It's HGTV in my Living Room!

So the last few weeks I have been busy transforming my living room to (hopefully) something much better. The walls are painted. Curtains are hung, and new furniture has been assembled. (We bought most of it from Walmart). Suprisingly I am very happy with the furniture. It is fairly sturdy and mostly made of solid wood. It does not feel like it will fall apart at any moment. Anyway, I thought that I would provided some before and after pictures and you all can be the judge.

             

Our Journey Home

So....I decided to start a blog in an attempt to stay in touch with all of those back home. The last couple of months have been quite interesting.

Our honeymoon was great. We spent ten days in Cabo. And while everything was incredibly overpriced, it was nice to be able to just relax after all the craziness of the wedding. A week after our honeymoon, we began our move down to Springerville, Arizona. In March, Ryan was hired as an associate pastor at the Assembly of God church here.

Springerville is a fairly small and remote town in the White Mountains. We are at 7,000 ft so we do not experience the heat that the rest of Arizona suffers. Just above us is the Apache-Sitgreaves national forest, which recently burned. Two weeks after arriving here, we had to evacuate. Luckily we were able to come home just a week later without suffering any loss.

Living in Springerville has taken a little adjustment. We we first arrived here it was the windy season. The wind never stopped blowing. I thought that I might go insane. Luckily, that has passed and we are now into what they call "monsoon season." The only time that it rains here is from about July to September. The rain has helped it to feel more at home. Everything is turning green and the humidity has increased.

Another major difference about Arizona is that the air is very dry. The humidity is sometimes in the single digits. On the plus side, I don't seem to suffer from allergies here for the first time in my life. I have found that the cure for the dry air is a daily (or twice daily) lotion ritual.

While Springerville is small, it is not much different than Silverton in size and commerce. The big difference is that it is so remote. Show Low is the closest larger town, but it is still fairly small. The equivalent would be to place Silverton an hour away from Corvallis, three hours from Portland, and about four hours from Seattle. I have learned that online shopping is my friend. :)

The people here are incredible. Everyone has been so welcoming. My first few months here I worked at a pregnancy crisis center with women from my church. They have greatly helped to make this place feel like home. I cannot imagine a warmer welcome. It is so nice to know that I have several surrogate moms who will help me if I need anything.

We live in a mobile home provided by the church. I think it was probably made sometime in the 90s. We are not completely sure. We are located a few blocks away from the church. I haven't done much decorating yet. I plan to start painting tomorrow. (The being shown in the picture below). Once I get that done we can start hanging things on the walls. Once we get more furniture, we can also unpack the rest of our stuff. Which will be amazing! Check out this wallpaper!

This week I started a new job at the local pharmacy. I am training to become a pharmacy technician. This is a process that will take several months, but it is one of the best jobs available in our small town. Without becoming a doctor or a lawyer, the online jobs here that require a degree are through the state, local, and federal governments. I am so grateful that God has so amazingly provided for us by giving me a full time job. He has certainly honored our act of faith.

Anyway, hopefully that gives everyone a better idea of where we are and what we are doing. Love and miss you all!