Colorado- Home Sweet Home

Lest these next couple of posts turn into complaint after complaint, I feel like I need to comment about the amazing state that we find ourselves in....

Fort Collins, Colorado is a little place that I didn't think existed in America.  Caleb says that it reminds him A LOT of Raleigh...but since he was a Raleigh cop before going overseas, his comment is this "Fort Collins is a lot like Raleigh, but a smaller and cleaner Raleigh."  Caleb was able to see a lot of filth as a cop that the rest of us overlooked or never saw.  But, he cannot find that stuff here....

There is a secret that I am going to share with you...not many people know about this little detail, but it is so important....

Yes, we are living in Colorado.  Yes, it is cold and it snows, but we are not living in an eternal blizzard. :)  Some people think that living in Colorado means freezing your tails off all through the winter months.  Well, this is a misconception...one that even I had myself.

We have been able to really enjoy Fall- the leaves changing, the festivals going on, pumpkins, playgrounds, hiking.  When the sun shines in Colorado, it is warm....and I have found myself, even lately, being able to walk around from the car to a building with just a sweater or hoodie.  The weather here is surprisingly wonderful....and I hear that even when we do get snow, it will likely only last for a couple of days and then it will be gone. So, for that reason, I am so excited to live in a place with real seasons....

And, there is SO much to do.  We find ourselves financially strapped right now.  We are so blessed that we did not come away from our PNG experience with any debt.  God's hands were all over that because I thought we were going to be in debt and there was a time in October that we were told that we were going to have to write our organization a check for $8000.  But, everything worked out in the end, and for that I am so thankful.

But, we find ourselves in a position that we have never been before.  When we lived in Raleigh, I was working full time.  And, even when I had stopped working for the 9 months before we went overseas, we were receiving support from our financial partners.  So, this is a very NEW place for us.  It is a very humbling place for us.  We have always (while in America) been able to just afford things.  Here, we have to make conscious decisions about every expenditure.  In PNG, we never knew how much money we would have in any given month and we never knew what kind of "from left-field" expenses would hit in that month.  Here, again, we have to make deliberate decisions with our money....and when we make a wrong one, you can feel the pinch.

Now, don't get me wrong, Caleb is doing well at his new company and it has lots of growth potential. I am coughing most of this up to "this is the price we pay for me being a stay at home mom". And, Caleb's company has a really cool bonus system in place that will kick in for him at the end of this month.  But, we are trying to center our household expenses all around his base pay....and hoping to use whatever bonus he may receive monthly to tackle the Honda Passport we just bought and then student loans....And, for this reason alone, it is just hard to make things work.  Again, because we were a dual income one kid kind of family before PNG, it is hard to not be able to afford certain things or to have to wait.....discipline is NOT a strength of either one of us. :)

Too much information?  Then stop reading MY blog.  You are only going to get the honest truth here....what is going through my head....and there may be times that you just don't want to be "in my head". :)

So, I talked about this beautiful State.  I talked touched on Caleb's job.  Let me add this...

The company he works for is amazing.  The office buildings are fun and modern.  Headquarters has a slide...yes, so the employees can slide from the second floor to the first floor...and it is used!  There are also massage chairs and free samples of local produce and beer and things like that for him to bring home.  There is a Christmas party this month and we are really excited about it.  The company gives every employee a Christmas present which is AMAZING and if you have kids, they get something, too.  He enjoys going to work and gets along great with the 3 other people on his team.

Here are some pictures because Mel is about to wake up from her nap....

Fort Collins pictures:

Pictures of where Caleb works. :)

Ahhh.....Mel is up....so that will have to be it for now....