Next Stop, Minnesota!

The road trip was way more exciting than I had thought it would be.

-Our 7 car caravan felt powerful, and we had fun trying to pass up everyone.

- We kept in contact with everyone through voxer ( a smart phone app which serves as a walkie-talkie).  Some of the conversations we all had over that thing had the tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so hard.  We played trivia with everyone, acquired multiple inside jokes, played "finish this song", and grew a lot closer than I had ever thought we could while all being in separate cars.

- We pulled over in the-middle-of-nowhere Nebraska and had a pee break. The girls on one side of the road, the boys on the other.

- We pulled over in the middle of nowhere Iowa at 11 at night, and had a dance party in middle of the road.

- We had quite the experience at a Denny's in the middle of the night.  It was one of those " you had to be there" type of stories, but we are still laughing about it to this day. 

-We discovered just how beautiful Iowa is. 

-We had late night slumber parties in a Hotel in who knows where. 

-Way too many gas station breaks, that sometimes took longer than necessary. 

- No one wanted to be at the back of the caravan. Blake got the wrath from being in the back when the car at the front was going 20mph over the speed limit.  Lucky for him the police officer let him off with a warning.

Things were starting to look brighter as we pulled into the hotel parking lot, that would serve as our home for a few days, in Minnesota. It felt good to finally really be at our final destination.

 

Road Trip: Take 2.

We woke up bright and early (4:30 am) at the in-laws on May 5th, to begin our journey to Colorado Springs.  Besides the sleepy eyes, we had a great road trip.  Just the two of us.  Right as the sun was rising we turned the corner in the canyon that gave us the first view of Bear Lake.  It was beautiful.  For those of you who haven't seen Bear Lake, you are missing out.  It is such a beautiful deep blue body of water.  Now for those of you who have seen Bear Lake, but haven't seen the sun rising right above it are definitely missing out.  It couldn't have been more perfect timing.  We stopped in little america a few hours later at 8 am and got big ice cream cones.  There is no "right time" to eat ice cream when on a road trip.  Besides accidentally driving to Nebraska (oops, missed our exit about 40 minutes back) it was a pretty uneventful drive, full of good talks, good music, and good company.  We pulled into my sister's driveway at 6 in the evening, unpacked our car, showered, ate dinner, and then we decided to scope out the area before Derick's work meeting at 9.  We were exhausted but so happy to finally be at our destination after weeks of packing, planning, and then hours of driving.

The meeting was...not what we had expected.

At 9 o'clock we had all gone there expecting a meeting where Derick's MSI boss would pump up everyone going out to sell the next day.  He brought the other boss, from Garbage Man, along with some ice cream.  We were all crammed in the hotel kitchen (where everyone else was staying for the night until they could get settled in to their apartments. We were so grateful to be living with my sister). The kitchen was hot, probably 20 degrees hotter than necessary, and everyone was exhausted.  Both of the bosses seemed pumped up and excited to be there.  A few minutes after they started talking, though, we found out Colorado Springs just was not ready for them to sell there.  There had been some third party issues that neither MSI, or Garbage Man, had foreseen, that had come into the equation half an hour before the meeting, and had been completely out of their control, and CS just would not be ready for them to sell until July or August. They started talking about Minnesota, where Garbage Man had originated, saying it was a prime location for selling, trying to convince us Colorado Springs really wasn't a good idea, and that we would do much, much better selling in Minnesota.  Everyone was stunned.  After what seemed like hours of them telling us the pros and cons of selling in either area we all went upstairs into a hotel room and discussed our options without the bosses chiming in.  As a team everyone knew it would be a disaster if we stayed where we were, but we also couldn't fathom the idea of having to drive for 2 more days, and completely going somewhere we had not planned on at all.  The money issue was a complete other side of it.  None of us had planned on spending that much more on gas, hotels, food, and wear and tear on our cars.  We unanimously decided the only way we would be up to it was if Garbage Man or MSI would reimburse us for every cent that it took us to get to Minnesota.  At 2 in the morning Derick and I drove back to my sister's and we told her and my brother in-law the news.  At that point we had seriously started considering just staying there, living with them, and getting jobs as servers or something.  The money wouldn't be what we had expected but we had already left everything back home and there was no way we could go back.  Not yet anyway.   After hardly a wink of sleep, the next morning we drove back to the hotel and found out that Garbage Man was willing to reimburse us for our journey to Minnesota-- we would be leaving that day, in one hour.  Not only had all of our plans changed but I had also been planning on doing an internship for my sister and getting another part time job. Now the legitimate worry of  what the heck am I going to do all day while in Minnesota?? entered my mind.  We got back to my sister's to pack up and I had an extreme, sobbing, emotional break down.  My sister calmed me down and told me it would be ok, and that when the company was ready for us in Colorado she would be waiting.  We packed up our car, once again, and said goodbye.  After a few more emotional break downs on my end, lunch at a chinese restaurant, a car in the group that wouldn't start for 3 hrs in a gas station parking lot, we were finally on the road to leave at 5 that afternoon.  Ready or not Minnesota, here we come.

