Roadtrip @ MindSay

I was reading Noelle67's blog about her road trip from Buffalo to Maryland and I laughed out loud. It made me remember a road trip we took with our two children, when they were 2 1/2  and 5, from Nebraska to North Miami Beach at Christmas (1650 miles). It was 1974 and...well...it was 1974.

This photo was taken at Disneyworld. It was just before we went back to the hotel after a long day. We spent a week enjoying the central Florida attractions and a week with my parents in North Miami Beach. My parents were in the height of their retirement enjoyment years, as we are now. The day that picture was taken was really something.

Well, our family is officially in Arizona and settled in for the most part despite pitfalls and delays along the way.

Aaron had been looking for a permanent position that doesn't require traveling for some time. He waited for the right opportunity amidst many undesirable offers, but it took almost a year before a company in Scottsdale, AZ found his resume and made contact with him. They needed his specific skills set and had been looking for over a year to find the right person. This amazing opportunity came during the first week in December '06. They needed Aaron to begin work on January 3, 2007. What stood out in my mind from the very beginning was the strong answer that I received to my prayers about the decision Aaron needed to make about accepting this job and moving our family. I knew this is what the Lord had been preparing for us that long year Aaron was job searching. In addition to this good feeling I had, I clearly felt the spirit reveal to me that this wasn't going to be easy. Strangely, I wasn't afraid of this warning. Too many times in my life I've seen how my trials have prepared me for wonderful things. And, because of the calming affirmative answer I received in regard to Aaron accepting this position I knew that it would be worth it in the end.

Not getting more specific information regarding why it wouldn't be easy, I tried to prepare us for what I could predict. We made plans, tied up loose ends, asked for help from our fellow church members and friends, made preparations to put the house on the market, made a schedule that we could follow that would prepare us for move out day and leave us time to celebrate Christmas with our families, tried to prepared the boys for the changes they would face, prepared our car for the roadtrip, picked up a trip-tik, planned an easy going 5 day trip with plenty of stops, and made our hotel reservations.

In addition to all that needed to be done, Aaron needed to work up until just before Christmas and I was 7 months pregnant with two little boys to take care of. All of this seemed to me to be why the Lord wanted me to know this wouldn't be easy.

The packing and moving process was riddled with trials for us.  Aiden got the stomach flu on Christmas day, Aaron had it the worst the following day (the first day of packing), I had it the day after that pretty bad (the second day of packing) which wiped me out for two days.  Somehow, Aaron after having the flu worse than any of us bounced right back the next day and helped to orchestrate and carry out the near impossible tasks of getting us ready for the road in just 4 days.  This could only be done with the help of the many members of the church that came to help us:  There is no way we could have made it out of town in time without their help. THANK YOU TO ALL OF THEM!

So, in the four days after Christmas we headed out of Toledo towards Arizona, hoping we were all finished with the flu and ready for a relaxing 5 day road trip across the country.  And relaxing it was for the first few days.  We drove 6 hours a day, stopping about every 2 hours as needed.  The boys did really well (thanks to a dvd player in the car).  Then, on New Year's day, we came to an understanding of why we needed to suffer delays before we left Toledo.  We had just missed a horrendous winter storm and by the end of the 3rd day of our trip we caught up to the aftermath.  We had thankfully made hotel reservations for our trip in advance and on our 3rd night stay we were in Amarillo, TX.  Once we arrived it became quite clear to us that this storm had  done much damage to the cities and towns further west.  While Aaron was checking in to our hotel, travelers were trying to find a place to stay in Amarillo because I-40 westbound was closed.  Our hotel was booked along with most of the other hotels in the area.  We settled into our room thankful that we had missed being caught on I-40 during the storm by one day and were safe and warm that night.  The next morning, they opened I-40 and we were on our way.  Unfortunately, this storm began as an ice storm, then left at least several inches of snow on the ground as it went it's course.  We saw downed power lines all along the freeway with emergency vehicles struggling to restore power to the cities and towns affected.  As we were in stop and go traffic heading towards Santa Rosa, TX we saw snowmen built all along the roadside by the travelers that were stranded there during the storm. People decorated their snowmen with their own sunglasses, gloves, and scarves.  There were foot tracks all over the landscape and an occasional snow fort guarded by the snowmen by the road.

We attempted to make a pit stop in Santa Rosa, but found that all of the businesses were closed probably due to lack of power.  There was no lack of travelers driving up and down the city streets doing what we had just done, hoping someplace would be open for lunch.  The local gas stations were packed and seemed to be at least selling gas.  We headed back on the road hoping for better luck further along the trip.

We met up with stop and go traffic several times as we slowly moved west.  The snow became deeper and deeper along the roadside as we went.  The roads were pretty well clear, but traffic was still slow or not moving at all.  We finally found a large rest stop that had power and along with many travelers we packed into the parking lot amidst the emergency vehicles trying to dig out the rest stop.  As we waited for our food at the restaurant, we realized we had caught up to the road clearing project.  It was at this exit that the emergency vehicles were working to clear the road and causing the traffic backups.  Semi trucks were constantly slipping and getting stuck, needing the attention of the emergency crews as well.  Considering all of the people stuck there, I was relieved there was still food at the restaurant, even though they forgot our order and an hour later
brought cold food to our table.  By that point it was food in our bellies and we didn't have to fill up on the stash of fruit snacks and graham crackers we had in the car.  We waited around for the roads to clear, stopped to get gas, took what slim pickings were left at the carryout for food just in case we were stranded further down the road, and headed out.  It didn't take long to make it to our next stop in Gallup, NM after what was supposed to be only 6 hours on the road turned into 12 hours on the road instead.  The boys were so patient and only became upset during the last hour of the trip that day.

