Monsoons, where have you been?

Monsoons in Arizona typically start the first week in July. They are different in every place you live. This year, it seems as if the monsoons are stalling.

i cant wait for the start of the storms!

New and Old Relationships

While I have been gone from home, I have encountered different kinds of relationships. I have made new one, got in touch with old ones, and am trying to get to know people in church for future relationships.

When we first got here 2 months ago, I didnt think that I could make any kind of relationship here, as it is a small town. I was new, and I was a little bit nervous. I have never really been "new" anywhere, except when I went to a different church. Let me just tell ya, I hate being new. Lol. I guess you have to start somewhere right? I have been meeting new people in the last 8 weeks that have changed my perspective on things. I have mainly met people at church, but I have also met a couple of Hunter's friends as well.

I am falling even more in love with the church that I am at. I know that God has sent me here for a purpose, and I believe that purpose is being shown in this small town. Our music ministry at the First Baptist Church of Saint Johns is growing like crazy! We have new visitors every week, and I am just so happy to see the church grow. I havent taken any pictures yet, but I plan to do that soon! I might just take them tonight!

I miss everyone back home, but as I was driving today in the car, I realized that this is my mission field. God has sent me to a town full of Mormons to spread the word of God and to teach the truth. I have been meeting new people with different kinds of religion. I know that God has intended relationships with them to change their beliefs. It is awesome to always talk about the Lord and spread new seed.

These pictures are some relationships that have blossomed or are beginning to flourish. I will add more pictures of the people here in Saint Johns. Miss you all!

New Experiences

I love new experiences. I only like good experiences though, not the bad ones :) I have encountered new experiences this weekend. We went camping in these so called mountains. I just call them really big hills.

I wasnt planning on going camping until Friday afternoon, but we left on thursday afternoon. I had to rush to get ready! We packed our things, and left for them mountains. We had to stop off at safeway to get some steaks. Then we met hunter's dad there and followed him up to the camping site. We went by Big Lake, which i was told was a place with a big lake. Oh, the beauty of words!

We finally got to our campsite, after what seemed like never ending miles of dirt bumpy roads. We were in the middle of nowhere! No bathrooms, no water, no nothing! I had only been camping one time without anything around, and that was with our other friends. This was sure to be interesting! Hunters parents brought their trailer, so at least we had an escape if it started raining!
We pitched our tent, and set up camp. The dreadful time has come- time to go to the bathroom. What was I to do?! I really was not going to go to the bathroom in the woods.. Are you kidding?! I told hunter I needed to go to the bathroom and he said okay toilet papers in the car, have fun! I looked all around me, and saw that Iwould have to walk up the hill very far to find a huge tree. This is not exciting.. How am I going to deal with this?

Hunter had been so nice to warn me of the rattlesnakes around. Ok, thats it, i can hold it until we get home. I hate snakes! I almost stepped on one in the front yard while weed eating, and i couldnt step foot in the grass for a week. If I saw a snake while I was doing my duty, I would have nightmares forever! So, I grabbed the TP and took off. Took off walking up the grassy, wild hill that was filled with who knows what. I looked over and saw a bush start shaking and yep, that was it. Im not going to the bathroom. So I took off running, and tried to find a different place. I would not like to have to do that if I dont have to anymore.

After that, we started our steaks. They were the best steaks ever! Yum! It was then time for bed after torturing Caden to eat his delicious chicken. I was so tired! Caden and I went into the tent, and I got him ready for bed. He started using his stalling tactics, as usual, and started singing to act cute. We then prayed and he just kept talking. He stopped in the middle of a sentance and fell asleep. Poor guy was wiped! Hmmm sounds like someone else I know (MOM!) Haha. What was the name of the retail merchandiser of that building? haha.

