Last Days

I do miss the beach. It was my place of refuge those long (almost) two years in Portland. I thought the mountain would be where the quiet voice within would call me to, but it was always the ocean that I went.

There is a place here in Indiana  right near our home - Solaris Park it is called - that I have found to be a quiet refuge. It is about 3.5 miles of tangled trails all through the forest. I love the forests of the Midwest and East coast. While the Pacific Northwest forests demand your attention with their towering trees the quiet forests of the eastern part of the country are what I find comfort in.

Just as I had suspected, as distance created by time has allowed, I am finding that there are certain things that I do miss about living in the Pacific Northwest. I don't think that I would ever want to live there again, but there are some things that I will never find again anywhere else in this whole country. That is the beauty about being a nomad. You get to experience so very much.

There is a quietness about Indiana that I welcome and cherish. The farms that surround the area where I live captivate me, and I love when I drive around town and realize that I get to live here for now. I keep forgetting to take my camera with me to show you, but I will do so soon.

For now, I will show you some of our last days on the beach. Besides my birthday (which I need to grab those photos from Bob's camera because it was AMAZING!) these were the last times we spent at the beach.

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A Very Cool Little Story

In December of 2015, our family drove from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Olmsted Falls, Ohio to visit our families. We drove through NM, TX, OK, MO, IL, IN, and OH. 

Yesterday, I was on my way to run an errand when I drove over bridge that led to the exit for Highway 70. It was then that this thought dawned on me:

Highway 70 is the road we drove on to get from Indiana to Ohio before we connected with highway 71.  This means that two and a half years ago, our family, unbeknownst to us drove right by the exit that we would become our home in 2018. We were passing by the town that I could cry tears of joy upon receiving the news that Bob had gotten the Indy job. We were passing by the exit where we would settle down after two years of hard, hard times. 

How cool is that? 

Who knew that in order to get from happiness in New Mexico to happiness in Indiana we would have to take a curved road through Oregon? 

I am finding that life is full of really surprising and neat connections. Realizations like this make me feel that God truly is watching out for me. That I truly am not alone in this universe. 

Stories like this give me tingles up my spine. They are so, so cool. 

A Look At Our New House & How We Are Doing

I'm back!!!

So...this is what happiness feels like? It's been so long since I have felt this content. Since New Mexico to be exact. I LOVE being here right now. We live kinda out in the country kinda not. We are about a 5-10 minutes drive from l-e-g-i-t  country. I love it. I live in a development with friendly neighbors. I love it. I live in the the Midwest where people are warm, welcoming, friendly, happy people. I love it. Bob made fun of me because during the first couple of days we were here I would walk into a store and people would be so damn friendly I would tear up. Like friendly for no other reason than to be friendly. Just thinking about the friendly people here makes me tear up. I love it.

I live in a place where the preferred method of transportation is a pickup truck. I freaking love it! I have only seen one Mercedes and two BMW's since moving here three weeks ago. I love it! I am so glad that we moved to this town. We thought, briefly, about moving to the Northeast portion of Indy, and after doing some research I realized it was the "well-to-do" part of the city - and I wanted nothing to do with that. We drove up to one of those towns to do some shopping at my beloved Ikea and I am SOOOOOO glad I listened to my gut about not living in that area because the vibe (not so much at Ikea, but at a restaurant we had lunch at) was stuck up. It was like a mini NW Portland. There was a woman with her cardigan wrapped around her neck with her little tennis skirt on who spoke to a server with such contempt and rudeness that I wanted to punch her in the freaking face. Now, I know what you might be thinking - how do you she lived in said town? I don't, but the vibe there just wreaked of people like her and  I've lived that life once and H-A-T-E-D it. So....when I see that a good portion of the population where I am (and the surrounding small towns) are Ford/Chevy truck driving, middle class, hard-working, regular people it makes me breath a sigh of relief.

Dude! I live in an area where the majority of the roads don't have names other than 'county road 950'. How cool is that?! I love it. The fact that I live in such a rural area that it is 'county road this and county road that' is amazing!!!

I haven't been stuck in traffic at all! I can go to the store/park/school and not have to worry about bumper to bumper stopped traffic. I can actually go the speed limit on a regular basis.

I live in a place where the neighbors invite you over for a cookout on Saturday night. And where another neighbor upon hearing that we had a high school aged son who played soccer brought over all of the contact information for the coach as well as club information just in case we hadn't gotten to that yet.

I live in the good 'ole Midwest. Hell, yes!

