Not the greatest start

I know I can't judge our life in California by the first day - that wouldn't be right. I've gotta give it a fair chance. After all, if I ha judged my life in college on one day I would have run for the hills once that life size Brittany spears poster took residence on my dorm room door. So I'm trying to give this a chance too.

But we hadn't been out of our hotel 10 minutes when William went to let a dog wearing a shirt that said 'I have 2 daddies'. Now, I'm not here to judge anyone's lifestyle - and I certainly was prepared for that in moving here. But if my dog doesn't wear a shirt that says 'I have a mommy and a daddy' why is it necessary that any dog declare it's parents sexuality? Besides, dad #1 was making it pretty apparent - the declarative shirt wasn't revealing any secrets. I've always taken the stance that if I'm not flaunting my life, you don't need to flaunt yours - and we'll be fine. Apparently I need to revisit that.

I also saw what I thought was a Rosie poster, muscles flexed with the phrase 'we can do it'. I sort of felt comforted until I realized it was 2 women proudly declaring they were able to get married. And I've seen the poster a few places.

Then we proceeded to see the same long haired guitar toting wooden flute toting hippie around town throughout the day. Just walking around. Just toting his instruments. All. Day. Again, I'm not here to judge but...

Well, it sure sounds like I'm here to judge doesn't it???

It's just very different here! All of
My blogs about how different California is from Texas - I thought I was being cute. No,
I was scratching the surface. It's just a different world - and I should have known that when we were stopped by BORDER CONTROL checking to be sure we weren't smuggling any agriculture or animals!

Nope, no animals in here. Just 80 pounds of dog and 30 pounds of cat.

Border patrol?!?!?! Am I no longer in America?!?! Oh my goodness gracious.

But - I won't judge the next 2 years (I'm beginning to gain confidence in us wanting out of Monterey as soon as the army will allow it) on the last 24 hours. Let's face it, the first day is probably always bad. Right? RIGHHT?? Confirmation please...

We have a little bit of frustration with our housing situation right now too, which didn't go in day 1's favor either. Wednesday morning, before the window repair people got to our hotel, we found out Austin is being promoted May 1! Now we thought we finally had some good news going our way. A little pay raise to help ease the financial strain and...a better house! Yippee!!!

I immediately called my ol' buddy David at the housing office to see about being switched from the e6 duplex to an e7 house. David and I have talked a lot over the last month and he is...well...he's like a little drone reading answers from a paper unable to think or act on his own. He also is unable to return phone calls or send emails when he says he will, so I have to be quite the nag. He said he would send the paperwork over to RCI who owns Pinnacle, which is who he works for and who owns the privatized housing. Once RCI verifies the promotion he will get a preview letter emailed to me so we can pick which e7 house we would like.

He also implied this would all happen by close of business Wednesday.

Thursday morning I called him back having never heard from him again and he said he hadn't heard back from RCI but as long as he got confirmation by 4:30 we could move into the e7 house that day.

Hours later we were informed that RCI can take up to 7 days to verify this with the army. Our delivery of our household goods was already scheduled for Friday morning and the moving company doesn't have another open time until 10 days from now, so we didn't have an option to delay move in. So, we had to sign the lease and take the keys to the e6 house knowing that in 5ish days we will be approved for the other house.

I know I had said there wasn't much difference in the housing but I found out there is. There is an e7 house available right now that is 350 square feet bigger, has an office/study, has more storage, isn't a duplex and has an attached garage...and it's just prettier!

Here is our current house



(notice the lack of balcony? Yeah, me too)
Here is the house we want



Better all around.

Maybe it's not a big deal. Maybe I shouldn't care. Maybe we should take what we have and be happy.

So far - not happening.

If Austin wasn't being promoted may 1 we wouldn't have had 2 day of headaches with the housing office and maybe we would be excited for our current house. But now I just dislike everything about it. Not the best attitude but you know what? I don't really care right now - I'm going to pout and declare my dislike for the situation and I'm not going to feel one bit guilty.

Once RCI confirms the promotion we can file an 'inter village transfer request' and HOPE they approve it. They have no reason not to but...well I don't know that they make logical choices all the time. Once we file the request David's manager has to approve it which can take 1-2 days. So, it could be end of next week. At that point do we still want the house? Do we want to move all our boxes and luggage and washing machine and crap across the neighborhood? We can leave it all packed up to make it easier but we would still be on our own in the moving. Is it worth it?