Let me give you a word of advice, never ever bring a two year old camping with you unless you're prepared to spend hours of time awake instead of being asleep. Im telling you, Caden woke up every single half hour to turn over, or to even snuggle up under our armpits, because apparently that spot is warmer than anywhere else. It was his favorite place to end up. I hardly got any sleep. I think we ended up catching about three full hours of z's. Caden decided to be so kind and wake me up at 6 am. Now, I dont know about you but thats what time I still want to be asleep.

We got up, ate cinnamon rolls, and headed off for the lake for some fishing. Needless to say, without a boat, its virtually impossible to go deep sea fishing. Try fishing off a lake on the rocks- it does not work very well. Hunter and his dad decided to try to see if they could catch some luck at the lake, but it wasnt before long that the rain decided to fall. We then packed up and went back to camp. We had some hotdogs, but since I despise those unGodly things, I ate summer sausage. It was okay, but definitly not a filler.

I couldnt manage to sleep another night with a kicking, punching, sleepless child, so we packed up our stuff and headed back home. Ahhh the joys of electricity and the TV that plays Handy Manny. That was one experience I dont want to have any time soon. At least next time I will be more prepared.. I will bring body pillows so caden is stuck in one place while he sleeps. I will also be bringing a laptop with his favorite movies to keep him occupied.

I took some pictures of the campsite and of caden playing with his net in the water while we were waiting for magic fish to jump on the poles. I hope you guys enjoy them!

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to mee- eeee, Happy Birthday to me!
I am now 21 years old. What does that mean to me? It means I get a normal horizontal license! I would if I was in Washington at least! I went down to the DMV because my license expired on my birthday! I had kept forgetting an important piece of information every single time I went down there. One time I forgot my birth certificate. The next time I brought my birth certificate, but they wanted the real original. I had to then go back and get my original, and then FINALLY get my license! I am legal!

Hunter had asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. In all honesty, I just wanted to go somewhere that I could go shopping, and just feel normal again. We went for lunch at Speedy B's- a small tiny little sit down place. Everyone in the town goes there! We went to lunch with hunters co-workers, and I saw my pastor, and a lady from church. Its THE place to go!

We tried to get me a fishing license so I could go fishing, so I went to the drug store where they sell them. I went up to the counter and told the lady what I had needed, and she asked me how long I lived in Saint Johns. I nicely said "Oh! Not that long, cant you tell?" And apparently you have to live in Arizona for 6 months to obtain a fishing license. I had already told her how long I lived here before she even asked me the question! How dumb of me!

We went home to put caden down for a nap. Then we went to go to Springerville, which is half an hour from here. I heard there was a Safeway there! We started driving, and I just enjoyed looking at the scenery- the luscious dirt filled hills, and beautiful bunches of dead weeds everywhere. Hunter showed me where the city was, and I looked and what did I see? Nothing! I said Hunter, where is this so called city? He told me it was right over the hill, and sure enough, it was right over the hill!

The first thing we went to was the sports store. Yep, you guessed it! I was going to get me a fishing license! The man asked me how long I lived here and I had to fib.... Of course I wanted to go fishing! I thought, "steph, dont say 6 months, because youll sound supicious!" So what did I say? I said 7 months! Yes! Score for Steph! I felt bad, but hey, you would do the same thing if you were me!

So we bought some other stuff and headed out for dinner- cuz this girl was hunnnngry! We went to this steak restaurant, and had some wonderful bread, and steak. Oh, and salad. After eating, we went to go fishing! So we headed off on the road, and we were chatting away in the car. I was noticing how awfullly long our trip was, and i looked up next to the road, and I saw a "Welcome to New Mexico" sign.. now wait a second! How did we end up here? Apparently we got lost, but dont worry, we finally got there okay!

Fishing was okay, except I kept getting my line stuck, and it was making hunter mad. I just kept laughing my head off! We didnt catch anything at the first place, so we went to the lake.. Yep! Lyman lake!!!! We got there, and it was pitch black! So we set up our spots, and started to get our poles ready. I was holding the light for hunter so he could see what he was doing. The worst part was, that everytime i turned on the light, thousands of mosquitos swarmed over to the light... They were going in my sleeve, in my shirt, biting my face, biting me everywhere! It was miserable!