I was so scared that I would never feel at home again somewhere after leaving New Mexico. I was so scared that I would feel everywhere the way I felt about living in Portland. Thank God that this is not the case. (Now, don't get me wrong. If Bob ever had the chance to move back to Las Cruces I would buy a plane ticket down there faster than you can say, 'Go'. New Mexico is where my heart is, BUT living in Indiana is exactly where I need to be right now. I am happy to be here.)

Our home is pretty neat too. When we first got here one of the agents from the rental company met us here to give us the keys and do a walk through of the house. The house was disgusting when we got here. It was filthy. The cabinets had a plastic coating on them that was peeling and cracked. They looked awful. Instead of using the same color on the walls to patch wall decorations the rental company repair people used a different color, so in most of the rooms in the house the walls were two tone. I was pissed. And the woman knew it. I was so embarrassed for them that this is how they choose to do business. (And its a far cry from the pictures they used to advertise the house on-line.) It's a good thing I hadn't walk through the house prior to renting it because I wouldn't have chosen this house based on how dirty it was. It was awful. Bob was amazing about the whole thing though and kept me from losing my mind. He matched the paint at Lowe's and got to work fixing the walls. I spent the better part of three days scrubbing every part of the house down. Andy cleaned the carpets for us. We did some yard work by mulching, planting grass and flowers, and weeding. With all of our spit and grit our home looks good. (I even pealed all of that plastic junk off of the cabinets. I just couldn't stand it.  I plan on painting them white. The rental company will end up thanking me.)

The kids are all adjusting well. Josh just started soccer yesterday. He loves it. The kids were friendly to him and he was just as shocked as I was walking around in the stores those first few days. Sarah does miss Sky View very much, but is looking forward to attending the Indiana School for the Blind on either a part time or full time basis. (Details to come in the next week or so as we hammer out the last bits of the plan.) Elizabeth has met a nice girl down the street. She has the same exact birthday as Elizabeth. Her mom is a school teacher for a local elementary school. Andy is settling in slowly. He has asked for a little bit of time before he goes and gets another part time job. He misses the mountains of the west. Bob is liking his new job. I am happy that he is under good leadership once again. I know that he will do well and excel in this position just as he has in every position he has held with his current employer. He likes having his own house again with his own yard. So does Lily. She is very content here. Moose wasn't too sure about this place at first, but has since warmed up to it. We let him outside in the backyard where he chases bugs and balls.

We looked into several different towns before choosing Camby. We looked at a bunch of different houses on line. So many that we thought we were going to go crazy. In the end we settled for this one. It is 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. It is 3100 square feet - which I know I said I would never live in a big house again, but I also never thought I would live this close to my family again. I knew that we would need a bigger house since we would only be about 5 hours away from family/friends, and boy was I right. My sister, brother-in-law and their 4 kiddos came for the weekend and it was so nice to have the extra space. The kids were all able to play and weren't under foot. (Plus, to be honest with you, I think the rental company lied size. I don't think this house is really that big. Our house in New Mexico was around that size and it seemed much larger than this one.)

Here are some pics of our house:

Well, these aren't of the house, but sunflowers are my favorite flower, so what the heck why not post a picture of some?

Backyard

Backyard

Living room view from the back door. 

Living room view from the opposite side. 

School room/ office

View from the front door. 

New Mexico representing! 

Eat in kitchen/dining room.

View from the opposite side. 

See what I mean about the cabinets? The white cabinets above the stove already had their plastic peeled and painted. 

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. These are two of my favorite pictures as they are of one of my most sacred placed in all this world: Soledad Canyon. 

I wonder where Moose is?

Our bedroom. We don't usually take the master bedroom because don't have a need for it. The boys/girls have a bigger need for it, so we almost always give it to them. 

This is Josh's room. Clean lines/minimal furniture/ just the basics. He is a super neat and organized kiddo. 

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This is our loft space. We aren't sure what we want to do with it yet, so it is pretty bare. 

And this is Andy's room. God love him. Cannot throw anything away like ever because you just never know when you might need something. 

He isn't finished putting his things away as you can see...he will have that all done by Friday. I have no idea where he is going to put the rest of that stuff, but that is why God invented doors. I can just shut his and his chaos disappears. 

This is about 1/3 of the master closet. The girls changed it into a playroom for themselves. 

Girls bathroom with soaking tub - just like at their Aunt Julie's.

Elizabeth's side of the room. 

Sarah's side of the room. 

View from the doorway. 

Front of the house. 

There is a half bath on the first floor, another full bath on the second floor, and the laundry room that I did not know you. You'll have to swing by the house for a visit to see those!