adventures in nebraska

hi friends!

it's been just crazy since we pulled into town. i'll give you the short version.....

the original apartments we were supposed to have weren't ready, so the manager had another apartment a block from the high school for us. when i went to pick up the keys she THEN told me the previous renters had cats. uhm, i'm very allergic to cats and they send me into an asthma attack! so the kids and i went over to check it out and sure enough, my throat started to close, my eyes started to swell and my chest started to tighten up. fun stuff. so the next morning i went in and cancelled our lease!! that of course left us on tuesday with no place to live, except the day inn in town. there was another apartment but it wouldn't be ready for a few weeks. all i could do is cry. i felt so alone and at a total loss of what to do. there isn't anything here to rent. everything is old, and old is ok (temporarily) if it is clean and not smelling like cats. so later that night after going to dinner we arrived back to our room to find this wonderful fruit basket from the Relief Society! Shortly after that, the Branch President and his daughter stopped by....they are such wonderful people. anyways, his daughter offered to let us stay in her apartment until we found a place to call our own. so so generous. i felt some sort of relief but knew that with everything else, i needed to get these kids settled.

everything has gone wrong since we got here. how much must i be tested?? i will NEVER EVER move again by myself, even though i am quite capable. our mail is so screwed up that we have a few checks missing...the truck with our goods went to Wyoming and they put ALL of our stuff in storage instead of splitting our apartment items (longer story). the kids clothes are in a storage facility an hour away, and again, our mail will probably never make it after being changed FOUR TIMES!! it's such a mess. kyle is home from school today with a fever-probably from the stress of it all. everyone is on pins an needles, snapping at each other. so we called the Branch President and asked for some blessings to help calm things and help us find what it is we need to do.

yesterday morning, jessica and i went to the post office to try to get help with the mail mess when the clerk offered some names of renters in town. then this rugged guy walks in and she yells out 'hey, so and so, do you have an apartment?" he said 'YES' and offered to take us to see it. all jessica and i could do is hold our breath. a few minutes later we were walking into this really awesome old 1940 something building and down the hall was our new (old) home! it is so not my style AT ALL...but it is fun, and reminds me of something my grandparents would have lived in. it is this totally cool 60-70's style (retro) apartment. 27oo sq. ft. apartment. it is sitting above a commercial office space on the main downtown strip. it is the nicest apartment we had seen since arriving in town! all the carpet is different colors, it doesn't smell old and it's super clean. best part, it has this awesome DARK ROOM...huge, room. jessica and i were so excited to take the kids and show lyndsie!! anyways, pictures will come soon. hopefully later today. remember, i said we were on an adventure for the next year and this is such a part of it.

i'm so thankful for blessings, both large and small. i'm thankful for prayer and for wonderful small town people who have so graciously helped us in all aspects. i will write more later in regards to the town, schools and everything else...but just know that we love it here!

*EDITED* well, so there are some smokers in the building. UGH UGH UGH!!! they seem to smoke in the hallway so when you walk in all you breathe is smoke. this totally sucks. the girls sprayed almost a whole can of febreze up stairs while someone was smoking...lol. i seriously hope i can make it through the next year as cigarette smoke also sends me into asthma mode.