It's been a while...

Well hello out there friends!  It has been a really long time since I've done an update on our Wyoming life.  I finally have the laptop at home with me and so I figured I would update the world on what's been going on.  So I'll just start from the beginning and fill you in on each one of us and how we're doing.

Matt- Matt finished up his classes for last semester and he did really well.  He was taking Chemistry 2, Medical Terminology, and Stats.  Those classes are pretty tough but Matt managed to handle it all.  Half way through the semester he finally got a job at UPS as a shift supervisor.  This job requires him to get up super early.  Like 4 am early!!  It was an adjustment and still is getting up that early and spending enough time studying without falling asleep.  This semester Matt is taking Organic Chemistry and Microbiology.  The Organic Chemistry is a self-guided class that was specially arranged just for him with the Dean of the school.  It's a long story of how that happened but I will tell you that if we had been told the truth about Organic Chemistry we would not be here in Wyoming right now!  But so far so good with the classes and work and studying.  Matt has submitted his application to 6 Physician Assistant schools across the nation.  We're nervously waiting to hear if he will get invited for interviews and then accepted to any of these schools.  Our schools of choice right now are in Mississippi, California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New Hampshire.  I'm really pulling for the first school in Mississippi.  Time will tell where we end up next. 

Melissa- This part is really hard for me to write.  I could sugar coat things and say how wonderful I am and I'm just having the time of my life.  But in reality that is not true.  I'm not having fun and really I'm not happy here.  There are many reasons why and I could spend a long time going over and explaining each individual reason but I don't want to bore you.  I will tell you though that I look forward to having our own space again and having all our stuff out of storage.  I try to stay busy with little projects here and there since I don't have anywhere to actually do big projects like a used too.  Sometimes when I'm up late because I can't sleep I think about my friends at home and how much I miss them.  It seems as if we're just kinda floating around right now since being here in Wyoming is only a temporary thing.  I want a place to feel like home and this just isn't home to me.  But I put on my happy face each day for my husband and children and I push through and take one day at a time.  I will say that one blessing that has come from being here in Wyoming is that I've been able to connect with my cousin.  I didn't know her before I moved here and I'm not even sure she knew I even existed.  But she plays basketball here at the college so we have very much enjoyed going to her games and seeing her play.  We love KC so much and we love having her over every Sunday for dinner.  I try to keep her well fed and give her a home cooked meal.  Let's face it college food sucks after a while!!  Her basketball season is almost over so we'll have to find something else to keep us busy and entertained.

Levi- Oh my precious Levi!  He is doing so well in school.  He loves his teacher so much and looks forward to going to school each day.  His little mind is such a sponge right now and he's just soaking up everything he learns.  Levi loves to read right now and when he gets sent to his room for timeout it's not really a timeout.  I usually find him reading.  I hope he keeps that up.  Last week he brought home his second report card and he did amazing in all areas.  I have parent-teacher conferences coming up in a few weeks so I hope it's only good things.  We didn't sign Levi up for Spring soccer which I haven't told him yet about.  If Matt is accepted to the school in Mississippi there is a huge possibility that I would have to withdraw Levi from school a few weeks early.  The classes in Mississippi start mid-May so we would have to be out of here very quickly after Matt finishes up his semester.  But hopefully wherever we land I can get him signed up for fall soccer and he can pick right up where he left off.

Jax- My hands are full with this kid!!  He is so full of energy and attitude...let me tell ya!!  He goes to Pre K 3 days a week.  He too loves his teachers and his "school friends" as he calls them.  I have started teaching him letters, numbers, and shapes because I don't think it's being taught in his preschool.  Not sure why though.  Jaxon feels so grown up and every day when I pick him up he and Levi tell each other their school day stories.  It is just the cutest thing!  I wanted to sign Jax up for soccer too since he is finally old enough but again we'll just hope for fall soccer.  When Jax isn't in school he's home with me and Colten just creating chaos.  But I wouldn't trade him for the world!

Colten- Colten is just my happy little baby.  He makes us smile and I'm so glad he's ours.  Since being here in Wyoming he's figured out how to climb over the baby gate, open doors, and climb out of his crib.  The baby gate is not even up anymore because it was pointless.  He's figured out how to pop off the door knob covers so they're pretty much pointless too.  Colten is saying many words now and so we're able to better figure out what he wants.  Every day when his brothers get home from school his face just lights up though.  That boy loves his brothers!  I hope it stays that way as he gets older.  I love that I get to have Colten to myself some days.  We play and chase each other and he just makes my heart melt.