It was a good, silent time of fishing with my husband. I truly enjoyed Gods handiwork when I looked up into the sky and saw the stars. Thats one thing a small town is good for- you can really see the stars. Sometimes at night I just sit outside and stare at the sky. My line only got stuck once, thankfully! We then ventured home, and I passed out because I was so tired!

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. The best present I got was from a dear friend of mine. She sent me prayers for my birthday. I think that is a great thing to have.

Confirmation- In a way I never expected

God confirms his will to you in some shape, way, or form. Sometimes God has plans for us but we do not see them until something gets "confirmed."

Moving here was no easy task. In fact, everyday I am facing a new problem or trial. It seems sometimes that I want to ask God why I am here and not back home. Sometimes I think that I cannot live everyday here. I know God made a way for us to come down here, and gave Hunter a job, gave us a place to live, and a church to attend. What I didnt understand was my purpose here.

I have been asked to play the drums at our small church, First Baptist of Saint Johns. Its not a very big church, maybe 40 people on a good day. I had been talking to the pastor about doing music, and it seemed like all my ideas were not so good. So I started to get a little down, but knew that someday something would happen.

The church has a drumset that has not been played in a very long time. The only people that do music are the pastor, and a bass player. Thats about it. I came to the church the first Sunday I got here, and I saw what needed improvement. I was excited to help this worship team and get something started!

I had my first practice, and it was so fun! I didnt get to play my first Sunday because I was in Tucson. But I kept going to practice every Wednesday morning at 10 am. I got to play a few Sundays ago for the first time, and I was nervous about what the people were going to say to me. " Well this will tell me whether I am meant to be here or not" that is what I thought after church waiting for peoples response.

The response was phenomenal. I have never felt the way that I did just then. I had people coming up to me and telling me that they had been praying for so long for someone to come along and help with music. Every weekend I have someone new coming up to me and telling me they have been praying for me. It is very encouraging, and I look forward to serving God in a way I have not done before. I have done music at my old church, but leading a team is something that has been a blessing!

So, I now know that I am supposed to be at this church, In this city. Things might be tough, but
I know God has great plans for me.

Lyman Lake (for the weekend of the Fourth)

What do you get when you have 10 people, a boat, and a day off? A trip to Lyman Lake!! Yay! To me, that is the ultimate vacation destination. Okay, maybe not, but its the best place to go and the best place to get out of a small town. According to the citizens of Saint John, Lyman Lake is a really big lake. If you ask me, I'd say its the size of about a medium size lake. I would compare it to Kitsap Lake (back home for those of you who know where that is) and say Kitsap is bigger.

I have a blast everytime I am out there. I finally bought a top to go with hunter's shorts. I dont like wearing those short shorts or bikini bottoms. So I always wear mens board shorts. Ohhhh yeah. Caden has so many pairs of swim trunks, but only one pair fits him. Isnt it funny how little kids clothes range in different sizes and fit differently even though they all say the same thing- 2T. I hate that!

We packed up the family and headed out for the lake. We had the suburban, and the truck following us. In our car, the suburban, we had Dad, Diana, Hunter, Caden, Me, Lana, Elaina, Trysten, and the dog Charlie. In the truck behind us, there was Roxanne, Bobby, Nathan, and Mackenzie. Thats a good size group to take to the lake.

First group to go on the boat was dad, hunter, me, trysten, nathan, diana, and caden. We did some tubing, and the only one that managed to fall off was nathan. But of course he did that on purpose. It was a good time! We then went on the shore to drop off the tubers, and take anyone that wanted to go skiing or wake boarding. I wanted to try one of them, but I wasnt so sure if I would or not. Im not really the type to try new things unless I know it is safe. Everything I know about skiing and wakeboarding is not safe. I really didnt want to go when Bobby and Hunter were telling me stories about people crashing..

