Topic: People/Family stories
We had a wonderful, relaxing time up in the mountains. Thank you for praying for us to those who did. It may have been the altitude (7,000ft?), but we were so relaxed that we felt sleepy the whole time we were up there! We lazed around, watched a couple of movies, read books and slept! One day we did go for a long 4-5 hour drive up into the really high mountains and checked out a few campgrounds for future reference. We usually like to go to Colorado when we go camping in the mountains, but since Arizona has some nice places, we wanted to see them before planning a trip. They are nice!
We came home and hit the ground running. Emma's band played at her high school's homecoming game, so we went there that night and Maggie and I went to the homecoming parade earlier in the day with her. It's interesting living in a big city now. Moving from a very small town, there was no comparison in the homecoming events. In the small town we lived in, everyone in town came to the homecoming because.......well, most of the people in the town went to that high school! The homecoming royalty is a big deal in a small town and the homecoming parade went from one end of the town to the other, shutting down route 66 for about an hour. And when you went to the games there, you could choose from at least a dozen people you knew to sit with. Here, we knew no one, and if you want a seat in the bleachers for homecoming here, you had to come early...obviously. We stood for a long time, then found some room when a family left in the front row. So we watched the band perform while bobbing our heads around, trying to see around the people walking by. Emma was so cute in her band uniform and was fun to watch playing the xylophone in the 'pit' while the band marched.
Saturday we made our first attempts at downsizing here at the nest. We currently had 4 cars to pay for on insurance every month. They were all paid for except a small monthly payment on Charles' truck. But the insurance was killing us! So we had decided to trade our minivan in *YES* and sell one of the other cars, downsizing us here at home to 2 vehicles. The other one we insure is Hannah's car up in Flagstaff. So after researching used cars and knowing the only way we could get much out of our van (it had 139,000 miles on it) was to
trade it in, we looked up some used cars online at a local dealership and went down to see about trading in our van on a used car with a lot less miles. And we did! We traded in a 2000 Dodge caravan for a 2002 four wheel drive, black Isuzu Rodeo...the cutest looking vehicle I think we've ever owned, by the way. I am so glad that is over with. It's incredibly stressful to car shop...my head felt like it was splitting by the time we were done. Now we'll sell Bethany's car...a friend is going to help us to do that right.It was strange....at church yesterday, my sister asked me, "Oh, was it hard giving up having a minivan?" and I thought for a minute, then actually got tears in my eyes and realized our family is downsizing too. Hannah is in college and so independent and Bethany has less than 2 years until she is out of high school. So, yeah, it was hard when I thought about it....but I'll get over it driving such a cute car. =) (sorry Hannah)
We're also downsizing in the tv viewing area, switching from a regular satellite company with 60some channels for $$ per month, to Sky Angel satellite, which we already have the equipment for.....we just had never set it up since moving. It is just $14 per month. There are some other areas to downsize in, but we're not sure how it will work out. I'll let you know if we find anything significant to cut out.
Yesterday we had a wonderful Sunday morning worship time and Bible study class. Then we had lunch and spent some of the afternoon with a family from church. They talked to us about how they had downsized in a BIG way and had paid off all debt in 4 years of scrimping and actually living with parents. We don't have that much debt, but our monthly expenses were squeezing us too tightly, so it seemed to be a theme for the weekend! We had no idea they had done that and had not planned to discuss that with them, but it worked out that way *providentially?* and was very encouraging to hear their story!
Sunday eveing was choir practice and I got to watch my 2 teenagers playing hockey. =) Our youth room IS a hockey rink...no ice, just concrete floor. But they do tournaments every few months and divide up onto teams, get a t-shirt for their team and they bring in lots of new kids every time they do it. It's hard to watch them cream each other, but they have a great time. They come home all bruised and exhausted.....but smiling and telling us who they crunched or who crunched them, and what good plays their team made. I will try to get some pictures on here soon of that.
Today it's back to schedule....well...except for 2 doctor appointments I have (for my upcoming surgery next week) and taking the car in to the service department. The tires need balancing and the transmission was needing to be looked at...but it's all going to be repaired for free with their used car contract.
You can see why we needed that break last week! I wonder if it's possible to downsize on busyness with a pastor husband, 2 teens and homeschooling. I will think on it.....
