This post is all about my stress, worries, and insomnia concerning rotations. When we first got into school I had no idea that rotations were going to be such a huge decision in our lives! Maybe I'm just looking into it too much, but I feel it weighing down on me physically and emotionally! I feel like I can't decide one way or another what would be best for our family, so I'm posting this just to get it all written and get people's opinions if they have any wise advice. If I think about it too much, I start lashing out haha, someone tell us what to do! (I mean, don't actually tell us what to do, but opinions may help)
Our options, however far-fetched they may be, are:
1) Living here
2) Moving around every 3 months with Tyler for his rotations
3) Living with parents while Tyler moves around
My favorite option is number one. But here are the pros and cons of living here:
PROS:
- We actually get to live with and see Tyler every day, for all or most of the 18 months
- Lyndi will be in Kindergarten and already knows several of the neighbor kids that would be going to the same school
- We won't have to move (AGAIN!) until he's done with school
- We are already set up here as far as friends and family (meaning the ward)
- Medicaid and things like that are already set up
CONS:
- Finances... Because of the equipment we've had to use our loan budget for every semester, and soon to be used for boards and things, it has been SO TIGHT financially, so I don't know if we could make it work with another car and gas and Lyndi being in school.
- That's the only con I can think of... other than the nasty humidity and mosquitos :)
On to number 2, moving around every 3 months with Tyler for his rotation.
PROS:
-We'd be able to live together, that's the only pro I can think of :)
CONS:
- We'd be moving every 3 months, which would mean:
- Setting up Medicaid, which takes on average a month
- Setting up food stamps, which takes on average a month
- Trying to find short term housing for (potentially) 5 people
- Trying to keep the kids from having nervous breakdowns from moving so much
- Lyndi will be in Kindergarten which would either mean moving her from school to school, or homeschooling
- Not knowing ANYONE or where ANYTHING is everywhere we lived
- How in the world would our mail and medicaid and things keep up with us?!
Now number 3, we have 3 options for living with parents, however, at this point we decided that living with Tyler's parents would be the best option, because we know people and places in Cedar City.
PROS:
- We'd have help from family and friends
- We'd have a yard and a house that the kids are familiar with to live in
- WAY WAY cheaper than living here! Even if we paid rent and utilities, it would be around a third of what we're paying here, so we could afford for Tyler to live elsewhere and/or fly him home on occasion, or even just start paying off a little interest on our loans!
- Stable environment and school for Lyndi
- We'd be in ONE place for that last year
CONS:
- We wouldn't be able to live with Tyler, so I would probably go crazy and sell or lose one of my kids haha
- We would have to either move all of our stuff and move it all again a year later, or put it all in a storage unit here or there.
- We'd have to move and then move again a year later, which means moving mail (again), and medicaid (again), and the kids (again, they don't do well with change like that).
So our situation as of right now is that Tyler got his first rotation here, which is from the end of January until May, so we are here until at least May of next year, and then after that it's all up in the air. All these unknowns are stressing me out more than they should (if he's gonna get a job, where he's going to be, where we're going to be, having another baby, no that's not an announcement, finances, etc). He said that most people have told him that if they get into a drawing with him, they don't want to be "the jerk that takes him away from his family" so they would bow out of the drawing, which makes me feel a lot better, but I still don't know what to do! Our bishop told us that we could have a ward fast for us to stay here haha, I would feel odd doing that, but I guess if nothing else presents itself to us as far as our decision making goes, we'll consider it! It feels good to get that all written out, and maybe, possibly get some feedback, even if I don't get any, I'm sure we'll be fine, I'm just a worrier :)
