Moving and New Adventures

August was a hard month for me. For some reason, our little family seemed to have everything up in the air all at the same time.

• Jason had a very stressful job (which he loved and was good at) but it took way more than 40 hours a week and was very demanding. On top of that, it wasn't very flexible with him in school and he was often stressed, which could be felt by all of us. Since he is almost done with his Computer Science degree the classes are only offered a limited number of times and most of them are during the day in Pocatello. We were able to find enough classes for the fall semester in Idaho Falls, but after that we knew that something needed to change.
• We had been blessed to live in Kevin and Steph's house for about a year and half and we loved every minute of it. We loved the ward, the neighbors, the location, how big and beautiful it was.... but there was always an air of uncertainty behind when we would have to move out. How much notice would they be able to give us? How much notice would they get? Where would we live? Would we have to move in the winter? Would we be able to find something in our price range? I am such a planner that it was always a stressful point in the back of my mind. 

  

  Where we lived for the past 18 months

  
  
• The baby. We had a new baby coming in December and figuring out our budget, living situation, etc was stressing me out just a tad.
• Jason started school again the end of August, which meant that I was a single mom again. Don't get me wrong, I completely support him being in school and he works unbelievably hard to make sure we are taken care of, but working fulltime and going to school fulltime in a degree that requires a lot of time means that we never see him. He leaves before we get up in the morning and gets home after we are asleep at night. The weekends are spent with him at the library doing homework. We literally only see him a few hours a week.  Its hard on everyone. The kids miss him, I miss him, and he misses us. Having a 3 year old and a very active 16 month old while pregnant and never getting a break can be a little draining.

So basically we didn't know what was going to happen with Jason's job, or his school, or where we lived, with a new baby on the way, and 2 little kids that need lots of love and attention and can't afford for mommy to be stressed out. I was at an all time low.

I constantly had a prayer in my heart and I poured my heart out to Heavenly Father on a daily basis. I felt like only He truly understood my feelings and how it was bringing me down. I knew that He had a plan for us, but trusting Him when He wasn't giving us much light at the end of the tunnel was challenging. It is interesting because I never doubted for a minute that He knew EXACTLY what He was going to do with our lives and that He had it all worked out. The thing I had a hard time with was not knowing how He was going to do that. To me, it seemed impossible and at some times, hopeless.

 Then, all at once, everything started to work itself out. A new opportunity presented itself at work and it was perfect for Jason. A lot more flexibility with school, less stressful, dealing more with IT (which is what he wanted), and a new learning opprotunity for him. Perfect.

Jason's professor emailed him to let him know that they were going to be moving a lot more classes to Idaho Falls so he wouldn't have to commute to Pocatello as much as we originally thought. Sweet.

I woke up one morning with an overwhelming feeling that it was time to move. I had looked at places to live multiple times since we had moved into the Sommer's house and was never able to find anything. While looking for what felt like the millionth time I stumbled across a house that wasn't even finished yet and had everything we were looking for. The only problem was that it was a little out of our price range. We kept looking around, but our minds kept coming back to it over and over again. We really wanted to be able to pay rent using just Jason's income because my school income was so unpredictable and we wanted to be putting it all in savings. Jason and I prayed about it and I had the very distinct impression, "Natalie, this is what I gave you your job for." After that, we went for it and we couldn't be happier with our decision. The house is perfect for our little family.

  The house is a twin home, but it is only connected by the garage so you would never know it is connected to another house. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs and an entire unfinished basement. The basement is as big as the house so we made a playroom, office, storage area, guest bedroom, and craft area downstairs. It has a fenced backyard that is the perfect size and a huge 2 car garage. It feels really open and big and we love it. We have great neighbors and an excellent ward.  Had we waited a few more days it would have been gone. I'm so glad that Heavenly Father let us know the right time for us to move.

My packing buddies

Moving was hard because I was 7 months pregnant, had 2 little kids, and a husband that was never home, but we managed. Our ward was a huge help - offering babysitting so I could pack, helping me clean late at night, and we had help loading and unloading the truck. It felt great to be moved and settled so I could focus on getting ready for the baby and not stressing about moving. My dad was able to come up and help us and we couldn't have done it without him. I didn't realize how much of a stress our living situation being in limbo was until the worry was gone.

Moving Day

So tired from moving

It's amazing how everything always works out when you need it to. We have been so blessed and Heavenly Father has really been looking after us. Having faith when everything seems dark is the key. Through it all my testimony has grown and I have learned once again to rely more on the Lord and trust in Him more completely. Once I turned it all over to Him was when it all started to fall together. Maybe someday it won't take me so long to turn it all over to Him.