I just feel like things are just barely not working out throughout this process. I am just waiting for something to work out from start to finish...the way we want...right now. When does that happen?

The day ended better - we had a nice dinner on the bay and looked out at the water as we stuffed our face with some yummy Mexican food.






I guess If we never enjoy it here at least we can look at the water!

- manda

Day 2 and 3

Well, days 2 and 3 didn't quite go according to the master binder. Day 2 started with a friendly chat with a member of the Colorado state patrol. He didn't give me a ticket but he did Ask me to 'control' my excessive speed. I WANTED to tell him I was controlling it quite well, but thought I should just leave it at that.

We enjoyed driving through the valleys and canyons in Utah, and especially enjoyed when the speed limit was 80!









We had a quick 15 minutes in Arizona and it was beautiful, but by the time I was able to peel up the death grip I had on the steering wheel it was gone. Those downhill winding roads can be quite scary!

We got to Las Vegas just after lunch time and once we got settled we took William to the m&m's store. He had fun making his own bag of m&m's but from there it felt like we proceeded to make promise after promise which we couldn't live up to. We told him we would go see the gorillas at the rainforest cafe, but they were closed Monday and Tuesday for renovations. We told him we could take a picture with the yellow m&m but it was gone. Then we told him we would eat at the motorcycle restaurant but he fell asleep!!! We did have fun on the strip though and he loved the fountains at the bellagio!









That night in our hotel room William told us 3 times in a row that he heard Melvin beeping but we ignored him. Two hours later Austin was taking stuff out to Melvin to pack a little and he found two windows smashed! Nothing was stolen thankfully (my guess: a druggie needed $ for his next fix and decided Thomas trains weren't worth much on the black market) but we had a fun few hours Tuesday night and Wednesday trying to reconfigure our plan.

Staying later Wednesday morning to get melvin fixed did allow us to go back to rainforest cafe, but would you believe the gorillas were still blocked off?!? What are the odds? I told austin it was a good thing we weren't in Vegas to gamble because we were striking out left and right.

By the time we finished with lunch, packed up the cars and got gas we didn't leave Vegas until almost 2:30. We had a long boring road ahead of us and I had hoped to get started sooner but that's ok.

The drive was less than spectacular most of the way. Guess California is only pretty on the western side.




Around 10 pm we exited off i5 in California to head into Monterey and I was nearly asleep. But - the rain and roads winding around the cliffs sure woke me up! I was pretty sure I'd find myself off one of them but luckily at 11:30 we rolled into the best western.

William woke up when Austin got him out of his carseat so I was mortified at the thought of being awake one more minute. But one he saw the bed in our room he leaned out of Austin's arms onto the bed and curled into a ball on the pillows. He didn't budge for 8 hours :)

Our travels had ended and our heads hit the pillows, ready to FINALLY start life in California!


- manda

Day One

Monday was day one of our adventure out west!

We had a lot to do at oh gosh's house to get packed and ready, and we had decided the best time to head to Grand Junction would be after lunch. We wanted to get William full and tired so he
could sleep most of the way to our first stop. So, for lunch we went to downtown Colorado springs and ate at the BEST establishment ever!



Our plan worked perfectly because after we got back to oh gosh's, got the pets and got gas William was asleep in 10 minutes!

The drive to grand junction was beautiful. I hadn't ever driven farther than Vail so I loved seeing the other side of the Rockies.






The only sad part was seeing the mountains in the rear view



Our first day was uneventful and went perfectly according to our plan.

Wish I could say the same for the next...

- manda

MM: on our way!

Well, we are on our way. Almost. We are still at Oh Gosh's house, but our goodbyes have been said and bags are packed so we are just waiting for the right time To take off.

We have to have Melvin weighed empty then weighed again once we fill him up with all the stuff, we have to pick the cats up at their resort getaway by 10:00, then load up all the stuff and be on our way! I think we might go to a place called PB&Jellies for lunch before we leave town. I'm not sure why or how I have never heard of this establishment until my last week here, but a restaurant centered around peanut butter is a dream come true. Literally. So, we'll have our lunch then head to Grand Junction, CO!

It's been a rough week with goodbyes and all that they bring, but I know that the only reason it's so hard is because we've been so blessed with great people and great friendships. So I'll try to remind myself of that every time I get sad seeing Denver in the rear view mirror.

