A Place to Call Home

Ok, so this post is long overdue. Back in June I did a post called Lessons Learned. I wrote about our housing "crisis" so to speak. So if you haven't read it or you want to refresh your memory you can click on June in the column on the right hand side and catch up! This post is a continuation of the Lessons Learned post. If you're interested that is :)

Anyway, the last part of that post I talked about how we had done some house hunting, but we really felt that we should hold off on buying a house. For about the first month or so that we lived here with my parents we continued to search for a home. We looked in many different subdivisions in the area and we even got the information on some homes that had been foreclosed on. Some of those foreclosures were screaming deals!! Each time we looked at homes and had found one that we really liked we would start to get a little excited and think, "Yeah, we could live here! This is a great house!" But the same feeling would always come afterwards. . . . Wait. We would house hunt again and again and get excited again and again and then - AGAIN that feeling would come, every time. . . .wait. One night I remember asking Heavenly Father, "What are we waiting for?" He didn't tell me. But we did take the hint after that and we quit house hunting. And we just decided. . . . .to wait.

So wait we did. My parents were great through all of this. They kept telling us, "Don't feel like you have to hurry out of here. You can stay as long as you need to. Take your time." I just didn't want them to feel like we were leeching off of them or something. But they were so nice about everything. Living here we have grown so much closer to them, we've grown closer to my grandparents who live downstairs in the basement (it's complicated, really :)), and we've grown closer to each other. My parents let us get out pretty much every weekend. We haven't dated this much since we were dating! We wouldn't even ask them if they could babysit the kids. They were so nice and would just offer to watch them if we wanted to get out. Of course we took them up on that offer many many times! It's been nice for Craig and I to be able to get out with each other like that for some good one on one time. They have been so kind to take us in and take care of us like they have. We've been able to get into a better financial situation living here as well.

Meanwhile, sometime in July Craig had gone on a business trip to Maryland. His company has a facility in there. The man who was the manager in Maryland got caught doing some dishonest things and the company ended up letting him go. So they flew Craig there to help the guys out in Maryland who now don't have a manager. Craig was out there for a week and almost every night I talked to him he would say, "I can't believe how beautiful it is out here. It's so green and there's trees! I could live here!" I would laugh and at one point during the week I told him, "Well, hey there's a job opening there now, maybe they'll ask you if you want to move out there and manage in Maryland." He really loved it there, but never thought that would happen. A little bit after he came back from his business trip we went to the Temple together. We were talking (whispering) before we started our session and I noticed that the lady I was doing the temple work for was from Maryland. I kind of smiled and pointed it out to Craig and said, "Hey, maybe the Lord's trying to tell us something!" Craig laughed and said, "I would rather move to New Jersey than to Maryland!" The company Craig works for also has a facility in New Jersey that did not have a manager.

Two or three weeks later Craig got a phone call from one of his bosses from the corporate office. His boss wanted to know if he would be willing to move to New Jersey and manage the facility there. He told his boss, "Let me talk to my wife first." (Good answer, babe!) I very clearly remember the morning that Craig called and asked me how I would feel about moving to New Jersey. I had just finished bawling my eyes out to Heavenly Father. I was sick of waiting. I am a planner. I like to have a plan. The last few months of life had had NO plan. And I was at a loss! After standing still and waiting for so long I wanted to feel like we were moving in a forward direction. It's almost funny how a few hours later the phone rang and a PLAN landed in my lap. Craig asked me how I would feel about it and he told me he wanted my honest opinion. I started laughing! I said to him, "Do you remember what you said a few weeks ago in the Temple?" He said, "No." And I said, "You said - out loud - in the Temple - that you would rather move to New Jersey than to Maryland." (Apparently Heavenly Father listens in on all those side conversations we have in the Temple!) He then remembered saying that and he started to laugh a little. We don't know if Craig was ever being considered for the Maryland position or not. But he did get asked to manage in New Jersey none the less.

He DID accept the offer. After much prayer and a couple of trips out to New Jersey we do feel that this move is right for our family.

Looking back we now see why we needed to WAIT. Had we put money down on a home here- we would have been out all of our earnest money! The home we are supposed to move into is not here. It's in New Jersey. Across the entire country. Very far from family.

