Life and the Curveballs it throws at us!

It has been a crazy weekend. We are getting ready to move to our new apartment - it's a duplex that is closer downtown, around the sugarhouse area. We got sick of spending so much on gas money! It has been an interesting process to get us to where we are today, Sept. 16th. A little background... our current apartment contract is up on the 23rd so for a couple of months now we have been looking at a bunch of apartments and condos in the salt lake area. To find a fairly decent place, close to down town the prices range from $990-$1,100/month - at least what we were finding. A few weeks ago we checked out an apartment seriously just down the street from campus - like 5 minutes away and fell in love. It was in our price range, had SUPER nice appliances, two bedroom, washer/dryer already in there and we just loved it. We also had been banking on us both getting raises at work which we deserve this fall. We submitted our application, they said we were top on their list they just had to do background checks. Well, a week later we hadn't really heard anything which was weird because we felt SO, SO, SO good about it. It was seriously perfect for us. It was a younger couple that owned the place and they told us it was taking time because they had an interested buyer... we were bummed. They said they were waiting for an offer but they thought it was like a 30% chance the sell would go through as they had multiple offers in the past that hadn't gone through. We were a little hopeful. Well, another week past and finally Colin text them to see what the deal was and they informed us that it looked like the apartment would sell. We were bummed and a little discouraged.

Well, just over a week ago we checked out a place close to downtown, just not as close as the previous place. It is an old place, but is in good condition considering. The rent was like $270 less than the place we didn't get and we just felt really good about the idea of saving some money over the next year paying less rent. We applied... and we got the apartment. AWESOME.

Friday Colin went to work and got the news he was being laid off.....blah:( The architecture firm he has been working at for the past 2 years is a great firm but very, very unfortunately they had been struggling for some time now to get some good bids and had to lay off 9 people and gave all employees still there a 5% pay cut and the owners a 10% cut as a result of the hard times. It has been an emotional weekend, more so on my end - Colin always has a good attitude about things, I am lucky to have him. He is SO extremely talented and I know it was hard for the firm to let him go but I guess times are still tough in this economy.  I have felt stressed all weekend but today I feel extremely blessed to have the wonderful family that we do, and a wonderful, positive husband. They have been supportive and encouraging and I know that the Lord is so mindful of us and feel that this is the right thing for us right now. I know... right thing? really? Colin wasn't going to finish school until april because he wouldn't do his final project until spring as a result of working 30 hours/week, however, now that he won't be working he can take a studio class again that will count as his project and he will be DONE SCHOOL FOREVER by December. 3 months away and we can move on to the next chapter of our lives! As much as the work thing isn't our ideal, him being able to finish up school now is a huge blessing. I have to keep reminding myself of that - that the Lord maybe knew this was a possibility and that us getting the cheaper apartment was for a reason.

Well, today Colin got a text from the owner of the apartment we loved but they were selling, and apparently the sale didn't go through. They asked if we still wanted to rent from them and if so, we could start moving in tomorrow! Another wow. Sadly we told them we found another place. We could not afford their place now and we feel so blessed we found the place we did. Again, even though we had wanted the other apartment so badly, I feel so strongly that the Lord knew how our situation would end up and that this cheaper place would still work with only me working this semester and Colin working hard to finish up school. I feel pretty overwhelmed, and may break down a few more times, but I have faith the Lord is mindful of us and that this is the right situation for us right now. We will have the freedom to go wherever the right job opportunity for Colin is after December - there's nothing holding us back. Hopefully with more time we will see how this was a good thing:)