We are finally back in Massachusetts.

We found a nice apartment in Eugene for Siovhan. She has to wait a few days for them to replace the carpet and clean the apartment before she can move in. It is a nice two bedroom, one bathroom apartment, with a community pool and club house. It is much nicer than any apartment I have ever lived in. The apartments all come with new washers AND dryers, in the unit! The bathroom is larger than ours. I am so jealous! No big deal that she doesn't have any furniture, other than a bed and a tv stand....

She is anxiously waiting for her first day at KEZI.

Howard and I drove her to Eugene the day of her convocation. She walked across the stage, we went to my sister, AnnMarie's house and ate lunch, went back to the Glenwood and finished packing the odds and ends and left for Idaho. We spent the night in Mountain Home, Idaho. The next day, Howard decided that he wanted the children to see some of the scenery of Oregon. We drove the middle section of Oregon. It was 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Siovhan's car doesn't have air conditioning. After discussing the options of continuing on, after a much d road closed sign stopped our progress, we left the badlands of Oregon, for the Oregon Trail. It was a very LONG car ride.

Sunday found us at the LDS Institute at the University of Oregon, Eugene. The two branches and one ward meet together there. Their combined choir was wonderful! Siovhan's comment, "It isn't Provo, is it?" reminded me of Dorothy Gale in Wizard of Oz when she says, "...I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."

We searched for two days for apartments, then when we found one that I felt secure in Siovhan renting, I allowed Howard and Siovhan to put her earnest money toward it. I thought I had seen all kinds of apartments when in the St. Louis area, but I found out that I had been sadly mistaken. At one apartment complex, there was a person living in a VW bus, in the parking lot. The VW didn't have any doors attached, just a tarp pulled over the openings where the doors were supposed to be.

We left Siovhan on Tuesday night. It was so hard for all of us. Even the skies acknowledged our sadness of having to leave our daughter and sister, they wept openly with us. Howard never cries, but he choked back his tears with his finally hug. I thought leaving her at BYU was heart renching, but I was sadly mistaken. I had always dreamed of having my daughter live down the street from me and she would send her children over to "help" Grandma out with her daily chores. I should have realized long ago that Siovhan's sights were set on bigger dreams.


We drove three hours to The Dalles, then completed our drive through Oregon and Idaho on Wednesday. My sister-in-law, Kimberly, asked her parents if we could stay in their huge home on Wednesday night. It was a lot of fun. The children went swimming, stayed up late talking and playing the Wii and the next morning were treated to a Scoutmaster style breakfast made by my brother, Shawn. Then it was off for our long plane ride back to Massachusetts.

We lost some of the photos that were on my Mom's camera. One of the grandchildren inconveniently misplaced the camera for her. When she finds it, she will send me the photos of our family activities.