January: Joe and Jamie were still teaching at Milford High School and Nathan was in the 9th grade. At the end of January, Jamie made a hard decision. although she loved teaching and loved the students, she just was not spending enough time with her family so she decided to quit.
February was just another winter month. And winter 2023 in Minersville, Utah meant lots and lots of snow and cloudy days. We didn't think we even remembered what the sun was like.
In March, the school district was faced with making some changes because of the closure of the Smithfield Pig farms. They lost students so they had to also lose teachers. They asked Joe if he'd mind teaching 1/2 time at the high school and then the other half at two different elementary schools. At first he was willing. Then KayLee started thinking about home schooling and called Jamie about it. KayLee (jokingly) requested that Jamie just move down to Sahuarita so she could help with the math part. The idea got brewing and because we had really like the southern Arizona area when we had visited in October, and Joe saw potential for a full time private studio, we decided that we'd move. So we traveled down to look at houses.
We like the houses and we liked the area so we called a Realtor and thought that it would take a few months for us to get our house ready to be staged and sold.
Jamie also go to spend a week in Kansas helping out with Melissa's family because she had a cute new baby boy!!! And visiting the other grand children that live in Kansas.
But since we didn't have a house to move into, we had to move all of our stuff into a storage unit. And then we spent the last few weeks of June in an Air B&B in Sahuarita. It was actually kind of nice because we didn't have a lot to do so it was like a vacation.
July was a fun month. We spent it traveling and spending time with family. The first week we were in Kanab where our son Ben and his family and KayLee and her family were also visiting. On July 4th we headed to Vegas for our flight to Florida to see Joe's family as his brother was getting married there. Wouldn't you know that our airport luck continued. Our flight was canceled and rescheduled for the next day so we got to spend the night in Vegas and fly to Florida the next day. From the Orlando airport we drove to Ft. Meyers. It was a long day. Then we got to spend some time visiting Joes Mom and family. The 7th was the wedding. And in the afternoon Joe's mom treated us to a lovely dinner at a sea side restaurant and a sunset cruise in Sanabell bay. This was the bay and area destroyed by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and it was interesting to see all of the destruction mother nature can cause. A lot of the places were still rebuilding.
April: Well, the rumor spread around Minersville that we were moving. And before we could even get our house listed a young couple who had been looking for their perfect house in Minersville for nearly a year, called and asked to see our house. We showed it to them and they made us an offer within one day. So much for taking months to sell our house. Now we had a closing date of June 5th.
We also needed a house to move into. The universe must have been watching because as we kept checking Zillow, a house in Sahuarita was listed for sale. It wasn't like anyone the ones we had looked at but it was the right size, the right price and had a VA assumable mortgage with a 2.37% interest rate. So we made and offered and it was accepted. Unfortunately assumptions take between 4 and 6 months to close (which we did not know at the time.)
Also in March and April, competed with his Drama team at region and state where he received Superior ratings with his monologue and his team took 1st in the 1 act plays and region and did really well at state!!
May was a crazy month. We spent our time teaching that last crazy month of school and trying to pack and get ready to move. We spent hours going through things and as we had decided to downsize, deciding what we really didn't need. We ended up taking two trailer's full of things to the Deseret Industries and one trailer full of stuff to our older children who have their own houses. We all gave away or sold a lot of furniture and bookshelves. We also left several pieces of furniture and our washer and dryer and grill for the new owners. We wanted to move light.
June: We were very grateful that the buyers of our house gave us 10 days after the closing to finish packing and get our stuff moved. Can I just say, I hate packing. We really appreciated all of our friends in Minersville who helped with the last bit of packing and loading the U-haul. Leaving them was the hardest part of moving.
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| U-haul is packed |
June was also a fun month because EmmaLee submitted her portfolio to be accepted into the animation program and BYU and she got accepted. She has been working toward that goal for years!!! We were so proud to see all of her hard work pay off.
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| The "Mothia" one of her projects. |
While in Florida we also went to the beach and spent a day at Universal Studios. (Note: Universal Studios is hot and humid in July!!)
