Who's That Following Us?

"Sister to sister we will always be,
A couple of nuts off the family tree."

-unknown

 My sisters and father had at times expressed the desire to move to Texas-Corpus Cristi area to be specific.  Oddly, through my sudden change in circumstance, I am the one who ended up moving here; even though I had never considered it.  I had no intention of bringing anybody along or influencing others to join me, after all the housing situation in Midland is inadequate, although the jobs are plentiful.  As it turns out, somebody was going to surprise me.

Karlie had found herself in a difficult situation in Idaho.  She was working overtime to make ends meet and along the way she was loosing her health and sanity.  She decided, as the circumstances presented themselves, she was going to join me in Texas for a fresh start.  

During John's visit to Idaho in August, we were able to help her find cute fifth-wheel of her own for an amazing price.  Her fifth-wheel has a single living room slide-out and a spacious front end kitchen.  Storage is abundant so she filled it with her things and has room to spare.  The wallpaper is peeling to reveal a nice wood finish underneath and the windows could use some coverings (Can you say projects!!).  She secured a place in the same trailer park as us, with our influence on the managers, and her home preceded her to Texas as John towed it down.  Sounds a little familiar doesn't it? (see post Small Space Living)

I truly enjoyed having my sister join me on this road trip, although keeping her on my tail made negotiating big city traffic a bit challenging.  We drove our final day through Arizona, New Mexico, and into Texas through a flash flood.  I continued to reassure her I moved her to a desert, but she was skeptical.  

Anxious to start making a paycheck she set out immediately to find a job.  With determination and no direction sense (a curse of my siblings, not myself), she managed to only get out 3 resumes the first day.  She was called for 4 interviews that afternoon and the next evening she was offered four jobs.  She accepted a position with Reliant Holdings Ltd. for $3 more an hour than she was asking and full benefits....welcome to Midland.

Karlie replacing breakers.

As she moved into her trailer, which John had parked for her in a spot about 3 blocks away from us, everything worked fine... to start with.  Not familiar with the constraints of RV living, she quickly blacked out her trailer by using a heater and hair dryer on the same breaker.  The breaker would not flip back so her house was in the dark for a few days.  She and I tried replacing the breakers and rigged a battery of mine to give her some temporary DC power, but in the end we girls failed and John was able to fix what we could not once he got off work...three days later.  Well, we tried!

Karlie easily made friends, as she often does, and was soon joining her new friends for house warming parties, dinner parties, football games, ice-skating, soccer nights and the like.  

What a  beautiful bunch of girls!!

Rooting for the Longhorns...and they won!!

She even managed a camping trip over the Thanksgiving weekend to Inks Lake to visit our friends from Corpus Cristi.  (I'll have to make her do a guest blog on that one.)

John and I are happy to have her here where we can help her get going, point her in the right direction, literally and figuratively, and enjoy her company.  Karlie has found, as I do, that Midland is not the prettiest place,  but with a positive outlook and surrounding yourself with awesome people, any place can be great.  She's really making her own way successful out here.

 

The Long Road Home

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is Home." 

 -Matsou Basho

In Idaho, I didn't have internet and was too busy to bother finding it, so the last four months will be condensed into a few blogs.  

Leaving our new home in Midland, Texas was difficult, but I knew we had unfinished business with our home in Idaho.  The trip would be less daunting since I planned picking up Donna, John's mom, in Tucson and bringing her back to Idaho for a visit and a bit of support as I tackled the beast that is John and I's first home.  

Driving into the Magic Valley in May after spending several winter months in the deserts of Texas, I realized how beautiful my childhood home really was.   Green was everywhere and so many flowers were in bloom, but the best part of Idaho was being greeted with all the love of my family and friends, it was so nice to see them again, but this was not a social visit.

I hoped to finish the house in about two months, so I quickly started tackling projects in the house and realized some projects which were not on my list ad to be added, that would mean I needed more time and money.  The largest project added to the list was all new plumbing, sewer and water, to the entire home after discovering some leaking pipes and realizing how antiquated they were.   We also moved 1500lbs of trash and 1000lbs of metal including 2 old furnaces (the metal was recycled) from the crawl space.  Apparently in the 60's it was too much work to go to the dump so the crawl space was the obvious choice.

Four months later, with the help of friends, family, and contractors, I had cleaned out the home and property (which involved selling the hot tub, another 2 day yard sale, a lot of muscle and many trips to the dump), three new windows, remodeled two bathrooms completely, finished the cabinets in the kitchen, finished a bedroom in the basement, put down a moisture barrier in the crawlspace, put in all new cherry laminate and carpet, and painted, painted, painted and PAINTED. 

Amidst it all, my sister Karlie decided she too was going to join us in Texas (YAY!) and moved into my home to ease her transition.  Although moving her into my already tore up house made me adjust my life once again, the help she offered was a life saver.  Also deserving special thanks are the following:  my mother-in-law Donna who helped me dig in and get started without getting overwhelmed; my parents, Dan and Brenda who helped me get the sprinkler system up, sent people to help me, and helped me with various projects along the way; S. Hurley who is the most motivated contractor I ever met; S. Partridge who laid the most beautiful laminate ever; my brother Micah and Jessica who willingly volunteered to lend their hands; my brother-in-law Brandon who did a beautiful job on tile and took my trash to the dump more times than I can count; my aunt Vonnie who was always willing to help and knows the ins and outs throwing a sucessful yard sale; and Bianca, Vince, and Joel who showed up at a moments notice to give me a hand when I needed them most.  Sorry if I missed a few people, but know that all the help (paid and unpaid) was so appreciated and made this project so much easier to tackle.