I'll try to blog every day with updates on the trip and fun stuff from last week like William's trip to the zoo and his Fun Bus adventure. Until then - happy trails to you!


- manda

No idea

I had NO IDEA. If this little blogging app on my phone had the ability to increase font size, change color, bold, italicize, and underline – I would be doing it all to the words “no idea”. But, my app isn’t that talented so I’ll just reiterate – I had NO IDEA.

I had no idea I’d literally fall in love with the Goddard School and the people who work there. When we signed the papers to have William attend Goddard we were just stunned at the cost. Now, not even two years after his first day, I’d pay double if I had to. Tuition is expensive, but I’m the one getting the better end of the bargain. Leaving my baby in someone else’s care is not an easy thing to do but it’s been exponentially easier than I ever thought it could be.

It started out with Miss Kim and Miss Jennifer – and I adored them from day one. I thought maybe it was beginner’s luck, or maybe they put the best teachers at the front to show off their assets…I was sure the rest of the school couldn’t compare, but I didn’t even care. I just loved them! They were so soothing and patient (with me as much as William) and so reassuring of his development, ailments, insecurities and strengths. And they LOVED him. I’d love to brag and say it’s because it s William, but the love they had for him is a kind that would be impossible to not share with all of the kids. They genuinely love the babies in their room. On days when he was moody, or days when I was moody, or days when one of us was sick – they were the soothing presence that helped get me in gear for a day at work. I cried when William had to leave them, and I was certain I’d never love again. (ok, never love a TEACHER again)

Then I met Cassie and Sabrena and Roland in the zebra room. It wasn’t an instant adoration; I was too stricken with the grief of the loss of the infant room. But next thing I knew I was laughing in the afternoon for 10-15 minutes with the teachers, forgetting I needed to get food in my belly. I blinked and realized I wasn’t running to Kim or Jennifer with my concerns about William’s walking or talking or motor skills. I was texting Cassie for babysitting help and general school questions. I still adored Kim and Jennifer (I still do today) and I still got such a warm feeling when I’d see them, but the zebra teachers exceeded my expectations again. I mean – how is it possible to greet parents with a smile after being spit on, yelled at, punched and bitten by a dozen toddlers all day? I don’t have that kind of patience or love, but the zebra teachers do. And it amazed me.

Cassie resigned from Goddard to have a job closer to home around the time Austin went back to Afghanistan after r&r, so William and I had a rough transition after that. Goddard struggled to find a suitable replacement which meant William struggled with a lack of structure and control over his day and I…well I struggled with the same thing. After a few weeks a replacement was hired, but she really preferred to be in the Hippo class. I think finding a teacher who really PREFERS to be with two-three year olds is like finding a needle in a haystack. So after a few weeks in the zebra room they moved Miss Maria to the next room to be the lead teacher. I received a phone call from the owner saying, “Miss Maria isn’t going to stay with the zebras but William has an incredible bond with her so we’d like to move him up to hippos a month early to avoid any more transitions for him. Would you be ok with that?”

He had known her not even two weeks. But he fell in love with her faster than any other. I hadn’t even had a chance to talk with her much at this point so my worries weren’t eased yet, but knowing that William was attached enough to warrant a phone call calmed me somewhat.

And then I saw them together on his first day in hippos. Miss Maria’s face LIGHTS UP when she sees William and he runs into her arms as fast as he runs into mine. For every moment I thought Kim, Jennifer, Cassie, Sabrena and Roland adored William – I saw a new adoration with Maria. She adores him when he is screaming and crying. She adores him when he refuses to wear shoes. She adores him when he won’t eat lunch. And she adores him when he’s my sweet baby angel too. Naturally I’d give my life or limb for my baby, but I don’t know if I would blurt out “I adore you!” moments after he’s intentionally dumped over a full cup of orange juice on my clean floor.

Teachers have a special non-parental love for their kids. And as a parent, I could not be more thankful for the quality of teachers the Goddard School hires. I always hear Primrose commercials on the radio and their catchy slogan about the strength of their program is “just ask a Primrose mom”. I have no doubt that Primrose offers a wonderful program, and I’m sure the same could be said for a lot of the other school-type day care centers out there. The quality is not in the name or the building, or sometimes even the particular curriculum that is chosen. The quality is in the class of people who are hired, and I truly believe Goddard was the best financial decision we ever made. I don’t care what we spent, it was worth every penny. To see people love my son the way they do has been such a blessing as his mom. I just hope that after I’m done grieving the loss of Goddard, Maria, Brooke (the owner), Shannon (the director) and all the other teachers who have helped mold William I will be able to have as wonderful of an experience wherever William goes next.