I think that's pretty much all the latest with each of us.  Not too exciting but we're here and all alive and that is a good thing.  I miss everyone at home and I do think of you often.  I look forward to being back home this summer and seeing you all again.  Hopefully someday I can pick up my projects again and show them to you here on my blog.  After all, that's why I created this in the first place.

Have a great weekend!

More adventures!

So our adventures here in Wyoming continue.  Over Labor Day weekend we went out to Flaming Gorge.  This place is awesome!  My brother in law has some jet skiis and we went crazy all day long.

The boys had fun just throwing rocks in the water.  Each of them got a turn on the jet ski and they loved it.  Our first toy purchase when Matt is done with PA school will be a set of jet skis.

The views here are amazing.  Flaming Gorge is huge and on this part of the lake there was not very many people.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

The next week Levi and Jax started school.  My babies are getting so big!  Here they are on their first day of school.  They were so stinkin' excited.  Levi was up before everyone else and wanted to go to school right away.  Love that kid!

Levi is doing great in school and loves his teacher.  I had my first parent-teacher conference and he is right on track and where he should be.  Awesome!

Jax loves his pre-school friends and teachers.  He loves going and every day he brings me new pictures he has colored.

It is nice to only have my sweet baby Colten at home during the day.  He loves getting all of my attention and I love giving it to him.

More updates to come...

Martin's Cove

We have been busy over the last month or so here in Wyoming.  We've done many things so I'll just jump right in from the beginning.

Before it turned cold we were able to go to Martin's Cove.  This is an amazing place to visit if you're ever in Wyoming.  There is so much church history here.  Martin's Cove has been on my list of places to visit for a very long time and I can finally check it off.  You can go HERE and read more about this historic site.

When you start to walk the path out to the cove there is a plaque with this quote.  You immediately feel the sacred Spirit that is there.

Baptisms are still performed in this river.  Just around that big rock in the background is the actual cove.  We did not walk out that far.  Our children were not cooperating with us.

This is another part of the path out to Martin's Cove.

The kids did love this part of our trip.  The Visitor's Center has handcarts that you can pull and test out your strength.  Let me tell ya...these are not easy.  Handcarts are very heavy to pull.  And that's when they are empty.  Can you imagine pulling these when they're full of food and goods?

See that split in the rocks over my left shoulder?  That is called Devil's Gate.

You can also walk out to Devil's Gate but again the children didn't allow that to happen.  We did stop on our way back home as the sun was setting.  I snapped this pretty shot.

Part of this trip was to go up to Casper, Wyoming and go to Target.  As we were driving through town we spotted some jaywalkers.

I guess this is a pretty common occurrence in Wyoming!

Matt and I would love to go back without the kids and actually walk out to Devil's Gate and Martin's Cove.  I'm not sure if that will happen but I like to think it will.

Words cannot express to you the gratitude I have for the pioneers.  Someday in Heaven I will bow down to those that gave their life on this trek.  So much sacrifice went into their journey so that my family and all those that came after the pioneers can have our wonderful church.

This was a great fun filled weekend for our family.  We have memories to last a lifetime!

We're in Wyoming!

Well hello there!  We've made it to Wyoming alive and in one piece!  I'm dropping in to give you an update on how things are going for us.

 

We left on a Friday and spread out the drive over 4 days.  We arrived the following Monday and immediately started unpacking all our stuff.  I drove in my car with our boys and Matt drove the Uhaul.  To give me a break from all three kids we would rotate out Levi and Jaxon riding with Matt in the Uhaul.  They loved being with daddy in the "elephant truck" as they called it.  There was an elephant on the Uhaul.

 

Matt starts school tomorrow and he's excited to get started on more classes.  He has class every day so we are going to miss having him around as much.  But we just have to keep our goal in mind and we'll get through it.  Next week is his last week working remotely for his job in Dallas.  We thought he could last through the end of September but with all that Matt has to do to get into PA school it was just too much.  Matt is registered for the GRE and we're praying that he'll do well the first time.  That test isn't cheap!! 

