...no I'm not talking about MY big behind....just my blog's!
I am so far behind on my blog....and my reasons and excuses remain the same as any other time I have gotten behind...LIFE! Kids, husband, family, work, life in general....
First of all, about the second week in February, we finally secured a rental home to live in...YAY! However, we had no "stuff" to move there! So Mike took his vacation time from work and took off for California to retrieve the remainder of our worldly posessions from our storage unit back in Indio (which was actually quite a lot of stuff!) Unfortunately, U-haul thinks if you're moving you must be a millionaire and their trucks cost a fortune to bring a load from California to Wyoming...same for the full service movers that would be kind enough to drive to northern Wyoming. Our trailer was just not going to be large enough for the load, so Mike's very kind boss offered the us the use of his trailer, which seemed to be long enough, but was unfortunately a flatbed! Well, as it was we had no other feasible alternatives, so Mike left with his truck and the flatbed trailer to see what he could bring back.
He left on a Thursday evening, planning to drive straight through...with the help of more than a few "Monsters!" Then, at around 4:30 AM, my cell phone rang...now we all know that NO good news comes between the hours of midnight and 5 AM, so my heart sunk when I was awakened by the ringing of the phone....It was Mike...and it was not good news...he had made it over South Pass and through Echo, but at around about Heber, Utah, his truck's "check engine" light came on and the truck began sputtering and missing! So began the "hour of a thousand calls"....well maybe not a thousand, but close! I called my friend Mary, who fortunately lives closeby in Springville, Utah, called Mike back, called Mary back, Mike called me back, I called Mary back...and on and on....long-story-short...Mary is an awesome friend who woke up at 4:45 in the morning to help us out! She took Mike to her mechanic who did a diagnostic on the truck for no charge, but he couldn't fix the problem...he then referred Mike to his buddy down the street who could fix the problem, but was in all likelihood fully booked for the day already. Thankfully, Mike was waiting for him when he got to his shop and he agreed to fix Mike's truck first thing so he could get back on the road...the expense was minimal considering how pricey vehicle repairs are these days, and Mike was back on the road by 10 a.m.!
I suppose this is one of those times when we could think to ourselves "poor us"...we just can't get through one phase in life without something getting in our way or causing us problems! The thing is I didn't feel that way at all...I was soo grateful! I thought to myself, if that truck was going to break down, it was going to break down...but I firmly believe the Lord let it happen where there was help just a phone call and a few miles away...rather than on top of the mountain or in the middle of the desert or downtown Las Vegas or any other number of places along his 1300 mile route to Indio.
So anyway, the remainder of the trip was without incident. He arrived in Indio and began a massive sorting project of what would be going, what would be given away, what would go to the dump. In the end, he took 2 loads to the dump. He dwindled our posessions to the size of one flatbed trailer "redneck rigged" (see pic) for the excruciatingly slow drive home!
He got home and then we took our time moving into the house, so we had about a 3 week moving process, but now we are pretty much settled in and loving having our own place again and being surrounded by the things that make it feel like home.
(Our first meal in the new house...Pizza on the dining room floor since Mike wasn't back yet with the table and chairs!)
The kids have been busy with school and sports.
Blaze recently got to go on a school ski trip to Red Lodge in Montana. Every year his school takes all the 5th Graders up to Red Lodge and they get a ski lesson and get to ski all day. Blaze has found another sport to love! He absolutely loved skiing and continues to beg us to take him back up there! He also played a season of rec league basketball that was not entirely successful as a whole, but Blaze definitely learned about basketball and improved his own skills at the game, and was chosen for an "all star team," that in the end didn't end up playing any games! But I think it was a good learning experience for him and now he is anxiously awaiting baseball season (which he would already be playing if we were in California, so he is definitely getting a little restless!).
(This was the only picture I could manage to get of Blaze playing basketball thanks to my "ancient" camera...he's the one under everyone's feet trying to recover the ball!)Speaking of restless, Sierra has finally decided that she can stand idleness no longer! She has joined her school's soccer team in the absence of a girls' softball team. She has never played soccer before, since we were always a softball/baseball family, so it's all new to her. She is at the moment right in the middle of "conditioning" for 2 weeks. So she is sore all over, but is making new friends, learning new skills, and is looking forward to those super fun sports overnighters....wait a minute, maybe she shouldn't play soccer!
Jett, as you all know, has started wrestling. He had been going to practices for about 3 weeks and totally loving it...until....his first meet this weekend! He had 2 matches and unfortunately lost both...he was devastated, and I felt so helpless! The hard thing for him was understanding that he was wrestling older kids (he wrestles in the 9-10 division even though he's only 8 because he will be 9 later this year) who were more experinced than he was...these kids have already been wrestling since they were like 5, and the thing is, he didn't get pinned right away in either of his matches and he fought pretty hard and kept his opponent fighting pretty hard to keep him down, so I know he could be a great wrestler if he sticks with it. He was adamant that he was "never going to wrestle again!" I sure hope that another week of practices gets him psyched up to go to his next meet this Saturday in Lovell!
