Roller Coaster

A recap of the past two and a half weeks:


Paul's parents came to Boulder to help us pack up our house (we had to be out by May 1st).

We found a house to rent in Pueblo that we loved!

That same day, Paul was offered a job coaching defensive line at a Division II school in Texas.


We held off on signing the lease in Pueblo.


It seemed that Paul would most likely take the job in Texas.


We continued to pack.

I got really excited about moving to Texas and started making plans.


Paul turned down the job in Texas.  He did so for many good reasons and I supported his decision, but now I was confused.


We called about the house in Pueblo and found out it had already been rented.


I cried for a day because I felt like my life was in shambles.


Then I told myself to get over it.


We moved out of our house in Boulder and put all of our belongings in a storage facility in Pueblo.

I moved in with my parents.


I had an epiphany that I would rather live in a box and be unemployed in Pueblo than live without my husband any longer.


I put in my "three weeks notice" at work.  My last day is May 27th.

I got excited about moving to Pueblo...all over again.


Whew.  It's been a roller coaster, that's for sure.  There have been times that I've questioned God's plan for us and why certain things happened the way they did.  But the crazy thing is, after going through all of these twists and turns, I am more convinced now than ever, that we're right where we're supposed to be.  This was the push I needed to finally be ready to take this next step.  I now feel totally confident about this move and I have a peace that I didn't have before. It's a wonderful feeling!  That doesn't mean that there won't be more bumps down the road, but it's nice to know that  no matter what happens, everything will work out the way it's supposed to.

Life Ain't Always Beautiful

Okay, I feel like Debbie Downer lately..

I just feel like 2011 is kickin my butt.  I know I shouldn't complain, because things could be waaaay worse.  I'm just going through a rough spot.  Does that ever happen to you?

I'm trying to stay positive, but every time things seem like they're looking up, something happens that brings me right back to where I started. 

God is trying to tell me something......  I'm just not sure what it is.

Today it all came to a head.  I honestly felt like I needed to crawl into a hole and live there forever; like I couldn't handle one more thing.  I was feeling sorry for myself.  Ick.

But then I heard a song on the radio that gave me a little attitude shift.  I've heard this song before and I've always liked it, but today it really hit home.

Life Ain't Always Beautiful ~ Gary Allan

Life ain't always beautiful

Sometimes it's just plain hard

Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life ain't always beautiful

You think you're on your way

And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggles makes you stronger

And the changes make you wise

And happiness has its own way of takin' its sweet time

No, life ain't always beautiful

Tears will fall sometimes

Life ain't always beautiful

But it's a beautiful ride

What a beautiful ride!

Moving Right Along

Guess what?

We found someone to rent our house in Boulder!  Hip Hip Hooray!

I'm gonna miss this old house :(

I was worried it might be hard to find someone to take over our lease, but less than 30 minutes after listing it on Craigslist, we already had people setting up appointments to view it.  Twelve days later, the new lease was signed.  It was that easy.

Getting that lease signed was a huge relief, but it also made the impending move that much more real.  The new tenants are moving in on May 1st which gives us two weeks to pack up all of our worldly possessions and find a new home.  YIKES!!! 

That's enough to make anyone go into panic mode.  But I'm not freaking out...yet.  I like to think of myself as an expert packer.

Okay, that's a lie.  Paul and I have never really packed our own stuff-we've always hired a team of experts to do that for us (read: mom, dad, Bob and Mary).  Seriously.  When we moved from Boulder to Auburn, Paul and I were in Las Vegas on a trip we had planned months earlier and our parents packed all of our stuff for us while we were gone.  Then when we moved from Auburn back to Boulder, Paul was already living and working in Boulder and couldn't help pack.  Our parents flew out to AL and packed up all of our stuff while I finished up my last week of work.  Oh, and I should probably mention that they drove the moving van across the country with us both times. 





Best. Parents. Ever. 

And lucky for us, they signed themselves up for another packing party next week!  Although, Paul and I will be a little more involved with this one.  We are so blessed.

The thing that is making me a little nervous is finding a new home in Pueblo.  Everything we've looked at so far has made me want to cry.  I'm going down there this weekend and I'm making it my mission to find something habitable.  I'll be back next week with a full report.  Wish me luck! 

April 8th

Four years ago today, on Easter Sunday, my first and only true love asked me to marry him.  It's a day I will never forget for as long as I live.

We had just graduated college and had been living in Alabama for a little over two months.  I knew we would get married someday; I'd known since I was sixteen years old (I wouldn't have moved across the country with him otherwise) but I didn't know when it would happen.  We had never looked at rings or discussed the topic in too much detail.  I figured we would take some time to adjust to life in Alabama before we even thought about that next step.  To say I was surprised would be a huge understatement!

A few days before Easter, I was feeling a little blue.  I was sad about having to spend the holiday away from my family.  I've always been big on holidays and family traditions.  Every year we would go to Mass, have brunch, and my mom would hide eggs and a basket for me, my brother, and sister (yes, even when we were grown adults).  With this in mind, I kept asking Paul if he thought the Easter Bunny would come visit us in Auburn.  He would laugh and say no.

