Second and Last Port Orchard Post!

So much has changed in the last few months, so this blog has become pretty outdated. Most importantly, we are no longer in Port Orchard! I'll try to pick up where we left off.

So let me start by saying we were really enjoying Port Orchard. We felt welcomed and at home there remarkably quickly, and met so many great people. Our ward was amazing. We met relatives of Rob's in the ward, and they saved us a seat in church every Sunday. We were invited to dinners, play dates, birthday parties, and craft days and so quickly felt like we fit in and had good friends. And our neighbors were amazing! They welcomed us and gave us yard toys and Collin still talks about the neighbor kids regularly. It was because of all these wonderful people we met that we felt comfortable and happy there.

Everything was great, except one important thing: Rob's job. We had felt good about the decision to accept this job, and tried to be positive about the job and our future there. Rob got nothing but positive feedback from patients and employers, and felt things were going well. But then, a few things started to trigger doubts. When we interviewed for the job back in June of last year (I was there too), the employer told us the numbers of the clinic's income, his plans for schedule, and plan for pay increasing over the first three years. We were happy with what was discussed. However, after moving there and starting work, we got the feeling this associateship hadn't really been as well thought-out as we'd assumed. Rob started hearing things to the effect of, "The schedule we had told you about before isn't going to work, and I can't come up with another one. Can you?" and "After doing a calculation of the percentage I told you you'd earn in the third year, I realized you'd be earning more than me. So, we'll have to figure something else out when we get there." And then there was his first paycheck- grossly and obviously miscalculated. On each of these things, we gave them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they haven't really thought through every detail, but they must still know what they're doing, right?

Well, during the 5th week of work, they went through the clinic's numbers with Rob. They had failed to let us know that in the 7 months since we'd originally interviewed, the clinic's income had dropped significantly. They explained that at the amount they were currently bringing in, after paying overhead costs, staff, etc. and paying Rob his small salary, they themselves were bringing home nothing. Even still at this point, we had no choice but to be positive, and figured that if they hired him knowing these were their numbers, they must have a plan.

Over that weekend, I tried to push away questions of whether this job was going to work out and whether moving to Port Orchard was a mistake. I felt like we were happy in the town, though I had a hard time picturing a long term future there. But, we had made a commitment to this job and signed a year lease for our house, so all we could do was give it a good try.

Monday morning, they suddenly let him go. No explanation or apology or even remorse for the position they knowingly put us in. We were shocked, confused, angry, and stressed. But, the most surprising emotion that came over me at that moment was relief. We didn't have to wonder any more. We knew the answer and we could move on. Our options were open again! Yes, we realized what a horrible situation this put us in financially and that there was lots of stress in our immeditate future, but we felt the peace of knowing that our lives were entirely in the Lord's hands.
We had felt confirmation of our decision to move to Port Orchard, and couldn't deny that now. We knew we'd be guided to the next step. And really, if that job wasn't going to work out, we were glad to have gotten out of there sooner than later.

We didn't waste any time mourning that 5-week disaster of a job, and within a couple of hours, Rob was out the door again bringing his resume to another chiropractor in town. Tuesday, he scoured chiropractic classifieds and contacted dozens of doctors. Thursday, he received one good job offer in Puyallup and Friday he recieved a second in Battle Ground. Our challenge over the weekend was deciding between the two. Sunday was spent fasting, praying, receiving a blessing, and ultimately deciding on Puyallup (much to my surprise- moving back closer to Portland was an appealing thought). He started the following Tuesday.

Rob was able to commute for the first few weeks, but that really was not ideal. He'd leave early and barely make it home by bedtime for the kids. The boys and I tried to stay busy, but were in kind of a limbo stage of knowing our time there was going to end soon. Rob finally found a house for us to move into, and we moved in the middle of April. Looking back, this all just seems like a blur. Moving for the second time in 3 months was really really annoying, but we did it and we're here and I think I've blocked those few weeks out of my memory. Everything happened so fast. I should mention that we had a lot of difficulty and stress with breaking our lease in Port Orchard, but we're past it now. It was expensive, but we knew it would be.

Anyway, Rob is very happy in his new job. It is definitely a much better situation and we were blessed to find it at the exact right time. We'll have to write later about Puyallup, but I just wanted to finish off our journal of our Port Orchard days! We had some fun times to remember.

Collin became Spiderman at our neighbor Breanna's birthday party.

 

We had one day with tons of snow! We had already put Collin to bed this night, then my neighbor called around 10pm to see if we wanted to play. We checked on Collin and he was still awake, so we bundled up and headed out! When there's only one good snow day, you have to take advantage of it!

The next day was perfect for snow play. The twins' first real snow experience! (This is Elliott.)