First Lana went skiing. She made it look so easy! When she crashed she would just let go and float on top of the water as if she was skiing on snow and then sit down in the water. How graceful that was! Then Hunter got on the wakeboard.... He made it look so hard to stand up!

It was my turn to decide if I wanted to go. I decided not to, after watching hunter take some gruesome falls. We went back and dropped off the crew and picked up another round of people. I stayed behind on the shore and took some pics of hunter teaching caden to float on his back. I worked on my tan as well. Hunter kept complaining that I wouldnt go out there to wake board, so I finally gave in and had to try it out.

I got in the freezing cold water, and chickened out but Hunter would not let me get out of it. I tried 3 times on the wakeboard, andI couldnt even get pulled by the boat. Once the boat took off, the handlebar flew out of my hands and it was not very encouraging. So then I tried the skiis. Same thing happened. Oh well. Not today.

So I went on the boat one last time as the rain clouds were starting to come in and rode back with roxanne, les, and nathan. It was a great trip! Not to mention that Diana cooked fried chicken and made potato salad for us to eat while we were there! It was yummy!

If I had to pick a place to hang out, I would definitly pick the lake. After all, one day i WILL be able to wakeboard or skii. Just gotta get the hang of it.. I guess that means more trips to the lake!

Show Low, AZ

Population: 14,000 people
Elevation: 6,412 feet
Stores in Show Low: 1,422

Now thats the kind of place I want to live in! Home of the central White Mountains and plentiful shopping. They have a Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Safeway, Kmart...... What more could you ask for?

My trips to Show Low are very adventurous. I go there maybe once a week. I like to be somewhere where I can feel somewhat normal. I do a tiny bit of shopping here in Saint Johns to tide me over until we get to the "big" store- Walmart! I have never been so happy to be at Walmart.

The trip to Show Low is long and boring. There is nothing to look at. Maybe every once in a great while you will see a deer or elk pop out from the side of the road. Nothing more. I was once riding with Hunter's dad, Les, to go weed eat his grandmas yard. I was sitting quietly in the back seat, when all of a sudden this twangy, upbeat, country music came on.. "Oh my word.. He is NOT playing that..." I will tell you people, listening to country music in the middle of nowhere just enhances your experience.

Hunter's aunt also lives in Show Low, and everytime I go there, it seems like Caden gets hurt some how or some way. He tried to climb on to a chair to get to the trampoline.... Little did he know that he was supposed to step on the seat part of the chair.... Yup, you guessed it. He actually managed to do a flip and fall off and cut open his lip. No worries though, because it was a minor cut. Gotta love two year olds...

Its always nice to get away from the small town setting and free myself by spending countless moments in Walmart..... I get so excited when I walk in that I put things in my cart that I dont ever need! Has that ever happened to anyone else?

I cant wait for the next time I go to Show Low...

To Tucson or Bust

I always heard Tucson was a hot place to live in. What I didnt know was the temperature was always in the hundreds. I had been to a small town named Kearney the last time I came to Arizona. It is where his grandma lives. Its really close to Tucson, so the temperature is the same. I came to Kearney in the middle of May, and not in the summer months. It was still hitting 100 but it was dry heat, so it was okay. I figured if I could handle that heat for a week, I can handle Tucson for a weekend.

Hunter, Caden and I drove to Show Low which is an hour away from Saint Johns to meet his Grandma at her house. Our plan was to ride with her down to Tucson Friday morning, and then ride back Sunday morning. Hunter had warned me that it was a good 4 hour drive there so I brought some movies for Caden to watch. I brought the good kind- Handy Manny and Yo Gabba Gabba. We started making our trip down to Tucson and I just made myself comfortable in the backseat of his grandmas car.

We started going down the Salt River Canyon and I kid you not, these "mountains" or "Canyons" are so big!!! Plus they are also steep! Hunter and his grandma had fun telling me stories about cars that went over the railing and rolled down the mountains. They said sometimes you can even see the cars laying on their sides. So I looked over, and sure enough, I saw a car that had been there for a while just chillin down the mountain. How scary would that be to go off the railing and fall down a cliff?!

