Since Brent was asked to start his new job right away, the whole family packed what we could in suitcases and took off for Las Vegas to look for housing. Luckily, our truck lease was up, so we turned it in before we left Michigan and got another one once we arrived in Vegas.....tada...instant transportation.
We really couldn't find any housing we wanted to afford while paying a house mortgage in Michigan, so Amy and the kids ended up with Grandma in St. George while Dad lived with some good friends in Vegas and started his new job.
The family was joyfully reunited every Friday night (think of lots of happy little girls, an even happier dad, and a relieved mom). We spent the weekends hanging out and playing, and then tearfully seperate again Sunday evening. This went on for several weeks before dad finally convenciened mom that the whole family could live in the one bedroom room at our friends house. This lasted for another couple of weeks before mom was ready to return to Grandma's house before wearing out her welcome.
At about this time, we received the wonderful news that we had sold our house. It only took 5 weeks to sell which is REALLY good considering Michigan's current economy. We feel that our prayers were answered. While we settled for a lower sell price than we wanted and we ended up having to replace the furnace, we are very thankful that we had a great buyer and that we were able to close on schedule.
Meanwhile, our other prayers were answered as we found a great temporary house through friends in Vegas. The house is perfect for our family and it has a very flexible lease that will allow us time to look for a new permanent house for our family.
So back to Michigan we went to pack and move to Vegas. It is amazing how much stuff one family can collect and not really need. We had successfully lived two months out of 7 suitcases. Who needs another 9000 pounds of household goods (except of course the power tools....can't do without those)?
Brent had the brilliant idea of packing and moving ourselves to save some money. And as usually, he under estimated the amount of time it would take to pack. It was a good thing his boss gave him an extra day to get everything done....which we did thanks to the great friends and neighbors we will miss.Our trailer arrived late Thursday, and by noon on Saturday, it was loaded and ready to go. We then got back on the plane and headed back to Vegas...our new hometown, where we once again lived with friends until our trailer arrived a week later.
Again, thanks to friends and church members, the trailer was empty in about 4 hours and we had successfully completed our move..... and we even managed not to damage too many things.
The last week has been one of unpacking some boxes and piling others (who wants to unpack old engineering books just so they can be packed again in a few months). Of course the toys, camping gear, computer, and tools all had to be unpacked!
We are now fully enjoying our new home. There are actually 3 bathrooms (yea, no more stepping on toys while showering or stubbing toes on step stools when washing your hands) and our master bedroom is 3 times as big as our last bedroom. I think our new closet is as big as our last bedroom...we simply do not have enough clothes to fill it. (Amy said she would take care of that!) Although the house is nice on the inside we really miss our large yard with grass in Michigan. The new house has a very small yard with shrubs and rock. They call it "Desert Landscaping", we just call it Desert.
We are very thankful for the blessings we have received. While the last few months have been a challenge, we recongnize that they could have been much harder.
We hope everyone is well and would love to hear from you.
