Moving/Housing Update

So… once again a stick has been thrown beneath our wheels as we try to move forward with all this moving stuff. I think we managed to quickly recover without falling. After FINALLY having found and secured an apartment with wonderful management… Matt’s principal and a few others expressed some serious concern to us about the safety of that neighborhood. My initial reaction: “You’ve got to be kidding me! Will this never end?” But what can you do when things keep tripping you up? Keep chugging along. Keep trusting in God’s plan that is grander than my own. Thankfully, we the manager at the old place is amazingly helpful and flexible and is mailing our deposit back to us.

There was another apartment complex that we had found earlier that is in a better area and that allows bigger dogs, so we contacted them to make sure they still had something available. We scrambled to get an application faxed to them yesterday and just received confirmation today that we were approved and have it held for us! This was a scramble because we need to get our address to the moving company, considering they come on Monday (AH!).

So the new complex is 0.7 miles from Matt’s school, even closer. And the dog park is still only 1 mile away. Good news bears. Our actual apartment will be quite a bit larger (an extra 200 sq ft), but so is the complex, meaning slightly less friendly and a lot less green space for Samson. We will have 2 very small fenced in cement patios also.

So here I sit in the airport, waiting to board our flight to Chicago (and typing in a word document to copy and paste later). Once we arrive, we are going to hangout with Matt’s family and enjoy dinner together with them, before driving back to GR. Then comes the beginning of the packing frenzy! We have Thursday through Sunday to finish packing everything before the moving company comes on Monday. Yikes! I hope we can get it all done and squeeze in all the other little breaks and activities we have planned with friends and family on those days too. It’s going to be a zoo at our house, that’s for sure!

We are getting really excited about moving though. We just planned our drive to Merced and made hotel reservations. I’m not sure how it’s going to go with Samson in the car, but we have a few fun stops planned: Rocky Mountain National Park and the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.

God Provides

Our lives have been pretty crazy for the last couple of weeks, but we've had some fun in there and some big God moments too! First of all, we have an apartment! Our housing stresses have been relieved. We knew that God would provide something for us, but it was getting really hard not to be stressed about it anyways with it getting so close to our move date. Matt's grand parents went to look at some apartments and houses for us in Merced last week. The houses/duplexes were all in bad shape and bad areas. They stumbled upon a small apartment complex, however. The units are small, a 2 bedroom with 675 sq. feet (about half the size of our upstairs right now), but they are one level with no one above them. It is a gated community with only 20-30 units and a pool. The managers are very nice and willing to hold it for us. This is such a huge answer to prayer! They allow dogs and have a good amount of green space for Samson to go to the bathroom. It is only 1.3 miles from Matt's school... so he can bike and we can function with one car. That dog park I was talking about in my last post is also only about 1 mile away.

We are thanking God for the apartment; although we knew that He would provide something... so this next thing seems much bigger to us because we were not expecting it. A couple of weeks ago, Matt blew a tire on his way to work. When he brought it in to get new tires, they said that he bent up the wheel rim (or something like that) too badly to put a new tire on, and that he would need a new one of those too! Thankfully they had a cheaper generic option, but the total with tires was still around $350. So all of that on top of an existing problem that we needed to get fixed before we drive accross the country: his car window has been broken for a while... it won't go up and down with the switch and starts falling down, so you have to pull it back up. We took this in and the part that was broken was quite expensive as well. We talked them down a little, but that ended up to be around $350 as well.... totalling around $700 in a week for the car.

I am sitting there thinking: we need our money for moving expenses; we're not going to have much left after the car and that. Thursday was Matt and my last day of work. We both got our last paychecks and everything like that. It ended up that Costco pays out all of your remaining sick and vacation time when you leave, and Matt had hardly taken any sick time ever (I'm not sure we even knew he had sick time!). So what is my point about this blessed paycheck? It was almost exactly $700 more than his normal paycheck that we were expecting! Gasp! I always hear people talk about those moments where they need a certain amount of money and they like get a check in the mail for that exact amount or something, but I have never experienced it myself. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness!

Crazy Business!

I feel like my life has been a non-stop circus lately. Pretty much since Memorial Day weekend with Matt's graduation.... his fam and my parents and Jordan and Al and Evangeline here (which was SO much fun!!). Then my mom was here until the next Friday. And then packing mode commenced!

