Living in Limbo

Hey all!

 

So ya know when everything starts falling into place and you just sigh a little relief and look up and say "thanks God" yup that's kinda been our 2 weeks. Well that and a big old side of crazy.

 

We spent a day searching for houses and that same day we got a call from a company saying they might be hiring locally... great but if that didn't happen and they sent him to Sandpoint we'd be stuck in a house we bought and can't sell. Needless to say we again changed plans and tried to find a rental.

 

Now I'm not sure if you're aware but holy cow it's hard to find houses to rent in cda right now. We spent 3 days filling out apps only to get told the house we liked just got taken. We finally found a rental house and signed on it the same day, the only issue- the folks aren't moving out until the middle of June! but we got a house! A cute 3 bedroom house, with a back yard, and its right down the road from my parents! haha okay not planned but it will save gas and my car from dog hair.

 

With not being able to move in yet, we needed to gut out our trailer completely and move everything into storage. Its amazing how much crap we could fit into that trailer! Our storage unit is 100% full of 98% of our processions. Haha seriously its going to be so fun to move...

 

 

In the middle of moving stuff around Monday, Mike got the call we've been waiting for. His first journeyman lineman job :) He was planning on leaving Tuesday morning for Montana to sign local 44 books (that's the two jobs he was offered earlier in the week...also just got a call again today for another job, if you're looking to get in the Northwest 44 is clear on the books :)) Although he had job offers, he was really wanting local 77 to call because ultimately he still wants to work with Avista but he needs to get some hot sticking time in. The job Mike took is a "dock crew" basically a local utility job, working 4 10s, Mike gets to come home everything Thursday night! We're not positive where the job will be but we know it will be in the Wenachee area so only around 4 hours from home. Seriously perfect! 

Mike's new home!

 



 Rental house: CHECK! Mike's job: CHECK! Everything into storage: CHECK! Moved into new trailer: CHECK CHECK (and its SO cute!!!)

walk around bed (complete with line boots :)) 

view from standing next to little couch, first thing in the door

 

little kitchen. oven perfect for little cinnamon rolls 

 

view standing in bathroom (bathroom not pictured but come on its a trailer bathroom ;))

 

view from couch

 

Its not the largest trailer but that's what we were going for. It's perfect for Mike to live in for now and will be even more perfect for camping in a few years. I love it and am bummed we won't be able to camp before Mike needs to take. But I'm sure we'll be getting lots of visiting in with it.

 

Despite all the busy, fast moving days things are all falling into place and slowing down. We've been able to squeeze family time so far with bow shoots, graduation parties, a caddy shack date and a birthday party where Wesson got to meet his second cousin. In a few years Rawlin and Wesson are going to be running wild at Grandpas cabin!

Mike's grandpa, mom and copper!

proud dads and handsome babies



 

Hope everyone has a fun memorial weekend! I know we are going to have lots of fun.... we're heading to Ritzville in the morning and I have a feeling the boys are going to be running wild all over Grandpa & Grandma McBrides property. Me? I'll be enjoying a few glasses of wine, not having to worry about moving, jobs or houses.

xxx :)

turning in my tramping wheels

ha, okay that sounds kinda bad but if you've been following this blog long you know for the past 4 years my husband has been a tramp lineman which automatically made me a tramp linewife the day I moved into our 28 ft trailer two years ago.

But yes I am turning in my tramping wheels. After long hours of tears, kinda "planning" (Kristina I am sure Ian would be rolling his eyes at me by now;)), discussing all options again & again... we've come to a decision. Well as close as a decision as we can right now. I'm moving home.

Coeur d'Alene, home. And I'm a ball of nerves about it, naturally. So as of right now Mike has gotten 2 calls by foreman asking for him, seeing how he just came off of 3 months working and only 9 days off!! he said he'd love to but he needs some time to get us set up and he needed some time to relax a bit. Our plan was wait for him to get a job than I'd try to find a place to rent where ever we were and see how that would go. Problem with that was if he got moved I'd most likely get stuck in a town with no one. If he got a call to Kennewick that'd be one thing but like most ideas, it wasn't solid. His two calls that he got were both for Montana.

After reevaluating our situation we knew the best option would be for me to just stay in Cda. If he goes to Montana or Washington we're still only a few hours away and now I'm more central regardless which direction he goes... plus my support system lives down the road.

On Friday we took step one to putting this plan into place: get rid of our monster trailer and get Mike a new home (that eventually we can take camping!) We planned to just go look, but left the lot owners of a 2013 Autumn Ridge! Its sooo cute! It was all way sudden so I didn't get pictures inside yet but we'll be making the trade next week.

sold! traded our 37 ft in for 24 :) perfect!

 

Step two happened by meeting up with our loan officer aka my best frans husband Steve to figure out what we need to do and than today we met up with another good friend Wendland(I'm liking my friends having with grown up jobs.)  to check out houses.  Like real houses. Houses without wheels. With back yards. With damn bath tubs!!! I'm not excited at all.