ode to 2.8.4

I was so ecstatic to find Derick and I's first home.  I remember the second I saw it I was in love with it.  It was the absolute perfect location, the cutest outside, with our little backyard and patio, the perfect interior.  For some it may not have appeared to be much but it was perfect, and exactly what we had been looking for.  After searching for what seemed like forever, and all the let downs of potential places, it was such a relief to find.

What had really been 10 months, seemed like a week when it was time to start packing it all up (how did we accumulate so much stuff??) and say goodbye to our first home together.  Our last night sleeping there was spent with nothing left inside other than our belongings we were taking with us over the summer, our mattress on the living room floor, with the tv. We had ourselves a little slumber party and I tried not to lose sleep over thinking too much about how we were already moving on to the next chapter of our lives.  The next day we cleaned as speedy as we could and spent the rest of the time at graduation ceremonies and family parties.  Finally around 9 at night we made it back to our place to pack up our car and say goodbye to the place that had been so good to us.  I am an extremely sentimental person, and slightly over the line of emotional.  Maybe it was the stress of the past few days of trying to get everything done, and living off of maybe 8 hours of sleep over the course of 3 days, but as we stood there in our completely empty first home I broke down and cried as Derick held me.  We took one last glance at the inside as we slowly turned off the light, closed the front door, and locked it up for good.  

Here's to you 284.  Thank you for being so good to us. 

A Whole Bunch of Scholars

Spring was a pretty big deal for my family this year. We had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR people graduating.  My little sister from high school (when did she get so old??), my mom and brother in-law, Jake, from their Bachelor programs, and my sister, Olivia, from her Masters program!  I have never been so proud! Three of the graduations fell on the weekend Derick and I were leaving, it was a stressful couple of days full of family parties, packing, graduation ceremonies, and saying goodbye, but it was absolutely perfect.

Shout out!

Can I just give a shout out to my mom for finally grasping her degree?  It is something she has wanted for so long, but she put it off so she could dedicate her life to being an amazing mom, and then a few years ago she decided to go back.  I will admit I had a few tears rolling down my cheeks when I watched her ecstatically walk up to accept her diploma! I am so happy for her!

Can I give a shout out to my brother in-law Jacob for receiving his bachelors after many long years of changed majors, being deployed to Afghanistan for a year, and ending it with being 1 out of 6 accepted into his Masters program?? Many applied but few could say they got accepted. Great job Jake!

Another shout out to my smarty pants sister, Olivia, who after one year of teaching decided to go for her Masters degree. She not only got it, but she got it with a 4.0! If only I could be as smart as her.

And last, but certainly not least, my little sister, Arielle. My Ari-bell. I couldn't be at her graduation because it was later in the month but I am oh so proud of her! After being home schooled  for a whole year, and being extremely behind on her credits from missing so much school, all due to health issues (freshman year)-- she rocked out the normal classes, along with taking college credits, and many online classes to get caught up.  She did all of this with receiving straight A's her last few years of high school, along with being extremely busy with her thespian plays she did every trimester. If anyone has given me an example of handling hard work with grace it is her.

