Year in Review

As all the leaves start to fall and we bunker down for winter, my mind turns to contemplating all the events that have happened since the last time the leaves fell. For the last few years, September has been a major month in my life. I never thought much of September before. It was always just the month after school started, nothing noteworthy. But since Indy was born in 2012, Septembers have had much more significance.

In September 2013, our world changed again. We were living in Madison, WI and loving the changing seasons, when Lewis came home with the upsetting news that he had lost his job. We had some good leads but no job materialized. So 1 year to the day after we arrived, we left beautiful Madison and moved to Seattle, WA.

I've been looking forward to living in Seattle for a very long time. It sounded so romantic (and not just because of Twilight!) with the beautiful greens and blues and grays. I love the rain and couldn't imagine being sick of it. So I was optimistic when we arrived. But our living situation was less than ideal. An old friend of Lewis' was kind enough to offer us a room in his home. He has a beautiful house with plenty of room and we got along great with him and his wife. However, they don't have children and they do not want children and the don't really like children. So bringing in an energetic 18 month old who hasn't learned to talk yet but communicates plenty through pointing and screaming, was just a bad idea. It was incredibly stressful trying to keep him quiet all day and all night, while they worked from their home office. After 4 months, we had all had it! Lewis was getting nowhere in his job hunt even though he was putting in 8 hours a day looking and we were in one of the biggest hotspots in the world for video games. So we bought a plane ticket for Indy and me to fly back to Utah and Lewis drove the 17 hours in our car.

Arriving back in Utah was nice. The Adairs (best family ever!) were happy to let Indy run around like a little hooligan and my mom was so happy to have us back. So after a few weeks of enjoying family and friends we took a job at camp. We love Beaver High Adventure Base with all our hearts. If we ever won the lottery, we would buy that place just so we could keep it alive and beautiful. But this year did not go well. The Management was ill prepared and gone 70% of the time. Half way through the first week, I told them I couldn't be head cook because it was just too stressful taking care of Indy and trying to teach them how to run camp and keep everyone on task in addition to my normal duties. So they got another head cook and I became assistant cook and still took care of Indy, my nieces and did most of the program director's job, the commissioner's job and some of the camp directors' jobs. Some of that was to be expected since I was the only person reliably at the Lodge. But I still came back from camp worn out and sick of doing stuff other people were supposed to be doing.

Unfortunately, coming back from camp was no less stressful. We moved into my mom's house where Joe, Josie their two kids, my Uncle John, and Ben, Windy and their 4 kids were all living (It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house). Joe, Josie, and John were supposed to have moved out before the end of the summer but they had been looking for months and no one would rent to them. (I don't know of any landlord who is looking for smokers with a criminal record, and a bankruptcy in the last 2 years. Do you? Seriously, if you do, let me know!) Ben and Windy's family were coming back from camp too and just needed a place to stay for a few weeks while the paperwork for the house they were buying went through. Unfortunately, that turned into over a month, since buying a house is always more complicated than you think. So Lewis and I lived in a tent in the back yard for a few weeks because we just couldn't stand being in the house with all those crazy people! Really, it wasn't that much different from camp.

Ben and Windy now have a lovely home that they are in the process of painting and doing minor repairs on. So I thought things would quiet down a bit but it's never quiet in the Shaffer house for long.

One night when I was feeling particularly domestic, a knock came at the door. I put down the salsa I was making and made sure the timer was set for the banana bread in the oven, and answered the door in my apron. There was 6 big scary looking guys standing on the porch. I thought, "Is this a biker gang? Are they collecting donations for M.A.D.D. or something?" But they introduced themselves as the sheriff's department, showed me their badges and handed me a search warrant. They searched the house while I took the kids into another room. They came in later to inform me that they had found drugs and that Josie, who was high, was being taken into custody. We asked them if we could keep Josie's children with us instead of taking them into state custody. They said that would be alright as long as Josie agreed to it. I have to say I was quite impressed by how polite and considerate they were. It was stressful but not as scary as it could have been and the kids didn't get scared which I was really happy about.

With Josie awaiting trial, I've been watching a 3 year old, and two 2 year olds during the day while Joe is at work. It's been really hard on me. I'm so used to Indy who is very independent and only wants my attention when he's hungry or hurt. Ethan (3) is pretty much the exact opposite. He wants to talk to me all day long, never takes a nap and wants me to help him do everything. Becca (2) is pretty independent like Indy but you have to watch out because she is a master at getting into things and making huge messes. We have our good days (today was one!) and our very bad days when it seems like I'll scream myself hoarse and there is always at least one kid in time out. But we are getting better at it and Becca is even starting to talk which she wasn't doing at all when we moved in. But I am still looking forward to when they move out and I'll only have my own family to take care of.

As I'm sure you've surmised, this year has been a really hard one for us. I don't think I've ever been this stressed in all my life, even during finals. In fact, I think this year has been more stressful than all the stress from my entire life combined. I've been avoiding blogging because I didn't want to unload all this drama onto anyone. (It's bad enough that I have to deal with it!) But things have just started looking up and I'm finally ready to put this all behind me.

I have two amazingly awesome announcements to make. Lewis got a job! Not just any little crappy job (several of those have turned him down because he's overqualified) but a great high paying job in his field! We are through the roof happy... and relieved! It could not have come at a better time. The savings we have been living on for a year are almost completely decimated, and we haven't been employed at Christmas time in 3 years. So I am so excited! I might actually have the money to send Christmas cards this year! The other great news is, we're expected baby number 2!