Light at the end of the Tunnel

Today is hard. Our family is feeling the strain of not being together and dang it, it just sucks. I am glad that we don't have to live this way for too much longer. Overall, it has gone amazingly smooth and well as we transition towards our new life in Montana, don't get me wrong, but I am looking forward to the end of being a part. I read somewhere that endings are usually sad, beginnings are often scary, but it's whats in the middle that counts. I have been thinking a lot lately about this and how basically we can be experiencing some or all three of these phases at the same time in our life. Each phase can be what we make it.  While we don't have the ability to control what is done to us, we do have the ability to control our reaction to it, and we have been given the gift of the Atonement to help us! Bendiciones!!

We signed a lease on a two bedroom, one bath basement apartment. We are getting a crazy good deal and went up earlier this week to finalize everything.  It really fell into our laps; such a blessing. I posted on a Butte rental page on Facebook what we were looking for and was contacted by Mary Kovash that she had a place available earlier than what we were looking for, but if we were interested to contact her. She sent pictures and we knew we had to get this place, even if it meant paying double rent for a bit. We got it for $570 a month which is crazy! It is in a nice neighborhood that passes the Catie-being-able-to-run-alone test and Mary is the nicest lady ever. Her husband built the duplex when they were newly weds and lived in it, and throughout the years built two others on the same street and eventually built their dream house at the end of the street. We are about 2 minutes away from the church building and a grocery store. To say the least, we are very blessed and happy to mark that off of our checklist. I am excited to turn that into our home for the next two years. 

Seeing Michael was the icing on the cake, I love that man. We rested, celebrated Olivia's birthday, attempted a movie but only lasted an hour, and just enjoyed being with one another. 

I am posting "before" pictures of the apartment so we can see what we do to it. 

 I am happy that the next time these two see each other, it will be in our home and we can hangout in the family room rather than in a car.

 We tried to see The Fault in our Stars, but the second Olivia made a noise, we left. We didn't want to be *that* couple. I am realizing that our date nights just the two of us are about to diminish quickly. We have been spoiled with our plethora of babysitters!

First Birthday cupcake and candle. In a hotel room. We be fancy

 I think she liked it. 

Montana is truly beautiful.

 Our soon to be local grocery store and gas station

 Our house is about a mile away from here.

Curveball

Holy change of plans. We found out last week that Michael did in fact get into Montana Tech and will be starting there this fall. Bendiciones! The professor we had been working with to see if Michael would be a good fit there emailed Michael asking if he was planning to attend this fall. Our thoughts were, "Uh, we didn't even know we had been accepted!" It seems that there was a communication issue between the admittance department and the Geology department, but heck, we don't care! We are in!

Michael has been working on his second hitch with RPM and is currently in Williston, North Dakota. Apparently they hit a pad which is equivalent to 5 wells. Usually you work one well on a hitch, go home for a few weeks, and then go out again. Keeping  up with the idea that he works until the job is done, he has the potential to be gone a LONG TIME. Upon finding out that he got accepted, and that he would have a few days off, we took the opportunity to meet up in Butte and check out our future. The town reminded us of St. George and downtown Provo. It has a ton of character and brick buildings. 

Olivia and I loved the time we had with Michael, even though it was less than 48 hours. We are so lucky to have him as our main man and cannot wait until we get to see him again. 

As we try and figure out the logistics of a move, starting grad school, work, and keeping our family happy, it feels like we are stuck on a roller coaster. Some days it is fun and other days I just want to puke. All I know is that Heavenly Father is mindful of us and our needs and wants, and knows what is best for us. It has been humbling to see how our previous wants are being out shined from the different blessings the Lord has given us.

We still have a lot to figure out and each day has new surprises, but we are so excited! Here are some pictures from our trip.

 The official letter!

 Olivia doing some yoga in Idaho Falls.

 Then taking a lunch break. (I have less than a month left of pumping and I am SO EXCITED)

 I have at least 30 pictures like this on my phone, and they don't do Montana justice at all. You drive through Idaho and then it is like "BAM!" and you are in Montana. It is just so pretty.

 Sadly, this was the only semi decent family picture we got.

 Olivia LOVES driving.

 This is what happens when you get one room and share it with a one year old who goes to bed at 6:30. We had to hide in the bathroom area for a good two hours so she would go to sleep.

 We played in a park and Olivia made a creepy face.

 My peeps.

 Montana

 Party in the bathroom

We had some time to kill before we met up with the Neilson clan on our way home. We grabbed some lunch and hit up a park then went to Bear World. It was so fun! I felt bad for the bears living in captivity like that, but oh man, were they cute. Olivia kept talking to the little baby cubs excitedly. They also had  petting zoo that she loved but she would freak out every time she got close to an animal and grab onto me as tight as she could. She is not helping her dad's case to get a dog anytime soon with that sort of reaction. 

I wish I got a picture with the Nielsons! They are like family to me and I am so glad that we have been able to keep in touch all these years.