Week 3

Last week was a crazy one. I thought it would be calmer because the girls were at camp. The girls had a blast at camp and I am so glad they got to do. They also avoided the crazy of the week. You can find pictures of them at camp here. It was a local Christian camp that included fun stuff like white water rafting. Evie is all ready to go again next year, Hannah is sad she'll be too old. 

As for those of us who stayed here....we had a friend stop by from Indiana and stay for five days. It was challenging, but a blessing as well. He is an older gentleman and the boys had a blast with him. It also gave us the chance to go house hunting for hours without having to worry about the boys, which was helpful. We went and saw 13 houses last week, got emissions done on the car and the truck, got insurance for them in Colorado and got them registered in Colorado. Saturday morning we picked the girls up from camp and Saturday evening we went a saw youth theater production of Bye Bye Birdy. It gave Evie hope that she could still do theater here, as the show was pretty good and they only spent two weeks on it. Damen and Kaleb also went to youth group last week and actually some what enjoyed it. Nathan enjoyed free lunch two of the three days he was in the office last week and we both ran into way too much Denver traffic. Nathan had a couple commutes that were an hour and a half one way, so it's very much pushing the house buying to be ASAP, as having three hours of your day eaten up driving to and from work really isn't any fun. That pretty much sums up last week.

Yesterday, Hannah and I went to the main Denver public library. They are currently remolding it, so most of it isn't open, but the children's section had just reopened, so I figured it was worth going to. I was so wrong, there were hardly any books, it was so disappointing. They didn't even have popular books like Harry Potter available.....they had less books than out local branch in Indiana. The Fort Wayne main library branch was huge, tons of books.....it appears everything in Denver is way more focused on computer use and other things than books. We'll have to keep looking for a good library that actually has books.

A week in review

We have been busy. This past week we got the girls everything they needed for camp, which fortunately wasn't too much. But did involve a trip to a thrift store. It was very large, but not exactly the cleanest. We were able to get what we needed and it would be an interesting place to explore more in the future. I'm not one for long shopping trips, especially with four children in tow. 

The kids walked to our local library multiple times. I was able to update my address on the camp registration which then allowed me to print out a invoice with my local address on it, giving me the ability to get a library card. The kids were very happy about that and I think when the girls get back we'll head to the main library and see how it is, since the one by us is super small. 

Friday I went with Damen and Kaleb and hiked a "baby mountain". That baby mountain was a little bigger than they thought, Damen didn't make it to the top, Kaleb did and I almost did. The way down was quite treacherous. Kaleb and I were completely off any path and he was a bit ahead of me. Damen slipped, as he was still on rock and rolled down some of the mountain, he was fine. Kaleb slipped several times on the way down and according to him he "broke five ribs, broke a toe and got a concussion" in reality, he was just a little banged up, no bruises showing. Oh, he was covered in burs when he made it to the bottom. I on the other hand, slipped and scrapped up my leg and bruised the palm of my hand super bad, it's a beautiful purple now. Google is not liking me right now and won't let me add photos to the blog. But you can see some pictures here. 

Saturday the younger three kids, Nathan and I went to open houses. We stopped by six different houses, everything from one that included two goats with the sale, to a 5000+ sq ft. The one most people liked the best was only six houses away from our friends who we know from Connecticut. 

Sunday we went to church and then I took the girls to camp after that. It was raining and the camp is up in the mountains about 45 minutes away if it's not raining. There was a lot of traffic, and four minor mud slides which covered the road with dirt, it was my first experience with mud slides. Coming back it was sunny and blue skies and a beautiful drive. Winding mountain roads in a stick shift is a fun drive! 

Today I spent the day getting quotes for insurance, as our registration on our vehicles expires at the end of the month for the cars, so we have to get them switched to Colorado. I got pre-approved for a mortgage, connected with a realtor and went to the post office to try and get our mail forwarding straightened out. Kaleb's comment on it all was "I don't want to be an adult." I don't blame him, this is definitely not one of my favorite parts of moving. 

One Step After Another

 Saturday we completed cleaning the RV and got it to Camping World for consignment. They inspected it on Monday and now all we need to do is sign paperwork. Hopefully it will sell quickly! The kids were amazing, as they cleaned up and started organizing all the stuff in the rental. It's a tight space, but it does have three bedrooms, but only one bathroom. So far everyone is managing with only one bathroom, but a line definitely has formed at times!