We made a snowman!

Me and Truman

Snowball fight!



Collin learned to write his name the day before Valentine's Day! I had shown him how a few weeks earlier but he hadn't quite picked up on it, then surprised me one day by doing it all by himself. Now he writes it all the time. (This picture isn't from the first time, but sometime around then).



Valentine's Day! We went to a little party in the morning, and the boys loved eating their treats. (Truman)

Elliott

These little puddle jumpers (E,T)

A couple of babies trying to get into my cereal. (T in front)

You can't see it, but the twins are staring at the neighbor's dog in this picture. They would cautiously walk towards the fence and make barking noises, but they wouldn't get too close. The dog's name was Shadow, and now at our new house, every time they hear a dog barking from the other side of the fence, they both yell, "Da-Dow!" (T,E)

Collin and our neighbor Jaimon. He would come over and play with Collin while the twins were napping. Collin loved it and so did I! Collin still talks about how he loves and misses Jaimon.

We rode a ferry to the Ottos' house one day. The boys loved their first boat ride!

Truman and Mommy

Elliott and Daddy

Port Orchard did have some beautiful scenery. This was right outside the library. We would go there every Friday for Story Time.

Elliott wanted to be festive and colored the floor green for St. Patrick's Day!

Collin's special leprechaun hat and pot of gold picture.

Jackson Park (T,E)

The best thing about our Port Orchard house was the huge backyard! Perfect for picnics.

Also the bunnies that came out of the "woods" (greenbelt) were pretty awesome.

We painted with pudding one day. It was messy. The boys mostly just wanted to eat it.



Truman

Elliott

 

Elliott had his first urgent care trip after splitting his eyebrow. I don't really even know what happened. I was bathing the boys and Elliott was the first to get out of the tub. As I was getting the other boys out, he ran into my bedroom and then started crying. When I got him, his eyebrow had a cut. We assume he fell against the edge of our bed frame. Anyway, Rob was at work in Puyallup so I called my neighbor who ran right over. We decided we didn't need to rush him in since the bleeding had mostly stopped. But then later that evening, we decided we should bring him in to make sure the wound wouldn't keep opening up. Rob took him. They just glued it together and put medical tape over it, and Elliott was a brave little boy.

Tru on the little dog rocker we borrowed.

Collin

Elliott

Truman and Jaimon

And our last picture in Port Orchard: Collin and Jaimon coloring pictures.
 

Lots of good memories from Port Orchard! We enjoyed the 3 months we spent there (well, besides the obvious parts).

Port Orchard

We are here now in Port Orchard, Washington. We've been planning for months now for Rob to work with another doctor here, and we're excited that it's finally here! 

Our last weeks (months?) in Portland were so busy, and really stressful! I'll just summarize some of the main stressors of the time, for our own memories:

With the plan to move to Washington, Rob had been working on his application for a Washington license since October. We knew the application would take 6-10 weeks to process after everything was turned in, so we were really anxious to speed things along. He had also applied for a postceptorship to allow him to work before he was licensed, but that was denied, so waiting for a license was all we could do. The problem was that they needed his school transcript, and he wouldn't have one until he received all the visits he needed in the clinic, and that was taking longer than we had planned. So he took on extra shifts to try to speed the process, and was finally finished on the 8th or so. Almost a month after graduation.

 I was losing my mind knowing that every day that the application couldn't be turned in yet was another day he wouldn't be able to work. On top of that, we had been misinformed about finances and loan limits at the time, and were planning to be able to take out one last student loan to get us through until work would start, but found out we couldn't. So, we were looking at 6-10 weeks before work would even start, and knew our money would deplete quickly with moving expenses. 

Another stress was housing. We had a really hard time deciding which would be more wise: moving into a little apartment temporarily then moving again (ahhhh!) when we had a better income, or paying a little more to rent a house that we could comfortably stay in for a while. If we didn't have 3 little kids, it would have been an easier decision, but I really tried to picture how I would ever go anywhere if we lived on a second floor apartment, or one without parking nearby. . . and no Washer/Dryer was definitely a dealbreaker. But then again, I would also feel sick moving into a nice place and then potentially having no paycheck for 2 months. We went back and forth so many times, and we were quickly approaching the end of our 30-day notice without a place to move into. 

Then there was the responsibility of packing and cleaning our entire house with 3 little boys who still needed lots of attention. Moving is the worst. Add the emotions of leaving our home, friends, and city we've grown to love, and it was a hard time. 