- manda

MM: Ready or Not

This week reminded me a lot of playing hide and seek - only for the phrase 'ready or not here
I come'

The cable and Internet was shut off Friday. The movers packed the house. So - ready or not here I come!

Here are a few pictures of how we lived all weekend:



our bedroom



Williams room - but Austin ended up moving these boxes into the guest room. William is not a fan of the boxes unless he can be on top of them.



Office/craft room






I REALLY don't know where, when or how we acquired so much stuff! I never felt like our house was too cluttered...well, wait, I ALWAYS felt like our house was too cluttered. But I thought it was more a result of being crazy and unrelated to having excess 'stuff'. I have mentally rehashed what it is in all of the boxes and I really can't figure out #1 what added up so fast, or #2 what we could even get rid of. The only thing I really think we have in excess is baby clothes but until I can be sure I'll never have another son, or until I know I'm going to have a nephew, I don't see the point in getting rid of all of the clothes. So what if 8 huge tubs in the garage are filled with old baby stuff?! Not to mention his current clothes, toys, books and furniture...

The movers did say we are dangerously close to the 11,000 pound packing limit. If we go over weight the army will charge us for the additional weight. Kaila thought she'd try out being a comedian and suggested we leave Reagan behind to shed some weight. Funny.

Well, it may have actually been a good idea except Reagan is joining me for the ride so his excess weight doesn't count.

That's right - next time I write
Monterey Monday I will be driving through the mountains of Colorado with the pleasurable company of two cats. Please let me know how envious you are.

So - that's it. We're really going. One more night on air mattresses in our house, one more day at the Goddard School, one more week in Colorado.

Kleenex - ready or not, here I come.

- Manda

William Wednesday

Some pictures to make up for my lack of words...


















Hopefully more soon...

- manda

Colorado

Almost exactly six years ago to the day I drove most of my things from College Station to Killeen where Austin was living. He was having his house packed up by the movers and we were trying to squeeze my stuff in there so that it could be moved for free. I was packing my bags and I was moving to Colorado. I think it is safe to say that moving here was probably the boldest, least thought out decision I’ve ever made – and it was absolutely the best decision I’ve ever made.

When Austin asked me to move with him I contemplated saying no. I thought maybe I should stay in Texas where I’d for sure have a job. I remember sitting in Brittany’s office over Christmas break my senior year and she just looked at me like I was an idiot. “But you love Austin.” “yes, but I have a job here”. “Yes, but you love Austin.” “Yes, but I don’t know anyone there, I don’t have any source of income, I have no money as it is…” “Yes. But you love Austin. You have to go.”

So, I went. I listened to my heart and ignored my brain and I went. Had I stayed in Houston maybe…well, there’s no point in playing out what may have happened. I wouldn’t have the family I have now, and my life would not be as rich as it is now.

Other than my fear of never finding a job and being broke forever, it was an easy move. I had to move one way or the other – I couldn’t afford to be a student anymore! So, why not Colorado? Why not one of the most beautiful states in our country? Why not live near the mountains? Why not?

And I fell in love. I still fall in love. I love most things about Colorado and I will miss almost all of it. I don’t think I could have had a better first home-away-from-home. The par was set high that’s for sure. But, there are a lot of things that I’ve learned in 6 years that I just never knew about Colorado. So I thought it’d be fun, and quite nostalgic of me, to look back at some of the things I’ve learned.