On Easter Sunday morning, I woke up to find one shiny plastic egg on the floor.  I picked it up and looked at Paul who was smiling at me.  I asked him what this was all about and he said he had no idea.  I opened the egg and found a little piece of paper inside with a note written on it.  It said:

At this point, I just thought Paul was being sweet and hiding eggs for me like my mom always did.  And I was so in to it!  Each egg had a clue inside that led to the next.  I began racing around our tiny apartment looking for eggs.  And let me tell you, they were not easy to find!  Paul was following me and laughing the entire time because I probably looked like a total dork.

I finally found the last clue that led to my Easter basket.  The basket had some goodies in it and one final egg.  I opened the egg and here's what I found:

I turned around to look at Paul and found him down on one knee with a beautiful ring in his hand!  I think I said something along the lines of, SERIOUSLY??? and before he could answer me I was jumping in his arms and screaming YES!  He put the ring on my finger and we shared some hugs, tears, kisses and laughs. 

It was such a perfect proposal.  I couldn't have even dreamed anything better.

Happy engagement anniversary Pauly, I love you!

winning-duh

Look what I got in the mail this week...

Sweet Katie of it's in the details hosted a giveaway a few weeks ago and I won!  I never win!  Can you tell I'm excited?  I am now the proud owner of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels-signed by PW herself, I might add!-and some super cute personalized stationery.  I just finished part one of the book and it already has me totally entertained.  It's a fun and easy read.

Getting this little package in the mail put a huge smile on my face.  Thanks again Katie!

On the Road Again

If you read my last post, you saw that Paul got a new job in Pueblo, which means...

THE CREIGHTONS ARE MOVING.......AGAIN!

There are certain things you just come to expect when your husband is a college football coach.  Moving is one of them.  This will be our third move in four years.  And even though we've come to expect it, that doesn't make it any easier.  You know that saying, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade? Well we're makin' some serious lemonade over here!

Ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic, but truth be told, I'm not exactly doing back flips at the thought of moving to Pueblo, Colorado.


But that's ok.  Because one thing we've learned from all this moving around is that sometimes the place you end up loving the most, is the one place you never thought you would.  It's all about your attitude and the people you surround yourself with.  I seriously think I could be happy living in Antarctica as long as I had Paul with me.  Actually, Antarctica is really cold, so I don't know about that, but you get the point.

Moving isn't all bad either.  There are lots of great things about moving, ie: meeting new people/making new friends, getting out of your comfort zone, starting over with a clean slate, etc.  It certainly keeps life interesting!

And the nice thing about Pueblo is it's only 2 hours and 25 minutes south of Boulder, which means we'll easily be able to come "home" and visit our family and friends whenever we're feeling the need.

Paul's been commuting back and forth on the weekends for the past few weeks which hasn't been bad so far.  We plan to do this until I find a job down there and we get our house rented up here, which I'm hoping will happen in the next couple of months. 

For now, we're just taking things day by day and getting excited about what this next step has in store for us!

Oh, and get ready for a lot more move-related posts because I have a feeling this is going to consume me :)  





A Lot Going On

So.....it's been a little over two weeks since I last blogged, but two major things happened in my absence:

1. My dad had open heart surgery.

A few months ago he found out he had a congenital heart defect that was creating an aneurysm in his aorta.  He had the surgery to repair the aneurysm and to replace the valve that was defective.  I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty scary.  My dad is young and healthy, so the risk of death from the surgery was only about 3 or 4 percent, but the fact that they had to cut his chest open, stop his heart, and then start it back up again had us more than a little nervous. 

Thankfully, the surgery was a success and although he has a long recovery ahead, he's doing so great!  My sister, grandparents, and aunt all flew in for the surgery and it was nice to be surrounded by family.  My mom spent every waking minute at the hospital with my dad (she probably would have slept there too if they let her). She has been a rock throughout this whole ordeal. She takes such good care of my dad and I know she's exhausted, but she would never admit it. She is amazing!

And speaking of amazing, take a look at this guy--the picture above was taken the day after surgery and the one below was taken one week after.  My dad is my hero.  He is so strong and has great faith. He never stops pushing himself to be the best he can be.  We are so thankful he is on the mend!

2. Paul was offered, accepted, and started a new job. 

He is now the defensive line coach for the CSU Pueblo (Colorado State University @ Pueblo) football team.  Yay Paul!!  As you can probably guess, this means some big changes for our little family (more on that later).

CSU Pueblo is a Division II school in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).  He started on Monday and is already loving it.  This is a great opportunity for Paul and I am so proud of him.  We are excited to see what this new journey brings!

These past few weeks have been some of the most stressful of my life and I'm so glad they're over..... 

But I have so much to be thankful for and I'm counting all of my many blessings tonight!