Ok for all those that have been hiding in a rock or just don’t get information as fast as others , we have moved to Marshall, MI . We are sorry to those that we did not get so see before we left. We tried to see as many as we could and we tried to get the word out as best as possible but oh well I guess.
Basically we have moved to Marshall in short because that is what the Lord told us to do. Why Marshall? We don’t know yet. I did service my LDS mission in Michigan but I went all over and never really served in Marshall. The Lord led us here with the idea that we were going to be looking into farming but that ended up not being the case. He just wanted us here. As proof of that I was looking for a good job for over 3 yrs in AZ and after about 40 interviews and applying for 215 other jobs I never got one. Well when I came up here in August looking for a job I got one on my very first interview and 1st one I applied for. Can we say sign?
We left Mesa on Oct 11, 2009 our 13th wedding anniversary and made a mini vacation out of the move. It ended up not being as fun as we wanted it but we made the best out of things. Lisa and Megan were both sick with the flu 1 week before we left and they were very sick the whole time. Lisa even ended up in the hospital for 2 visits while in Colorado with pneumonia. It was bad enough that they would not even let her leave town for 2 days. ( we just got the bills for those… $3200 so far. Boo hospital visits with no insurance) (then her prescriptions were another $300 on top of that.) Lisa is still not doing good and it has been 1 month since she got sick. Megan and Lisa decided to have more fun after we got here by getting pink eye.
Back to my story…..
We went up to Durango and rode the Durango/ Silverton train like we did for our honeymoon. Spent a few days there enjoying the cooler air and the fall colors. Then we went across Colorado and Kansas to Missouri. We visited some LDS church history sites like Liberty Jail, Far west Temple corner stones, and Adam-ondi-ahman. Then we went to Nauvoo, IL and spent 4 days there visiting all the church history sites there and seeing all there is to see. Some of it twice. There sure is a special spirit there. I signed the Family book at the Heber C Kimball historic house. We even made it into the Nauvoo temple for a session. That sure was an amazing experience. It was slow that day in the temple so they even took us on a “tour” of the off limit rooms. Then we went down to Carthage, IL and visited the jail where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were shot. What a moving and testimony building experience.
I got in contact with my cousin Delene who lives in Quincy , IL and we visited with her and her family. That was fun.
Those of you who followed our trip on facebook heard of that already. If you missed it, there are a few more details there, just go to my profile and see the posts.
Ok, now we made it to town on the afternoon of Oct 20th after spending the night in Chicago. We wanted to see the temple there, the one that we are suppose to go to now, that is 2.5 hrs away, one direction. We wanted to have some good famous Chicago style pizza in Chicago. Well after getting all turned around so much that even the GPS was mad at us because of all the stupid construction all over Chicago, we left. We did finally see the temple and a found a small pizza place to get pizza. Nothing special, just enough to say we had pizza in Chicago.
When we got to Marshall the house we are going to be renting was not even livable yet. The previous people trashed the place and the Land Lord never came by and check on the place and allowed the place to go into ruins. For some reason we felt really strongly that we needed to move into this house and it just so happen to come into position for us to rent it. Well the next day we found out why we are suppose to be here. The neighbors’ right next to us has been praying for a good family to move in next door and one that would be good friends with their kids who are 10 and 8. Pretty cool how the Lord works huh?
Well to make it short, to late.., we stayed in a hotel another night while they were getting heat and water working again in the house. The contractors had done $4000 work to the house just to make it livable. ( for those that missed… the house we moved into is a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, built in 1857. It is nowhere in historic condition any more. It has been updated and added to so many times that they messed that all up. But the cool thing is that is has a 3 car garage, with huge work shop and a HUGE 3 story red barn all that sits on 3 acres. Lots of room to put in a huge garden and have some live stock.
The house still has a long way to go before it is really up to standards. All the facets leak, and we are on a personal well, so the well pump runs all the time. They just got done removing the 57 bats that lived In the attic and the 3 foot mound of poop they produced. The people still have to finish fixing the roof, because yes it leaks when it rains and we have gotten 3 inches of rain in the 2 weeks we have been here and the snow is getting ready to fly soon. The carpets smell like cat pee, and quite a few other things still, but we still get confirmation that this is where the Lord wants us so we grin and bear it for now.
We finally got to go to church for the 1st time this last Sunday. They closed all the schools here because of the swine flu outbreak up here and they even canceled church for the whole stake.
We are slowing getting things put together so it is livable and somewhere we can start calling home. I started my new job Monday of last week at the Cole Chrysler Dealer and things are going well. Megan started school and has met a bunch of new friends. Lisa is still fighting the pneumonia and trying to get well. Some days she is ok, but most she is worn out.
The house in Mesa still has not sold ( it is trying to be short sold for $160,000) but more than likely it will end up being foreclosed on. Oh well I guess. We did our best. It was hard leaving Mesa and our house that we worked so hard on and put over $80,000 of improvements into, but one thing we have learned over the years that when the Lord calls you listen and follow the instructions given you. We still are not sure what the Lord wants us to do from here but the High Councilor from the stake did come out and meet us and did what it seemed like to us as a pre interview for whatever might be coming our way. He did say that us moving into town has been the topic of conversation for a few weeks now and they have big plans for us. Hopefully we will be able to live up to them.
Please stay in touch as much as possible. I know Megan and Lisa are missing you all (I am too but those that know me; I am not a touchy feely person like they are.)
Just a note.. we took over 1000 pictures on the trip. I will be processing those pictures over the next week or so and hopefully will be able to email our a few and post others to the blog..
