date night on his actual birthday. What a beautifully sweet Diddle man we have. Kate and I also celebrated our seventh anniversary (and nothing’s itching). We’ve just loved watching our ever-expanding family growing and amazing us everyday.

I began working in SLC shortly after this. We have the greatest family! Because we didn’t know how long it would be before we sold the house or would be able to find housing in Utah, I asked our aunts and uncles in Utah Valley if any of them might have room for me while I was separated from my family. Every one of them responded with an enthusiastic “YES” and I decided on staying with Mark and Carol as Lehi is closest to SLC. They were incredibly gracious allowing me not only a place to sleep, but I ate meals with them and attended family functions with them (got to see Jessica’s choir concert). They also had offered the apartment below Mark’s business offices and as our closing date was fast approaching (and I was a whining mess missing my beautiful family) we decided to move the whole family down here and spend the interim time in the apartment. Katie was amazing and, with loads of help from Mom and Renee, got our whole household packed and separated so we could store the majority of it and still have a functioning home in the apartment. It has been an incredible blessing, thank you Mark and Carol!! We also received tons of help from Eric, Steve and Landon’s friend Justin. Also Jason made our move happen with both a strong back and expert real estate power. During this whole move we experienced unnatural amounts of rain and I said several times, “If the weather is the most difficult part of this move, it will be totally worth it.” Kate and I weren’t actually ever released from our callings while we were attending the Meadowbrook Ward so we served out all the way to the end with Katie teaching the Father’s Day songs to the primary and I teaching the presidency lesson for our final Sunday. We will miss that ward so much. We have made great friends and felt truly at home in that neighborhood. We have met our soon-to-be neighbors and think we may have just as good an experience with this ward.

This move, however, has not been without its tragedy. It seems that is to be the lot with the Kunz family. We found out that Kitty has a rare type of cancer called Neuroendocine carcinoma. It is a small-celled cancer that most likely originated in the small intestine. Prognosis does not look good. Depending on the type, which will be clearly defined soon, she is likely to succumb anywhere between three and eighteen months. This alone would be a devastating blow, but this also means that it is possible there could be a genetic abnormality within the family increasing the likelihood of another occurrence in our family again. We are trying to exhibit faith in our Heavenly Father’s plan, but we still are hurting and are already missing our Mom and Grandma Kitty. We know that The Plan is true and it is nice to know that going home will also mean happy reunions.