We flew back to Kanab where we got to visit with DeeAnn and her family for a few days. Then we went with Joe on a mini concert tour when a band he is in called Legends of Rock, played in Idaho and then the next day in Heber City, Utah. That was fun.
August: Because we had no closing date in sight for our new house, the sellers decided that they would rent it to us. So yay!!! we got to move in. So we loaded stuff from the storage unit and moved it to our house. Luckily we had beds and a kitchen table but that was about it. We didn't want to fully furnish the house until we signed the mortgage papers so we lived with one tiny couch we had brought with us and lawn chairs. But we did get a few bookshelves (the most important thing.)
Our dog Max was getting old and had been not normal for a while. We had planned on getting him to a vet right away when we moved. Sadly, that came sooner than we'd planned. The day we moved in he was to the point of not even being able to move. We took him to the emergency vet and the few tests they did run showed that there were lots of things going on. So we had to make the hardest decision and have him put down. It was a tragic day for us all.
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| The hard goodbye |
August and September saw us getting into the grove of homeschooling, unpacking, and planning what furniture we wanted. Joe also began teaching students in his private studio. Word spreads quickly and thanks to Arizona's ESA funds for homeschoolers the slots are filling up.
October: Finally!!! A closing date. The house officially became ours on October 5th.
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Our pet luck continued when our cat who was used to the farm and outside life, got out and did not come back. We were very sad again.
November: So since we had all the cat stuff and we couldn't let it go to waste, in November we adopted two adorable black kittens, Hex and Luna. They didn't like Spot at first but now they are friends.
We also took a quick trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving day with Jamie's parents in Kanab. The next day we drove to Provo where we got to visit EmmaLee and Ben's family(who were in Lehi for Michelle's sister's wedding) as we attended the Orem Temple Open house and went to dinner. Saturday we spent some more time with EmmaLee and then drove back to Kanab. We were very disappointed that we couldn't work out spending time with Darin.
December in Arizona is the best!!! The weather is perfect, sunny and in the 70's. We decorated for Christmas then spent a week in Kanab visiting Jamie's family and Joe played in two Christmas concerts with a country band from Hurricane, Utah. 
At the end of this trip, our pet bad luck continued. Spot started throwing up and acting really lethargic. He'd drink water and then throw it all back up. He was getting worse so we took him to the emergency vet where after waiting for hours and a bunch of tests, he was diagnosed with Parvo, which is weird because he was vaccinated. He spent the night at the vets and then came home with a lot of medication and some iv's for us to do subcutaneously. After a week of giving him shots and liquid under the skin and feeding him through a tube through his nose, he recovered. We were excited not to lose another pet!!!
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| Spot hospital at home |
Christmas vacation was relaxing. EmmaLee was able to visit and we got to spend Christmas morning with KayLee's family. We went to the zoo, visited Mesa to see the temple lights and to go to our favorite place, Organ Stop Pizza, and slept in a lot!!!
We did have a crazy year and we are loving Sahuarita. We just wish we had all of our family and friends from all over the country here with us.
Love the Costello's
Updates on everyone else:
KayLee's Family: lives in Sahuarita Arizona. Joshua is a CRNA in Tucson and KayLee homeschools and is working on a Betrayal Trauma coaching program.
Ben's Family lives in Winfield, Kansas where Ben was promoted and is now the head facilities manager and the college. Michelle stays home with her two cute girls, Hazel, 4 and Grace, 21 months
Darin's Family lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Darin works at Adobe and Amy makes everything. She put pavers in their backyard, paints their house, knits gorgeous sweaters, restored an old pickup and is writing a book!!! Micah is in the 2nd grade and is such a cutie.
Melissa's family is in Shawnee, Kansas where Nolan works as an IT pharmacist and Melissa is taking care of their two kids, Alex who is 4 and Rowan is 9 months old.
DeeAnn's family lives in Lawrence, Kansas and Julien works in Overland Park as a pharmacist. DeeAnn cuts hair at great clips a few days a month and stays home with their 1 year old, Myron.
Adam moved back to Cleveland, Ohio and I think that is way to far away!!
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