Do I keep writing?

 I've had this blog a long time.  I enjoy writing.  I think I'd enjoy starting to share my words and thoughts again, but I'm hesitant and scared.  I have a had time being vulnerable with people I don't know or trust.  On here, it's wide open for anyone.  

My accidental vague facebook update

After many reach outs, I have now realized that I have not kept my fb family (all of you) informed on the latest goings on in our family.  I feel like I have to go back quite a bit to update adequately on our unfortunate (but fortunate at the same time) events.(and even then, only some of them)  Just like the book series where thing after thing gets put in the family’s way of moving on in life. I’ll attempt the cliff note version.  

We knew we’d be moving this next fall and we knew where to, so we wanted to get the kids to our next location in the summer so they could transition to our new lives and start making new friends.  So we called a realtor to ask about selling our house and we got pretty dismal news that she didn’t think it would sell for what we thought it would.  We stood to lose 20,000, so we decided to fix up our house.  We had some more free time and had always wanted to do these things and try our hand at it, so we did a lot of fixing and upgrading in our house.  Then we listed for what we wanted, and did it as soon as possible because we were led to believe that summer is the time to sell, the sooner the better, and we should sell while there are limited houses on the market due to covid.  After thousands of dollars and lots of sweat, we listed the house for something we felt comfortable with, much higher than was recommended to us by our realtor.  

During this fix up time frame, our upstairs AC unit died and needed to be completely replaced. We called our warranty and they would cover it but only with their company partners and in the time frame that they could do it.  So, we lived with no AC in half the house for over 1.5 months at least.  It’s all a hot, sweaty blur.  Essentially we lost the space of our upstairs to enjoy, and during times of quarantine and close quarters, ours got half the size. Insert crazy face emoji.  

The very first day of showings it was shown 6 times and we had 4 offers by the end of the day.  Over asking price with no required fix ups on our end, $10,000 earnest, no closing costs, no appraisal needed, and they wanted it soon.  They wanted an answer by 8 that first day.  We had thought that once we went under contract it’d be about 45 days to close but that quickly became 30 instead.  We took the offer and thought we’d just be able to buy a house quickly in Ohio or be in a hotel for a few days of transition.  What we came to find out through trying to make offers in Ohio is that the houses were selling so fast we couldn’t even get in for virtual viewings sometimes.  (They are virtual because Jake is not allowed to leave the state as Ohio’s numbers are worse than Virginia’s numbers for Covid.  If the state is on the downward trend, then Jake can ask permission to leave the state.)  So, we’ve been viewing houses and trying to get someone to agree to let us buy their house while also trying to pack up our stuff.  

So I guess I haven’t told anyone yet, but we decided this time around to do what’s called a DITY move.   A “do it yourself” move.  Yes the military will pay for movers and packers to come move your stuff, but if you choose that you can do it on your own, and you keep it under your budget (people say it’s totally doable), then you can potentially make money when you move.  (This might be one of our biggest blessings.  With no military families moving for months now, once the government opens back up and people start getting their orders, theres going to be a ton of people trying to move.  It’s going to make it hard to book movers to come and go at the pace that they used to before COVID.  So the military has talked about giving more money to families who choose to move themselves.)  Our family is not all babies anymore and we felt that if we got rid of a lot of our material possessions (something we’ve wanted to do for a while) then we could move for even less.  So most of quarantine was going through every single item in our house and deciding if we wanted it for the next house or if we could do without it.  We got rid of a lot of stuff.  I got rid of almost all of my teaching things as I’ve realized that I might not need them if I’m not going to pursue teaching anymore. (Although I wish I had them all back as I think I’m going to homeschool the 3 younger kids again and we’ll be in transition for so long.)   We still plan on getting rid of more.  Almost all of the furniture that we still have in the house is to be sold or tossed or thrown in a uhaul at the last moment.  

This leads to the uhaul problem.  IF we get a uhaul to hold the last of our stuff in this house that needs to go (we packed most of our house and clothes in PODS to be stored until we know where to send them (paying for storage the whole time), THEN we are renting the uhaul everyday for an unforeseen time since we don’t have a house lined up, or we need to put the stuff in a Uhaul, then put it all in a storage facility, then when we know, we’ll load up the Uhaul and drive it to Ohio.  That’s a lot of moving stuff ourselves. Ugh. The next problem is where do we go? Do we stay here in Virgina while Jake finishes working a couple more months and then we all go to Ohio, or do the boys and I and dogs go up ahead to Ohio and wait for house there. (They have higher numbers)  Then we’re paying for two locations and the family is separated.  We also have been offered a place to stay in Phoenix with family, but they are the hot spot right now in the country.