After a while, Caden started getting bored so I popped in a movie for him on our laptop. The dang thing is broke, but at least it still plays movies! I gave Caden my earbuds and I think he had more fun playing with the headphones than he did watching the movie! We arrived in a town called "Globe" which was a couple hours from home. We stopped there to get some food. Now, I thought it was hot in Saint Johns. I stepped out of the car and almost passed out because it was so hot! I didnt want to get out, I wanted to stay in! I decided that they can bring the food to me!

After eating, we left and continued our journey. We got stuck in construction traffic, but that didnt last too terribly long. Caden FINALLY fell asleep and I could have some quiet! (By that time I was starting to get a little tiny bit irritated with him) So I popped in my headphones and listened to some good ol Christian music.

We were passing the middle of nowhere with cactus everywhere, and all of a sudden my phone went from 0 bars to full service! I was thinking, "How in the world do I have service out in the middle of NOWHERE if I cant even get service back at home?" I didnt really care how I got it, but I was enjoying it! I took some pictures of the scenery around me and posted them on facebook so people could see how un-normal this place is :)

Caden woke up around an hour after he fell asleep and he was complaining because he had a wet diaper. So we stopped at this random gas station and who knows where we were, maybe 45 minutes out of Tucson. I changed his diaper...it was like turning off a switch! He went from crying to all of a sudden talking and jumping like normal! I would have been crabby too if I had to sit in my own pee for a while!

We finally got to Tucson and hunter's grandma dropped us off at his brother, Rob's house. It was hotter than ever! I think the temperature that day was 104 degrees and not to mention it was VERY humid! We took off to the mall because I wanted to at least have some normalcy back in my life. Shoot, if there was a mall around, I was going to go to it! After the mall (which i have missed going to so very much) we went to hunter's Aunt Gayle's house. I was about to pass out at that time because of the heat. I was feeling fine one second and then the next I was so nauseas. Aunt Gayle said that its normally not this humid around here, but for some reason that day it was! I guess God just wanted me to feel like I was at home with the humidity :)

We ate, and then went bowling. After that, we went to his brothers. Lets just say we didnt end up going to bed until about 4:30 am. Caden had spent the night at his aunts house so we went to go pick him up around 10: 30 the next morning. Caden was swimming by the time we got there! So we decided to jump in and take a swim as well. Oh did I tell you, the night before that, at his aunts house, I saw a very VERY HUGE beetle. Im not kidding people, this beetle was the size of my hand and then some. Okay, maybe not that big, but seriously, it was big.

We then made our journey to his Aunt Cindy's house... Let me tell you, she definitly lives out in the desert! It took us an hour from Tucson to get to her house! While we were there, I was standing out in the backyard and I saw this huge gigantic bee looking thing fly around me and I screamed and ran!!! I said "What is that!?!" Everyone started laughing at me, and hunter said "give her a break guys, shes from Washington." Apparently it is called a tarantula wasp... It eats the tarantulas. So you know it has to be big enough to do that. Yes, it was huge! I also saw some quail running in their backyard...... You know you're in Arizona when you dont have grass for a yard, but you have red dirt. Thats what their yard had. No grass. How do these people live?

We spent the night and then left On Sunday morning. Another long drive home. Caden didnt last all but 30 minutes before he started getting antsy. I had to once again calm him down and force him to sleep. Ahhhhhhhh peace and quiet again. This time Grandma was driving, and Hunter and Caden were asleep. I asked my grandma" So, what kind of music do you like?" I should have known what her reply would be. She didnt answer. "Grandma?" I said again. She didnt answer again. We were going up the twisty turns on the mountains and I just figured she was intently paying attention to the road. So I sat back and listened to some more music. All of a sudden this wave of stench comes through the vents! SKUNK!!!! EWW! I said "AHHHH that smells!" Then grandma said "are you talking to me?" I told her I had been talking to her this whole time! She just thought I was talking on my cell phone! Yeah right, like I have service out there. So now it is our little joke everytime i say something to her she says "are you talking to me?"

