Checking Back Into Reality!

Finally~ I am back

not quite sure how back I am~ but none the less~ I'm back

So- the title on the picture of my blog~

well begining the middle of June~ should have read a little something like~

Right in the middle of what you THINK is an ordinary, hectic, trying to get too many things done and accomplishing little~ life

Someone~somewhere~ Yes I mean you up there ;) thinks you have

lessons to learn~ and decides now is the best time to

shower trials upon you!

Yep~ that about summarizes my June/July!!!!

I have been told I should write a book~

I probably should, but it would be much too depressing!

So~ to summarize our crazy, so glad I don't have to relive, June and July

here I go.

moving truck picked up June 10th 9 am

get a call at noon stating home we thought we were unloading our

property into on the 12th was not going to be available~

owners decided to sell instead of lease :(

2pm after many tears decide we are going to continue packing~ although not sure

what I was packing for~

6pm decide we will live in our 5th wheel while we found a place to live~

YEA~ WHAT was I thinking????

Maybe that I could get a prescription of one of those pills you take if you can't

handle life?

Anyways~

Saturday/ June 11th

Still crying everytime I think of my situation~

Looking on Craigs List every 10 minutes to see if something happens to show up~

Calling all property managment companies to beg them to find me a home~

NOTHING!

Pack, Pack, yell at my kids, pack some more~

clean until 2 am

Realize at 2 am that I can't change the situation and that I will NOT cry

over something I cannot change~

I will have faith that Heavenly Father knows what is best for our family

and trust in him!

Sunday 5 am get up because I can't sleep~

look on CraigsList at least 25 times this day

Aaron Bean shows up to help load the final heavy stuff~

pack, clean, pack some more, clean carpets, try not to yell at the kids

but I still do, pack, try to comfort my kids that this is what we are

suppossed to be doing and kindly remind them they played a part in this

decision.

9am Gardners stop by to say good-bye~darn friends make it hard to leave;)

1 pm we are ready to leave~ decide to are going to drive to Salt Lake and spend the night with a friend.

Salt Lake arrival time 11:30 pm (lots of potty stops)

Wake up 6 Monday morning~ shower

back on the road~ Casper bound~ yea~ I think?

Call Stake President for Casper and explain my situation~

fingers crossed~

within 10 minutes ~and I'm not kidding~

a realtor from Casper calls to tell me she has a home available~

Oh my goodness! Cloud 25 is what I'm on!!!

Set appt. to see home at 3~

Get calls from 2 other property management companies telling me they

have homes to show me~ Are you kidding???? I am stoked!!!

Get to Casper around 2:40~ kick Barry and the kids out of the car at the store

so they can unload some items and I can go find the house we are going to reside in;)

Get to the first house at 3 on the dot~ are you kidding me??? someone would actually

consider living in this house??? I even asked the manager this question and if I

remember correctly they were asking like 1800 a month rent! It smelt like

animal urine something horrid!

 So, onto house #2~ not the least bit discouraged because I have 2 more houses to see;)

House #2 WOW!!! one of the garage doors hasn't opened for like 20 years and the other garage door has been replaced so it brand spanking new! Total mismatch!

Walk inside~ yep~ cats had torn at the carpet all along the edges and "marked" the walls~ I almost barfed~ I am not even exaggerating! I walk 10 feet into the house before I turn

to the manager and said~"look, this is NOT going to work for me and my family~ I wouldn't even rent either of these homes for my dogs to live in (all the time I am thinking that he is just the manager) then I proceed to tell him my less than

ideal situation and ask him if he has any other homes available that might meet my

needs~ he tell me he doesn't ~ I was persistant and said~ well how often do you get calls from homeowners asking you to manage their properties? could you like

get calls this week about new homes~

Here is the kicker!!!! He looks me in the eye and said ~No, I own all of the houses I manage!!!! Oh, dear, he owns a lot of crap~ sorry, but true!

I smiled and told him to have a lovely day~ as he shot daggars my way!

House number 2~ no THANKS!

Pull up to house #3

Nice! Cute street, Large garage, older home~ but thats ok!

Can hardly wait for realtor to get here so I can see inside!

Upon entrance~ small, but cute, clean kitchen, doable,

downstairs, well~ Barry couldn't come down here very often because he would

hit his head~ in one of the bedrooms downstairs the closet was housing

the hot water heater and some other contraption~

next bedroom~ odd smell~ look behind the door~ evidence-mold! on the wall!