If we take our monthly housing allowance and divide it into 30 days that leaves us with $93 a day to find someplace to be for all of us.  So we can go higher than that if we need, but then it’s costing us more to live in hotels than it would to just buy a house.  So the longer we are living temporarily, the more expensive it gets for us.  And we’ve looked into AirBnB’s and it’s hard to find some for all of us and pets.  Plus, we are in baseball travel season (which we’ve paid for all year and this is when it counts) and the tournaments are attempting to still happen even with Covid.  There are just a lot of regulations in place.  So, we need to travel to other states to attend these tournaments so colleges can watch JJ.  When we move, he’ll have to start all over again finding a team that is willing to take on a new player and the high schools or travel ball will already have their regular teams.  He might not get the same amount of playing time as people who have all grown up together on these teams.  So we need to have him be seen now while we can.  

So staying in only one location won’t work unless we get one location on wheels.  An RV.  If we did an RV we could take our stuff with us, have the dogs and all of us together, and just stay there when we go to travel games.  We just can’t find one we can even remotely afford.  And I would have to drive it to games when Jake is working, and we’d have to learn how to drive it, where to park it, and how to use it.  I’m sure we could, but that’s all a lot right now to take on learning a new thing.  

We also can’t do a pull behind because our car, at the start of COVID was starting to die and we needed to trade in and get a reliable car for our family.  We went smaller because we had to and now we can’t tow things and we have limited space in the car for a move.  It doesn’t fit a pod up on top of the car either.  So we have allowed each kid one suitcase of clothes and one backpack, and that’s all we’ve been trying to live with for a couple of months now.  

Military does have Temporary Lodging Facilities, we call them TLFs, and they are furnished hotels that people can rent anytime but if you have “Orders” then you get first priority to rent.  The ones closest to us, 1.5 hours, are all booked up.  If we could get a place with a kitchenette we could try to offset the costs of hotel living for a long time by eating cheap and cooking for ourselves versus eating out every meal.  And I could take food from our pantry and put it in the hotel ahead of our move out date July 13th. So we either need to pack it all and live with one suitcase and one backpack each, or we drive a few trips somewhere and bring a cookie sheet, an instant pot, the switch, a DVD player, etc to help us live in hotels for a while.  Either way, I need to probably stop trying to cook meals soon and pack up the last of the pots and pans, so we can take it to the storage facility, I need to give our food that we won’t eat through to friends and empty out the fridge and pantry.  After everythings packed then we need to clean.  

So right now we’re trying to look at houses, pack our house, let the kids enjoy the last of being in this house and our town (they don’t leave or hang out with friends or go to stores/restaurants because of COVID), and just yesterday the wifi got turned off.  The buyers called and connected theirs and we were notified that ours was shut off.  So we have all our stuff packed up and not much for kids to do in a house but get in the way of packing, make a mess, and watch TV.  Now the TV option is out, unless we can get the wifi back on soon.  So for everyone who reached out to me, I haven’t had a second to even look at all your messages or answer your calls.  I appreciate the reach out, and I’ll try to get back to them when I can, but for now I’m packing and trying to talk to Jake about houses and keeping my children somewhat happy during this weird transitional time for us.  Hence my asking for help in any of those ways that might lift a burden for us.  I do know that we’ll make things work and get through it, but I assumed that if my friends all knew what was going on, they’d want to help, so I just asked for help first.  Sorry for any confusion or stress I might have caused you! If you’ve made it this far, you are a trooper.       

Charlie Business

Denny's

Today I worked my first shift as a server at Denny's.  It was fine.  Not bad. Not amazing.  Just fine.  I guess it's just what I've needed for a while.  Last year was terrible.  Last year was the worst.  There were so many highs and wonderful, wonderful, enlightening experiences; but even more so, there were lows.  A place lower than I've ever been before. 

I remember having the thought, "This is the worst year of my life.  The hardest year.  And I got pregnant at 17 in a religious family, got married just out of high school.  We worked full time, did school full time and raised kids.  I delivered a baby when he was at military training and planned a move and both those on very short notice.  I have experienced terrible depression during pregnancy and postpartum depression pretty severely.  I've not only survived those things, but succeeded through them all and yet this is the WORST year of my life!!" 

After that year, I knew I needed just a job.  Something I could just go to, that wouldn't take too much brainpower and energy from me.  One I could go and do and then be home and present for my kids.  I could limit my hours.   I could even quit and not feel too bad or feel like I was ruining lives. 

I applied a long time ago and hadn't heard anything.  They always say they are hiring and that they always NEED people so I was upset I didn't get a call.  I went in to their open interview and it seemed it was a sure thing.  Then, no phone call.  For a while.  I was really feeling like a loser if they were so desperate but still didn't want me.  I decided I would go in and follow up.  All I did was ask and the manager went in the back for a minute and came back and told me she marked me for hire.  Then it was paperwork and scheduling a shift. 