• When people boast about 360 days of sunshine per year, they really mean that the sun will make an appearance on 360 days. It does not mean that you would truly qualify all of those days as “sunny”.
• “Rainstorm” means there’s a slight possibility that you may catch a few drops of rain between the hours of 2:00-6:00. I don’t think I’ve ever used an umbrella and I’ve probably been rained on fewer times than the number of fingers I have. There’s no falling asleep to rain pounding on your window, but the trade off is waking up to a white blanket of snow covering your lawn.
• People don’t smile at you when you’re walking around the park. Or hiking trails. Or mountains. Or really much of any time. Now, that’s a very bold statement to say being that it’s a safe bet that 25% of Colorado inhabitants are originally from Texas…but people just aren’t nearly as friendly here as I would have thought they’d be. With 360 days of sunshine how could you not be friendly???
• Coloradans hate Texans. Some hate Texans a lot. I was told at my first job “The best thing about the Colorado river is that if you pee in it, you’re really peeing on either Texas or California because that’s where it ends up”. Well, glad to meet you too! Oh, and they hate Californians too.
• If the brand isn’t North Face, the brand isn’t worth the time of 75% of the people that live here. Burberry? Louis Vuitton? Any other brand you may know? Nah, just hand over the North Face.
• Denver has the longest snow season of any city in the United States. (proven fact) We don’t have near the quantity of snow as other places, but snow season typically starts in October and can go all the way to Memorial Day. Last year it did! That means it snowed more months out of the year than it didn’t. That can turn almost any snow lover into a snow hater. Just not me.
• I had no idea what “weird” was when I used to think Austin (the city, not my husband) was weird. People here eat grains and nuts and don’t shave their armpits and ride their bikes across the city to work and drive Subaru’s…
• Parking spaces are not meant for trucks. Maybe it’s their passive aggressive way of trying to eliminate all of the Texans? Well, I showed them. I know how to park in 2 spots.
• People have secret sources of income. I don’t know this as a fact – truly it must be secret – but I believe this to be the case because from about February until October on any given day you can find hundreds of people out riding bikes. Dressed in full biker garb, riding through the hills and into the mountains and through parks along roadways…just riding. I had hoped that before leaving CO I could find out where these people work, but alas I’m headed out the door and its still a mystery.
• Broncos fans are the worst. Rockies fans are loyal to a fault. And I haven’t really met any Nuggets fans.

As silly as some of my ah-ha moments have been, I have learned one very good lesson that I will carry with me:

**You can meet some of the most incredible friends in some of the most unexpected places. **

In high school I thought North Dakota was just a big square on a map…and a place where we should send our prisoners. What I didn’t know was that I would meet three of my best friends who grew up in that well kept secret they call NoDak.

For all the days I cried about unemployment, and then for all the nights I complained endlessly about my job at Janus, I am eternally grateful for where God placed me when I took that leap of faith and moved to Colorado. Kaila and I started work around the same time which then allowed me to meet Jodi and Dusti. Had I stayed in Texas for a year or so to work and save money, which was my alternative plan, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to bump into Kaila at just the right time…3 girls new to the big city, as desperate for friends as I was.

Over the last six years my three north Dakotan friends have come to feel as much like home as my real home does. I never would have guessed I’d ever meet friends away from home who make me feel the way these three do, and it just happened out of the blue. And it’s not just the blessing of these three; I’ve had other friends that have popped up unexpectedly. I’ve been amazed at the relationships that have come up in the most unexpected places.

My heart breaks at the thought of not seeing them– regardless of how little we see each other now – and I am not prepared to walk away from such wonderful friends. But the silver lining here is that if I met three of the best friends I’ve ever had when I fully expected to never have more than an acquaintance, what are the chances it’ll happen again? What are the chances that God has something amazing planned for our lives in California and that we are going at just the right time?

“I am the Lord, the God of mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” ~Jeremiah 32:27

I have faith He will do it again. In a few years I will come up with a silly list of lessons learned from life in California but the true gift will have been the people I will have met.

MM: Last Monday at Home...or THIS Home

Part of me wishes we had decided to move April 16 instead of April 23. Other than the time with Oh Gosh, the going away BBQ my coworkers have planned (it is also a party for kids with the Fun Bus – look it up, looks awesome!) and a night with my 3 favorite North Dakota girls, I am just ready to leave. The sooner the better at this point. I do realize, though, that if I had planned to leave April 16 we would have had our stuff packed last week, and we’d be at Brian’s house right now, and I’d be saying “well I wish we had just left April 9…” and so on. I know I would have taken the same steps in preparing and I’d be just as ready to go if I had said April 16. April 9 – well that may have been a tighter goal, but you get my point.

