My Trials Are My Blessings

I've been mia from my family blog this past year. I have realized how valuable this blog is to me and for my children when they are adults. I went back and read some really old posts when my kids were little babies. I was so happy to have pictures with summaries of what was going on in our lives at that time. Memories are what makes up life and I cherish them. I even cherish my trials as they will become memories that will help guide me in future decision making. You really can't gain much wisdom or grow and learn without having trials. Therefore I thank my father in heaven for them and pray he continues to bless me the strength I need to get through these trials with dignity and strength. Id like to continue my blog now as updates about myself and my two kids as I am soon to be a divorced woman. Stay tuned for a quick summary of how the past year has been. I will also include pictures and who knows, maybe sharing some stories about things going on in this divorce process can help any of my blog viewers who might also be going through a tough time and need strength and encouragement

Love, Love, Love. All You Need Is Love

We have decided to stay in California. Chez loves his job and is doing so well and we love the weather and the endless possibilities of things to do for fun with our kids. We feel so blessed to have been chosen to move here and grateful for this new chapter in our lives. Count your blessings name them one by one. I have to say after this very rough summer in so many many ways, this song rings true to me. I've failed to count my blessings and have LST negativity in our trials this past summer bring me down. I'm now counting my blessing and thanking my heavenly father for all he has given us including trials for without them I would not learn. I'm so in love with my husband. I've never felt so in love and close to him and its through our past trials I've been able to feel the way I do now. I love my children with all my heart and I'm dedicated to learn patience with them, and teach them through love. Those two angels have me wrapped around their fingers. Its another blessing I have to count for their happiness and health. I truly feel blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who have always been by my side in support and in giving great advice and love. My list of blessings is ever growing and I vow to never lose sight of what's important, never take these blessings for granted, and always express my gratitude for these blessings. We are adjusting well as a family here in California for sure. I'll have more to come later and pictures :).

life as a californian

Well we have lived in California for a month now. It didn't take any time to grow used to it. What's there not to love about here?! I have a never ending list of things to do here and we have had a blast. One of my best friends lives here too and her kids and my kids are very close. It has been so fun. I definitely miss vegas though and all my peeps. I've decides to visit every couple of months though. Some intense things that have happened in California thus far are shaving off the tip of my thumb and getting stitches. Most painful experience of my life no joke. We also experienced 2 earthquakes within 24 hours with the magnitude of 4.5. Luckily earthquakes here are about as common as a cloud in the sky. Apparently so Cal had 70 earthquakes yesterday. I felt maybe one. All of the newer buildings here ate built on special seismic rollers so we are completely safe unless standing next to a shelf with heavy things on it or stuff of that nature. I was in worse earthquakes growing up in Seattle. Chez is enjoying his job. He hates to brag but he's one of the best in his industry. We are constantly reminded of what a blessing this job has been. I'm so proud of chez for all of his hard work and dedication. Before I close this post I just wanted to congratulate all of my family and friends who have babies on the way. Must be that time of year. Definitely a great time in your life to experience motherhood and pregnancy.

