Forever Grateful

The last six or so month have been rough.  Business dropped drastically about three months into this year and progressively declined.  About six months ago, one of our competitors moved just down the road from us but didn't move their google listing and we lost all our new customers.  Honestly I don't know how we survived but we were.  Thing are getting better since we moved but it takes time. 

Yesterday my Relief Society President called and asked if we could use a Thanksgiving dinner.  Since our plans had recently changed and we had been busy we hadn't gotten a turkey yet.  Yesterday afternoon she shows up to drop this 'Thanksgiving dinner' off at our home.  She grabbed a couple bags out of the pile in the back of her suburban, then few more, and a few more.  At this point I was trying hard not to cry.  I know with as few members as we have here in the winter they try to spend the budget so they don't lose it but this was about a months worth of food (if not more).  No one had a clue how we were doing but Heavenly Father did, and he blessed us. 

Often times we don't realize how our Heavenly Father is watching over us.  This morning as I laid in bed, I started thinking about all the trials we've had in these short three years.  Everyone says the first year of marriage is the hardest, if you can make it past that, things become easier.  Well I'd like to tell whom ever you are that started this rumor, IT JUST ISN'T TRUE.  Yes my husband lost his job one month into our marriage but we somehow did okay.  It wasn't till the second year that we his a few brick walls.  Both our marriage and our faith have been tested and yet, we have made it through.  Years ago I received a priesthood blessing, and in it, I was told that I would be given many trials, and as I bear the burdens faithfully, I would be blessed.  I am so grateful for these trials because they have made me stronger, they have made us stronger, and in the end, we have been, and will be blessed. 

Day 3...a little late.

Today I am thankful for a roof over my head.

There are some that have told us that living in a fifth wheel just isn't giving our child the best.  To me the best isn't about living in some fancy house, or having lots of money, its about being a family and loving each other in a home, no matter how big or small it is. 

Gratitude day 2

"God sees us as we can be, but loves us as we are."

Today I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father.

The above quote is one of my favorites and for many reasons.  First off, as mortals we make mistakes and we fall, and yet every time he is right there to pick us back up again if we will let him.  I know how much my earthy father loves me and to know my Heavenly Father loves me.

Day one of gratitude

While I'm still catching up on blog posts from moving I am going to start my 365 days of gratitude...or at least attempt.  I tried last year on Facebook and made it to January before I started forgetting.  Maybe this year I will make it through February. :) 

Today I am grateful for many things, especially our health.  After a spending a week with each taking our turn with the flu, I am grateful to say we're all healthy again. 

Little Catching Up...

Okay so we've been busy, and quite busy at that.  I will start with our second trip down here and go from there.

September 25th came and we headed back to our old house to pick up another load along with Luke's fish and our cat.  We spent that evening at the house and then loaded up the next morning.  While there was still stuff left, the house felt very empty and just didn't feel like home anymore.  It was the moment that it really sank in, "we've moved and this is NOT our home".  After spending the day loading what we could into the trailer we cleaned the house and put everything else in the garage so we could easily load on a future trip.  Once again, we got out later than we expected.  The drive was horrible.  We thought we'd loaded enough heavy items on the front but apparently not.  The trailer swayed any time we hit a pot hole or went down a hill jerking the jeep around.  If this wasn't bad enough we had the fish tank sitting on the back seat with Luke.  We had taken it down to only a few inches of water so when the jeep would get jerked around you'd get a swish, swish, swish, swish and the the cat (sitting in her crate on the floor) would start yowling. 

This went on for about an hour and a half before Luke tipped over his water bottle and it started dripping right down by the cat and started the yowling episode all over again.  I figured, no problem we were only short of our exit by a few miles and then we could pull over and make sure she didn't get wet.   We get half a mile from our exit and there is cones and construction barriers up along with a sign "EXIT 88 Closed"...well that's just great.  We start pulling up maps on the GPS and my phone trying to figure out if there is an exit closer than Olympia. We had no luck and had to keep driving. By the time we hit Olympia we were getting worried. We had no clue where we were and we were getting really low on gas. I sat back and did the one and only thing I could, I said a prayer. We passed exit after exit with no gas station in site and I kept praying. I got a little scared but that still small voice kept telling me "You will make it, I'm here", then the moment came where I felt comforted. I pulled up gas stations on the GPS and found one off in some tiny little town up ahead.

When we pulled into this little town, my heart kind of skipped a beat.  The gas station was dark.  I was very concerned that the only lights that were on was the little screen on each pump.  Thank goodness we live in Washington and can pump our own gas because we'd been in trouble.  We got done filling and realized that we only had a quarter of a gallon of gas left when we stopped.  It was that moment when I realized how far Heavenly Father carried us (because we had been sitting on that empty line for a while at this point).  We were grateful to finally make it home, even though it took us an hour longer than expected. 

At this point we were tired but we had to un-bury Ariel's crate and set it up which included unloading the whole trailer onto the front deck.  Once she was settled in we headed inside and hit the sack. 

The Journey Begins.

I apologize for this being so long and taking so long to get up, its just been quite the journey in the last week.

