Far away

Being far away from things/people you love can sometimes be hard. This weekend I have been thinking about home a lot. I miss being home, but I am not home sick(maybe a little).
I was talking to some of my brothers and sisters the other day and it hit me how much I wish you could send really hugs through text message. I was talking to them about the foster kids that are living with them right now. We were talking about how the kids are going to be there for Christmas this year. And how it is going to be way different then other years. And it is going to be, the kids are going to be there, I won't be around for holidays this year. So yeah different is the right word to use.
But that wasn't the hard part. I was asking 2 of my brothers how they were doing with the idea of having the kids there for Christmas. And one of my brothers said he didn't want them there and that he just wanted to run away. I just wanted to be there to give him a huge hug and take him away from the pain he is feeling. I have realized that having foster kids living with them has changed life A LOT! And I have seen some of the changes that have been made. And it is even hard for me to see some of the changes done. My brothers always tell me, "you don't know how it is. You don't have to live here with them." And that is very true, I don't live there. But I have visited and seen how it is. And I know how it is to have your world turned upside down. And it isn't fun at all. Most the time it hurts a lot. When we were talking I kept thinking of the last time I was a mission nanny. It was not good. I was supper homesick and the family I lived with wasn't the greatest. But in the end and now that I look back on it. I wouldn't change having that time in my life. I grew a lot in my faith, closer to my family, and I met some great people who help me get through it. So sometimes when what seems like the end of the world or just awful it could be Gods way of helping you grow.  It isn't going to be easy. And sometimes God seems so far away, but he's not. He is standing right there with you.

~Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will NEVER fail you or abandon you. ~ Deuteronomy 31:8

One month, seem longer!!!

The clocks have been changed, thanks to day light savings. I am not sure how I feel about day light savings, yes when we spring forward the days get longer and when we fall back we get an extra hour of sleep. But with that extra hour of sleep comes days that are short on day light.  So when it is really only 5 o'clock it feel like 10.  It is going to take some getting use to it getting dark earlier.

And speaking of time, today marks one month since I moved to Washington. It is crazy! I feel like I have been here way longer. It has been a great month. I think I have thing pretty much down here. I have met some great people. I can't wait to get to know everyone here more.

This week I started something. I am not going to say what, I am feeling very excited about it. It is going to take about 4 weeks to finish. I will tell y'all what it is when I finish. I have tried to do finish this thing before twice and failed. So I am bound and determined to finish it this time. I need to finish this, I do know that.

With it being November I have started thinking of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I always like taking November and being thankful for all the things that I have had happen to me over the year. So every day in November I think of one thing to be thankful for. It can be hard somedays to find something to be thankful for. But even if it is a little thing it is a thing to be thankful for.

Christmas shopping hasn't started for me yet, but thinking and looking has started!! It started snowing back home. I am a little sad and jealous that I am missing it. I am hoping that maybe it will at least snow once while I am here. It has started getting colder. It hasn't frozen here yet, well at least not that I know of. But I do have to have heater in my room at night to keep me warm. It won't get as cold as back home, but it will be a little chilly.

Well, that is pretty much all I have to say!!! Until next y'all!

Diffrent place

I have been in Washington for over 3 weeks. I can't believe it has been that long. Time is flying, it is crazy.

I am learning I am defiantly in a different in environment then I am use to. Where I live is a community for teen moms. So there are 4 main houses and 2 tiny houses. The 4 main houses are for different things. House 1 ( the one I live in) is for girl that are pregnant, house 2 is the directors house and main office, house 3 is the house for girl that are placing there child for adaption and house 4 is for girls that have decided to keep their babies.  So I live in the pregnant house, which is fun and very interesting all at the same time. I get to hang out with the girl that come and live here. Which I think is fun. I get to know them and here their stories. And hearing their stories makes me sad sometime. One of the girls does't know who the baby's dad is, an other one isn't sure if she knows or not. I get to tell them my story as well. And they are all shocked at my story, because I haven't ever dated anyone and I am still a virgin at 21.
My prayer for next 6 months is that I can be a bright light into these girls lives. And help them see that you don't have to do it the way everyone else is doing it or what the world says how to do it.

The weather here has been nice. It usually looks rainy in the morning, then by lunch time it is sunny and nice out. I have been able to go on a mile walk almost ever day. The little girl I watch loves to go on walks. So that helps me to be able to go outside. I have realized that I do need to invest in a pair of rain boots. All the boots I have don't hold out water.

The colors of fall here are so pretty. I love that there are tree here that I can watch change color. With it being fall comes all the other fun stuff. We went to a pumpkin patch with everyone. It was so pretty to see. We also went through a corn maze while we were there. I had never been through a corn maze before. So it was a fun and confusing adventure.
Some of the girls and I carved pumpkins after we got back from the pumpkin patch. We saved all the seed so we could roast them. I got the fun job of picking through all the seeds and cleaning them off.