We decided our best option is to purchase a small house for me and Wes. We searched rentals and we would just be throwing money away. I, of course, fell in love with a house today but obviously until Mike accepts one of these jobs we're just looking for now. And of course things can and most likely will change again but until than I'm dreaming of paint colors.

Step three: Mike accepting one of these jobs.

Its really, really hard to think of not seeing Mike every night and not experiencing the new places anymore but we're ready to start making a more stable life for ourselves. I guess I'm experiencing what? linewife guilt? I dunno I feel like my "job" as a wife is to support as we travel and I am and will always support Mike but now we're just switching it up a bit. Two years on the road is tough and its just time to start settling down. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a 5 days a week job so Mike can come home on weekends. If not though you bet we'll be in that car driving to see daddy.

We're ready to start making plans that'll actually be able to go through, ready to be around for more stuff, see our family & friends more. We have a fast growing boy that needs some extra lovings and a marriage that needs some dang date nights. We're happy with our decisions and know this is the right directions but it's still scary. Change is scary.

Giving my worries up and praying for the best.

First Drag.

Well we made it! I am blogging to you all from our very North Idaho camp spot :)

 

 

As most of you followed the past few weeks were nuts. Like I was so sick from stress Monday I was throwing up all day. Not fun. We didn't know when we'd be leaving, where we'd be going, I was a mess. Monday was rained out so instead of staying another day Mike decided to drag up and we'd be moving the following morning. I normally would have been all good to go except I was sick and I found out his decision at 6 pm, so we were scrambling to pick up and get set up.

 

We were able to get everything travel ready and sit around the fire one last time with our friends. Although it was cold (seriously we were all bundled up and freezing in probably 60 degree weather) it was a great night. If you've known me long you know I don't do well with good byes. I'm emotional and I get attached to people way too quickly. This was no exception.

 

Our trek back to Idaho started bright and early at 4 am, only to find our stabilizer jack was well, jacked up. I don't know details, I'm scared to ask but I guess it didn't go up very smoothly and daddy was making it very clear with some choice words it wasn't good. haha its all fixed now.



waiting for daddy to fix the trailer

 

Once we got going on the road the trip went pretty great. Wesson was with Mike and I got the fur baby. Both boys did excellent. We stopped in Twin Falls (sorry guys it was a quick grab lunch and stretch moment!) and hung out eating Artic Circle (yes!) in the trailer while everyone was able to stretch their legs and make it a few more hours. We decided to push it into Oregon so we wouldn't have as many hours on day 2.



Comfy Rem :)

We made it to Catfish RV outside of Huntington, Oregon. Which as my dad informed me is known for a slaughter that happened was back on the Oregon trailer. Sweet. Anyways we pulled into the park to the sweetest lady, who had fun showing Wesson the 5 week old puppies. We set up quickly, grabbed some pizza and enjoyed the view of the beautiful Snake River.

The next morning I woke up and took Remmi on a quick run up the road. Wow it's been awhile since we've ran, looking forward to getting that back.  After our run I decided to take devotion to the river and let Remmi run some more. He had way too much fun swimming across the river chasing the ducks. He was exhausted by the time we had to load up.

Water Puppy

 

Once we made it into Kennewick, Wa we made our way to the local 77 union hall to sign the books. Although we didn't find out much work information (we should know more tomorrow) it was pretty cool watching Mike ask for the JL books and signing away. There's so much future in that one signature! So many more adventures coming our way!

signing the 1st jl books! woop!

he kills me, sweetest puppy ever.

 

We made it into Coeur d'Alene early afternoon and headed to what we thought was going to be our park. The pictures looked nice and the price was right buuut the park was not so great in person! So after quickly taking our exit while panicking, googling new places we decided to just chill out, leave our set up at walmart for the night (yup that was our house there last night ;)) and let my parents take care of us.

 

Our day today was busy finding our new park, we are now comfortably set up at Alpine RV, woop come say hi! 

so happy to be home!

Christopher got to stop by after work! Love!!

 

If you're wondering where my baby has been the whole time, he's been with daddy so I didn't get any cute driving pictures and of course grandma wouldn't dream of Wes having to run errands with us today so he was happy playing with the puppies in the pool. I plan on being there allllll day tomorrow :)

 

We're excited to be here. We're of course so nervous, I mean we left a very well paying job to wait for a new one. We know the end result will be so much better being closer to home and we're already happier. We've missed you all. So for 2 weeks we're on vacation mode. Yes, Mike is waiting for a work call but we're not stressing yet. Mike will be busy working with his cool new programmer for his truck and going to bow shoots, I'll be busy catching up with my girlfriends and watching chick flick movies with mom, we have lots of plans with friends and family and plan on taking full advantage of our "vacation" :)