The next day was a breeze as we left the snow behind us and had only a 4 hour drive to Scottsdale, AZ.  Once there, Aaron started his new job the next day and we began to make arrangements for our things to arrive here in Anthem.  The rest was smooth going.

This whole experience has taught us that even though very good things don't come easy, there is a reason for our trials, even if we don't ever understand why.  We were blessed with an understand of why we were delayed this time.  The Lord watched over us this entire trip and we're so grateful that we made it alright.

The Phoenix area is gorgeous right now.  It's crazy to see tall cactus scattered throughout the landscape and the red mountains are just breathtaking.

Anthem is a great city.  The first residential development built here was about 6 years ago amongst the small handful of ranches scattered about the hillside.  Despite being recently developed, the city is booming.  There's an amazing amount of shopping options very close by, along with a neat community center that we haven't had a chance to visit yet.

Our ward has been split three times in the about six years here.  I don't doubt another building will be in the works soon because members are constantly filtering in and there is a nice empty plot of land the church owns only a few minutes drive from our neighborhood.

On Sunday, we arrived in our new bishop's office with another new family to the ward.  This bishopric has new arrivals down to a science and had a welcome packet for each of us to fill out and bring back including the ward directory and a "Getting To Know You" packet to initiate the transfer of our records and help the ward leaders know more about us and our past callings.

Our neighbors are very friendly and visited us bringing pictures from all the neighborhood gatherings that go on here.  There are lots of kids that are Alex and Aiden's ages, along with plenty of babysitting age youth :-).

The weather has been really nice.  With daytime highs in the low 60's, it feels warmer in the sunshine and cool in the shade.  On our move in day it rained in the morning and for about an hour before they started unloading the truck in the afternoon.  It was neat to experience this rare event soon after we arrived.

That's all for now.  --Alicia

I just got back from spending a few days in Oklahoma visiting my husband who is working hard.

 

These were a few of the interesting things that I saw on the way home to Kansas today.

 

Hot, warm and cold water storage tanks.

 

Some Zonkeys - half zebra, half donkey.

 

Some statues made of various things in someone's yard.

 

It's good to be home even though I loved spending a few days with my husband.

 

 

I'm so excited to end my shift since we're going ahead on a roadtrip!  Lipa, Batanggas here we come!

 

I'd like to spend the weekend at the 'The Farm, San Benito'. It's actually a holistic center/resort located at the heart of Lipa. Not now though, since we're pressed for time. One of these days, I guess.  From there, we might go straight to work.

 

We'll be needing lots of caffeine later...

Eyy lol

Well Im tipping between depression and happyness right now.... and for awhile I've been considering to see a school counselor...but I really dont want to if my parents have to sign anything having to do with it because involving them in this will complicate everything....I want to look into...but i have to say im kinda scared...anyone have any suggestions?

Ok so im looking around on this site www.snopes.com and I just read this

"Suicides occur far more often than we would care to consider. This tragedy visits the homes of both the wealthy and the poor — it makes no distinctions, and fame, power, and influence are no magic talismans that can fend off this threat to one's nearest and dearest. Suicides take place in all manner of homes and in all manner of families"

Which i find is kinda interesting, and very true...

 

Anyways I wanna say congrats to my girl Stefani for making the competative cheerleading team :D Haha slushies on me today eh? "as a good icon once said" :P lol eh stef?

 

haha today at lunch, me, tor, stef, and karla had an argument about this roadtrip we're planning to do during the summer that we graduate from westgate...basically karla wants to drive, but tor dont trust her, and tor wants to go to mexico, us gals wanna go to like winnipeg,toronto and maybe calgary,edmonton and then travel the states.. lol its funny... but if we are gonna do this we NEED to save up! Like We're gonna need a vehicle. we are debating on a hippie van,a regular school bus, a short bus, or a car...tor wanted a motor home but that would be like spoiling ourselves...like y have a house on wheels when we wanna tough it out? lol fun fun fun

 

Well Im trying to do my scince homeowork and I gotta say science is hard....i swear the teacher hates me and karla...lol karlas switching to applied..i dont really have that choice cuz my grades are about average so im gonnna be in  that class all alone cuz I havent really made many friends, well i have like ryan,joel and brandon but i need some girl friends lol

 

Oh and speaking of homework, ive got some math and im supposed to get my test signed (got 64 out of 72 :) pretty good for me)Oh, we had a quiz today too...not to sure i did well :|.....and i had a badminton quiz today...i found out at the end i got 11 out of 14 (short test so the teacher marked them while we played:))

 

Ok well Im finished my science research so I must go upstairs and battle my math homeowrk before the family meeting tonight (ill post details about that later),

Miller

ps-wow quite a long blog for once eh? i barely ever do long ones like these :O