Walk outside~ back yard is chain link and 2 pit bulls are on one side that growled and jumped at us the entire time! No thanks! Jaidyn wouldn't last a day!

Get a call from Barry that his parents were in town with our fifth wheel~

Bless their hearts!!! They drove our fifth wheel from Idaho to Casper so we would have a place to live~ you do need to know that we didn't have any other choice~

the rodeo finals were in town that week and their wasn't a room to be found

within 100 miles!

I drive to RV park to meet his parents and get the RV set up.

When Dad and Kaye pulled up I broke down!

I will tell you that is the first time I had cried since I had told myself

I wouldn't! I think I just felt defeated and in a sense lost!

Like maybe I hadn't done enough, prayed enough, fasted enough, called enough realtors (even though we were all on a first name basis) like I had failed my family! It was humbling to have to ask for help~ We were blessed they were so willing to help!

After the tears were dried we got our new home set up!

We got cleaned up and found another house in the paper~

seriously I think I got my hopes up every time I found out their might be a house

we could live in! Not only were we living in our fifth wheel~ so basically homeless!

but we were in the middle of trying to finalize everything for our store so that we could open!

Kaye and I went to look at the house I had heard was available~ really it wasn't too bad

it was cleanable, needed some TLC, but the kicker was~~~ the only way to get to the back yard was to go out the door on the second story of the house, but the deck was only attached to the house on one side! It was about 15 feet off the ground and when you stood on it, it swayed!!! I asked the realtor what had been planned to fix this problem and she said

they had no plans on fixing, it was ready for move in! Are you kidding me~ Jaidyn would last about 1 day~ Barry and the boys 20 minutes and that

porch would be history!

Back "home" to scour the newspaper want ads and call all property management places again~ nothing!

Go to laundry mat to clean some clothes~

decide to call every Real Estate Company in Casper and see if they have

any clients that would be willing to let us do a lease option on a home~

after calling about 15~ one tells me yes!!!

I get the address~ google it~ it is beautiful!!! More than I could imagine it being! I found a

video of the home online~ it had sold last year and the video was still up

I'm watching the video and am starting to get giddy inside. All the sudden the camera man walks out on the porch of the house and you can see the river! The house was not even 20 feet from the Platt River~ heart sinks! Jaidyn would last maybe 2 minutes at this house!

 We decide to go look at the house, thinking we could fence part of the property to keep Jaidyn from the river. We looked for over an hour with no luck!!! We asked construction workers, drove up to homes and knocked on the door trying to find this house~
Nothing!!!
Back to "camp" to let the kids swim and get ready for bed~
Kaye and Meghan decide to go shower first~
20 minutes later they are back and Kaye is looking frazzled!
She got into the shower and a huge moth starting flying around her~ she ran around trying to swat and kill the moth before it ate her;)
only to find out after she finally got showered~ she had forgotten her towel!!
She had to use those brown paper towels to dry off~ so she had little brown balls of paper
towel all over her body;) This was cause for a good laugh~ finally!

Next morning I called the realtor to tell him I couldn't find the house, come to find out we were on the wrong leg of the road.

After speaking with the realtor about our thoughts of fencing he tells me that he would never recommend any children, no matter the age, to live in that house, it is just too

dangerous, even for teens, the temptations to get too close to the water would always be there. So, I asked if he would please talk to the other realtors in the office