So why the impression to move closer to family in the first place? In the Lessons Learned post I had mentioned that I wasn't sure why I had had that impression. One of my guesses - actually my first guess - was: Maybe Craig will get a job transfer out of state and we will end up raising our family far away and this is a time to be close to family before we leave. I think I hit it right on the nose with that guess. We are so glad that we did not move back into our home after we found out that the sale fell through. We would be stressing about what to do with our house. It probably would not have sold yet, we can't know for sure but with the way the market is it most likely would not have sold. We would be stressing with thinking about putting renters in it before we leave or do we just leave it on the market to see if it sells, etc.? We would have had to pack EVERYTHING up all over again! Most of our stuff has just remained in storage the past few months. So it's nice that there wasn't much to pack, just the stuff we had at my parent's house. We already have renters in there and things are going very smoothly. The house is being taken care of and it's one less thing that we have had to worry about as we have prepared to leave. Shortly after breaking the news to my mom, she came to me teary eyed and said one of the reasons the Lord put us here was for her. She expressed how grateful she was that she got to be so close to us for a time. She's loved watching the grandkids grow. Clark wasn't crawling when we got here and now he's standing on his own two feet. I've caught her telling Clark a couple of times, "I want to see you walk before you go!" Chase lost his first tooth and Mallory turned three. She says it's been a special tender mercy that the Lord has given to her to have us here in their home. Mom and Dad, we can't possibly thank you enough. . . . .

So today is Tuesday. We leave Friday. It's real. I can't believe it's real. But it's happening whether or not we're ready for it. All of our stuff is packed in storage boxes that will be shipped across the country. Our cars are being shipped as well. We thought about driving, but after weighing the options we decided that flying would be better. We could spend 4 days, in the car, driving across America - with three children - or we could spend 4 1/2 hours on an airplane. Driving would have been a little cheaper, but the many times we pictured driving, we pictured it as going something like this - "Mom, he's touching me!" "I have to go potty." "She's not giving me back my toy!" "He hit me!" "WAAAAAA", from the 11-month old who's sick of being in his car seat! Then we would just be yelling at our kids. I'll take the airplane thank you! It's already stressful enough on us moving our family across the country. We didn't want to pass that stress on to the kids.

Craig flew out this last weekend and rented us a townhouse. We thought about buying, but with how bad the economy is lately we didn't wanted to take on another mortgage. Maybe when we get our AZ home sold we'll talk about buying something out there.

We'll miss a lot of things about AZ, but we're excited for the adventures we'll have in NJ. There will be many changes. The wards in New Jersey encompass 7 or 8 cities. The closest temple is in Manhattan. It rains approximately 4 inches a month. And snow, we WILL have snow! And big puffy warm winter jackets with mittens and hats! NYC is less than an hour's train ride away. Washington DC is three hours away. The beach and Atlantic Ocean only 35 minutes away. Philadelphia is 30 minutes. Six Flags Theme Park - 30 minutes. It's against state law to pump your own gas. You wait in your car and someone does it for you. No tip required! Adventures, yes. . . . there will be many. . . . .

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. . . . . leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. . . .

Eventful Weekend

We have a big family reunion every year for Labor Day. We always go camping in Northern Arizona. This year was actually the 51st year that our family has had this tradition. It's kind of fun to see our 2nd and 3rd cousins and great aunts and uncles, etc. We only get to see these people once or twice a year, so why we choose to go camping I still have not quite figured out. Camping makes you stinky and dirty and you look and feel gross because you haven't showered in 3 days. I would rather not have extended family remember me in that way all year! Oh well. . . . it's still fun to get together none the less.

So we got to the campground Friday afternoon and actually ended up driving into Payson to have dinner at a restaurant. We were celebrating 2 of my brother's birthdays and we hadn't been able to find time to get together before the campout so we had dinner in town. They picked a Mexican food restaurant that was actually really good, except the salsa had WAY too much garlic in it! We all walked out of the restaurant WAY too full and apparently smelling like garlic. Later that night at the campground one of my cousins was holding Mallory and she asked me why my daughter smelled like garlic. Lovely. . . . .hopefully we didn't all smell that way! :)

On Saturday the little kids got to go on a scavenger hunt and collect acorns, rocks, and leaves from the forest. Chase and Mallory loved it! They had a blast playing in the dirt and throwing dirt on each other. They got to throw rocks and dirt clods at trees. I always forget how easily entertained a little boy is with just a stick in hand. Chase has never been happier! I've decided that Santa Claus is going super cheap this year and will be bringing sticks and dirt clods!! It was a little bit harder to camp with Clark. He's not quite walking, but he's a busy boy and didn't want to just sit on a lap the whole time. So we let him crawl around in the dirt when he just wanted to be down and playing. That ended up being a really bad idea. He broke out with a rash all over his body. He had hives everywhere! He was probably itching like crazy! We gave him some Benadryl and it helped with the redness a little bit. If anything it helped him sleep too. He wasn't napping well. His little body was probably just so uncomfortable with his allergic reaction plus he was in a strange place. He wasn't sleeping at night either. He was screaming and we didn't want him to wake up everybody else in the campground so we finally just stuck him in bed with us. Which was also weird for Clark because he's never slept with us before. He was trying to go to sleep and he puked in my hair and all over my pillow! Gag me! Saturday night was a looooong night!

