Here's What's Happening in Our Neck of the Woods

The Gilley's have upped and flown out of the Smidt's Nest and landed in their own home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where we have set up a new nest :)  Yes, that's right.  Shawn landed himself a job way up in the panhandle of Idaho.  It's gonna get cold here soon, but right now it's sunny and the air is clear, crisp and clean and we are counting our blessings that Shawn has finally secured full-time employment.  It was not an easy Summer for us (or for my parents as they shared their house with our busy {and LOUD} family) but it was one of those "what-doesn't-kill-you-makes-you-stronger" Summers.  After 5 months of unemployment (with NO severance and NO unemployment money able to be collected) we fell to our knees in gratitude when Shawn  finally received a new job offer.  We had prayed and prayed.  Our extended families prayed and prayed, our friends as well.  Our names were put on prayer rolls and people who we didn't even know were praying for us.  We probably couldn't have survived without the prayers.  If I'm being totally honest, I didn't know if I could survive at all.  I was hit really hard with some heavy emotions as we were left hurt and confused.  I don't think I did a very good job of being a  rock for anyone during that time.  But here we are, a new chapter is beginning and we have turned a corner.  I am so thankful for money that was given to us by family members so that we could continue to pay most of our bills.  I am so thankful for food that was shared, for beds that were used, and for the time and space of my parents while we lived with them for awhile.  I'm thankful for the babysitting my family did so that I could substitute teach a few times and so that Shawn and I could get some wonderful date-nights in! I'm thankful for friends and family who texted me, called me, face-timed me, skyped me, emailed me, etc. to "check-in" and offer love and support.  I'm thankful for the good people in my life who offered me that foundation to get us through.  I constantly worried about our fate with our two children and I just couldn't stop the extreme stress I had from creeping in.  I am still fearful that this won't work out.  I pray for strength everyday to let me live in the moment and not worry so much.  "Life is to be lived" and so I am letting it all run it's course and trying to stay optimistic everyday.  It's all about my attitude.  It's just hard to let yourself stay positive when the thought of unemployment brings me real fear still.  And it might be that way for awhile.  But let's just keep our fingers crossed that it won't happen again.  We are already too much in debt to let it happen again.  After 2 moves (U-hauls are NOT cheap- neither is the gas to fill them) we definitely wracked up some crazy amounts of debt.  Let's hope that a year from now we can say it's been paid off!

So now that the serious stuff is out of the way (sorry for getting a little heavy there) I'll re-cap the last 9 days!  Only 9 days? It feels like much longer, geez! 

Friday October 4th we spent the day packing up my parent's house (we accumulated a lot of stuff there! Sorry Mom!) and loaded up our 2 cars.  Saturday the 5th we relied on the Howard's, the Baumgartner's, and Papa to help us empty our storage unit and load up our ginormous U-Haul.  Meanwhile, Ninny made oh-so-yummy Pizza (with a bon-voyage fire-pit/s'mores session for Lucy to follow).  Sunday the 6th, I woke up at 4am to make sure I was on the road with the babies at 4:30am (they aren't good road trippers so it was important to start off at a time that they'd sleep a lot) to make the 7 hour drive up to CDA.  Shawn followed in the U-haul. Monday the 7th we once again relied on family (Tim, Kevin and John Smidt helped move boxes while Janet sent over a delicious dinner in a cute picnic basket.  Heather and Jason Ball came to help unload too and clean {even though Jason has a broken foot!!} and also bring some amazing smoked meats for another dinner) and Shawn and I spent hours and hours unpacking, cleaning and breaking down boxes.  All day every day for the 6 days following the final unload, that's all I did.  Unpack and clean, unpack and clean.  Oh yeah, and take care of the girls once in awhile....

And now here we are in our own home- back to my old stomping grounds.  A city I lived in for 10 years but never, ever thought I'd move back to; yet here I am!  Shawn has started work and even though it's only been a few days- he LOVES his job.  He is the CFO of a start-up company called MyFunLife.  It will allow us to travel occasionally and he loves his title- I will love his title once the company is up and running and our paychecks are a little bigger- wink, wink.  The company is still new, but it has huge potential to grow.  They just opened a branch of it down in the Dominican Republic last month and they are going to London in 2 weeks to have a conference there as well. Too bad Shawn can't go to London, but eventually, we will be able to enjoy some travel benefits :)  Plus his commute is a whole 5 minute drive.  HOW CONVENIENT!  When he says he's on his way home, I no longer have to wait 30-40 minutes to see him! I am PROUD of him for landing a great job and SO excited for him.  He loves being back at work providing for his family and I am loving the whole "homemaker" thing again.  5 months of a different schedule threw me for a loop!  I didn't know what to do with myself most days!

Anyway, the girls each have their own rooms (as soon as we can buy Lucy a twin mattress they will share a room and we will then have a guest room), Shawn and I each have our own closets (MY FAVORITE THING EVER) and we have a big fenced back yard with a couple mature trees and grass to run around in.  I have a cute white front porch and my kitchen actually has drawers, so that's really nice :)  We literally JUST got a new furnace installed (this morning) and the house is toasty warm- combined with my Fall scentsy's and wall flowers I was finally able to plug in, it feels like a perfect Fall day.  And much to my delight, we have an extra bathroom, I have 3 linen closets AND a big under-the-stairs closet where I can keep all of our holiday decorations stored!  There is a nice park 2 blocks away and a couple other ones within a mile of here.  We live 1.1 miles from Costco (my Happy Place) and really close to all other convenient stores- Target anyone!?!  I love our location.  The best part is that I live close to my Nana and Pops Smidt again.  What is better than that?!

Well, I must go.  I had a lot to write about and now I need to get back to my Chitlins.  They've been so neglected this past week but still so good!  I think they just love all of their toys that they got back.  Lucy's been in heaven- who needs Christmas when we had boxes of toys that she forgot about?! Haha!

Once again- thank you to EVERYONE who helped the Gilley's through the Summer.  WE LOVE YOU!

Lucy: exploring her new back yard and playing with some of her old toys....and not happy that I wanted to take a picture of her :)