The last couple days have been a little hard. One of the girl that was staying here moved out suddenly in the middle of the night. She didn't want to go along with the rules in place. We are very sad to see her go.
One of the other girls that lives here is about to have her baby. She is over her due date by a day. So we are all excited for her to have her baby.
The other girl that lives here can sometimes be hard to live with. She is very negative about pretty much anything. And she seems to have a story for everything. Which is fine, except when you are trying to talk and she interrupts you.  So learning to have more patience with her and everyone here.

I think that is all I have to say for right now!! Talk to y'all later!!

The pumpkin patch

My pumpkin all finished

All of out pumpkins

The group of us at the pumpkin patch

Fall!

So pretty

Driving, Driving, Driving and Unpacking

The last time I wrote on this blog was over 2 years ago. And the last time was the last time I was a mission nanny.  Now here I am again being a mission nanny for the second time.

An 11 hour drive all by myself was long. But it was a pretty easy and nice drive.I did have some adventures along the way. I locked my keys in my car at a gas station. I had to call the cops and have them come unlock for me. I tried calling 4 different locksmiths, but they couldn't help me. Then I after all that, I missed the exit I was suppose to get off of. So I had to drive a few miles up the road and turn around.  I made it to Puyallup around 6ish. I wasn't sure I was at the right house when I pulled up, it didn't really look like an of the pictures that I had seen. So I just knocked on the door and hoped for the best. I was at the right house, they knew who I was the moment they opened the door. I got the grand tour of the whole house and where I will be living, then unpacking began.
I got everything unload out of my car and into my living space. I have a pretty big living area. Which is very nice. It is upstairs and away from the rest of the house. So when I am done for the day I can escape from people if I need to.
I feel very comfortable here and feel very much at home. I have a better feeling of being here after being here for a couple days, then I did the last time I was a mission nanny.
We will see if I can get everything unpacked soon! Oh, and the it is rainy!! :) But I love it!!

Bolivia trip!

Well I made it to Bolivia and back! We had a great trip to Bolivia, but we were all ready to be able to sleep in our own beds and get things back to normal. We left Sat. the 7th at 9:30pm that night. we flow to Miami, we got into Miami at 6:30am Sunday morning. We had an all day lay over in Miami. So we got a hotel room. The family slept most of the day. I just walked around the airport and talk to my family. We left Miami at 10:30pm Sunday night. Flying at night was good for the kids, but not me. I don't sleep well on planes. So between both night flying I was running on about 6hrs of sleep. We got in Santa Cruz, Bolivia at 8am Monday morning. We got into the country just fine. We went to the South American missions base in Santa Cruz where we would be staying for part of our time in Bolivia. We were all very tried, so we got to our rooms unpacked a little, ate lunch and took naps! Tuesday and Wednesday we just hung out in Santa Cruz and meet with some friends of the family's.  Wednesday night they had prayer meeting at the base. So all the missionary's from the South American Mission organization came for prayer meeting and dinner. It was great to be able to meet so many other missionary families. Thursday we load up our stuff and head out to a small village to stay with some friends of theirs for a few days. It was a lot of fun staying there, even if I didn't understand anything that was being said. I got to meet some great people. I also learned/helped cook some Bolivian food. The people we stayed with they started a church in the small village and they run a small store out of their house. So they have a huge oven in the back of the house and they bake bread and cake. And they also have chicken legs for sale and some other things. So we got to help bake the bread and cake. We stayed with them until Saturday morning, then we had lunch with some different people that run a radio station in the area. Saturday night we stayed with some more friends for the family's. They had a little boy about 7 months old. They meet in Bolivia and got married there. So he is from Bolivia and she is from the states. It was very neat to see and hear here how they met. They are missionary there now. Sunday we went to church with the family we stayed with. It was very funny to walk into church and someone walked up to the family we had stayed with and asked him if he would preach. And he did, and did a great job. Later we were talking about it and he said " I always have something in my back packet for events like this." Sunday night we had back to Santa Cruz and to the mission base. Monday we met with a couple other people. And just packed all our stuff up and tried to stay warm. It was very cold on Monday we were all trying to find more clothes to put on to stay warm. Tuesday it was even colder then Monday, but we were leaving so it didn't matter to us so much. We got to the airport around 7:30am and got through everything just in time to get on our plane. It is a lot harder to leave the country then it is to get in. We got to Miami around 4pm and had to sit there for about 4hrs. Then we boarded our last flight to Seattle. We got home around 2am Wednesday morning. I counted when we got back I have been on 10 plane in the last 4 months, I am all set on flying for awhile. And I am until December. It was a great trip. Now we are unpacking everything, catching up on our sleep and getting things back to normal. The kids mom is starting school again in a week. So she won't be around much. And I have decided to fill in all my free time I am going to be taking some online classes. I also have some fun fall things planned for us to do.

Half way - Leaving the country!

Today is an interesting day!!! It marks my half point of my 6 months in Washington and we start our adventure of going to Bolivia!