We had a busy weekend full of random “stuff” to do. Friday I had my last hair appointment which marked my first sad goodbye. I haven’t known my hairdresser very long so its kind of silly to be that sad – getting my hair done every 6-8 weeks over the last year means I’ve only seen her probably 10 times. But I love her! She’s such a sweet person with a kind heart, and she always does a good job on my hair. I decided to go darker on my hair so that in the event that I’m unemployed for the rest of my life I won’t have as drastic and trashy of a hair-dye line. She went a little darker than I had thought, though she swears some will fade, and I get a lot of funny looks but overall I think people really like the dark hair. So I think it was a success. Saturday I had to pick up my suit from the alterations place to be prepared for my April 30 interview (in hopes, naturally, that I don’t have to worry about trashy hair coloring) and then we ran a few miscellaneous errands. We dropped off some of William’s old stuff at a consignment store and made $40 (considering retirement) and sorted through some more boxes. Remember I said our crawl space was primarily baby stuff, holiday stuff, and army stuff? Well I found 2 miscellaneous boxes in there and went through them…mostly junk. I did find one of Austin’s pay stubs from his first year in the army…pretty entertaining (or sad).

I also got a lot of packing done. It’s hard to think through or know what you’ll want over the span of 2 weeks, especially when in those 2 weeks you’ll be in your house with no stuff, then in someone else’s house, then on the road for 3 days with 3 pets. So in our handy dandy notebook (cue Blues Clues music) I have a packing list which is broken up in sections so that we could really think through what we’ll want. I originally thought we had 2 large suitcases and 2 small suitcases but it turns out, through the process of people dumping old luggage on us, that we actually have 3 large suitcases and 4 small so I think I’m going to re-vamp my suitcase selection. I think we will each just have one suitcase to ourselves and call it done. I got most of Austin’s stuff set aside, some of mine, and most of William’s. One day I will learn to pack myself first because what usually happens is the two of them are packed perfectly while I always have a few items missing. I’ve pulled everything out of the downstairs closet and have put everything that we need with us in there – that way when the movers come Austin can tell them to just ignore that closet and hopefully nothing gets mixed up. I think we’re down to just needing to add things like toiletries, workout clothes, and other stuff that we have to use between now and Thursday.

Thursday – can you believe it? Here I am wishing we were already done but it’s still crazy to think that in 3 days they will be packing up our house. 3 more days of normalcy (or something similar to that) in our house, then 4 days of living with boxes before 7 days at Oh Gosh’s house to close out this season of our lives. What a fun way to end it!!!

Does anyone know what day it is? I know I wrote this Monday...oops

I don’t know who is a bigger nag – me or God. I say that with as much love for both parties as I could possibly have…but let’s face it, we are both nags.

For instance, I have been nagging Austin for the past three weeks and it wasn’t until last night in my steaming-hot-turn-your-skin-red bubble bath that I realized it’d only been three weeks. I had told myself, before our trip to Texas, that I wasn’t going to nag, bug, or pressure him in his first 2 months of being home – that just wouldn’t be fair. Plus, I had decided it’d put a strain on our vacation. So, 5:00am sharp on the day after vacation the nagging ensued. It was to my own peril, really, because he had strep throat for the first week so I couldn’t even REALLY nag him, but it was nagging at me. Then when he seemed to be getting better it was full force nagging with full force resistance on his end which ended in full force headaches for both of us. We had both accepted that our last month or so in Denver would be high stress, high pressure so he never got mad at me (bless his sweet and ever-smart heart) – but it was nag, nag, nag. If he accomplished nothing in a day I’d say, “Can’t you just do ONE thing every day? Just one thing. ANY thing.” Then, if he did ONE thing in a day I’d say “can’t you just get in the groove and knock stuff off our list left and right?”…you get the point. And to his defense, he has tried very hard. He tries to keep on track and tries to stay focused but as I’ve said before he’s just not in my head. So even when he tries, somehow there are details in my head that I’ve failed to communicate to him. Or then there are times where he just doesn’t rely on my brilliant organization the way I seem to think a logical person would. For instance – why wouldn’t you refer to section 1 of my binder to see the calendar of events and find where I’ve noted your schedule before you make an appointment to turn in your gear at CIF? (yes…ALL that gear from last week…) Because page one of section one of our moving binder was not referenced, he double booked Reagan’s appointment and his CIF appointment. Some people are just better suited for this kind of stuff I think and I fail to remember that sometimes. (all the time)

But last night I realized it had really only been three weeks since we got home, and two since he was “well” enough to be productive. My nagging and obsessing and worrying and planning have made two weeks feel literally like two months. I could have SWORN our trip to Texas was months ago. I guess that’s what all this stress does to you. It’s no wonder they say moving ranks #1 on the list of things that stress you out! So I’m not quite sure who is benefitting from all of this nagging, but I’m STARTING to believe that really NO ONE is benefitting. I’m not quite ready to admit it, but I think I may get there.