Tornado

I feel like the past month has been a whirlwind of events thus my title, Tornado. We knew Chez was offered a job in California but we were not sure when exactly he would be able to start work. Since we had our house all through the summer we thought we would plan 2 weeks of vacation. The first trip was the kids and I to Oregon to meet my parents for a Craig family reunion/50th wedding anniversary celebration for my very fun and cute 80 year old uncle. Then it was to Seattle to see the rest of my family and from Seattle to Utah to meet with Chez and then a drive to Idaho to meet with the Jones Family for the 4th of July. The trips were fun but on our trip to Idaho we received a phone call from our landlord that changed our plans drastically. He basically called to tell us we had less than a week to move out. What?! We knew he had the house on the market in a short sale and we knew there had been multiple offers but we had no idea it was actually closing. He had never updated us. We were frantic. Our landlord gave us an extra week but basically told us we absolutely had to be out on the 17th of July. That gave us two weeks to head home, pack up our entire house, find a new place to live, and move on with our lives. However it was much more difficult than that. Moving is already hard enough but these next details I will explain makes this move far harder than any other we have had (and we have moved a lot). Basically we found out Chez needed to start his job in California immediately when we returned from Idaho. So the day we flew home, the second we walked in the door to our house, Chez hopped in the car and drove down to California leaving all the packing to me. Packing is already hard enough but add into that two very young kids and one who broke his foot in Yellowstone a few days prior and it is a lot harder. In between all the packing and cleaning I made sure to play with the kids and get them out of the house for ice cream and donut runs. My birthday was stuck in the middle somewhere in all of the chaos and I never really did get a proper celebration but mom and dad Jones did sing me happy birthday with brownies and a gift in Idaho plus my parents sent me an incredibly gorgeous boquet of flowers so it wasnt a total bust but I was kind of sad. A week after Chez left I drove down to look at houses with him. We found some beautiful houses but they were either too far from work or already taken so it wasn't a very successful trip. With our time in the Vegas house coming to an end quickly I hurried back to Vegas to finish packing and we decided to just get a very temporary apartment while we got to know the area, made sure this was the right job, and found the best neighborhood and school. All the apartments were either long term leases or taken. However, the last apartment on my list was available for a 3 bedroom townhouse with a month to month lease and happened to be 2 minutes from work. Can't beat that. So once the Uhaul was loaded up, I drove down with the kitties and Kenna and signed a lease on the townhouse. A relief right? Kinda. Obviously with how crazy things had already gone with this move it wouldnt get any easier. We had nobody to help us move and Chez couldnt take any days off of work to move us until his days off so we stayed in the resort in a two bedroom condo that Chez's friend/employee was also staying in with his son and nephew. So Chez, the kids and I shared a King sized bed and everyday after work until his days off we played tourists and went to disneyland and the beach. Luckily we did have a nice resort to stay in. This huge shopping plaza with a parking garage gave us permission to park our extra large uhual out front of the garage in a secured area thank heavens! On Chez's day off we found some great movers and moved a small fraction of our furniture into the townhouse since we are only staying here until September while we figure everything out. So we have a storage in Vegas with a ton of furniture in it and a storage in California with more furniture in it. We finally got our cable hooked up today and I unpacked the few boxes we brought in. This townhouse and apartment complex is really nice though so I am happy. I am still stressed though becuase we have to move AGAIN in a month as well as get Kingston registered in Kindergarten somewhere asap. I need a lot of luck! Luckily it is the summer and school hasnt yet started which makes things a lot easier. I hope all of you are having a good summer :). I have an overload of pictures from all our travels and moving adventures

facebook

Dear friends and family, this may come as a shocker but I broke up with Facebook ;). Too much for me and I needed to add more privacy to my life. But don't worry, I will be updating my family info here on the blog. Life is to be celebrated and rejoiced. Keep calm and carry on and don't let the negative into your lives. For a quick update, the Jones family is off to California. A new adventure awaits. Happy summer everyone!

A Line From Elf

"I'm in love I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!". I have this line stuck in my head today. I think its because I'm truly very deep in love with my husband. We have been through so much and have grown incredibly and I can't help my feelings. Well ironically enough while kenna and I were getting ready for bed, we asked Kingston to bring us the DVD player and a movie. Strangely enough he brought us Elf. Coincidence? Perhaps but I'm of the mindset that things happen based on how you're running your personal universe. Not only was I already giving out positive energy through my loving thoughts but lately I've been trying to take life so easy and light hearted and this movie is definitely funny, light hearted, and loving in its overall message. So there you have it. I'm in love!

gratitude

I have not been the most grateful person the past few years abd ive been stuck in a rut of dwelling on thibgs that are not going right in life rather than the things that are good and positive. Its true that the older you are the wiser you are but i do belueve that comes with accepting your faults and mistakes and learning from them. Ive been reading a really good book my counselor suggested called the power. It has been a huge eye opener. Sometimes the answer to every problem is the most obvious thing. Basically the book teaches you how to love amd ignore the things that are negative. It teachesthat in life you get what you give. If you give love you recieve love. And it teaches the law of attraction. If you dwell on negativity and give out negativity, you will atrract negativity. I cant stress enough how amazing this book is. I love it. Im trying very hard to learn better how to master my oen universe and gave ahappuer life. Im grateful through the love of myself, god, and the love of those who want to teach, i will continue on a path of success. I know there will be bad timea but its how i handle them that matter. Seeing the good in everything and ignoring thr negative things that try and bring me down. Im trying to teach my children this and now teaching them discipline through this love and positivity. I just wanted to share this on my blog today. Im so grateful for my friends and family who love me and bring light into my world and oddly enough i am grateful for thr negative people ive encountered in life because they have taught me that nrgativity will only bring you sadness. I am also grateful for this beautiful world in whifh we live. Everyday i take advantage of the little thibgs such as red rock canyons i can see from my windows in my house and the blue skies i wake up to every morning. I love my comfortable bed and i am grateful i live in america where we can have so many conveniences such as soft brds, pillows, air conditioning in the house, fresh and safe water from the tap, toilets that flush, warm water for showers.....the list is never ending. My hoal is to take a moment each day to appreciate everything good around me. The more wr conce trate on the beauty around us , the less we focus on thr chatter going on in our heads. Often the chatter in my head is my mind replaying arguments or things that went wring that day. All of which are not necessary to think about and only bring about negative feelibgs and thoughts. I meed to learn to get co trol over my brain anf be more grateful. Cheers to a summer coming up full of beautiful sunny days and fun times. I love you all and thank you for sharing my blog with me.