So today was the day.  Leading up to this, I had a cashier who was a complete stranger tell me I should seriously reconsider teaching but aside from her, all my friends have been completely supportive and even excited for me.  I was fueled with confidence because of them.  I will say that I did have a moment or two that I wondered if it was all worth it or thought to myself that I should be teaching if that's what my degree is in, but for the most part it was nice.  I enjoyed the interactions.  I enjoyed the old people eating their breakfast at Denny's. :)  I enjoyed their kind and encouraging words when they learned I was training. Complete strangers being nice.  That was enjoyable.  A nice boost in confidence and pick-me-up. 

The only "interesting" things that happened was a bowl of grits that overflowed when microwaved and had to be re-made, and a man who openly had his junk hanging out of his shorts.  Everyone joked about it and wanted to go take a look and talk about how on earth he couldn't notice or feel it.  Or why he was choosing to.  I didn't sneak a peek or partake in all the jokes (don't really know these people yet), but I have to say, I finished my shift and my supporters were asking me how it went. They were wanting a whole detailed run down and all I could think to reply was "Fine."  And it felt so good.  It was fine.

Fine.

That will do for now. It was better than it was last year.

Week 8 of blogging still

 I love when he falls asleep on me. It's either if he's sick or been a little terror that day and is worn out. 

By the blue marker on his hand, he was probably a terror

All four kids, one huge ball on a trampoline, several crying sessions

Charlie was mad that he didn't get to see our friends Faith and Cliff

Homeschool History Co-Op. They were the Princes in the tower. 

King Henry the Eighth

Luke using his inventive mind to make a sled into a mechanical contraption to move fat King Henry

Teenage Book Discussion

Catapults

My dear friend Carrie. 

The Rossi kids hanging out with us at the house

Enjoying the youth center after Chess club

Guess what we ate for dinner? Spaghetti. 

Finally went to a Lip Sense party

Another terrible Mitt disaster

A book stolen from my Grandma's house, that I finally decided to get go of.  Had to take a picture for memory sake 

I needed a break from Mitt and JJ took him and I found them like this. 

Too many to summarize in a title

Mitt mess

Green ink pad Mitt mess

Stealing food whenever he can

Listening to an audiobook and carving a stick with his pocket knife.  

This is what homeschool looks like for him. :)

When this guy goes back to school I'm going to miss him terribly.  Homeschooling has been really good for our relationship. 

Charlie was singing songs perfectly with voices and everything from Goldie and Bear (Mitt's favorite tv show) while immersed in his tablet. 

Oh, just something Mitt brought in to me that he got into. Yikes!

Another Mitt mess

Another Mitt creation. Fruity pebbles in our shampooer. 

We went for a walk for pizza for lunch. 

Mitt throwing a fit. 

JJ wrote some speech points for the 4 H club nominations.  He ended up getting the one that he wanted, Treasurer. 

Mitt after that fit.  He fell asleep while waiting during their meeting. 

Luke got awarded with his knife skills badge. He carved wood and several bars of soap.

He didn't win this game and was so upset. Like crying upset. He kept saying that she didn't explain the rules right and that he wasn't sure why he was so upset.  I think he was tired. 

His awards. 

After his awards we went to JJ's promotion. 

Luke sat by his friend Royal

He's going to miss him terribly

JJ promoted to Cadet Senior Airman 

Mitt and Charlie helped

JJ thought this was hilarious because it said Trump and it was a dumpster

I came across these on fb from Teresa's profile from forever ago.  It was fun to see pictures I've never seen  before. 

These are all of JJ. 

On this particular day, I thought he looked extra peaceful and cute because he had been TERRIBLE

At a nursing home (waiting for the kids to do a performace) all of the kids in the group with so confused what this thing was. I happened to snag a picture of this kid exploring. :)

Some kids said, "I think that's a tv?!" Ha!

Older homeschool kids

Our family was able to come and watch this performance. 

The kids thought it was unusual to do it in such a small room .

Mitt was so into it again. He was laughing so loud!

Our friends were able to come and watch too. 

Ohio is all about pizza cut in squares. Weird. 

Selfies. 

Even homeschooled, JJ gets love notes. 

We went to get hot chocolate for the kids and we couldn't keep them for climbing all over everything and playing. 

Luke got birthday money and for once in his life was choosing to save it up for something big. 

I forget what movie we were watching but Mitt was super into it. 

Another Mitt mess. An entire, brand new, bulk size pickle jar. Shattered on the ground.  

It was disaster.  Juice, glass shards, pickles, floor and cubbards. 

At church one of the little girls from Primary drew me during Sacrament. I love it. :)

This is what Luke bought. A huge ball. 

It was used at a fort for a little bit. 

Mitt is constantly all over me!

Maybe it's the mountain dew we let him have. 

We only let him have some during the superbowl and it was just some drops. 

Mitt's favorite holiday is superbowl I think. So. many. snacks. The diaper the next day was EEEEKKKK!