 

I'm not going to lie and say this has been easy for me.  I'm really missing home right now.  I miss my house.  I miss my yard.  I miss my friends.  I miss everything about Texas.  I opened my Instagram account recently and one of the last pictures I took was of the boys playing in the sprinklers.  I just started crying because I miss everything so badly.  I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about our situation and I'm trying to make new friends.

 

That's another thing.  I think I'm a friendly person and I'm not shy by any means.  But making new friends is sometimes hard.  You have to explain your story a million times and it can be difficult to find people that you really jive with.  I want to find people I have stuff in common with and I'm really going to put my best effort forward.  But is it weird that a part of me doesn't want new friends?  Just because I miss my friends at home and they already know me and know my stories and my life and it was just easier.

 

So I'm really trying and we'll see how it goes over the next few months.

 

Levi starts school this next week.  I went to register him and I was told that if it gets below 0 degrees that's when the kids will stay inside.  My jaw hit the floor!  0 degrees people!  Holy freakin' cow!  That is a whole different kind of cold.  I think Levi will be the first one to go back inside and gladly sit at his desk.  We also have him registered for soccer here.  The season doesn't last as long in Texas but Levi is for sure ready to get out there and play again. 

 

Colten hasn't been sleeping well since we got here.  Last week was really hard for all of us in that respect.  At home Colten would sleep perfectly.  He had his own room and loved all the animals on his walls.  We're not sure if he was just scared about being in a new place or if he was teething or what exactly but Colten for sure has had a difficult first week here.  We've let him cry it out the last few nights so hopefully that will make things better for him.  Last night he didn't even cry when he went to sleep.  Maybe we're making progress. 

 

Jaxon is just excited to have his cousins to play with.  The first few days Jax would say he wanted to go back to our "little house" but we just explained that someone else lives there now.  At Matt's school they have a preschool program for super cheap and so I think we're going to get him enrolled in that.  It will be nice for me to only have 1 child at home.  It has been several years since I've only had 1 kiddo around.  Plus, Jax will be excited to go to school like Daddy and Levi do. 

 

I still have a few boxes to unpack and go through.  When I'm all finished and have everything set up perfectly I'll so some pictures of the new digs!  5 of us are in 2 bedrooms and sharing 1 bathroom.  I'm using every square foot and maximizing as much storage as possible. 

 

I miss you all in Texas!  I'll leave you with some pictures I took along the way to Wyoming.

 

Have an awesome week!

 

The end of the world! 

  

 Mountains!

 

Rocky Mountains off in the distance!

 

The sun after the rain.

 

 

 

Texas versus Wyoming

Hi peeps!  How's the week going for you?  It's been really nice here in Texas and we've been enjoying the cooler weather.  This just doesn't happen here in July so we'll take advantage while we can.

Texas versus Wyoming.  When it comes to football I'm always going to choose my Longhorns.  But unfortunately this isn't about football.

When I left you two days ago we weren't sure where we were going to end up.  We had two options on the table.  We could move home with my parents in East Texas or go to Wyoming.  Yeah, that's right.  WYOMING! 

Moving home with my parents would work but it wasn't going to be ideal.  We would be living in a tiny cramped camper trailer.  My parents just bought a new house but it is smaller so there wouldn't be room for all of us inside.  So we would be roughing it in a camper trailer.  Not ideal but we would sacrifice and make it work.  It's only temporary. 

Option two is move to Wyoming and live with my brother in law and his family in their basement.  Let me tell ya....Wyoming is cold.  Like freeze you to the bone cold.  It's something I've only experienced once and thought I would never experience again.  Wyoming was not initially an option.  We thought Utah or Arizona maybe.  A couple of weeks ago Matt sent an email to family and friends asking if they knew of any basement apartments available in Utah or any cheaper housing in Arizona.  Much to our surprise my brother in law responded and offered his place. 

Our response was heck yeah we'll come.  That was said very quickly and without thinking because once I said it I then realized that's pretty much the Artic Circle.  We've been talking back and forth with our family and trying to figure out how this would all work with the living arrangements.  The basement is 1300 square feet which is only 200 square feet smaller than the house we just sold.  We still have a few things to work out but the ball is rolling in the right direction. 

