Being Thankful

The last couple months can be summed up in a few words: extraordinarily trying and somehow normal.

In short, we had a great time at my sister’s wedding reception in August, we searched for a new place to call home, John left the country and spent some time down under, I searched and searched and searched and searched for houses, John came home, we found a house, bought that house, and now we have a home.  I’m sure there are about 100,000 little stories I’m no telling, but for the time being I think this will suffice.

This has turned out to be a year that I will never forget.  Some of it good, some of it bad, some of it scary, and some of it sad.  This year has forced me to step back and appreciate every single day.  Every single moment.  Every beautiful sunset over the mountains.  Every time I get to tell my family I love them.

I am thankful this year that I got the opportunity to live.  I am thankful for the love of my life and his ability to love me when I don’t deserve it.  I am thankful for clean water, food and a chance to breathe clean air.  I am grateful for everything I can afford: my clothing, our car, our home and everything in it.  I am thankful that my husband had 3 weeks off to help move into our new home.  I am thankful for my friends near and far who have supported my decisions and shown me a love that sometimes I don’t feel capable of.  I am thankful for my family who keep it real, keep it lively and keep on loving.

There’s so much more that I’m thankful for but this tops my list.

Home sweet… I’m sorry where is that?

I certainly could not have said it better myself.  A Tale of Two Cities, or 3 moves, or whatever.  With 4 months left to the year I can only imagine what is left for us to endure.

The beginning of the year meant recording a new album for John and separation for our married life as he was spending more time in Nashville then in Denver (From March-mid July John was home about 35 days).  We thought we’d be adventurous and try a move here in Denver, closer to the city and our friends.  I was hoping it would cure my loneliness and aching heart.  It ended up being a complete nightmare after our home was being stalked and someone tried breaking in while we were sleeping.  It ended up being the last on a long list of experiences that drove us out of that home.  It’s a horrible feeling knowing someone is watching your every move and calculating their own.  So we moved back to our previous home and started over.

As much as I thought life would settle down it proved me wrong.  We took a vacation back to MN to visit with family and I spent some time with my dying grandmother.  I held her hand and talked with her as she was slipping away from this life.  The morning after our return back to Denver she passed, and my other grandmother took a fall that fractured her spine.  So we hopped another flight and spent even more time in MN.

Things were calm for a bit but that must have been boring for us.  I traveled to see John over the 4th of July weekend.  I started off in the exciting city of Omaha and we stopped over in Madison for the 4th.  John had recently purchased a moped and in the wee morning hours of the 5th, in a parking lot somewhere outside of Madison, he took a trip over the handle bars of his bike.  It didn’t seem that bad at first but it was and we ended up in the emergency room at Meriter.  7 stitches, some nasty bruises and scrapes later we were on our way.

So here we are in August.  Life appears great.  John’s had a super light touring schedule, we were settling into our home and enjoying our time together.

And then we got a letter in the mail.  It wasn’t from anyone we knew.  It was from a real estate company, informing us that the property we are currently living in is being foreclosed and going into auction.  WHAT!?  So I contacted our property management company.  They said they didn’t know a thing about it and would contact the owner.  So we waited a day or so.  I was thinking it was a mistake.  Certainly we always paid our rent on time, we even agreed to a higher rental rate in order to have a more flexible rental contract.  But oh, it was right.  On Friday August 21th our property management company called to let us know that they were immediately terminating their contract with the owner (they don’t work with foreclosed properties) and that our current contract would be transferred to the owner.  After talking with the owner we discovered that the property is in foreclosure and while she’s working to try to save it, it has been scheduled for public auction and we are going to have to move.  Fortunately for us, our contract goes through the end of November and the auction is the beginning of December and so we will be able to stay until the end of November unless something else comes up.

So the moving boxes are out and ready.  I’m thinking for my 3rd move this year I should be an old pro!  We’ve already purged many of our unused items and scaled down what we didn’t need.  We’re hoping to stay in the Denver metro, but I’m not quite sure where.

I know I’m going to look back on this some day and laugh.  In fact, I’ve been laughing at a lot of this along the way.  Through all of the craziness we’ve experience more good than bad and we are sincerely blessed to have this life.  I can’t wait to see what the autumn brings!

Springing along

Spring proved to be full of much more excitement.  To start off March I livened things up a bit by getting myself an emergency MRI on my head.  I lost my peripheral vision in my right eye and was experiencing visual auras.  After being strapped down to a board and having my veins pumped full of an icy cool fluid I was set to waiting patiently while my brian was scanned from a variety of angles.  The good news was that I did not have a stroke, tumor or blood clot.  The diagnosis was for Migraines and Sinus Polyps.  I guess I possess many of the risk factors for polyps: asthma, allergies and frequent sinus infections.  The migraines came more as a surprise.  I guess that’s how they work.

We needed to move on quickly as we were preparing for our friends to visit us from Arizona.  We had a wonderful time!  It didn’t snow much for them but I think they enjoyed the weather regardless.  After they left we got a good foot of snow.  Yippee!!!

pre-snowstorm

John left to head back to work, and our home was eerily quiet.  So quiet in fact that I decided it was time for us to move into the city.  I’ve been looking to move closer to downtown since last fall, but just didn’t see anything that appealed to my list of demands (or our price point!).  Sure enough, as soon as John hit the airport to go out of town I found our new place.  I viewed it, liked it, and signed on it that weekend.  Once again, John has proven to be the most trusting, patient husband I know.  He has yet to see a home that we move into before we actually sign the papers on it.

So now we’re painting and making that little house our home.  We’ve been slowly moving in between John’s trips and my work schedule.  We’re excited to be nearer to our friends and walking distance to downtown.

John’s busy recording a new album in Nashville and I’m finishing up my last weeks in the school district that I’ve taught in for almost 4 years now.  My how time flies!  Speaking of time, thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate my birthday.  It was a blast!

Now I need to start planning for John’s big 3-0 coming up this summer.  Dang, I’ve never been married to a 30-year-old before…