Our journey has finally begun.  Actually, it began back in April but that’s another story.  We spent Saturday loading the moving truck with the help of our neighbors.  It took a lot longer than we expected and we ended up not getting out at 2pm like we’d planned.  We were all loaded up at about 9:45 and then we had to make a run to the bank, a stop at the library, and finally grab some food for Alex and I.

Once we got back to the house Alex backed the jeep into the driveway and we hooked up the trailer.  Since Alex was driving the moving truck, this left me to drive the jeep.  The problem wasn’t me driving the jeep; it was me driving the jeep with a heavy utility trailer behind me.  I’ve driven trucks and I’ve driven tractors but I’d never driven with a trailer like this, not to mention there was a brand new engine and clutch in there so I had to get used to that. 

All and all it wasn’t bad but it was a little rough at first. It was a bit windy as it always is up the I-5 corridor from Battle Ground till just past Kelso where you pull away from the river.  Just after Kelso I finally started feeling comfortable as the wind had stopped jerking me around; all of a sudden I hit a large pot hole and lost control of the trailer.  Thank goodness it was night and there was no one around at that point because I felt like I had no control. After fishtailing a few times I finally got it straightened out and just prayed for nothing else to happen. 

Normally this trip takes us about two and a half hours but due to the moving truck and a heavy trailer climbing hills took quite a bit of work and it took us an extra half an hour.  Once we got off of I-5 and onto 12W it was pretty smooth sailing, there were very few cars around us which made me less nervous. 

Just a few miles out from our new home I hit another large pothole.  This time it didn’t throw me around a bunch like the first time; it just really pulled me sideways. Just then a car passed me…it was a cop.  He kept going for a while so I figured I was clear.  All of a sudden he slowed down and flipped around. I figure maybe he had just hit the end of his patrol area and was flipping around to head back.  He got right up on the trailer and stayed there.  Let’s talk about make me nervous.  If that wasn’t bad enough, then he flipped his lights on.  At this point I’m almost in tears, I’d been driving for nine years and I figured I’d just blown my clean driving record .  He couldn’t be pulling me over for speeding because I was going under the speed limit.  Maybe I’d had a light go out while we were on the drive?  I had no clue.  I’d had a feeling to keep my purse where I could access it easily but all of the bags fell on it and it got buried.  The officer came walking and checked out our trailer full of bikes, buggies, strollers…and decorative bricks.  He all of a sudden came up to my passenger door. I couldn’t get the stupid window to unzip so he asked if he could just open the door.  He shined his light in the back hitting Luke in the face and waking him up…needless to say, he got a dirty look before apologizing multiple times.  Then came the question, “do you know why I pulled you over?”  I looked at him and said “no, I really don’t”.  He proceeded to tell me that I was half way into the bike lane as he was passing me and then I got back into my lane and he wanted to make sure I wasn’t drunk.  I explained to him that I don’t drink and I just wasn’t used to driving the trailer, I’d hit a hole and it pulled me over.  He smiled and asked who it was in front of me since my husband had pulled over in a giant bright yellow Penske truck.  I told him it was my husband. He asked what brought us out this way and where we were from.  I told him it had been a dream of ours to move out to the coast and we’d finally found a place.  When I told him we were coming from Battle Ground, he smiled and told me that is where his wife grew up…can someone say small world?  I’m sure he was also thinking that it was almost 2 in the morning and we were crazy for moving in the middle of the night. He let me go, not even a warning (thank heavens). I promised him I’d try and avoid the potholes.  He got a good chuckle out of that. 

Get back out on the road and there he is, riding my bumper again making me totally nervous.  All of a sudden he started to pass me and I realize it’s not really the cop; it was some guy who was all over the road.  Why on earth do I get pulled over and not the dude that is all over the road speeding?  At least we made it safely. 

We finally pulled in right around 1:45.  Originally we’d planned on putting our tent on the deck until we could get in and vacuum/shampoo the carpets but we were so tired that we were just going to set up Luke’s playpin and our air mattress in the middle of the living room floor and saying forget it to the tent.  We get out expecting to find the keys hidden where our realtor was going to put them and they weren’t there. We looked all over and finally just got out the tent and set it up.  We open the camping tote and realize the pump for our air mattress isn’t in there. So we layered as much as possible on the floor and covered up with our bedding.

Sunday morning we were both so stiff.  We also were so tired that we have no clue what time Luke went to sleep because he was still chit chatting with Tigger and Ferdinand (his giant stuffed cow) when both of us passed out.  We got up and ate some muffins while waiting to call our realtor to get our keys.  We finally got our keys around 9:45 and we started off loading stuff onto the deck.  This was not exactly what I wanted to spend my whole Sunday doing but because we didn’t get up here when we planned, we had no choice.  We finally finished up around nine last night and we sat down and had PB&J sandwiches for dinner before driving the truck back to Aberdeen.  By the way, most places around here don’t carry diesel so we had to drive all over the place trying to find a gas station that did.  We were so grateful to be home last night and pulled our nice futon mattress in and laid it on our living room floor where we quickly passed out once again.  Today we got our hot water fully running which was nice.  Now on to cleaning the place so we can get everything out of boxes and into its place…