Congrats guys!!! You did it!

My Un-Birthday Party

Derick and I were due to leave for Colorado in a couple of weeks when my mother in-law announced she wanted to throw us a going away party.  I felt like it wasn't necessary since we would really only be gone for a few months but I figured  it would just be like a typical Sunday dinner with the Cox family, just with the focus being on us leaving.  So I went along with it.  That Sunday we walked into my sister in-law, Janelle's house, with some balloons set up and everyone yelling "Surprise!" I thought they were just being funny--since we had already known about the party.  I kind of laughed a little and didn't think much else of it.  It wasn't until Derick gave the blessing on the food: "We are thankful we can be here today to celebrate Caitlin's birthday.." That I got confused. I immediately opened my eyes and looked around the room at everyone still closing their eyes with a big smile on their faces.  After the prayer everyone started singing Happy Birthday. It was after the song I found out what was really going on.  My birthday is on June 16th and since we would be gone on that day my wonderful Cox family decided they wanted to throw me a birthday party 2 months in advance.  It made me so happy to know that they had even thought to do such a thing!  Grandpa Cox, and Grandma Bingham had even driven a few hours to attend! It was such a perfect night, with a real birthday cake, and real birthday gifts, with the amazing family I am so happy I married into.  

A Summer Away

Derick and I made the decision in January that we would be leaving for the summer so he could do summer sells for a company called MSI.  We both have always been pretty skeptical of summer sales, since we always hear that they never really crack up to be what the recruiters say.  I have never even pictured Derick as the type who would be up to doing it.  He had kind of played with the idea last summer, but he decided to marry me instead (thank goodness;)  ) We knew doing it could potentially be a big risk.  We didn't want to quit the good jobs we had, leave our perfect first home, and our families-- all to move across the country and not make any money at all, or maybe even lose money.  It wasn't until some old friends from high school started talking to Derick about the company called MSI, which markets for a company called Garbage Man, that we really began to consider the idea.  The numbers were a lot higher, and he was hearing positive feedback from people he knew personally instead of recruiters throwing out names like "Johny made 60K last summer".  Instead of going out to convince people to spend money they didn't have on security systems, pest control, or satellites, he would be convincing people to save money instead! The weirdest part of it all was that we would be selling garbage contracts.  Coming from a state where garbage is automatically included in the utility bill it took me a lot to wrap my brain around the fact that people had to actually shop around for a garbage removal provider, but the idea was good.  The prices were better than the competitive garbage services, and the company he would be working for, Garbage Man, is a green company, which would appeal to a lot of people.   After hearing many many more details, discussing it for many hours, we finally decided it wouldn't hurt to try it out! The biggest plus sides to the whole scenario was that pretty much our entire group of married friends would be going out with us, and we would be going to Colorado Springs which is close to home, and which holds my sister, Rachel, and brother in-law, Derrek--who wanted us to live with them.  The opportunity really sounded too good to pass up! It was decided, we would be packing up our car and driving to Colorado Springs at the beginning of May! 

Happy Earth Day

To be quite honest, I have never been big on actually celebrating Earth Day.  I am extremely curious, is anyone really? I have always wanted to plant a tree or something just to be helpful, but the idea always crosses my mind without me really doing anything about it.  This year I knew I had to finally do something.  I am big on being festive for every sort of holiday so I couldn't get over the thought of myself not doing something, once again.  That's when I texted my dear friend, McKell, and asked her to have a photoshoot with me.  I knew she would be down for it, that is why she is my go to person when I have these crazy ideas in my head.  We dressed up as hippies, and after half an hour of begging Derick and his friend, Calvin, to take pictures of us, the idea was a go!-- now, I know, I know.  What in the world does this have to do with Earth Day? Shouldn't the day be about bettering the earth? We didn't care, because we had so much fun doing it.  Maybe next year we will be able to plan ahead a little more and be able to plant some trees along with dressing up as hippies.

My sister made a good point when she saw these pictures, just how many trees did we kill to have those books? Not very 'earth dayish' ha, oh well!