Sunday wasn't any better as far as his rash went. He was so fussy! Chase was playing on this wooden platform thing and got "spliders" (splinters) all over in his hands. I pulled over ten splinters out between both of his hands. I felt really bad for him. He screamed bloody murder while I was pulling them out. At one point I looked up at him while he was screaming and I saw a tooth in his mouth. A permanent tooth! It kind of shocked me. He's only four, I didn't think kids lost their teeth until they were older than that. Both of his lower front teeth are loose and one of them is going to fall out any day now! I brush his teeth every night and I was just surprised that I hadn't noticed before then. So that was kind of exciting! We'll have our first visit from the tooth fairy soon! It rained really, really hard for a while and we brought the kids inside the motor home to watch a movie.Later that afternoon, Chase ended up getting lost. He was playing on a wood pile and we turned around to check on him and he was gone! We went around to everyone's little camps thinking he had just gone over to play with a cousin. But he wasn't at anyone's camp. I started into panic mode and was screaming his name. Craig and my dad were screaming for him and we split up to check some different parts of the woods. It had been about 20 minutes. Every time we go camping I pray every morning that none of my kids will get lost. (It's a major fear of mine.) It had also been raining and there was a full creek nearby. Another thing to panic about. I started toward the treeline at the back of the campground screaming Chase's name and he came running out of the forest. He was crying and was screaming, "Mommy, I'm lost!" I gave him a big hug. I was relieved, but part of me wanted to yell at him! I told him he scared me and not to ever do that again!! There were three other little 4 year old boys with him and one ten year old. Apparently the ten year old was taking all of the little boys out to the forest to play hide and go seek. Three of the little boys were crying that they were lost! I had to tell the ten year old that you don't take 4 year olds out into the forest to hide them!! (I was very angry at this boy) But a huge feeling of relief washed over me that Chase was safe!! I had a good talk with Chase about only going into the woods if he has an adult with him. We had already had this talk twice before, but apparently it didn't get through to him. I think he understands now :) I took him for a nature walk in the woods and we walked over a brdge that crosses the creek. It really is a beautiful area. About 10 minutes into our walk I told Chase we had to go back to the campground because I had to go to the bathroom. (My parents had rented a motor home that we could go potty in.) Chase wasn't ready to go back yet so he tells me, "Mom, you could go pee on a tree!" Gotta love his perspective :)

We were going to stay until Monday morning, but ended up leaving Sunday night. Clark still had hives everywhere and was pretty fussy. We wanted to get him home to sleep in his own bed and to get away from whatever type of weed or pollen that was bothering him. We got home just before 11pm, bathed them, and put them to bed. They all slept so good! We had hoped Monday morning would be better for Clark's hives. When we got him up out of his crib his face was swollen! His right eye was almost swollen shut! His left eye was starting to swell and his little nose was all puffy! The pictures really don't do it justice.
I almost cried! Of course this had to happen on a holiday so the doctor's office was closed. I drove to Urgent Care and they were closed too. The only place left was the ER. Obvioulsy he was having an allergic reaction to something and it wasn't getting any better! I know with some allergic reactions airways can start to close up and his condition was getting progressively worse. I was starting to get really scared for him. I wanted to cry every time I looked at my baby! Luckily the ER was completely empty so we got right in. The ER doctor said that Clark was probably allergic to something in the dirt or some type of weed or plant or pollen or something that was up there. And chances are, we'll never find out what it was that caused the reaction. So they gave him a steroid to help the swelling go down and to make the redness in his skin go away. The doctor said he would start to get better after he had the steroid in his system. He has to take it for three more days. The swelling has gone down now and the redness in his skin is getting better. We thought maybe he got a little sunburned up camping and that that's what might have been causing some of the redness, but the doctor said if he had a sunburn his skin would feel hot - it would be burning. His skin didn't feel hot so that's how they knew it was an allergic reaction. Plus hives are a dead give away. So my poor baby! I'm glad we're moving in the right direction with him now. My boys sure were handfuls this weekend! Miss Mallory was as sweet as she could be floating around from tent to tent making friends with distant cousins. Regardless of all of my complaining about the weekend it was actually really nice to be able to spend time with extended family and to renew friendships there. We played a really fun game around the campfire on Saturday night. My sister-in-law, Natalie, won both games and out smarted everybody! I love to be in the woods and to hear the crickets all chirping in unison in the evening, to stare into the fire, and to be able to see every constellation in the sky without all the city lights. It was an enjoyable weekend. . . . eventful. . . .but enjoyable to say the least!