October 7, 2013

Still Here

{Artwork by the talented Suzanne Frie.}

A couple of weeks ago I attended a women's conference and was able to catch up with some long lost friends. It was so good to reconnect with old friends again. My good friend Diana mentioned to me she didn't have a clue what was going on in my life because I hadn't updated my blog in a really long time. While I have jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, not everyone has. That isn't the reason I haven't been blogging though. Really, it's a pretty depressing reason. My life has been overwhelming for the past few months. Crazy busy, crazy unpredictable, crazy frustrating and just plain crazy. I didn't want to make depressing after depressing blog posts.

While I was thinking about all of this I was gently prodded. Joy is not the same as happiness. Just because I am not happy in this second doesn't mean I do not have joy in my life. It just means I have to look for it and remember it. What we have been going through as a family has not been happy, but there has been lots of joy if I will but look for it and remember it. Here's a quick rundown of the past few months...

Justin retired from the Navy after 22 years of stalwart service. It was a bittersweet day, but we look forward to the next adventure. We packed up our stuff in San Diego into long term storage with the Navy and set off to job hunt in the great state of Washington. We packed only what we could carry in a Geo Metro and VW Passat with 3 kids and a cat and headed out. That was scary by itself.

Justin worked over the summer at a family cherry orchard and learned all about forklifts. Megan discovered she had a superpower of making the forklift horn go off just by looking at it. Tricky girl.

We had to leave lots of friends behind and that was really hard. Getting out of the Navy and not having a long term job to walk into was pretty scary too. It made things pretty tense.

We survived another season of Central Washington fires. It was a little exciting for a few days and nights, but we did okay and none of our families property was damaged.

 Joey quit talking. Too much movement and change for him. He just quit using his voice except to scream. He is old enough for nursery now but absolutely will not go without me. And he started biting. He was kicked out of nursery one day for biting the teacher while I had stepped out for 3 minutes. We did get to spend lots of time with Grandma's and family this summer. I did tons of canning. I love canning with my Mom and Grandma.
We even went rafting with my sister and crew, only to be serenaded the ENTIRE 3 hours by my screaming darling baby. Long trip and we weren't invited back. We also had to stop nursing. That was traumatic for both of us. He still isn't over it and it's been a few weeks.

We got to spend some fun time staying with great friends. Mom Bread and I went out shopping one day and saw a totally nude man walking down the road in front of the AM/PM. Welcome back. (No photo of that, ewwww.) She did make my transition back so much better. So grateful for good friends.

Justin finally got a job and we were able, through the grace and power of a loving God, to find housing. It really was nothing short of a miracle. We are in a nice, big furnished apartment and were able to bring our cat. We did have a few bumps, and rats, along the way, but we are settled. Even before he started work we found a lovely house to buy for our family in Manchester.
It's darling and has a HUGE shop, which is the most amazing thing. We got the ball rolling only to have stumbling block after stumbling block thrown at us. I have to keep telling myself to keep my eye on the prize, in 3 or 4 months I will be settled permanently. I hope. After only 1 week on the job, Justin was furloughed with the rest of the shipyard as the Government shut down almost entirely. More craziness there, but there is nothing I can do about that. Our lender decided to put our mortgage application on hold until the government figures everything out. This mess affects people's lives directly and personally. I wish our legislators would understand that on a more personal level.

I had the big 4-0 birthday and as the best present ever, we were able to sign the papers on the accepted offer for our new house. So I got a house for my birthday. Let's hope we can move in by Christmas.


I had to start my kids in school here, not knowing if they would be able to finish out the year here or not. It looks like Not, and they are already struggling with moving and transitioning again. It may be a while though, from the sounds of things.


Also this summer I got a traffic ticket (first one in 17 years) and chipped my front tooth. Both just days before I had to get a new drivers license.
 And there was a bear in our yard. Now I am half afraid of the apple tree. I am, however, stunned, every morning when I get to look at this AMAZING view.
 Joy, right?

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3 comments:

Annalia said...

Sometimes it's hard to love life when life is crazy. You seem like you're towing the line like a real trooper.
I remember when we moved in here, a tiny house (compared to our last one), but with LOTS of stuff. I didn't even want to get up in the morning...for about 3 months. But it all settles in the end, and you are doing amazing things!

the Holyoaks said...

Yay! I'm so happy to see a new post. And it was a great one, even if lots of things are stressful and hectic. I'm so happy you guys are back and am excited for you about all of the new adventures you will have. We need to have Meg over one day to play with Audrey. I'm sure they'd love getting reacquainted.

Joy!

Katidid said...

So happy to see you and your family back in Bremerton. Sorry about all the chaos, if there is anything we can do to help, please let us know. Keep Smiling! It can only get better!