We finally made it back, and I have never been so thankful to be back in Saint Johns. The weather is so much better, not so humid. It might be a small town, but Tucson is not that pretty either. I dont know why everyone loves it so much there. I would like to be by the city for once, but im okay with this small town.

Fathers Day

June 21, 2009

Fathers Day only comes once a year. I dont know if Hunter has ever been here for fathers day. I was so happy to finally share a fathers day with him and Caden this year. Although the absence of our youngest son was felt that day, we know that we had him here with us in our hearts.

I love holidays! I have never spent a holiday here in Saint Johns, and this was sure to be the best! I honestly didnt know what to expect, I thought maybe after church we would just go home and rest or something like that. We were supposed to go to the Lake the day before that, and it just ended up not working out. So we got home, and everyone started getting their swimsuit on.. Now wait a second, where are we going that we have to wear a swimsuit? The Lake?! Yes!

At that moment, I was excited to go to the Lake. I took one look at the medium size boat that was parked in the driveway, and counted all the people that we had in our house. "Dad, Diana, Hunter, Me, Caden, Trysten, Nathan, Mckenzie" is who I listed in my head. There was 8 people, but I didnt think that we could all fit into the boat. It didnt matter to me because I knew I was going to ride in it no matter what :)

We were on our way to the lake. It was a comfortable ride in the Suburban, laughing and talking on the way there. Looking outside my window I saw nothing but hills and ugly brown dirt.. Where was a lake to be found?! I kept asking questions about this so called lake, and thought maybe its just a mere swimming hole, just big enough for a small boat. My in laws assured me that this was a good size lake, but that the water is not very pretty. I can deal with a not so good looking lake, as long as I got to go in the water.

We finally got to the lake and as I looked around me, I noticed that this lake was HUGE! A lot bigger than what I had expected! We started to put our boat in the water, and we all piled in the boat. Getting on my life jacket was making me happy becaues I knew I was going to go in the water. We started to ride out into the middle of the lake.. "I could get used to this sun and this breeze from the water" is what ran through my mind.. I just wanted to relax and enjoy myself and take a break from all the stress around me.

They asked for volunteers to go in the innertube first. "STEPH! You should go first!" They all knew I had never innertubed before. I said "NO WAY!" I dont want to be laughed at right away. I figured I'd let someone else fall out of the tube and have a good laugh before I fall in myself. Nathan went first, and didnt fall out. Then went Trysten. She didnt fall out. I thought since they didnt fall out maybe it wont be so bad! So I hopped in the tube...... The boat started leavign and my rope started tugging and I started following them... It was actually okay! The water was cold, but I could deal with that because it was hot outside!

I waved my finger in circles to signal them to go in circles so I could have some fun. I raised up my thumb to go faster. I was having a blast! Well, water started coming at me, and coming in my tube. I had to hold my breath and wipe my eyes every half a second. One minute Im cruising along in a tube having fun, and the next im being pulled under water and hardly catching my breath. Fun time is over!!! After I finally came above the water (still stuck in my tube) I signaled for them to stop. I thought I was going to cry! I never wanted to do that a gain! I think I saw my life flash before me.

It was time to get out for me and have a good laugh at someone else. I loved riding on that, but I wasnt about to go again anytime soon. Although for my first time, I do have to say I had fun. Then Hunters turn came up. Les started chuckling as Hunter got on the tube. He looked at me and said "Want a good Fathers Day present?" I said "sure!" Les took off speeding with the boat and Hunter went flying around on the innertube. We must have hit full speed! A couple of minutes went by as hunter was riding aorund and then we took a sharp turn and off he went! Hunter rolled at least twice and then fell in the water.

I started laughing so hard, but Caden started crying "DADDY! Daddy okay mommy?! Daddy!" He was so torn that his dad was one minute on the tube and the next in the water. We all started laughing as Les made him fall over two more times. That was payback for giving me hard times last year! We went around a couple more times with others in the tube, andthen decided to head back to the car.