Pretty much most of my weekend time and days off have been filled with packing, researching housing or other things in Merced, chores around the house, and walking/jogging with Samson. I have been trying to do a little less on weeknights to give myself a little break, but sometimes that still doesn't happen. We've also already been busy cramming in when to see all of our friends before we leave. And for some reason I thought that my Thursday night church softball league was still a good idea in the mix of all of this... I must be crazy!

A side note on adding to the chaos... people have been getting moved around to different rooms at work as well as 2 new people starting... so it is just as crazy there as my home life is.

Moving progress report:
We have a moving company scheduled to load our stuff on Monday July 20. They will load everything and pack our furnature up and send the truck on its way. We got a $2800 moving allowance from Matt's school, which should only leave us with about $1000 to pay (this was a HUGE answer to prayer!).

It's a long story, but searching for housing, particularly an actual house to rent has proven rather difficult and time consuming with little results. I started looking at some apartments instead... and found a really nice looking complex that is only 0.7 miles from Matt's school (he could bike there). There is even a brand new dog park across the street! We are waiting to hear their decision about allowing Samson. They allow dogs up to 30 lbs, and then it's kinda a case by case basis beyond that. They also offer 6 month and month by month leases that we could choose and then possibly find a house once we're there. If it works out, I will post more info.

Matt and my last day of work is Thursday, July 2. Then from July 5-15 we will be gone camping both in Michigan and Washington. Then we return for final packing and cleaning, ah! We do have pretty much everything packed that we don't need right now.

A Big Job and a Big Move!

Last week and weekend have been super busy for us, so I haven't had any time to write about our big news! Matt got a job offer last Wednesday for a high school science position at a small Christian high school called Stone Ridge Christian High School in Merced, CA. After a long stressful weekend of thinking, discussing, and praying... we finally decided to take the offer and move to Cali! It was a hard decision because it is going to be a ton of work for Matt, especially as a first year teacher. He will be the entire science department at this school of only 50 students. That means he will have 5 science classes plus an added math class to teach every day. But after his amazing student teaching experience with a great cooperating teacher and professor, we decided that he could handle it.

This decision was very hard on me at first. It took some time for the idea to settle and for me to get over my selfishness about it all.... the possibility of me facing year 3 after graduating of not doing what I have been waiting and waiting to do. Thoughts like, "when is it going to be my turn?" "how patient do I have to be?" "how am I going to get going on renewing my teaching certificate before it expires?" "I have worked so freaking hard all through college and then for 2 years working in a daycare so that Matt can finish school, and now it's all about him again?" I guess you really realize both your sinful nature and the hardships of sacrifice in a marriage through something like this. I started feeling less anxious and more peace about it as I focused more and more on God's provision wherever we are. So I am trusting in Him A LOT right now. Because I am very confused about His big plan and what He has in store for me, so trusting that He knows much better than I is all I can do. Now I am getting more and more excited about our move and what a great opportunity this is for Matt, and am waiting once again to find out what God has in store for me.

What else? Let's see... Merced is 13 hours from Seattle, 40 min from Modesto, 60 min from Fresno, 2 hours from Visalia (where Matt's g-parents and 2 aunts and uncles live), and 2-3 hours from: Sacramento, San Francisco, and Yosemite. We are very excited about all of our hiking, camping, and general travel possibilities. I am excited for the sun and warmth, but not quite ready for the July/August heat that we will be first entering I don't think.

We have so many details to figure out and take care of, and about 2 months to do it. We are hoping to make it to the DeKoekkoek camping trip/reunion earlier in July, and then come back and finish packing and leave around the week of the 20th? All plans are so tentative right now, but that what we have so far! MANY more details to come!

On a very different note, Jordan and Al and Evangeline get here tomorrow night! I am SO excited! It's going to be an awesome, crazy busy weekend!

Matt's Birthday

Happy 24th birthday to Matt! I made him a yummy cake (which we dug into the day before...). On his birthday we got to go to Craig's Cruisers (a gaming/mini golf/lazertag/go karts place) for a volunteer celebration for church. We got the buffet and 2 activities paid for, so we chose mini-golf and go karts :).
Matt got the drums for Guitar Hero World Tour from Josh, Amy, Carissa, and I... which he LOVES :-D.
On Friday we got to take Samson for a walk together for the first time. And it was an amazing warm sunny day. I also went for a walk at work that day... we walked our preschoolers to the Fulton Street Farmer's Market... and they did amazingly well! Except for it was the first week the market was open and it was a little disappointing.Samson got neutered this week and seems to be doing great. We did get a nice little break from him Thursday night while he stayed at the vet for observation :).