John, who was working in Texas day and night to finance the remodel, was able to make the 24 hour on-the-road journey up (in 26 hours) to visit us in the middle of our great project.  During the five days he was there he installed the crown in the kitchen, built and installed the last bedroom closet system (8 doors and 8 drawer fronts), helped me make a few tile decisions, and helped my sister find a fifth-wheel for herself.  He left me to finish the project and hauled back Karlie's future home in another nonstop journey through the U.S. to start another long work week in Texas.

All along Zoey handled the madness in stride. She stayed out of the dangerous work areas and made friends with everyone coming in and out of our home.  She helped when she was able, and I tried to take time out to show her some fun, but unfortunately I was often busy with coordinating or doing a project myself, so she got a little TV addicted during the course of the project.                                                                           

 The last few weeks were a mad rush to finish as much as possible and pack everything into storage.  We packed, painted, cleaned and polished (once again, thanks Karlie).  I still felt there was so much I could have done, but some can be left to the new owners and their imagination and it was time for me to go home. I put up a For Sale by Owner sign, handed over the keys to family and we headed out, hoping the last four months of hard work will pay off.

Everything Changes

"Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one."   -Hans Syle

Catalpa Tree in the Park

I've never been brilliant at dealing with stress, but I'm guessing few people are.  I'm a planner who relies greatly on the strength of my husband and when you change the plans or take my husband out of the equation, I stress.

In the last eight months the road of life has brought me many stressful situations but I've come out on top of them all (some less gracefully than others).   All the while my husband, John, has taken every change, every disappointment, every challenge with determined persistence and grace.  I look to him for support and he is always there in word, deed and example.  But still, sometimes it was not easy for lil ol' me:

Stress #1 : Big Changes

The hint of big changes to come was the moment John received word that he had been accepted for a position in Texas.  We didn't know when he would be leaving so we held our breath as all things were "processing".  One afternoon he was informed he would have to make the 2-3 day drive in less than two weeks.  It was official, our life was changing, and fast!

Ocotillo Cactus at Monahans

Stress #2: My Partner Gone

Those two weeks flew buy faster than I knew possible and I tearfully watched him walk out the door not knowing when we would see each other again.  With the help of my Aunt, I quickly threw a yard sale to take advantage of the waning good weather and continued to work for another four weeks, all the while juggling being a mom.  I concluded that single mothers are super heroes (and I have only one child comparing to some other mothers).

Stress #3: New Experiences and Break Downs

We scheduled for John and I to meet in San Antonio so I could both visit him and Texas for the first time.  I was a bit nervous not having flown alone, but found the whole process quite easy.  Upon arrival in San Antonio, John's truck quit working and we ended up towing it to a garage and taking a rental car.  Our arrival in San Angelo found us canvasing the town for a motel room and paying twice what we should have for a hole in the wall. I wanted to stress, and did a bit, but I endeavored to focus on enjoying my trip despite hick-up we had encountered in our plans, and the trip became enjoyable. Upon leaving John in Sonora, TX, I found a roach motel room waiting for me in San Antonio and after a few minutes of "freaking out", I focused, got my refund and found a better room elsewhere.   In the end it all worked out. (Isn't it funny how it always does?)

A trip to Tucson was a good practice run for the longer drive I would be making when Zoey and I finally moved.  My usual position was passenger, so being the driver was a whole new experience for such a long trip. I found that my little girl was a gem and despite the fact I never payed much attention to the road before, our new GPS on our phones worked wonders showing me the way, including redirecting me when I took the wrong exit in Vegas during rush hour, and the trip couldn't have gone smoother.

Stress #4: The Fork in the Road

After four months away from my husband, tackling house renovations, and numerous other changes in our life along the way, I left for Texas early in January.  Half way through the trip John informed me that I would be meeting him in Midland, Texas instead of Sonora, Texas and we would have little to no income for about a month during the transition. "Okay", I said to myself, "change in plans instead of heading South at the junction I head North." That was it, change my driving route,  these different plans and circumstances were no more than a little bump in the road this time, a little wrinkle to be smoothed out. And it all did smooth out, soon John was back to work, the bills were caught up, and I had settled into this new city.

Conclusion:

Pump near my house, the sky was so yellow.

As I contemplate going back to Idaho, I'm dreading the coming months of sorting through the last of my stuff and preparing my house for the real estate market.  I remember the piles of boxes left behind in my living room and  I can only hope the house repairs will go uneventfully with a bright shiny house as the end product with a line of potential buyers at my door.  Even if it isn't what I want; even if it takes longer than expected, even if there are more repairs than I had imagined, even if the house takes a while to sell, I vow to take this stress as confidently as possible.  Focusing on the end results, I will remember that someday all this will be a distant memory, a bump in the road, and I will enjoy the journey.