Arizona

We are finally settled in here in Arizona. The trip down was pretty uneventful, except what would normally take us only one day to travel, it took us three days. Liam was really good at riding in the car, which really was a blessing. No screaming, just mostly sleeping. How in the world were we blessed with such a sweet, agreeable baby? The barter for the calm car rides was for shorter durations each additional day as well as not wanting to be happy during dinner at restaurants. Liam is such a trooper!

The first day was driving from Provo to Las Vegas. Thankfully the roads were clear and the sun was shining. It was interesting watching the landscape change from all white (all covered in snow) to cacti and dirt. We stayed at an extended stay hotel right across from the Air Force Base there. Mike's parents drove down with us (how fun!) and we were able to stay in a 2 bedroom suite. That night we ate at the Olive garden in north Las Vegas. I had a few bites of soup before Liam decided that he wanted to eat. We had forgotten his plug (pacifier) and his diaper bag, so the poor guy was crying unless he was eating. I did enjoy the soup though (chicken and dumpling). I have no idea what anyone else had as I was elsewhere. Some how we lost Liam's favorite plug that night, but he's surviving with the other ones that we have.

The next day (Friday), we drove from Las Vegas to Pheonix. We stayed at a motel six after getting stuck in horrible rush hour traffic. Our GPS was going crazy trying to get us around traffic with quick fire turns. We got a little separated from Mike's parents because their GPS was a year older and doesn't have traffic assist. So we had all these crazy directions and exits, and Mike's parents got stuck in the traffic. We only traveled for 5-6 hours that day, but it seemed like forever anyway. We ate at Marie Callendar's that night. I had their chicken pot pie and Mike had the shepard's pie. Liam started crying and Mike being the most wonderful husband that he is, took Liam back across the street to our hotel room to get him to sleep. It was nice to eat my meal before it got cold, and Mike was able to come back before it was time for dessert (Pie!).

So the final leg of our journey was from Pheonix to Sierra Vista. We passed by the most awesomely named town. Ever heard of Surprise, AZ? It looked like a fairly new town with many shopping centers and even more RV parks. Must be a big vacation spot for people escaping the snow. The further we went south, the more the landscape looked like Mexico. There where those crazy tall cacti, and the jacob trees? When we finally rolled into Sierra Vista (ok, so it was only a three hour drive), what we saw was dirt (no grass), tons of cacti, and some really awesome mountains. We stopped at the city library (which I haven't been able to find since) and looked for a place to stay. We ended up staying on post in the VOQs (Visiting Officer Quarters). I guess we could stay there because Mike is  2LT (Second Lieutenant) and his dad is a retired Navy Captain. The VOQs was this old house that was split up into different suites. The first night we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa on the top floor in a three bedroom suite. They left early the next morning (and made it back to Provo that night) and we moved downstairs to a one bedroom suite.

Sunday morning was a little bit of an adventure, what with moving all of our possessions down to the first floor and then trying to find a church to go to. We ended up going to the Sierra Vista 1st ward, which is the ward for the military I think. It was Liam's first time going to church, but it was spent mostly in the mother's room or in the lobby. I'm pretty sure Liam was going through a growth spurt because he was feeding like every hour and being very fussy. Either that or he was just uncomfortable with all the moving around and messing up of his schedule.

We did find one thing out on Saturday, is that the Wendy's here is really good. Like it is real food that tastes great, not like the slop that is Wendy's in Utah county. It takes a while (for fast food) to get your order, but the quality is superb. We ate at Wendy's three days in a row, it was so good. We can't really find good pizza around here though, Papa John's was a disappointment, but Papa Murphy's veggie pizza was still good.

Sunday we drove around and tried to look for a place to live. Most of what we found was really dodgy and the one place that we thought that we might go ahead on, turned out to be not that safe of a place. We found that out when we talked to the ladies working the desk at the Army Lodge. So on Monday we looked around some more, same story. We couldn't find anything furnished that we could afford so we started looking at unfurnished apartments that we could rent furniture at a furniture rental place. One of the ladies at the lodge told us about a place where her daughter had lived and really loved it. The owner was a sweet lady. We were most definitely going to move in there as of Tuesday night. The reason we were looking for a regular apartment was because all the spots at the lodge were not filling up so the Army wasn't going to reimburse us for rent.

On Wednesday, Mike started his classes. When he came home at lunch, he told me that he had met a guy at class who knew of a place that we could stay. He was Mormon (wore a CTR ring), and was living with his family at a four-plex in the north-western part of the city. The other three units were free, so Mike came and got Liam and I at lunch and we drove over to go see the apartment. The owner wasn't there when we got there, but we hung out with our new friends during lunch.

Our new friends, Ben and Tabbi Huzzey, were so nice to let us into their home. I stayed at their apartment and played with Tabbi and her girls. Liam had a lot of fun watching the girls play. (He is so aware of what is going on around him!) It really is AWEsome how the Lord works. We did everything in our power to find ourselves a place to live that we could afford to live in. We thought that the housing miracle was the unfurnished place that the Lodge told us about. Acting on that, I guess the Lord felt like we were listening to him and led Mike to meet Ben. We are sooo blessed, I can hardly wrap my mind around how everything worked out.

I talked to the owner of the apartments (a retired Colonel) who is a really nice and pleasant man. He showed me the available units and I told him that we would most likely take the place. Liam and I played with our new friends until Mike and Ben came home (they carpooled) and then went to look at the apartments again with Mike. The Owner let us move in that night and offered us a deal that we could afford if we didn't get a SNA from the Army. Ben was kind enough to drive his car back with Mike as get all of our things from the lodge with the two cars with one trip. When Mike and I went back to the Lodge that night to turn in our keys, we found out that all of the spots at the lodge had finally filled up and we were able to get a SNA so that we can get reimbursed for our housing here in AZ. Yay! A weight was totally lifted up off my shoulders now that we had a place to live and a way to pay for it.

The Lord really does use people as his tools. I am so thankful that Ben allowed the Lord to work through him to help us find a safe, comfortable place to live here in AZ. We are blessed now to have wonderful neighbors and friends in the Huzzey's. The first time Mike had to go away for the Army when we were first married was for a month. I was paired with Miriam Conde for Visiting Teaching, and she was such a comfort for me what with Mike gone and we had only been married for two months. The Lord is so awesome. He makes sure we are well taken care of. I just want to thank all of you for your prayers. Everything has worked out wonderfully.