So I’ve had a pretty good attitude all week and have had some moments of happiness (does NOT happen often) but it’s so hard to stay happy when there are less happy things out there, like stress. Right now I’m super stressed over something silly. My bed.
So my renters refused to leave and after several friends prayed, she miraculously moved out. I had left so much stuff behind and she left it so disorganized that I won’t know for sure how much of my stuff she left until I get home. We do know from a neighbor that she had a yard sale soon before moving out. As far as I know, she took my bed. When I was engaged to Adam as a very young barely twenty-three year old, we had to save up money for a few things before we could get married, not including the wedding. We had to get an engagement ring, wedding rings, a deposit for our apartment (yes, that’s something you have to work and save towards and not beg, borrow, or steal to get), a car, and a bed. Yeah, that bed cost more than my ring.
It’s old. I definitely need a new bed. However, when I come home this Christmas with the blessing of being able to stay in my home, I don’t get to sleep in my own bed (or any bed for that matter). Hopefully I can find my air mattress in my shed. I know where it is but it’s buried under a lot of junk. That’s assuming my renter didn’t break into my shed. I think when you lose your husband, you should get to release things like a bed in your own time, but not this time. I’ll be sleeping on an air mattress at Christmas.
I am still trying to decide if I should drive the RV to Colorado, but I don’t want to have to worry about winter driving in the RV. I’m especially not going to do it for a nice bed! Of course, we could be wrong and maybe my giant mattress and box spring is hidden somewhere in the house. It’s not plausible, but possible. Other than that issue, I’m still having problems with the kids fighting, and a certain kid wanting to leave almost constantly. It’s tough trying to do this when not everyone is on board.
I think about Adam. I think about the future. I see people I used to know and wonder why we didn’t keep in touch better. It’s been a beautiful and content week in Southern California, but I have so many mixed emotions.
Quick rant: so today was a long day of driving to Phoenix. Right as we pulled out of the rv park, the spare tire of my rv fell off and go caught under my jeep. Then we drove for a super long time and needed to get in by 5pm to register. We had to go to a place in town because there was only one rv park in all of Phoenix area that has cable and we needed it tonight. So after heavy traffic we got in 5:05pm. We parked in the slot marked “Johns” (hopefully that was our spot) and connected the cable. It didn’t work and there is no WiFi. Since we arrived late no passcode. So now the entire reason we are staying here is for nothing. Oh yeah and we broke the slide again because no one cleans up when I tell them to and a shoe got caught in the slide! Another long day tomorrow. Rant over.
In LA our RV park was on a beach. It was awesome
We went to the La Brea Tar Pits and LACMA
We moved onto Solvang. I googled “the best places to spend Christmas in America” and this came up, not because it’s a huge celebration, but a cute little Danish Village right out of a snow globe! Unfortunately, I was taunted with wine tastings at every other shop and I really wished I had an adult with me
We also spent one last time at a Beach in Santa Barbara (our last beach for this Leg).
Within 24 hours of leaving and driving through Ventura, the fire hit.
We drove straight to Desert Hot Springs to go to Joshua Tree. I felt guilty skipping San Diego because of a cousin there, but I found out that she was at Joshua Tree that night instead so we got to see each other anyway!
Now we drive through Arizona for our final “vacation week” in New Mexico before Christmas.
Nothing I do seems right (and certain people remind me of that constantly). I’m feeling like a failure, but hey, hopefully we’ll have some fun.
Blessings:
- The beach
- One of my kids is studying a lot of geography for fun
- My good friends in Arvada who are helping with house situation
- Having my house back (for real this time)
Harmonie’s Corner
For Christmas, we were going to end up having to stay at my violin teachers house, but then they had their house under construction so we basically couldn’t stay with them. Then we thought that maybe we could stay at my best friends house. But my mom didn’t exactly call my friends mom. But then the person who helps mom with the renting said that the renters would move out by Friday but they didn’t so then we didn’t know. But then later on they moved out!!! So now we can celebrate Christmas In our Home!
Then we went to Solvang. It is a cute little Danish town. We went to a parade there it was cool. We got a lot of candy (mostly by me because I am a candy lover and I caught it all mostly.) There are these things called Nisser that we had to look for and we all got two candy canes and a sticker except for my mom. There was also a tree lighting ceremony, before stuff would light up a brass band played Christmas songs. In the middle of a song we went to a bakery and got really delicious snowman cookies.
We also went to LACMA and did tours and cool stuff there. We also went to the La Brea Tar Pits and saw cool stuff there including a mammoth’s skeleton. We got to stay at an RV park on the Pacific Ocean and it was so much fun!
