Quick Update

Hello World!

My computer crashed a few weeks ago and I detest attempting blogging via my so-called smart phone.

We have been counting down to our big move as we were prepared for a Oct 27 move in date. But, Lowell got a call on Friday (the 9th) to go to Houston for a job with a leave date of October 25. So we called the realtor who was helping us to find out the status of the house and she told us it was going to be ready on the 21st! This meant we needed to scramble and pull everything together so we could leave on Wednesday the 14th in order to make the drive and be in Texas on time to walk through the new place before closing.

And scramble. And hustle. And bustle. We did it all and did it quite well.

We also were able to say farewell to most of our favorite people before heading out. Whew! It was a crazy handful of days.

Then.

On Tuesday afternoon as we

{ …..pause for 6 days…. }

On last Tuesday afternoon, the 13th, as we put our last big, heavy item in the trailer, we got a call. The bank decided it didn’t like the unpredictability of Lowell’s pay schedule. His pay when on the job vs. when he isn’t on a job changes and they didn’t like that. Nor were they pleased with his part time work in Cali or what he had lined up in Texas because it was less than 2 years history. They said we could switch our loan type and get a co-signor, but we opted out and were left staring at our future blankly.

We decided to continue to push forward. All our stuff was packed and most was already waiting for us in Texas. We decided to go back to the original plan of renting until we are back on our feet and then buy our forever home. God has a plan! I figure He was ready for us to get the heck out of Cali and it was the house that was our motivating factor to get out as soon as we were. But, in reality, He was ready to see us in Texas but not in a new home. Strangely enough, I was immediately okay with that and didn’t cry a tear or freak out or anything. Yes, i was plenty proud of myself for that!

On Wednesday afternoon, we finally bid our little broken home farewell and headed out. We were about 50 miles shy of Arizona and our trailer had a bearing that was shooting sparks everywhere and was glowing orange and melting. After Lowell investigated it and got a handle on what the situation was, we unhitched the trailer on the side of the highway and headedback to the nearest city in order to sleep and wait for businesses to open the next morning so we could get the appropriate parts to get it fixed. The kids swam and then kinked out in funny fashion…

Meanwhile, we had informed our second family in Texas what our housing situation had turned in to and they got all over finding us rentals to check out once we got home. THEN! Lowell’s sister, Celeste, called and told us that she was going to move her little fam in with her inlaws and giving us her house while we were figuring out where to go and what to do. I cried at this point. So much help, love, and generosity being extended and we weren’t even there yet. While we were waiting for Thursday to come, we filled out rental apps for houses that had been walked through for us and given an “Okay!” in terms of seeming like family functioning. We wanted to get the ball rolling and then we could make a final decision after walking through them ourselves once we arrived.

Thursday went pretty well once we finally got on the road. Lowell spent a solid 2-3 hours on the trailer after we’d driven an hour just to get back to it. We officially got back on the road around 1:00 that afternoon and stayed the night in Tucson that evening. I was proud of the kids for staying put in their seats while Lowell worked. A special Thank You to our beloved neighbor, Miss Lorraine, for the thoughtful gifts of games and coloring to occupy them on long stretched!

As we drove through Arizona toward New Mexico on Friday, we decided to stop and check out The Thing. That was a pretty neat adventure to take, I’m not going to lie. As part of making that even more exciting, we got the kids some special souvenirs. Lollipops with bugs in them! Lowell thought it was exciting and promised a dollar the first kid to lick through and eat their bug. Phillip jumped all over that and ate his cricket. Yummy. My favortie part of that was Karolina getting closer to the center where her bug was. She kept blowing on it trying to get it to go away! So so funny!! Someday, when I have the upgraded format of my blog, I will upload the hilarious video we got of her trying to do it!

Our plan was to make it to Odessa, Texas that evening but as we got out of El Paso and were in the middle of nowhere, we got stopped for over 2 hours. There was a fatal accident involving a melted semi-truck cab. It really put a damper on our travels and we ended up only making it to Pecos, Texas and stopped there around midnight or 12:30. Saturday morning was the first time we were dragging after all the crazy few days we’d just endured. But the kids were still troopers for us! The dog jumped up on Miss k’s lap and she thought it was just the coolest thing ever.

did I mention our dog started her period as we drove away from Cali? she had to wear a diaper…

Saturday evening, we made it to Ft Worth. We stopped by where our old-new-house was and picked up our deposit. Then we headed over to see two of our rental options and dropped off our trailer at our second family’s house. We made it to Celeste’s house around 8 and she fed us some kiesh and watermelon. It was a great treat!

Sunday we slept in and walked across the street for 1:00 Mass. Then we went and hung out with Celeste’s family at her inlaws for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Monday we did absoutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. Infact, I ended up with a mild migraine and took a long nap after lunch. When I got up, we headed over to Grandma Donna’s house (she lives next door to our second family and is actually their grandma :) and picked up a lasagna she was so sweet to make for us. While we were in that neck of the woods, we unloaded some needs from our trailer. And, wouldn’t you know, I still haven’t grabbed all I need!

Today, Lowell is all on track with setting up his jobs for work locally when he doesn’t have to be away with his regular job. I am working on finding doctors for myself because well, when you are me and in need of hundreds of doctors, that’s just what you do. And, we have settled down on two houses we like and are waiting to find out if we’re approved for the second one. We would like to have that one most as we can maximize the most space in that one vs the first one we have been approved for. Either way, we will make ti work, but saying our hail mary’s that God’s will is in the second home. Because we can do that right? There you are, Lord, please do my will. or was it, “Here I am, Lord, I come to do Your will.”?

Anywho! We are here. A mighty big THANK YOU to everyone who has been praying for us. I will update as often as I can as we are sorting things out.