Sunday we went to church and had a pretty chill day. Or attempted to, I'm not very good at the chill thing and there are still so many things to figure out. The girls are going to camp for a week starting Sunday, there's also college classes for Hannah, homeschool stuff and all the we moved details such as new drivers licenses and vehicle registration and such that needs to be figured out and completed. 

Monday Nathan started work, his office has a flexible work from home schedule and not many people are in the office on Monday and his manager has Covid...only a couple people from his team were there. The air conditioner is also broken in the primary office he'll be working at, so he ended up driving to one of their other locations, but everything worked out and his day went well. I attempted to go shopping with Hannah, we did make it out, but the shopping part was pretty unsuccessful. She needs a few things for camp, so we'll have to try again today. 

We continue on, one step after another until we figure it all out. In the mean time we trust God and are thankful He is in control, not us. 

Big Move - Take 4

We are in the process of moving again. To a new state half way across the country. This week was spent finishing packing, cleaning, and driving from Indiana to Denver, Colorado, our new home. It's been a crazy few months as we have sought God and tried to figure out our next steps. You see, when we got back from our trip I realized I could no longer go on working. My hours had continued to increase, and the work ethic in me did not allow for me to do less quality work, so I quit at the end of February. At that point Nathan wasn't sure what he was going to do. He doesn't really enjoy the programming, so he decided to look for engineering jobs. The two locations that were hiring in his specialty were Fort Wayne, where he had worked previously and Colorado. He actually applied and accepted an engineering job in Fort Wayne, but then our boss came back and said he could work 30 hours a week for what we had been making working the combined full time, so he went back on the acceptance and decided to stay with the programming. At that point he also said no to continuing to interview with a company in Colorado. Well, five days after all that went down he got a call from a really good friend who thought he had a job in Colorado, right where the other position that he had declined to go forward in the interview process was. That gave us pause to say, maybe we should look harder at Colorado, so we continued to pray and Nathan applied to more jobs. There was one that was an extremely good fit, and they called him and he did an hour interview with an internal recruiter. A couple weeks later he did half an hour with the hiring manager, who fifteen minutes in said he was the one person she had talked to who was qualified and the only one she was considering. The company had to get a contract, so she said wouldn't know for sure if she could hire him right now or not for a week and a half. Well, that week and a half passed....about two weeks after that interview the recruiter reached out and said they were still interviewing a few other people for the position, but he'd get back to Nathan once that process was over. Another two weeks pass and it was mother's day. One of the things that Nathan had said while we were praying and trying to determine what would be best was that he'd really like a sign, like a billboard on the side of the road sign. Well, on mother's day Nathan and I went shopping and he saw a yard sign that said "He will reach out soon" I had driving past that sign a dozen times at least because it was on the way to theater and the kids had tech week. When I saw it I thought it was the strangest sign and had no idea what it meant. Well, when Nathan saw it he said "That's my sign. The recruiter is going to get back to me soon" the next day he receiving an email from the hiring manager with a question about start dates and the following day he received an offer from the recruiter. The sign was also gone the following day. They not only gave him an offer without taking him out to Colorado, but they also offered him his full asking salary, which was kind of high and they had told him at the beginning of the process they wouldn't be able to give him. The other prayer we had been praying during this process was that God would open the door clearly, or slam it shut....full asking salary seemed pretty clear to us. Nathan requested to be brought out to see the place and meet the people before accepting the position, he came out and spent a full day getting a tour of their two facilities and meeting the people on the team. The whole experience was great. The flight there and travel back were terrible, but the company seems great. 

After Nathan got back I went into full on get the house ready to sell mode. I spent two weeks painting almost the entire thing and fixing out things up and we got the house on the market June 18th. The movers came Monday at 8 pm, finished loading around midnight and we set off with the RV to Denver. The kids and I added Nebraska to the list of states we've been to on our way out and we all survived while trying to fight with the movers over how much we owed them (we just got that resolved today) and juggle an offer and counter offers on our house, which we also just resolved today. Now all that is left is getting the RV up to Camping World to consign it for us this weekend, as Nathan starts work on Monday. Needless to stay it was a crazy and stressful week, with a definite lack of sleep, but there is now light at the end of the tunnel. 

So here was are, our fourth move with the family, doing it with four teenagers, there is some excitement, but a lot of missing friends and frustration because we moved again. We will see what God has in store for us here. I will try to blog some as we explore and adjust to a new state, so stay tuned!