We'll be living about 2 hours away from Salt Lake and 5 hours from Denver.  I'm excited about a new chapter in our lives and being closer to my husband's family.  Being in Texas we don't get to see them very often so it will be nice to have cousins really close.  Living over our heads close.  I'm very sad though to be leaving Texas.  I'm sad to leave my little town and all the things I've grown to love and enjoy.  There isn't a Chick Fil A in Rock Springs.  There isn't even a Target there.  I don't know how I'll survive without a Target.  Nevermind...I'm not going!  Can't live without a Target.  Just kidding...but hey Target...Rock Springs is a great location for a store!!  But there is a Taco John's.  Oh Taco John's, how I love you and your tacos. 

I feel horrible for taking my kids away from their friends.  It makes me cry every time I think about it.  But I know they can make friends wherever they go.  But Levi especially loves his little buddies and will surely miss them.  I know they are young enough that they won't really remember this part of our journey much.  But it still breaks my heart. 

It's amazing to me how you think you have your life planned and figured out and then Heavenly Father steps in and turns you in a different direction.  We'll be close to the Teton Mountains and Yellowstone and will be making trips there for sure.  Matt will be busy with school and work but we look forward to exploring all that will be around us.  Matt grew up in Wyoming so he's excited to be going home. 

I promise we'll not be gone from Texas forever.  My family is still here and we'll be back soon enough.  Our top choice for a PA school is actually in Arkansas so if Matt gets accepted there we'll be back in the south very soon. 

How will this Texas girl survive in below freezing temps and wind gusts that freeze you in your tracks?  Stay tuned to find out....

The Beginning

I started this blog several months ago.  This was supposed to be a blog to record all the projects or changes that we would be making to the new home we were building.  I chose the name "Serendipity" because when working on projects a lot of times you get a "happy accident" and things turn out better than you originally thought.  

But everything changed back on May 31st.

So here's the backstory. 

Earlier this year we put our house, that we've lived in for 6 years, on the market.  We had finally finished with all of the projects in the house and felt like it was the best time to sell.  So we did.  We had one offer that fell through but then quickly came a 2nd offer.  We closed and all was great. 

We had picked out a floor plan from a local builder and fell in love with it.  After spending 8 hours one Saturday picking out all the details of our future house all was going great.  Then May 31st happened.

At the end of the day Matt was called in and told that his position would be changing and along with that came a pretty hefty pay cut.  Our lives were shattered.  I fell to the floor in disgust.  Matt has worked his tail off to get to where he is.  In a matter of minutes all that hard work was gone.  All the long hours and long days were for nothing.  I won't go into all the details of how I feel about Matt's boss but let's just say I don't have kind words for her.

After a long weekend of crying, praying and tears we came to the conclusion that building our dream house just wouldn't happen.  There was no way that we could afford it.  We realized that our dream would just have to wait.  Heavenly Father had a bigger plan for us.  Also, by the end of this weekend we had decided that Matt needed to go back to school.  After being in the corporate health/wellness field for 5 years it just wasn't what he wanted to do anymore.  So back to school Matt went to become a Physician Assistant. 

Matt quickly enrolled in summer school taking just one class.  We spent the next few weeks looking over all the PA schools in the country and figuring out where we wanted to try to get accepted and how many prerequisites are required.  Now we have our schools picked out and the classes that Matt will need to take in the fall/spring.  We just don't know where we are going to end up for the fall/spring.

All the classes that Matt needs to take are day classes.  That means that Matt can't continue to work his 8-5 job and that also means we can't afford to stay in our house.  We are renting our house back from the investor that bought it while we were building our house.  Our lease is up September 1 and Levi starts school this fall.  So we have very little time to figure out what to do and where we'll end up. 

We do have a couple of options that we're still trying to figure out the details to but either way we know we can't stay in our comfortable little town we've really come to enjoy.  It kills me to pull my kids away from their friends and what they know.  But at the same time they are still so young they won't remember much of this ordeal. 

It is apparent to us now how things were supposed to go.  We needed to sell our house to get the most money possible.  We needed to sell our house so that when Matt gets accepted to a PA school we will not be tied down because of our house.  We needed to sell our house so that Matt can go back to school to take care of our family.  It's amazing how Heavenly Father watches out for you and has a plan for each one of us.  We couldn't be doing this without his guidance. 

So come along with me on this new adventure as we start down a new path and a new career.  I'll be sharing all the ups and downs along the way.