And while Austin has been quietly enduring my nagging, I have been not so quietly enduring God’s. It’s no secret that I’ve been worried to my core about moving. And with every piece of the puzzle that has found its place, I have placed more emphasis and weight on the pieces that are still outstanding. Where I once had 20 pieces of disheveled equally weighted stress enducing madness, I now have about 15 pieces beautifully in place and 5 outstanding. My numbers are just guesses, but the point is as items have found their way from “unknown” to “pending” to “final” my stress level has not decreased as I thought it would. If anything it has only increased. And then every time I get worked up or worried, there’s this nagging voice in my head telling me pesky little things like “when you are weak, then you are strong” and “be still and know that I am God” and “I have a plan for you”…annoying little things like that. Last night I even caught myself responding to one of God’s crazy rants by saying, “well, If I am STILL and trust that you are God, then who will take care of all this stuff?”

Silly, silly, silly me. One day I might learn that I can win most arguments but not with God. Primarily because He doesn’t argue back – not necessarily because He’s right and I’m wrong or anything.

So, as time goes I’m working on trying to let go of some things, let go of the worry of others things, and trust that things are going to work out. I’m working on finding the balance between just sitting back and waiting for things to happen according to God’s will and attempting to forge God’s will in the path that I wish it to be…I imagine this may be a lifelong pursuit, but I’m definitely working on it.

As for how things are going, I’d say they are going very well. If it were anyone else’s move and not my own I think I’d be thoroughly impressed at how quickly and fairly simply things have worked themselves out…but I seem to be less impressed being that it is mine and therefore I wish it would have all been done in about 24 hours. In any case – this is where we are:
1. We have renters! Our house was on the rental market for all of 11 days and received 5 applications before the winning application came in. Our tenants move in April 18, just in time for the movers to leave on the 16th and house cleaners and carpet cleaners to come on the 17th. It’s a tight squeeze and I’m pretty sure the renters would have taken it sooner if we had said it was available.
2. Because our house officially doesn’t need to be in ‘showing order’ we got down and dirty with the sorting/categorizing/organizing/purging. Our guest room is now just for storage- the bed is against the wall, there’s a big trash bucket in the middle of the room, and there are areas of the room designated for different areas of the house. My hope is that it will all be packed accordingly, but I realize there’s just a glimmer of hope there since I won’t be around to bark orders to the movers. But that’s ok, at least it’ll all be packed. We also went through our closet, William’s closet, our bathroom, William’s bathroom, and the upstairs hall closet to see what we could get rid of. We made a couple trips to goodwill and threw away more stuff than I care to admit, and now I think it’s safe to say that the upstairs is ready to go. Austin thinks I went a little overboard and was a little OCD in how much effort I put into this – seeing as technically I could sit back and eat bon bons and it’d all get done by the movers – but I like knowing that everything we’ll spend time unpacking is worth unpacking. All that’s left is to make sure the stuff in the crawl space is necessary (I think it is unfortunately) and get it all out of the crawl space and into one of our storage places (garage, office, guest room) Then I think the house is ready!
3. Our travel plans are final and hotels are booked. Our hotel in Monterey costs more than the 2 hotels along the way combined, but it is right along the beach and our door opens to the private dog area of the beach. So – I’ll keep my complaining to a minimum. Plus, it’ll all be reimbursed anyway so I really shouldn’t care. William is happy because in Las Vegas he gets to go see the Gorillas again and see how loud they are in the rain. (rainforest café is .4 miles from our hotel) Brian thinks we should take William to see the real gorillas at some hotel on the strip, but I don’t think my 2 year old son will find himself on Las Vegas Blvd anytime in the next 16 years. So, computerized gorillas it is. We will leave Colorado Springs Monday April 23, stop in Grand Junction then Las Vegas and arrive in Monterey Wednesday April 25, get our house Thursday the 26, and have our household goods delivered Friday the 27.
4. Did I already mention I have a job interview? Can’t remember when that was set in place. Monday April 30. Which means this weekend I had to take my suit to be altered and was pleasantly surprised at how much had to be taken in. Score!
5. Reagan and Nancy have reservations at the Colorado Cat Hotel for the duration of our stay at Oh Gosh’s house. It is as much for my sanity as it is for the sake of his couches, Reagan’s tail, Nancy’s neck, and katy’s blood pressure. The place is ridiculous – those cats aren’t gonna want to come home. They have a “family townhome” with a private enclosed garden patio and Reagan will get all the treats his heart desires. We may have just rid ourselves of 2 pets actually!
Actually, writing this made me realize that there really isn’t much left to do. A few phone calls to make (such as Comcast, DirecTV, our milk man, etc) and maybe some goodbyes to say but other than that I think we’re about ready to go. I guess now I can sit back, be still, and know that He is God. I just need to figure out how to get there sooner next time.


