Apart and Back Together Again

Lonely and Frustrated

For two and a half weeks we were going to have to be without Michael sleeping on our air mattresses, but he was worse off living in a tiny dorm with no kitchen and a bathroom down the hall. The funny thing is that he ended up in the very same dorm room that I lived in for a year as an RA there in Hannon Hall!

There have been all kinds of crazy things that we have gone through, but the worst happened on Mike’s first day of work. After signing all his paperwork and getting his keys from the facilities building, Mike came back to his building to find out that the CIO (Chief Information Officer) of MSU had died the night before in a motorcycle accident. It was just unbelievable and so sad.  His family hadn’t been with him for 9 months and they were planning to move out to Montana over the summer. He had talked to Mike just the Thursday before as we were getting ready to head out and on Friday sent us a recommendation for a real estate agent. He was part of the reason Mike felt confident to take the job because he had a great vision for information technology at MSU.

That was a major blow for Mike who was already stressed out in taking a new job and living out-of-state without his girls. But, God graciously had given Mike a little reassuring moment in a chance meeting at the facilities building when he picked up his keys. My best friend from high school was randomly in need of something in that building at the exact same time as Mike. Even though she works on campus she said she very rarely goes over to that building and never sees a line there. She said it made her start praying for him. It was just a crazy little coincidence until later Mike found out about the CIO and then it was like God gave him preparation in saying, “No really Mike, I got this. Don’t panic.”

He was pretty miserable, especially at first. His bike got impounded by the campus police and got woken up at midnight for a fire alarm so he had to stand outside. However, by the end of the week, he had made some friends and one guy from work invited him to dinner on Saturday with his family. He even went to an opera to see this guy sing.

In the Meantime Back in SW

There were so many things for me to do before we left town. Thankfully we got an offer on our house almost right away. It was on the market for 2 weeks and we had a signed around offer the day we were loading up the U Haul. That meant that I had to finish up the details during the next 2 weeks and hope that everything went through. There was a lot of hurry up and waiting for the inspection and additional reviews by a sider and roofer. That made me anxious.

Anika’s Girl Scout troop got to tour the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory one day!

  

Then we got to celebrate Tegan’s 12th birthday! She was a good sport for going through all this change. Since Dad wasn’t with us, we met Gramma at the Wok for her birthday dinner and then had cheese cake at their house.

We did a lot of talking with Michael on the video chat while we were apart. He even made it to Tegan’s birthday! 

 

 

 

I took root beer floats to Tegan’s class the next day. They were testing on her birthday, so this was the best I could do to celebrate with her class. They were pretty happy.

On Thursday night I got to go out to dinner with my best church ladies from my small group! They were so sweet and we had a great evening. Oh how I will miss these dear friends! I wish I could pack them all up and bring them with me. Each has her struggles and each is strong in her special way. God is so good to let me know these friends!

The next night we had a sleepover birthday/good bye party for Tegan and her friends. The only furniture in the house was basically the wii/projector and that couch, but they didn’t mind. They had fun playing hide-and-seek all over the house.

On Saturday night I decided to have a fire to burn some receipts in my backyard fire bowl. We invited the neighbors over and had roasted marshmallows! It was great fun. Why didn’t I do that more often before we moved!

 

 

 

Mother’s Day

On Mother’s Day we went to my favorite spot up near Bellingham of course…fish and chips at the Bus and shopping in Fairhaven. Then we went to get coffee in the park by the water and looked for crabs!

 

 

  

On Tuesday morning I met a friend for breakfast and that turned into two friends and almost lunchtime! Then I went over to another restaurant and met my Sept 6 buddies! We all have birthday's on the same day. I actually am moving back to be with my very first Sept 6 buddy…my best friend from high school!

On Tuesday afternoon I was still trying to do Girl Scout stuff. I had the girls to our house to try to finish a project and then we went to Alfy’s for a pizza dinner celebration.

 

I will miss all these girls and all the fun stuff we got to do as Girl Scouts!

Adventures with my Adventure Friend

On Thursday morning I got to go kayaking with my adventure friend Jessica! We had so much fun touring up the water’s edge of the Puget Sound south of Bellingham. It was a beautiful day. We had a guide lead us and show us the ropes. It was exhausting, but worth it. We even saw some cute seals while we were out there.

 

 

   

Final Good Byes

Friday was the girls last day of school. I brought root beer floats in to Anika’s class that day for a good bye celebration. Then we got our last day of school pictures with the girl’s teachers.

 

That night Anika had her sleepover with her friends. We didn’t even have the couch anymore for that party!

 

Kelby had her best friend over that night too. It was very hard to see her leave for the last time. Let’s just say there were tears shed that day.

Tegan got to go to another friend’s birthday party that night so she got to see and say good bye to all her bestys too.

 

After that we went over to get our U Haul trailer and got busy loading up the last bits of stuff. There was really quite a bit left…and we stuffed that trailer full. George and Debbie came over and worked hard. Over the course of the week I sold a desk, fridge, couch, and rototiller. At last on Saturday a friend bought my kitchen table, so I was grateful to get all those things gone!

Heather had us over for dinner earlier that week, but she came over that afternoon and gathered up everything that wouldn’t fit in my cooler to pack and took it home to cook up. Then the family all gathered and brought side dishes for one last family dinner. It was a nice note to end on. We will miss them all so much!

 

 

 

When Riley left, there were some tears, but all the cousins gave encouragement and hugs.

 

On Sunday morning, we were all packed up and headed out with George and Debbie pulling my tent trailer.

We drove to Post Falls that night and stayed at a cheap hotel. The pool was good enough for a dip, but then we hit the sack.

The next day it was on to Bozeman! We stayed at nice hotel there and met up with Michael after he got out of work. The Outback Steakhouse next door hosted our happy reunion celebration dinner!

On Tuesday morning we checked out early and went over to check into our 593 square foot apartment! Yikes, we have a lot of stuff for that size of apartment! We met the movers at our storage unit and let them rummage through all our stuff to pick out what to bring over to the small home. They did a great job and I was grateful they could stay and help move us into the apartment too because we are upstairs!

By that evening we had beds set up and then it was a move in celebration dinner at Gramma and Grampa’s hotel of Pickle Barrel! We introduced them to the epic sandwich shop of Bozeman, MT. I think they liked it!

And the Rest of the Story…

On Wednesday Gramma and Grampa got to drive around the mountains near by and we met up with them for lunch with Michael at the campus Student Union Building.

 

That night they brought us dinner and we had our first dinner celebration in the apartment. It was like Thanksgiving! The feast was wonderful and the leftovers had me set for three more meals after they were gone!

We were sad when they left us, but we were thankful to find out they made it home safe and sound. They got home only an hour before the bridge in Mt.Vernon collapsed. Our poor friends back home are suffering through terrible traffic, but we are grateful no one was hurt in the collapse. A friend sent me this photo.

After unpacking and unpacking and organizing and returning things to storage, we had a home. It isn’t really too bad. We don’t have a lot of extra space, but we have made the most of it.

Here is the video tour of our new little place.

Now that I’m caught up with the big move, I’ll get back to new updates about the other fun stuff we get to do because we moved to Montana!