Casa de Helwig

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Week 5 (the last week of July). Caleb and I ran errands on Monday to get last minutes things in order. I also got to visit with Reagan one more time before we moved to Midland. We are going to miss the Groom’s.

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Caleb chewing on some pizza crust.

The movers arrived on Tuesday and took 3 hours to load everything up. I cleaned as they went and left about 45 minutes after they did. Upon arriving in Midland I had expected them to be ready to unlodad (I had to stop to feed Caleb plus I left after them), but they had not arrived yet. We finally got a call that the movers were in San Angelo after having 3-4 blowouts (they had several trucks..not all for us). So we spent another night at Jodee’s. Poor guys. 

We did some karaoke that night with this young lady (highschool musical on the Wii).

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The next morning we (Audrey, Jodee and I) went to clean, waiting for the mover’s to arrive. As we were waiting the electricity turned off. I called the owner and she had turned off (after telling me she was going to turn off on August 1 (we moved in the 30th of July). We finally got it straightenend out and with much pleading got it turned on later that evening. Unfortunately the mover’s had to move without air conditioning and in the rain. It was a mess. Nonetheless, we were home. Finally. I don’t think I ever want to move without mover’s again. Always negotiate for mover’s when getting a new job!

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Since, then I have been unpacking with a lot of help from Jodee. Debi watched Caleb one afternoon, while I unpacked, and then her sister watched him for a few hours another day. I think I am done unpacking, not completely organized, but settled.

We went to another wedding the weekend of the 9th. Congratulations Dade and Julie. (I forgot my camera that weekend).

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After that, we had our first weekend to ourselves, no traveling, no visitors (in nearly 1.5 months). It was nice.

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I have not started working yet, maybe soon. Chad likes his job. Caleb is army crawling everywhere. We go swimming a couple time a week. Caleb loves the water. He pulled up to standing yesterday with the help of a bookshelf (and no help from me), and he is babbling every second he gets. He is a mess. We love him!

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You are all caught up. Thanks for reading.

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After the wedding we went back to Midland and Caleb and I stayed there a few days. We celebrated Chad’s birthday that Tuesday. I ordered in from Olive Garden (because you never know when Chad will be home for work); he loves the Chicken Parmigiana.  On Wednesday Caleb and I drove back to San Antonio, and we met Audrey (Chad’s mom) in Junction. We were heading back to San Antonio to pack.

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WOW. I am so glad that Audrey was able to help. I do not think I would have been able to get everything done in the time frame we had with Caleb along. She was a tremendous help, and she even stayed through Saturday for my last day of work at St Luke’s. She is a great mother-in-law. We had practically everything I wasn’t using packed in 3 days. (Including Caleb).

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Thursday, Anna and Lindsey (highschool friends) came by to see Caleb and to say goodbye before we moved. It was great seeing them again.

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On Saturday, my dad, Sara and Marcus came over. Sara moved to Washington for a job in Portland the same day we moved to MIdland. We had a yummy dinner at a local restraunt in Helotes, ice cream at Coldstone (my dad’s first time and my last for a long time), and we enjoyed an evening of talking and laughing. I am going to miss my family.

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After being in San Antonio for the weekend to work, I headed to Mesquite to visit Beth and Lori, and Chad headed back to Midland to work. Caleb and I had a wonderful time with Beth and Lori. We went to the downtown market (I’m not sure if it had a particular name or not), and we painted some pottery. The pottery was a lot of fun. Beth and I painted a cookie jar and Lori did a coffee mug. It took a long time, and Caleb was very patient with us. I’m excited  to see how it turned out. I left to go back to Midland before it was fired, so Beth is going to send it to me. It was great seeing them. We also went downtown one evening (while Brian stayed home and watched Caleb…he did a great job). We went to some fun shops and ate at Chuy’s. It was so refreshing to have some girl time!

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Caleb also had fun playing with Beth’s dogs.

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Caleb and I left on Wednesday and headed to Robert Lee. It is on our way to Midland. We made a pit stop in Coleman and visited Mary. It is always nice visiting with friends that you don’t see very often. We stayed the night in Robert Lee sand then headed for MIdland in the morning. I had two interviews: one Thursday and one Friday, so I had to get back. Overall they went well, I had two interviews the previous week. I had an offer to work at all 4, but one particularly stood out. Chad and I decided that it would best for me to work a few hours a week (ie: two days a week 8am-12). The place I wanted to work is very flexible with schedules and also has a fitness facility with a nursery. That was very appealing.  Caleb can be there while I am working and I don’t have to worry about finding someone to take care of him.

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A relative of ours had a friend who was renting a condo in MIdland. Initially we thought the rent was more than what we wanted to pay, but after looking around we decided to call back and see if the condo was still available. It was . We were set to move in at the end of July. Finally.

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That weekend we thought about camping in Junction, but the campgrounds were full. We did go to another wedding in Sonora. It was good seeing family again.