Fabulous Spring Weekend

This was by far one of the best and fullest weekends I've had in a very long time. I am real tired out, but it was fun and productive with even a little bit of relaxation! On Friday night, Zach and Sarah came bowling with us again to celebrate Matt's birthday (Tues May 5). Then we surprised Matt by going to Old Chicago for dessert afterward! Yum!
Saturday was the Tulip Time festival in Holland! My friend Carrie from small group and her 18 month old, Cohen, came with me, and it was the most beautiful sunny, warm, spring day. The flowers and trees were all in bloom and absolutely breathtaking. Not to mention the good old Klompen dancers :). I did some reading in the sun (my favorite way to read!), then took Samson for a walk on the trail when I got home. Then my friend Bethany from work called because we had talked about watching a movie, and she wanted to go for a walk as well, so I went on another (plus all the walking around Holland... lots of miles logged for that day!)! Then we watched Slum Dog Millionaire.On Sunday we bought flowers for the planter in front of our big living room window :). There are pretty much only 2 kinds of flowers that grow well in shade, so that's what we got: begonias and impatiens. That looks so much nicer.
I am absolutely loving the spring weather! At least I'm loving it on the sunny days double to make up for the rainy ones. Today I had a half day at work, so I took Samson on the trail, then went for a bike ride without him on another trail. It was the perfect sunny 70 with low humidity to do some jogging without overheating either of us.

More about Matt's birthday tomorrow to be posted later! Oh, and it's Evangeline's 1st birthday tomorrow as well, what a big girl! (Whom I get to see in just over 2 weeks! But I'm not counting down or anything...).

Busy Week

It's been a very busy week! I had something up every night, and I am definitely not used to that anymore, it was exhausting. Parent teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday nights, Marcia and her kids came over to meet Samson and visit Wednesday night, and our first softball practice Thursday. The end of the week was much better than the beginning at least :). We enjoyed catching up with Marcia and softball was fun to get back into. Our games start in June instead of May this year though.

Samson weighed in at 22 pounds at the vet this morning! He's growing and growing. He's learned some new tricks too! We taught him to "sit" and "shake" (as in shake hands/paws... although he gets confused with this one sometimes and just sits and puts his paw up when we say "sit"), and I was going to work on "come" this weekend, but I need to be outside with more space and it's been rainy and stormy. We can take him on walks now! I was so excited that I even took him on a walk in the rain. I was babysitting Lacey and it wasn't raining when we left for the trail, but we knew it was about too, so we were prepared. It really started coming down on our way back, and since we were already all wet, we got to stomp in puddles! She had a blast :). I don't think Samson was a big fan of being all wet though. And then he was pretty muddy, so we came home and gave him a bath, so he's my fluffy white smells good puppy again :). He's pretty pooped from his shots today, which works well with a rainy day. And I really can't complain too much about today's weather, because yesterday was 85 and this is our first real spring t-storm of the season.

Lacey and Samson after his bath :)

Here is a link to some pics that Josh took when they were here for Easter.... if it works... here's also 2 of them: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?page=1&aid=2012638&id=1146240016#/album.php?aid=2012638&id=1146240016
EDIT: You have to sign into Facebook to see this... or go to my wall and click on the link if you have it, sorry.

We've both heard from several schools lately that their positions have been filled, so that is a little discouraging. But we are still sending more out. I sent 2 apps to WA this week: Federal Way and Renton... I am trying not to get my hopes up, but if you're looking for something to pray for.... especially the Federal Way one because Matt applied there as well.

Matt's student teaching is still going super well, but he is going to have a lot of work to do and stuff to turn into Calvin soon as the semester ends.

I am feeling a bit unmotivated/discouraged/sick of work lately. I want to move and get "real" teaching jobs so badly. I am ready to do some real teaching, and get away from all of the potty training, tattling, disciplining, and long days.

I am starting to get really anxious for my family to come visit! Less than a month now! I miss them so much, and I will still miss the other half of them... and have no idea when the next time I will get to see them is :(.

He got his toy stuck around his neck...