5 Weeks at My Dad's

September we said goodbye to our rental in Bakersfield, thinking we would only be at my Dad's for one week while we waited on our Fillmore rental to be ready. David was to stay at his moms, 2hrs south of my dad's and I was to stay at my dad's house along with the three boys. As I mentioned before , the rental fell through, they decided to rent that home to their relative and we had no where to go.
Soon after we saw a listing for the rental we are in now, which ironically is across the way from the first rental and even more space than we imagined we'd ever have. The only thing with this one was that they were looking for someone to move in within 4 weeks. We waited.

Visited my Grandma and took her out.

Noah and his great Grandma in Santa Barbara

At Grandma's Santa Barbara home

My dad, I will always be so thankful to my Dad. He has Always helped us out when needed and blessed us when we least expected it. He graciously opened his home for me and my sons and my husband to come visit on the weekends. Unfortunately not everyone in that house hold was on board , if you get what I mean.

So it wasn't super easy being there because I was constantly making sure not to step on any toes, making sure I cleaned up during and after every single meal. Made sure to be out of their house so my boys wouldn't be in the way while they got home from work and made sure to keep us all in the room 80% of the time we were home and they were home too. 

It was tiring. It was difficult and still I heard the complaints and strain from our presence. 

My dad rents out one room to a sweet lady and that is whom I spent most my time with while living there. She is one of the wisest women I know and was gracious enough to provide me the Godly advice I needed through out this difficult time in life. 

Also, she loved our boys whole heartily as if they were her own. 

Another blessing was having one of my best friends live on the same street, just steps away from my dad's house. She has two of the sweetest kids I know. And I'm so grateful she had us over as many times as she did. Thank you Marilyn.

Spending some quality time with my dad

Marilyn, shopping in her garden. Serious garden goals right here! Her husband made the nicest looking vegetable gardens ever! They work hard to maintain their nice looking front and backyard!

A lot of our outings while living there was exploring and hiking the outdoors. San Luis Obispo county is just absolutely gorgeous . I've always wanted to live there!

 Also got to spend some time with my brother. I love him so much and treasure any time I get to be with him.

 Our marriage took some hits while in this transition. It was so hard. I felt like a single mother to be honest, and he felt helpless. We couldn't be at his mom's house because it would be too chaotic. He would get to his moms at 3/4 pm, Fridays he'd go straight to the rental car place, rent a car, drive it back to his moms house, walk a mile to the rental car place to pick up his work truck, drive it back to his moms house, leave it parked and then drive 2 -3 hours north in traffic to my dad's house to be with us.
He'd stay with us until Sunday evening about 7-8 pm and drive back to his mom's house. He'd get there at about 10 or 11 and then go to work the following day.

 I super appreciated having him there even if it was for a day and a half. I got to sleep at night when he was there.

 We would go out exploring with him too. And eat yummy food. We made the most of him being with us.

Sleeping arrangements: I slept in a small room with the boys. There was a queen bed the boys would sleep on , on a large wood bed frame. Me and ben slept on a queen mattress on the floor. It wasn't bad at all, it just wasn't much room. The mattress was always in the way but we couldn't just pick it up everyday because there was no where to put it. The bathroom I shared with the sweet lady that lived there.

Honestly I just wish I got to spend more time with my dad than we were able to do .

I would get our own groceries. For one, my dad was already blessing us with a place to live and two , my boys are garbage disposals. They eat  so so much! hahaha 

So that's how that was. It wasn't a vacation, but it really helped our family out. And its brought David and I to realize how great we are together and to truly appreciate one another. My relationship with God grew and so did my faith. I prayed for everything we have now and its amazing to see Gods grace shine upon our family. Patience and learning to fully lean on God when it looks like there's no end to the storm got me through it all.

Dad,
Thank you for being the best dad a daughter could have. Thank you for always looking out for me.And thank you for opening your home for me and my children. I love you so so much!