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Week4 coming up.

I wouldn’t say it was extremely discouraging, but we made a few financial sacrifices to move to Midland and to find out the housing market was outrageous. It was a little discouraging. I pictured us living at Jodee’s forever. I could cook and clean, and we could contribute to their house payment. It could work.

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Caleb starting sitting up on his own around the first of July.

More apartment hunting. More phone calls to recheck availability and prices.

We went to Denver City (home of Chad’s dad) the second week. Every Wednesday Chad goes to Andrews for a bank meeting. Andrews is the halfway point to Denver City, so I picked him up after the meeting at 5pm and we headed to visit the in-laws. We had pizza (we love pizza) and I finally got to try the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie blizzard. It was yummy. We drove back early the next morning (remember it is an 1.5 hour drive) and Chad likes to be at work before 7:30am. It was a nice morning though, a beautiful sunrise amidst the oil rigs. I didn’t get a picture though. We enjoyed our visit, as always, in Denver City.

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 We headed back to San Antonio Friday night. I worked on Saturday. And Chad took some wonderful pictures of Caleb the day before he turned 6 months old. I think Chad did a good job.

For some reason I can’t post the pictures. But click here to see all of them.

We were never really homeless, but when you live out of a suitcase for a month it feels that way.

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I am going to have to update in several parts or the post will be so long no one will want to read it. How it all started…back in June.

Chad was hired as a credit analyst for Commercial State Bank in Midland. It was a much desired move regarding employment. We were super excited, minus the moving part. We really love San Antonio and the friends we have made there. We really enjoyed the church we were attending, but we knew we needed to take the plunge and head back to west Texas. Here are some deciding factors for our move.

Chad’s list:

1. Better job

2. Opportunity to hunt

3. Skiing in Riodosa

My list:

1. Better job for Chad

2. Closer to family (Jodee lives in Midland, Chad’s mom 1.5 hours away, Chad’s dad 1.5 hours away)

A few days before Chad started we went to Whitney and Cooper Riley’s wedding (Chad’s cousin) in San Angelo. They live in Midland now too. Yea!

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The Lovely Couple

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The Aunt’s

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Cousins

Chad started on June 30 and not wanting to stay in San Antonio by ourselves Caleb and I tagged along with him. Jodee and Chad (her husband, not mine) let us stay at their home while we looked for housing in Midland. They were wonderful hosts. Thanks guys.

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We looked, looked and looked some more. Can you believe housing is more expensive in Midland than San Antonio. An equivalent apartment to what we had in San Antonio, was $300-$400 more per month in Midland. AGH! Every apartment was made in the late 70’s and early 80’s (probably before the oil bust), but none were very affordable. I looked at several apartments and called practically everyone complex in Midland to check prices and availability. Most of the time nothing was available until after mid August if anything was available at all (which was more often the case). We were definitely going to be homeless at this rate because our lease was up July 31 in San Antonio.

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After the first week of driving all over Midland and racking up the minutes on my phone we drove back to San Antonio for the 4th of July (and mainly so I could work my 5-6 hours at the hospital on Saturday). It takes atleast 4.5 hours from San Antonio to Midland without stopping, but of course with Caleb we had to stop at least once. He was such a trooper. We were going to take this trip many times.

On the 4th we had burger’s at the Groom’s house . Then we went to the parking lot of La Cantera Mall, which resides next to Six Flags, and watched 15-20 minutes of fireworks and stood in traffic for about an hour to drive 2-3 miles down the road back home. Not a bad weekend. It is always nice to be back home.

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Caleb at the fireworks. He enjoyed them!

Week 2 coming up!

I have started a study of 1John and the Lord revealed to me a very amazing but fundamental principle: God forgives us of all our sin and he promises that forgiveness always. There is not a time that God decides not to forgive his children because the sin is just too much to handle. Doesn’t Jesus command us to forgive seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). Why do we love God, because he first loved us. He gave his only son to die on the cross in order that our sins may be forgiven and we may enjoy eternal life with God the Father. He has forgiven us. Can we forgive our loved ones?

Application:  Does your husband, wife, children, family, and friends know that your love for them should be as God’s is for his children? Are we not supposed to exemplify Christ in how we live. Does that not glorify God? Do you love promising to forgive all past, present and future sins? Do you promise to never leave nor forsake? I think it is important to tell our loved ones that we will love them unconditionally. We know we are capable of the most heinous sin, but we are still forgiven. Can we forgive as we are forgiven?

Would divorce be so rampant if our love was truly unconditional? And does knowing that we are forgiven in advance for our sin keep us from sinning all the more (Romans 6:1-2)? It should.

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I promise to post on everything that we have been up to as soon as I can. We haven’t had consistent internet conncetion for over a month due to our recent move to Midland and traveling back and forth from San Antonio to Midland during the month of July. Sorry. Updates will be coming soon (probably in several parts). Here is a picture of Caleb taken today at one week short of 7 months.

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