… Chapter Two

Sunday we were to pack up to go home. We had planned to go to church in the morning with the rest of the family that was still around. It looked like we would have to either skip or leave early to pack our things and check out of the hotel. We came up with an alternate plan. We would sit through Sacrament meeting, drop the kids off at their classes and go back to quickly pack up and return for the 3rd hour.

When we returned to church, the lesson was on obedience. I recall hearing about Abraham and the commandment he received to take his only son to offer as a sacrifice. In teaching about Abraham’s obedience it was pointed out that he did not question but followed with blind faith. Of course an angel stopped him from sacrificing his only son, but not until after he had proven his faith.

There were other discussions that talked about the times when we need to have blind faith from time to time when we don’t know how something will work out but we obey a commandment anyway. I think there is a distinct difference between blind faith and just walking blindly. There was something special about the lessons taught that day at church in Oregon that carried through the remainder of the day.

After church and lunch at my uncle’s, we headed back home with a stop at my mom’s house. I was able to ask my aunt again about what options we had to consider if we were to attempt to purchase the property. I left with my family, thinking that we would contact an attorney to get an idea for what the requirements would be to purchase as a group. On the road, I called an attorney that we knew to ask about our options. Before finishing the call, my wife got the impression that the discussion was unnecessary because we were supposed to buy the property and move there.

Huh? How was that supposed to work? It started to feel right and that was terrifying. The lesson on obedience and blind faith came to mind. If it were the right thing to do, it would certainly require faith and a lot of hard work.

We had a two hour drive to try and talk some sense into eachother. As the drive continued, the impressions we were getting now seemed unmistakeable. I called our old bishop who had married us 4 years ago to ask for a blessing. For those unfamiliar with asking for blessings, a person with the authority of the Priesthood can place their hands on another’s head who is sick or otherwise in need of counsel, comfort, or healing. We wanted to seek additional inspiration and confirmation before pursuing anything so life changing. Because it was getting late, that blessing would take place the following morning…

As mentioned in my previous post, I am beginning to write down some of my experiences of the past few weeks that have really taken me by surprise. The primary purpose is to give me a place to reflect on how the most unexpected changes in my family’s life have begun to unfold. This first post just explains the background of our journey.  The posts will all be in my new category: The Big Move

The recent rollercoaster began with our recent trip to my family reunion in Oregon. Months ago, my wife made it clear that she was not interested in attending a family reunion where we would have to drive 3 children several hours to a place I would see family members I never speak to much anyway and where I would likely get caught up interacting with people she doesn’t know while she tries to keep up with the kids by herself. I understood where she was coming from and it wasn’t so important to me that I would really try to convince her to go. It surprised me when out of the blue one day, she told me to get a hotel reservation and to RSVP for the reunion. Since the reunion was on my birthday, she wanted to give me the opportunity to go.

It’s never really easy to take an infant, a toddler, and a 7 year old on a road trip. In May, we had a tough enough time as we took a weekend to travel to Portland. After the May road trip, my wife vowed to never go to Portland again and to never take another road trip with the kids again. This time we planned it differently. On the last trip, we left at 3pm and got stuck several times in rush hour traffic between Seattle and Olympia. The kids also got long naps making it impossible to get them to sleep at the hotel before 11 pm. This time, we left after 7 pm so if the kids fell asleep after an hour or two, it was bedtime anyway so it would be easier to get them to sleep. Traffic is also much easier after 7. The drive was mostly pleasant. As we approached Portland, we were treated to a beautiful lightning display. This lasted for several miles.

Friday, July 13th was our first full day in Oregon. We started our day by heading to Lincoln City from our hotel in Keizer. We found a great place to let the kids play on the beach.

After some time at the beach, we went to my uncle’s house to have dinner and visit with family members in his backyard. During the visit, one of my aunts mentioned the farm that my mom’s uncle lived on for many years in upstate New York. After he passed away in 2004, it became necessary for his wife to move out. Now there is an interested buyer in the house and a portion of the 75 acres. The remaining land would be split up and sold. There are members of the family that wanted to find a way to pool resources to purchase the property so it doesn’t leave the family. I knew I couldn’t exactly put a whole lot of money or effort into it but I wanted in on whatever idea someone came up with.

The next day was my birthday. We spent much of the day at the state park where the family reunion was held. I had a couple conversations about the property but the prospects weren’t very good. There were just the beginnings of ideas without any plan of what steps we would take. After leaving the park, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and ended up at a Mexican restaurant for dinner with my cousin and his family. It was the best Mexican food I had ever tasted.

The next day things would start getting really interesting. I was approaching one of the biggest pivotal moments of my life without even realizing it…

So what’s the deal?  I haven’t written much of anything in a while.  Am I lazy?  Well come to think of it, I guess I am a little lazy, but that’s not why I’ve been away.  I’ve just had an extraordinarily busy July.  From camping on the 4th of July to a family reunion in Oregon the next week, a weekend in upstate New York the next, and camping again last weekend, I’ve been doing a bunch of stuff on top of my job and working on the businesses my wife and I are starting.  So, now I just need a little time to catch up.

I had just started to get on a roll with posting the stupid punchlines for Last Comic Standing.  Since I am on the west coast where the show is broadcast 3 hours later than it is on the east coast, I had to pay for the jokes and their punchlines through text messages in order to post them here on time.  A couple weeks ago, I sent one of these text messages and instead of the usual overpriced punchline, I got this: “NBC LCS Punchline is no longer active.  Reply MORE for a joke a day for $2.99/month.”  I couldn’t believe it.  My evil plan worked.  By posting the punchlines for free here, I managed to take away all the would be paying customers, convincing them to get the punchlines here instead.

How about Dairy Queen?  I posted earlier about my frustration with their debit card policies.  I have since visited a different local Dairy Queen with very different results.  Not only do they not have a cardboard sign informing me of a ridiculous fee for credit cards, the total on the receipt matched the total they told me at the drive thru.  Speaking of these stupid fees, I can understand preferring cash over credit or debit card because of the cost of processing.  But charging the customer extra for using a card rather than cash is bad business practice.  Rather than charging 50 cents to accept debit, Dairy Queen needs to factor in that cost when pricing their products.  It may seem like a great idea to pass on the cost to the consumer but imposing fees drives away business.  If I see a fee for making a purchase, I will be much less likely to return.  If that cost has to be passed on to me, raise the price of your products instead.  If my $10 order changes to a $12 order because the prices go up, I will return and just pay more.  If it goes up because I pay with debit, I will make every reasonable effort to avoid returning (until my wife gets a craving).  I always feel like I am being scammed when I am charged fees.  Enough about my rant.  I was just going to say that the other DQ is way better.  There are no extra fees.  The best part is that their entire staff seemed competent.  I receive much faster and much better service at the Juanita DQ than the Bothell DQ.  In fact, the Juanita DQ is the only one I have ever had fast service.

Over the next several days, I will be posting about some huge changes that are underway in my family.  There are some experiences that I have had that are very personal that I ordinarily wouldn’t make public.  They will be written for me so I can have a place to look back and remember the events leading to these changes.  If you feel like reading along, it’s actually a rather fascinating story.  The beginning will probably be posted later today.