All in all, it was a GRAND Fathers day, and having it be my first time out on the lake with a boat and innertube just made it all worthwhile. So Happy Fathers day to all you dads out there. Go. Have some fun.

Irrigation Day (June 19, 2009)

“Irrigation is coming on Friday! That’ll be fun so the kids can play in the water!” This is what I heard when I arrived to Saint Johns. Coming from Washington, I have never heard the word “irrigation” unless it was used in a history book. I have heard of irrigating vegetation fields and things like that, but never used for anything else.

The little town of Saint Johns has its own watering system. In Washington, we use sprinklers, like normal people to water our lawn. Water down here does not come so easily, so they have to have a lake provide the water they need. Every 8 days water will fill the ditches out in front of the houses, and overflow into the yard and basically “water” them.

I was interested to see how this would actually work. I could not even think of the front yard being filled with water. As I was waiting for the water to come, I dressed Caden in swim shorts. I was thinking that these people are crazy, to let the kids play in some little puddle in the front yard. “He doesn’t need swim shorts to play in a little puddle!” This is what I thought, but my mother in law assured me he would need them on. So I agreed, and we went outside to wait.
The magical time came at 2:30 pm. Water started trickling in through the ditches, and I was like “oh this is neat!” Well, the water kept coming and coming. Soon it started to flow into the front yard, and I was impressed. But the water just kept coming and coming! Soon enough the kids were running around in about half a foot of water, if not more! I have never in my lifetime seen anything like this!

I thought that only yards filled up like this when floods came. No, this happens every week! I enjoyed myself while watching my son play out in the water. I don’t even have to invest in a swimming pool, because I’ll just wait until Irrigation comes and then stick Caden outside! This is one of the many interesting things I will discover in this town. It was a good day, and we all enjoyed ourselves.

City or Town?

What do you do when you move from a big city to a small town? What am I to expect? How Will I survive not knowing anyone? These are some of the questions that have been flowing through my mind while driving. It took us a mere day and half to travel from Bremerton, WA to Saint Johns, AZ. I did not come to the shocking realization that my world was about to be turned upside down until I crossed over the state line from Washington- and then it hit me. I had to reassure my uneasy feelings and try to think about the best of this situation. If you would have told me three years ago that I would have had 2 kids, have a husband in the Military and be on my way to a small town of 4,000 people to live there, I would have told you that you were crazy! I always said that I would never marry a Navy guy, and I never wanted to live somewhere so small. Never say never, because when you do it will come back to hit ya. This is the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I don’t know what to expect, but I do know that I am going to keep trusting God to make this all work.

There is a reason why the words CITY and TOWN mean two different things. I believe that the word "City" means an overabundance of people and the word "town" means a little place that happen to have made a spot on the map. Saint Johns will be one of the places I can definitly say I have been through. It may be a turning point in my life, or this could be an awesome adventure. I guess we will have to see.

Today we went into town to collect some applications for my husband, Hunter, and to drop off the trailer that we pulled our car with. I had been here once before, and I knew to expect a small amount of stores and businesses. When we drove through town on the main road, I could count on two hands the amount of stores. The movie theater here only plays one movie at a time! What do these people do for fun?

One of the first memories that I will have of Saint Johns is that it is very windy here! I said "what is up with this wind?" and my husband replied "Oh yeah, welcome to Saint Johns!" Nobody warned me that my hair would constantly be flying all over the place! Now I will never get to have a great hair do unless I spray it with 2 cans of hairspray to make it stay in place! Living in the Puget Sound next to the water is always a bit breezy, but that’s only when you are right next to the water. Here it is windy 24/7.

As the day went on, we unpacked our things and got settled in. Caden, our son, seems to be enjoying the big back yard his grandparents have. I wish I was small again…. Oh to not have a worry in the world! Tomorrow will be the big day for "irragation" so hopefully we will have some great stories!