Moving on up.

Fish don't fry in the kitchen. Beans don't burn on the grill. The Gates' are moving on up and here is the super-short version of our impending move. 

Picture it. It's January 2012. Your husband is deployed deep into the middle of a combat zone. He is working 12 hour days/7 days a week. He hasn't had a single day off in months. You are preparing for his homecoming, and are getting more and more stressed as the days slowly move along. I'm sure you are wondering, "Why would you be stressed that the love of your life is coming back into your arms after months and months away?" Simply put, people were losing their minds by the minute. Then the landlord decides to lose her mind (presumably) to keep the ball rolling. 

I get an email wanting to know if we will be renewing our lease... at the end of May (keep in mind it's mid-January). Oh and BTW we are going to be going up on your rent by $400/month.   

No. Really.          

That. Just. Happened.

I politely informed our landlord that Josh wasn't really in a place (literally or otherwise) to discuss such important things via small scraps of phone conversations that may or may not be interrupted by another Marine asking about the latest round of low light quals or whatever Marines talk about at work. I told the landlord that we would be unable to tell her anything for quite some time, or at the very least until he got home from this deployment. Apparently your husband being in a war zone isn't a valid reason for not telling someone if you plan to stick around after your lease ends in over 4 months. (I told you everyone was losing their minds.) Long story short, they put the house on the market and it was rented about .05 seconds later. Awesome. I love to move. :(

After being on the base housing list for about 15 months, you would think that being next in line would be a sure thing. Obviously, it wasn't. I spent several weeks looking at all of the wrong places, that were nasty, small, in the wrong location, had no yard, didn't allow pets, were available too soon or too late, etc. I also saw a few of the right places, but they were naturally rented before I could write a check and turn in my application. (Obviously those landlords weren't waiting on the right tenants. "Um! Hello! We are over here!!") 

I was beginning to lose hope, but I kept telling myself that God knows where we will be in 6 weeks and I kinda doubted it would be in a van. Under a bridge. With a collection of shopping carts. And old tattered quilts. 

But deep down I knew that couldn't be the outcome... 

because we don't have a van. 

Needless to say, there is some kind of loophole in the 30-day notice policy for base housing. A couple bought a house and vacated within two weeks, so we got their house! I went down and signed the least yesterday and when I dropped my friend off back in the neighborhood (she lives the next street over!!) I noticed the cleaning people were there. I may or may not have gone in and taken about 394 pictures to show Josh. 

I'm sad about leaving the most awesome neighbors a girl could ask for, but I won't miss our looney landlords, the worst "gardner"of all time, the super slick stairs in this house, or the most insane water bills in the free world (I'll never believe that sane people pay more than $125/month for water.). I'm also stoked about having a back yard Gray can actually play in and enjoy, plenty of room for Fletch to play friz, carpet (Oh how I have missed you!), being so close to a "tot lot,"potentially painting some rooms, and the new couches we are on the verge of buying! Oh and Josh's favorite part. He will be thisclose to the beach. Now we can all be happy! 

Well, that's it for the longest post ever. I hope that you have learned something from all of this, because I think I have. I kept telling myself to 'wait upon the Lord' (this amazing song that we sing at church almost every week) and don't worry because if He is going to take care of the birds in the field, our little family would be A-OK. All the while getting a little more stressed as each acceptable place was snatched out of my grasp. I suspect that God knew all along that we would be moving into that cute little yellow house down by the beach... Maybe next time I will be better at waiting upon the Lord, like that song says. 

Now, please excuse me as I'm headed out to buy some boxes. 

*We are accepting all help offered in the upcoming move. :)