God is Good, All the Time!

I want to blog.  But i am so full of words that i don't know where to start.  So much has happened and changed.  So many ways God has stepped in a made things smooth, made things easier or just made a way, that i can't even begin to catalog them.

It is getting colder here, and we are all just waiting for that first glimpse of our first snow.  All the locals say it usually happens before halloween.

Every morning God greets us out of the dining room window with some of his most beautiful creatures: Pheasant and deer.  We have seen so many of them they cease to completely fascinate me anymore.

My days are all in a jumble as we try to get used to my husband's shift work.  He is settling in and sleeping well after his night shifts, but i still forget if today is tuesday or friday.  But i actually think it is thursday :)

I am enjoying having the bed to myself every couple of weeks, as i sleep deeper without my dear wiggly husband, but i am glad it is just for a few nights at a time.

We are looking forward to my husband's first full week off, a perk we are excited that he will be getting once a month. 

I have planned a gigantic shopping list in prepartion for the coming winter and we are looking ahead to Christmas and Thanksgiving, not to mention our little girl's second birthday.  It will be a Princess Cinderella theme, complete with a doll cake and i am sure a tiara :)  She loves princesses and anything girly: tea parties, pink, dress up, jewelry, pink, perfume, hair pretties, pink, shoes, pink, did i mention pink?!?

We are settling in at our new church and i am feeling ready to dig a bit deeper, to start going to a bible study, a sunday school, maybe a MOPS meeting, to start to really get to know some other mom's and families.

I am resting up and resting up and resting up and still don't feel caught up on my rest.  But as my wise mother said, it took me a year to get this tired, you have to figure it will take more then a couple of weeks for me to get un-tired.  If that is even possible :)

We are so enjoying seeing Michael more, and for more days in a row then when we were in Idaho.  One good thing about not knowing anyone is we are really the only friends we have.  Which means more time spent together anyway :)

I have found that i need Vaseline to survive down here.  Several weeks after we moved i started getting sinus pressure and pain.  My MIL told me she had the same problem and that she figured it was because the wind blows so much here and was drying out her nose.  So she started putting vaseline in her nose and Voila!  Problem gone.  So i tried it and it actually has worked!  But it still seems weird.  And i am wondering how long i have to live here before i can quit doing this.......

We are just basking in God's goodness and faithfulness and generosity!  We are so thankful for our new vehicle and for the job that God has given Michael so that we can pay for this new vehicle!  I am just marveling at all the ways He is SO GOOD!  It seems weird that 1000 miles away from the only home i have ever known that i can be so happy, maybe even happier then i was before we moved.  And i am amazed at how God as changed my heart through all of this.  Catching yourself leaning on God FIRST when something comes your way, rather then worrying and fretting, trying to figure it out yourself and THEN going to God, is such an amazing development in my life.  And it has enabled me to truly RELAX!  No matter what comes our way, God knew it was coming and He has a plan.  All we have to do is TRUST that He has a plan and wait for His leading.  A whole lot easier then trying to figure it out yourself and worrying.

See?  I told you i have a lot of words!  My heart is so very very full. And I am just so very thankful.  For my family and most of all for God's provisions. 

God is good, all the time

Blessed Beyond Belief

When we started praying about the possibility of moving far away it was scary.  We were both overwhelmed at the possibilities and all of the things that would need to be taken care of and accomplished to make it happen.  So we just started laying it all out before the Lord.  Praying that He would start working on all the little details, since he knew what was coming and we didn't.  We prayed and believed and knew he would carry us through no matter what happened.

But i can say that seeing it happen before your very eyes is more amazing then you can imagine!  We knew He was guiding us and working out the details, but actually watching Him doing it and seeing the fruits of His loving labors come out in our lives is so amazing i can't even put words to it!

Yes, moving so far away was hard.  Not only logistically and financially, but it was hard leaving our families and all we ever have known.  But God just orchestrated all of the little details so beautifully, that it really couldn't have gone any smoother!

Against all odds we:

1. Cleaned out our entire house, painted the downstairs and packed all of our stuff to move in less then a week
2. God sent us wonderful renters in the form of FAMILY before we even had time to start wondering what to do with our house
3. God sent lots of friends and family in the form of HELP to make possible all of the above!
4. God sent us finances, enabling us to pay for all the gas/food/final bills/opening expenses that come with driving 1100 miles cross country with a pickup and trailer, a car, three adults and one child and leaving behind one house, numerous personal possessions, motor parts and tools, and one sad dog.
5. God kept us safe on said long drive and not only that, provided positive attitudes, lower gas prices and one happy little girl who entertained herself and even slept solid in a strange hotel room serenaded by daddy and nana's snores
6. God got Michael to his mandatory orientation with minutes to spare (thanks to our exhaustion and having to get a 2 year old up at 6:30 the morning after an 1100 mile trip) and let him find a good friend right off the bat!
7. He had provided in SO many ways with Michael's job!  Michael only works 16 days out of every month, he gets paid every week, gets overtime every week, won't get laid off this winter, is in a department where he is doing things he already knew how to do from his city job, likes the guys on his crew a lot and hopefully will get benefits soon!
8. God provided a willing bank and someone selling nearly the exact pickup we wanted, and worked the timing so that now we have a good 4x4 vehicle before it starts snowing in a month or two.  Now there should be no problems/worries about Michael getting to work (he has a 50 mile drive one way) or me and Gwen getting to Walmart (also about a 65 mile drive)
9. He has provided us a spacious and relaxing place to live until we can get our ducks in a row.  Not only is it helping us, it is helping them as well as they are gone a lot and it is a relief to not have to worry about leaving their house empty so much.
10. God has provided us with a very warm and welcoming church that is already becoming family and a source of friendships for all of us.  I am excited to see what else God will be doing in that area.
11. Most of all, God has provided such a sense of peace and contentment since the day we got here.  I am so HAPPY where we are at and i can't even really explain it or pin it on one thing.  It is the peace and joy that comes only from God.

So to put it shortly, life has been beautiful for us, here in ND.  We are starting to really feel settled in and loving all the family time we get to have together, just us three.  Please keep praying for us, as I am sure Satan is not happy with how strongly we are leaning on God and following His will for our lives.  But the best part is, i know no matter what happens, no matter what may come, God always KNOWS and He will be there beside us, helping and guiding us through.

To Catch You Up

Well, we made it!  All the long 17 hour drive to Beulah, ND.  It was a shaky start though.  The night before we were to leave my husband and some of his friends went outside at 10pm to load our ramcharger onto the tow dolly.  It is like a little trailer you just put the front two wheels on. 

Well of course, it didn't fit.  It was too wide.  So we called the 1-800 number and found out we could rent a trailer but they didn't open until 9am the next morning.  So there went half of our traveling day.  Once we got the trailer the next morning and loaded everything on it we were leaving at 10 in the morning!  As we got on the freeway i glanced back and my husbands pickup was being tossed around by the trailer with the ramcharger on back.  It was swaying so badly i thought i was going to have a heartattack!

Thankfully no one was hurt and we all got off the freeway safely.  We thought we would have to turn around and unpack our ram charger (which was full to the roof with all of our stuff) and leave it home and start the next day!  But thankfully again, God stepped in and we tried the ramcharger on the trailer a couple different ways and found one that worked!  Thank you LORD!

We were on the way again, and God took such good care of us for the rest of the trip.  Gwen was a perfect angel and played by herself in the back seat, reading books and singing along with the radio.  We had no flat tires and nothing flew out of the pickup or the ramcharger.  We stayed the night in Billings and got to our new home the next day in the afternoon. 


We had a busy first day too.  Hubby had an orientation for work at 9am the next morning in Bismarck (an hour away) so we got up early and planned to get all of our shopping and stuff done that day.  Unfortunately we could not get our licenses switched or new plates for our vehicles as we needed a ridiculous amount of paperwork, which we didn't have with us that day.  So we had to go back to Bismarck again that friday (which we soon found out is impossible to not be an all day trip) 

We are finally feeling all settled in though and can find our socks and our checkbook :)  I feel organized and Gwen and i are getting a little routine down.  Michael is starting his first full day at work on the night shift this sunday night.  He will be working a split shift: several nights of work, followed by several days off, followed by several days of work, etc.  He will be working in a department called dewatering but he will not be under ground as they are mostly all pit mines and such.  We are finding we will need a new vehicle as the winters here would most likely kill our poor old cars (our maim our fuel budget till it is unrecognizable!)  The only bummer is Michael's drive to work is an hour one way, so his 12 hour days will be 14 with his commute.

But we are so thankful for how God has just seen to all the little details and everything is working out.  We are all happy and healthy and feeling well adjusted.  We have a church we are visiting and several more we might try out before we settle into a church family.  We live with family and have a very comfortable house to come home to.  We are happy and oh so thankful!  God has been good to us and faithful in showing us His plan for us and providing our family a way to a better life.  Gwen and I have been enjoying each other's company immensly and it is so wonderful to get to spend my whole day with her :)  I leave you with a picture catch up

Wearing the offering bucket at the Family Fair and Round Up in Homedale

Riding "eehee's" with cousin Erin

Riding horses with Aunt Val

Testing out the water fountain at one of our last family BBQ's

What other travelers saw on their way to North Dakota.  We were LOADED!

Running through the leaves in Bismarck as mommy and daddy waited in line for  an hour and a half to get our licenses

Konked out after a busy day in Bismarck

Running on the porch

Chilling on mommy and daddy's bed.  One of her new favorite spots