- manda

Hullabaloo

I have a lot of Monterey updates so maybe I’ll write again later, or maybe tomorrow will be…….time for Monterey Tuesday? I’ll try to think of some alliteration for it. The point is that my story for today is too good to put off.

When I was little Brian was an A&M fan and Brandon was a UT fan. Personally I was neither, but if I had to choose I would have picked A&M purely because any smart person would pick maroon over burnt orange. ANY smart person. But beyond that, I knew nothing of A&M. I do remember, though, that anytime Brian did something stupid or silly my mom would sing “hullabaloo canek canek” and tell Brian that he belonged at A&M because he was truly an aggie. I later learned that “hullabaloo canek canek” is the beginning of the aggie war hymn, and I sang it to myself through the checkout at Target this morning.

I went to the gym this morning, and thought I’d save some time if I just got ready AT the gym rather than going back home to shower. Save drive time, save gas, and fewer distractions – perfect. Until I got out of the shower and realized I had forgotten to pack a bra! Here were my thoughts at that point:
1. Wear my sports bra. Quickly ruled out for multiple reasons – first being that it was already soaking wet, and second being that I had a white shirt packed for work and my sports bra was purple.
2. Wear no bra. Ok really this was ruled out before the sentence was even complete in my head. Some people may be able to pull it off, and in some outfits maybe I’d give it a fair shot. But I had packed a long sleeved white crew neck t shirt which is a size too big, so pretty loose, with a green sleeveless sweater jacket. When the shirt is tucked in and the sweater is on it’s a really cute outfit, but a too-large shirt is not forgiving for someone with boobs that move freely. So this was not an option today
3. Go home and get a bra – which I decided would take more time than I wanted to spend
4. Go to target and buy a bra – best option. Not ideal, but best in the situation.
So I rushed to target and quickly ignored all the cute eye-catching stuff along the aisles until I found myself surrounded by bras. All push up bras. Now, the ladies at victoria’s secret are always quick to tell me that no one is beyond the need for a little push up, but I disagree. I am not only beyond the need, but I also only wear shirts low enough to even see the “benefit” of the pushing up maybe twice a year, so then all that happens is everything is squished inwards while I’m wearing a crew neck shirt and I look like a weirdo. Thanks, but no thanks. So I skim past a few push ups, a few more, then find some non push ups in the 38D variety…not having much luck. Really, the only bra I found that was not a push up and was also in my size happened to be red lace. I think we’ve already gone over why that would not have been my best choice.

But then my eyes fall upon the lovely spaghetti strap tanks with built in bras. Golden. Something I would surely wear again, with no added padding or pushing or twisting or anything other sort of manipulation of what God has blessed me with. A beautiful thing really. So on my way back to the fitting room I discard the hanger and rip off the tags, bracing myself for the quickest wardrobe adjustment ever. Once in the room I take off my sweater jacket thing, take off my shirt, throw on the tank and put…wait…what the…what the hell is wrong with this tank? What is…why is…oh no…craaaaaaaaap.

A nursing tank. Yup, I picked up a nursing tank. There I was, staring myself in the mirror wondering why on earth I even bothered. I felt like I had already committed so much time to this tank, though, and I felt somewhat guilty for ripping off the tags and throwing the hanger somewhere in the shoe department so I felt like I had no choice but to buy the tank.
M
So here I am. Sitting at my desk. Fully prepared to unhook the straps of my tank and nurse a child.

Happy Monday.


- manda