van –

I know that I have been away from my blog for a while, but I am trying to keep many plates spinning at the same time.

Since purchasing my new van in May (read that story here), I have put over 10,000 miles on my van. Considering I am a stay-at-home mom that does not work outside the home and can go days without leaving the house, that is a lot. Those miles consist of 4 trips to Alabama to help my dad with his rotator cuff and his surgery; 1 trip to the DC area to visit my sister / family vacation, 1 trip to Tennessee for AHG summer camp, and 2 trips to Florida to look for a new house. In the last 66 days I have only spent 23 days in my own bed.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that in July my dear sweet hubby was laid off from his job in North Carolina. You remember this job. The one that the company paid to move us across country for earlier this year. Only to lay him off less than a year later without warning. The positive note to all of this is that he was able to find a job quickly. However, it is in Florida. So we are in the midst of preparing for another move once we find a house. Two moves in one year is no fun!

While all of my belongings are in North Carolina, I am spending my days in a VERY SMALL motel room. Since we did not receive a relocation package with this job, and are thankful to have a job, the budget does not allow for much more. This means I am also homeschooling in the motel room while trying to keep a dog quiet. As my husband says “Have books, will travel”. This also means that I am without a kitchen. Currently I am living on meals that can be cooked in a slow-cooker, or microwaved, so a lot of convenience type foods. My morning are spent teaching and my afternoons and evenings house hunting.

I forget how much I abhor house hunting. I have spent countless hours riding around town with the realtor looking a house. I think I could write an entire post on the “joys” of house hunting and horrors that I have seen. I will sum it up by saying that realtors who write the house descriptions must have a very vivid imagination.

My goal is to find some time between all of this to write more, so please be patient with me. I will return soon.

I have to admit, I had a meltdown the other night. You know, one of those moments when nothing is going right and every little thing makes it worse. Well that was me. You can blame it on hormones, lack of sleep, being in pain from a re-occurring back problem. Whatever the cause I had one to many things go wrong and I did not want anymore.

As my hubby and I “talked” (or should I say I fussed and he patiently listened). I came to realize that I hate change. The move across country has been hard on me. I left all my friends, my volunteer positions, my support network, my comfort zone to move 5000 miles. To make it worse, I have to find new doctors, learn new roads, and find a new church. And do all of this while trying to keep a “happy” face for the kids who are also miserable.

I think the icing on the cake was dealing with new technology. You know about my adventures with the new laptop. But we all know that bad news comes in threes. So within 2 weeks, not only did I replace my laptop, but my phone died and I was in an accident that totaled my van.

The good news is no one was hurt. As my daddy always said “THINGS YOU CAN REPLACE, PEOPLE YOU CAN NOT”. I think I am more frustrated than anything. I loved my van. I had it for 9 years. It had 160,000 miles on it, drove great and the best part it was paid for. No for the joy of car shopping.

If you were not aware, April was National Stress Awareness Month. Since it is now May, that means I’m no longer stressed right?

Tag: van

Where did time go…

Stressed, I’m not STRESSED!