and find out if they had any homes that might be available~
He calls me back after about 20 minutes and tells me that one of the other realtors had a home just come available and gives me the address. He tells me to drive by and see if I am even interested before he has the realtor call me.
The drive to the house was beautiful to say the least~ It sat at the
base of the mountain among beautiful homes, we weren't quite sure if we were at the right house, so I told Barry to go and look on the porch to see if he could see and address,
he looked in the windows and noticed it was open, tried to open the front door and it wasn't locked~ he waved for us to come up~ we were up there before he could blink~
the kids were instantly in love, it sat on 6 acres, has a cabin feel, the carpet was pretty new, it had a small kitchen, downstairs it had a family room, a small bedroom and WOW a four car garage, it looked like a 2 car from the outside but it had a tandem garage, overall pretty clean and it hadn't been touched by the cleaning crew.
I called the realtor and said we were interested!!!!
I didn't dare tell him we had all ready seen the inside, he told me he was
busy that day, but could show me the house the next morning,
we were there with bells on, walked in, looked around, acted curious, asked a few questions, and then asked when we could move in~ he said he didn't know, but
that it would probably be about a week~ are you kidding~ we have all ready lived in our 5th wheel for 5 days and were ready to choke our kids!!! It is hard to tell your kids to go to their room when it is right beside where you are sitting!
 He gave us the name of the realtor for that house and an application~ we called the realtor when we were less than a mile from the house, pulled over on the side of the street
and filled out the application and asked if we could bring it in, he told us that would be fine and that the home could possibly be ready for move in, in about 7 days. I
gave him my sob story and told him we needed to unload our moving truck the next day,
I asked if he would just let me clean the house and the carpets so we could go ahead and move our stuff into the garage~ he said that would probably be fine and to come on down~
we went in, the realtor walks in and is a COWBOY!!!! Oh yea, Barry being a cowboy is good for something;)
They hit it off and the realtor said, I know the owner and she trusts my word, I will get ahold of her and let you know.
 We paced, paced, and paced some more!!!
Prayed, prayed and prayed some more!
He called the  next day at noon and told us we could pick up the keys!!!!!
We ran to that office~none too soon and grabbed the keys~ unloaded our stuff into the garage~ cleaned the house~ cleaned the carpets~ moved in our beds~ moved in the basics~ went to the store and cleaned and cleaned and worked from dawn til dusk and then some trying to get our store open~ Spent the first night in our home on June 26th~ the next morning Griz (our Yorkie) goes out to do his business in the morning and comes in acting strange~ I start petting him and notice blood on my finger and grabbed a flashlight and looked closer above his eye and the skin was black! I called Barry who was busy trying to open the store the next day, he tells me to get him to a vet that he has been bitten by a snake! Drive 70 miles an hour to the vets office, they have to hold him down and shave the
area to see the puncture wounds, Griz screamed louder than I have ever heard even a human scream~ sure enough~ rattlesnake bite~ they don't have anti venom~ their was a shortage last year, they called around and noone has any!!!! She tells me we can try to treat with steroids and a few other medications, plan set, I leave Griz at the vets office to go and tell my kids what has happened, Meghan and Logan are clearly upset, Jaidyn is crying~ telling me to go get her dog, Laton is just quiet, this irritates Meghan and she
tells Laton he just doesn't care about Griz! he replies, no I care~ it is just that I know he will
be o.k. I said a prayer and I know he will be fine! Wow, I walk upstairs and beg Heavenly Father to make Latons statement come true! He is at a vulnerable age and I don't want his faith shaken~ Vet calls around 4 that day and tells us that Griz has stabilized and she
thinks it would be fine for us to bring him home to look after him~ Yea! She did tell us
he would not be out of the woods for around a week and gave me
a pharmacy full of medication to administer! (Griz survived and is back to normal)
Finding this home, and moving in was kind of like a marriage~
I moved in with rose colored glasses on;)
when those glasses came off~ whoa!
Over the last few weeks I have noticed things that aren't ideal.
The guest bath is all ready under full reconstruction~
no gas to hook up my dryer~ bummer!
No A/C~ seriously are you kidding me???? I turned the
thermostat on cool the first warm day and nothing happened!!!
Barrys first day off~ bless him~ he installed a window unit to keep the house cool!
We have met and learned to "relocate" many different bugs and spiders!
Jaidyn loves to catch and play with the moths~
I was told the wind would bother me~ I welcome the wind~ it keeps the house nice and cool;) Blow all you want you Wyoming Wind!
The boys are in heaven with all the wild life~ we have
antelope and deer in our yard daily!
They practice shooting their bows at least 3 days a week~ and
are getting darn good! Laton has been paintballing and loves it!
Every time I think back on these events that brought us to where we are I get teary eyed~
it was probably one of the most trying times of my life~
but I do look back now and thank my Heavenly Father for
these trials~ because they helped me grow and got me to where we are today!
We are settling in here~ and I WILL make Casper our home~
yes, I miss my friends~
but they will always be our friends~
and we will all make new ones!
so~ our new address is:
7248 S. Ridgecrest Drive
Casper, Wy 82601
307-265-0719
I will post pics of our view~ it is breath taking!