Mysterious ways

I feel the need to express a lot of my feelings lately.  For some reason my mind has been dwelling on a lot of positive things in my life (probably because I've been praying to recognize the blessings I have).  I have so much to be thankful for!  Things have seemed to fall into place right when they've needed to, although sometimes it felt like it needed to happen sooner ;) I feel like this post should be given in 3 months for Thanksgiving, but it can't wait until then!  This post is a lot about how the Lord works in mysterious ways.

As most of you know, we've been married almost 5 years (wow, time flies!) and our lives have changed dramatically since that happy day.  We started off in Iowa with me working full time at a place I still call my favorite job ever.  Mainstream Living was my whole life and I still talk about how I miss it!  We then moved to Cedar City for Tyler to finish school.  When we loaded up our moving trailer we filled it up 1/3 of the way.  We had a mattress and box spring, a card table, two folding chairs, an unfinished night stand, a 14" tv and a small recliner we got from my work because they were throwing it out.  I laugh about it because we have moved 7 times since we got married and our "assets" keep piling up! 

We lived in the same town as Tyler's parents for almost 3 years and living there has given me a different perspective on living in Utah.  Sorry in advance for all those Utah fanatics, but this might get graphic ;) I was born in Utah and lived in Idaho for 10 years and then spent all my teen+ years in Iowa, and I think growing up outside of Utah makes you develop a stereotype of it.  And most of those stereotypes are very much true anywhere from Provo up to Ogden, as we found out for ourselves living in Riverton later on!  But Cedar City has it's own feel and personality.  I grew to love it and made some of the best friends there!  We had Lyndi there and call it home. 

Tyler applied to Optometry school in 2011 and ended up not getting in anywhere, but got wait listed instead so we waited around all summer just to find out we didn't get in.  And since he was done with school he couldn't work on the grounds crew anymore, so with my little work that I could get we ended up with only enough money to pay rent and used out tax return and credit card for everything else. Tyler looked everywhere for jobs and couldn't find one until one night he ended up with 3 offers at pretty much the same time! He had an offer from a friend to work construction and an offer to be a soccer coach for a high school (which we still think would have been AWESOME!) and to work in an Optometrist's office with his cousin.  We talked about it and decided that he should try again for school another year and see where that gets us and then do the restaurant. So he took the job with his cousin up in Riverton, retook the entrance exam, got a better score and ended up getting into Salus (where we are now) and SCCO (southern cali) and got wait listed AGAIN for his number one pick in Oregon.  He also applied for the WICHE grant which is only given to 2 students per year but would pay half his tuition for ALL OF HIS GRAD SCHOOLING.  We turned down SCCO because of me... I didn't think he would get the grant anyway and I didn't want to live in LA and my mom lives 4 hours from us now and it helped so much when Emerie was born! We then found out after we turned SCCO down that Tyler got the WICHE grant... sigh, I'm still sick to my stomach about it!  The catch was that the WICHE grant only applied to western schools, so even though he got it he couldn't use it!  Seriously thinking of how much that would have helped us after school has brought me to tears several times, including almost right now.

We seriously considered going a much different direction with our lives (and if Optometry doesn't pan out, we will do this) haha.  We have had an idea for a dutch oven restaurant, well Tyler has had the idea for a long time, and we looked into buying buildings and equipment and things when he didn't get in to school that first year.  So if 10 years from now we own a restaurant, we are either doing both Optometry and the restaurant, OR things didn't pan out... haha.

During the time we lived in Riverton, I was beginning to feel like we weren't going to get another baby for a long time and right at that moment I ended up with the legitimate stomach flu and then found out several days later when my nausea didn't go away that I was finally pregnant!  Looking back at how long we tried and how things ended up, I am truly grateful for Emerie being born when she was.  I was really pregnant when we moved but insurance came through 3 days before she was born and I would have hated moving across the country with a 2 year old and a newborn! 

Anyone who has talked with us recently also knows that student loans haven't panned out as well as we thought either.  There have been several surprises, such as discovering we have to dish out $2000 worth of equipment 3 DAYS before they need it for class... EVERY semester... for the last THREE semesters... On top of that we have learned recently that the amount that we applied for and the amount that we recieved has been SO SO SO different because the school puts a cap on how many loans you can recieve.  So this means where Tyler is quite literally 1 out of I believe 3 people married and the ONLY one with kids in his entire class, there are no exceptions made for people in our situation.  We are one of the only ones not splitting rent with roommates, and need to afford diapers and clothing and things for our kids.  We found this out AFTER we moved into a mouse and cockroach-free, more expensive apartment of course :) But we've realized that we're here in Philly for a reason.  Sometimes I'm skeptical of us finding a reason, but I'm sure it's there!  We've made some amazing friends out here and our ward has been phenomenal. 

So the other day I was really struggling paying my tithing (granted it wasn't a lot of tithing, but nonetheless it needed paid) because we REALLY need any money we can get, but I paid it anyway, and 3 days later I got a call from the hospital in Riverton saying that we OVERPAID for an appointment for when Lyndi was really sick and when I had prenatal appointments for Emerie. Guys, this happened over a year ago!  I was like "Are you kidding?  Who calls and refunds money these days?!?!"  Strengthens my testimony of tithing and also of how Heavenly Father takes care of us when we do what we're supposed to be doing.

I guess my post was really about how much I love my church and the people it's brought into my life and the knowledge I have because of it. LOVE MY LIFE!