WARNING: Long post ahead!
Life is full of surprises, but this year we have had more than our fair share. One thing you must know about me (if you don't already) is that I am a very planned person. To a fault, really. I want to know what is going to happen every minute of every day...and I want it on the calendar months in advance. It's a disease, I think. I've learned to embrace it, and it makes me good at many things, but it can be a nuisance too. My husband never wants to surprise me with any special plans because he's afraid that it will upset something I've already planned. I sometimes worry that I'm not a good Mommy because I'm not spontaneous enough with the kids, easily going with the flow. I can get very upset when plans are disrupted. It's something I'm working on.
Ok, so now you have more than you wanted of a description of me. Back to where I started.......
This year has been crazy. I've been married to Tom for almost 10 years and in that time, he has never worked out of town that I can remember. Starting in March of this year, he had a few weeks of working the night shift for a job they landed. It was a crazy few weeks of him being home during the day sleeping and gone through the night working. I did not like it at all. Our family schedule was thrown out the window and I got a taste of single parenting. Then in April, they landed a job in eastern WA. About a 7 hour drive. Tom went over off and on for 2 months, and when he did he was gone from Sunday to Friday night. He was rarely gone two weeks in a row, but it did happen a few times. During this time, they also started a job in California. The plan was that he would only go down every few weeks for 1-2 days to check in on the job. Well, that worked well at first. We had a great July of him being home and a normal schedule. Then toward the end of July, he broke the news that he was going to have to be going down to the California job more often. "How often?" was my question. "Every week until the job is over." was the response. ugh. Major pity party on my end! :/ The job will last until the end of the year, possibly even into January. I'm praying it's over in November. Only time will tell. At first, Tom would fly down to the job on Sunday and back on Thursday nights....giving us a few days of the weekend together. But that gets expensive fast and was really tough on him working 15 hour days and then traveling home for a few hours of family time. So, he asked me to move to California til the job was over. I didn't hesitate in saying, "NO". I am a homebody, I don't like traveling for long periods of time...especially with the kids. They need their beds, routine, etc. (so do I!) And besides, that did not fit into my plans. (remember, I've got our entire year planned out already) But after a few weeks to think it over, I did agree to coming down for an extended time. I figured it was worth the sacrifice to be together as a family.....single parenting was getting old fast. I actually started getting excited about our little adventure. You see, I've really been working on changing that whole 'planned personality' thing about myself. Not that I don't want to be a planner, I just want to be more adventurous. I want to be 'fun' for my kids AND my husbands sake. I want to learn to go with the flow a little more when surprises pop up, rather than getting bent out of shape over them. SO, this has been on my mind since the beginning of this year......and then all of these things started happening. You think the Lord maybe heard my prayers? Wow, what a response! And an opportunity. 4-5 weeks is what I agreed to and that brings us to the present. Here we are, living in California........
We drove down over the weekend and arrived Sunday night. Tom started back to work Monday morning, so it's been the kids and I during the day, getting settled, establishing a routine, etc. They started preschool this week, which has given us something to do. We've enjoyed our family time in the evenings, something we've been without for a long time it seems. AND the best part, we got to attend church together as a family last night. First mid week service we've been to as a family in a pretty long time. It felt wonderful!
So a bit about where we are staying. We are in a town called Alameda, right across the bay from SF. We had looked into renting a house for the time we were here, but could not find the right thing (a place furnished, that would rent for only a month) So we actually ended up in a hotel. It's an extended stay type of place, 1 bedroom, full kitchen, etc. It's okay.....older furnishings and all, but livable. You can't really afford the ritz when you are paying for a month of hotel. yikes! The best part about it, and the reason we chose it, is LOCATION. It is right across the street from a shopping center: Safeway, Trader Joe's, Panera, Walgreens, Ross, TJ Maxx, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and a whole bunch of other stores and restaurants. So I can walk across the street and buy groceries, etc. And the beach is also right across the street. It's working out well.
I will keep updating throughout our month here. There will be lots of pics to come and hopefully some fun stories of our 'adventure'! We hit Disneyland next weekend, so we are all really excited about that! We also are going to be involved in a fall photo shoot in a few weeks....more to come on that later. I'd say things are off to a good start and I'm quickly learning to 'go with the flow' :)