Half way, 3 more months to go! It has been an adventure so far and a learning experience! And I am sure that the next 3 months will be the same!!! This trip has defiantly been a learning experience! God, is working on a lot of things that I need to change in my life. Which can be hard, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Leaving the country! Um, not sure how I feel about it. I am really nervous. And slowly getting excited! I have left the country before. I went to Mexico twice. But both time it was with my family and lots of people I knew, and we drove! I think my family is more excited that I am going then I am at this point. It will be a great trip. And a great experience for me! I have always want to travel and see the world. So this year is a good start. The first plane ride to Miami will be my 7th plane ride this year. So by the time we get back to the states I will have 10th plane rides down! I am sure I will have lots of stories to tell! I will be taking lots of pictures!

Here is to more "Adventures with God!" One of my dad's favorite things to say!!!

Home for a visit and back!

Well, in June I said good-bye to everyone for 6 months. But then at the end of July I have the opportunity to go home for a visit! So I took it, I bought my plane ticket home and started the count down! And the day finally arrived for me to go home for 10 days! I was so excited. The best part about it was my brothers and sisters didn't know I was coming!!

So on Friday August 16th I got on a plane and went home! I got in in the afternoon and some of my friends picked me up at the airport. Then the 7 of us went to the college in Bozeman( where I flow in) and went swing dancing. It was a lot of fun and a great way to start my visit. We got back to Dillon around 3am sat morning. My dad had been riding around with some of the cops that night. So he picked me up in his police car. And he had an adventure to go on. So I rode around with him for a couple hours. We didn't get back to my house until around 5am. So I quietly went downstairs to my room and when to bed for 2hrs. At 7 sat morning I got up and took my camera and woke all my brothers and sisters up. They all were very surprised to see me home. And they all asked me the same question "what are you doing here?" We all got up and got ready to go to Idaho Falls to see my older sister,brother-in-law and nephew. I was excited and very tried. Only getting 2 hrs of sleep and about 4hrs on Thursday night. We all loaded up and drove to see them. It was a full day of shopping and visiting. And just some really great family time!!!
Sunday was church. We went to church and surprised everyone there. It was great to see everyone there again. We came home ate lunch and then worked on 4-H stuff!! Oh the fun of 4-H books and records!
Mon. they put me to work! We all help dig a trench for a drain we were putting in. We had a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows!
Tues. Worked some more on other projects. And Tues. night went to a friends house and hung out for awhile.
Wed. was more work and hanging out with my family. The kids and I went down the water slide. That was a lot of fun!
Thur. Pretty much the same as the other days. But the afternoon was different. The kids and I went to the lake to go swimming. It is so much fun to have time with just them. The exciting part of the lake adventure was I got my car stuck in the mud. We tried to get it out,but it didn't work. So my mom had to come and help us push it out.
Fri. The same as other days. Hung out with the family and worked on projects.
Sat. Went to the fair grounds and help get things ready for fair. Then in the afternoon, my friends Chris,Stephen, Cassandra and I decided to go float down the river. We were all ready to go and found out no one has any tubes. So we went hunting for tubes. We found 2 but couldn't find any more. So Cassandra and I rode on an air mattress. It was a lot of fun until it started to rain,thunder,lighting and hail. We were freezing. We decided to get out and walk the rest of the way to the car. So we walked on the railroad tracks. It was good but cold but we made it. After we got both cars. We went to the taco bus and ate some really good food. I was going to go to Butte for a good-bye party for my sister and brother-in-law. But we didn't get out of the river in time. So we all just hung out and made some pretty crazy memories.
Sun. I had to speak at church. I hate talking in front of people. But I guess I did pretty good. That is what everyone tells me. After church Jillisa,Matthew and Boaz came over and hung out with us for a few hours. I love having the whole family together!! That night I went to Dillon and saw my old bosses and their family! It was great to see them. They kids have all grown so much!!
Mon. My last day home before going back to Washington. Jakoley and I got in my car and drove to Dillon to run around and do some stuff and see some people I hadn't gotten to see yet. It was hard to say good-bye again to my friends. We came home with ice cream and root beer! And Mon night we just hung out one more time as a family.
Tues. I packed up everything again. I wasn't ready to leave. I loved being home. But I knew I had signed up for 6 months and I couldn't quiet half way through.Saying good-bye again was really hard. Only a few tears with saying good-bye! Mom and I left and did some shopping and had some lunch before she dropped me off at the airport to begin part 2 of my adventure. I did fine until I landed in Seattle. Then it hit me that I have to be away from home for 3 more months. I cried my eye out in the middle of the airport. I got on the shuttle and made it back to were I am living in Washington.

I will have to say no one ever said moving out or away from home was this hard. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. I am 1/2 done!! 3 more months then I can go home for good!! I will make it. I just have to keep telling myself that. And I am praying some much. I hate feeling sad! But I know God put me here for a reason and he is going to get me through all the hard times I am having!! So here is to part 2 of my adventure!!