Off he goes. . .

It is interesting that for the last eighteen years Doug and I have worked hard at parenting to the best of our abilities, taking classes, correcting mistakes, learning how to discipline, relearning how to discipline, laughing, crying, plugging our ears and bursting with pride as we have raised our kids.  Doug has been, and continues to be, very active in their lives and teaches his kids the labor skills he learned early in his life while growing up on the farm, skills that they can always fall back on to provide for themselves.  I enjoy teaching them home skills like cooking, cleaning and laundry, and anything else that comes to mind.  We have worked together to teach them the Gospel and become their counselors as they make their own decisions and move into their own Independence.  We hope we have done some things right along the way and have loved being the parents to five great kids.   As the saying goes,  "The only thing constant in life is change", and so it is with our family.  We feel like we have crossed a milestone from being the "young family" that we have always been referred to, to the "older generation", having an older, independent and very busy family. (Not to mention a loss of control over anything)   I guess I am feeling it more so now because Austin moved to Idaho the first of June and is living with his grandparents and working  on a farm up there.  He packed up his room, put all of his things in storage, bought him a Ford Ranger, loaded his bike and was on his way.   Well, maybe it wasn't that simple.  The Ranger needed a significant amount of work in order to be ready to travel 400 miles.  He bought the truck in Castledale, UT, and tried to drive it home but had the transmission seize about the time he rolled through Richfield.  He called the kid back he purchased it from and made the deal to get $450 back as well as a parts truck to help him fix it up.  The next weekend he went back up to Richfield, picked up his stranded Ranger and brought it home, then returned the next weekend to bring the wrecked parts truck back.  The parts truck ended up having a lot of new parts on it that Austin used on his Ranger, including a new transmission and clutch.  He was able to take the bed and doors off the parts truck and sell them separately.  The end result was that he didn't have to pay too much for his little truck. although it took him a couple of months to get it finished.  I'm glad he has the skills to complete such a task and come out as well as he did. The new truck will give him better gas mileage for traveling too from Idaho, and better than that, it is paid for. 

He left on Monday morning early, about 6:30 am.  I was a tearful mess, and he was super excited for his new adventure.  He arrived in Dayton about 3:00 pm that afternoon and was immediately put to work, working about 60 hours in the first week.  He is loving the experience, the variety of farm work, and getting to know his Grandparents better. 

It is a weird feeling for us to have him move away.  The other kids miss him and I realize what a peacekeeper he was.  We also miss all of his friends whom we used to visit with and have family prayer with nightly.  Obviously they won't come around quite as much as they used to.  I'm grateful that I can text and call him when I want to at this point, and that I'm getting broken in easy before he leaves on his mission.   We are very excited for him and the experiences he is having out on his own.  I was always told that 18 years goes by so fast, and at the time with five small children hanging on my legs I couldn't see it happening, but now I do.  Our family will never be the same, and maybe that is a good thing because I can see a lot of Joy in what is to come for us too.  Austin started the ball rolling, and now we will send another child off about every two to three years, and hope that we have done alright teaching them the things they need to survive and thrive in the world.