Now that I've complained about all the stress we had, I'll share some of the miracles that followed:

Even though our 30 day notice should have ended on the 11th, our managers said it was fine if we delayed it. We were so glad we could delay because we weren't ready, but still felt like we needed to move as soon as possible, even though it would cost more.  It was a leap of faith, but we gave ourselves just one more week to finalize everything and move. We were definitely inspired to move at this time and it worked out perfectly.

We ended up getting accepted for the house we wanted. We felt good about it because the price wasn't drastically higher than the apartments we were looking at, but it still had the things on our wish list: 3 bedrooms, a nice flat yard, and a garage! It's nothing fancy,  but it feels spacious and we love the neighborhood. 

We had lots of friends help us move out, and it went smoothly. Rob's parents came to help with everything, which was a huge help. A few men from our new ward came to help us move in, and made it go quickly. 

We spent a few days working hard to get settled in. Just a few days after moving, we got the best news: Rob's license was processed and active already! It took less than 2 weeks. This was what we had been praying for the hardest. We had one week with him home helping unpack, then he was working the next Monday. It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. We know that we were guided in our decisions and blessed through it all.

We're feeling more and more settled in to Port Orchard. Rob really likes his job and the people he works with. We really like our house and neighborhood, and we've met a few friends. We like our ward a lot. We've discovered that Rob has relatives in the ward, so it has been fun meeting them. And Collin loves being a Sunbeam! Collin also loves having his own room, and the twins did pretty well with all the changes. We've taken a few pictures since we've been here:

Three blonde babies in a wagon. Checking out the park down the street from us!

Reading time in the play room!

Just sitting on their giraffes, watching some TV. . .

Elliott was sick one day and just needed me to hold him all day long. I was so proud of Collin and Truman for entertaining themselves so well. Collin was being so sweet and sharing his tools in this picture. And yes they stayed in their PJs all day because we had furnace issues that day and it was cold.

Reading in their new little robot chair.

One thing I'm so happy about is that the Ottos moved to Washington as well! A little over an hour away from us. We got to see them for Asher's birthday party, which they held at a relative's house that was only about 45 minutes away. We're glad we'll still be able to get together with them on occasion. I really wish we were still neighbors though! We'd be hard pressed to ever find friends as good as them.

We are excited for this new adventure! Hopefully now that most of the craziness is over, I can attempt to update the blog more regularly.

New Year

After Christmas, my parents came for a visit! They stayed with us for a couple of days, then went to visit my Grandma in Whidbey Island.  

Danielle and her family made a last minute trip to Yakima for a funeral, so we all took the chance to go there and see them for a day. We didn't really get any pictures of the kids together, but we all went to Kids Castle and the boys had a blast playing in the play structures, ball pits, trampolines, and bouncy slide. We also swam at the hotel pool and went to a buffet for dinner.

T, E. They weren't sure about the ball pit at first.

My dad was in the Savior of the World play and grew a beard for his part. He kept it long enough to get a few Santa pics in with the kids.

We got to stay with the Grimmers while we were there too. We thought it was cute that Collin sat quietly listening to his grandpa read some story about Squanto.

My parents left on the 4th, and the plan was to move a week later on the 11th. Because of delays with school, licensing, and finding housing, we made a last minute decision to change our moving date to a week later. This ended up being perfect, because the whole week after my parents left, Rob and I took turns being too sick to do anything but lie down. We were glad to have an extra week to recover, pack, and do a few final favorite Portland activities! 

Getting ready to move meant lots of empty cupboards and things to get into! (Collin and Elliott)

One last trip to the Zoo. . . and it was the best Zoo day ever! The leopard was pacing right in front of the glass, the hippo was out of the water walking around, the polar bear was doing its trademark "dance",  and best of all: the lion cubs were out and playing! 

Elliott saw the lions and made the "roar" sound!

When I asked Collin what animals he wanted to see at the zoo, he said "a zebra, giraffe, hippo, and lion." I hope he wasn't too disappointed that it wasn't just like a Madagascar movie. . . 

He loves the lions and says "There's Simba! There's Simba's daddy!"

The Sea Lion is always a favorite too! The boys were all mesmerized.

We also had to hit up Salt and Straw one last time! SO good!!!

Our awesome friends had a going away party for us and the Ofisas who moved the same week as us. We miss our Portland friends! I think we will always treasure our time being a student family because of all the wonderful friends we had, many of which were neighbors too. Our 3 children were born there, many of our friends' children were born there, and it was so good to have so many friends in the same stage of life as us. We forgot to get a group photo, but we had a lot of fun with everyone at the party!

Pinata time

We'll miss Portland so much! We are completely different people than when we moved there. Portland is where we became parents, where we became runners, where Rob became a doctor. Where we experienced hard, hard trials, where we witnessed miracles, where our faith grew. We'll always cherish the memories.