It is hard to be motivated to update your blog when you dont have amazing fun wonderful news to share, or fun pictures to post.
The last couple of months for us have been kind of crazy... I want to make sure to document them because hopefully somewhere down the road we will be able to look back at these experiences and be greatful for what we have learned.
Horrible experience #1. CAR CRASH
we were driving home from selling one day and out of the blue a car slammed into the side of our car.and dented it all up and bent the wheel. we were going about 50 mph and luckily no one was hurt. Our car was shaking a little and looked very sad. Luckily they had insurance. The cops in cali refused to come out unless someone was injured so we just prayed that the ppl that hit us would tell the insurance company an honest story so we didnt have to pay anything! afterall it wasnt our fault!
The accident eventually worked itself out and after a lot of paper work and dealing with insurance companies we are finally getting out car fixed.
$3800 + in damage.
Finally in the shop after 2 1/2 months of dealing with this.
At the end of summer, we had just got done selling pest control for the summer and got to go to oregon for a family reunion. a 2000 mile round trip adventure with a shaky little car, we only got stranded once with no gas and had to sleep at a mcdonalds one night. But it was so much fun seeing everyone and it felt so good to be up in the mountains just relaxing for a few days. Family pic at the reunion.. :) I love my family!!!!!!! (fyi: we had cousins and aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas there too, it wasnt just us)
anyways. After the reunion we were able to drive up to seattle and spend some time with braydons family. His parents recently moved to seattle, and are so far away we hardly get to see them so this was a lot of fun!! after the visit we drove to the oregon coast for the Hood to coast race. (that is a whole other post and maybe someday i will get to that) Overall it was a great experience just a little crazy with 5000 ppl in the mountains on a two lane road. for 36 hours straight. After being away in cali and driving 2000 miles we were ready to be settled. Provo was our next stop. School was starting the next day so we rushed home and stayed the night at my parents.
Horrible experience #2 APT FROM HELL.
Like i said we had been living in cali all summer and didnt really have any way to look at apts in provo. thus we thought it was a good idea to check out craigs list and go off of the pictures online.... (never ever ever ever do this) The add said it was BYU approved, students were in the area, it was a great price, only a 6 month lease, so we did it! I sent her the $200 deposit and she held the apt for us. First day in provo braydon went to school and i didnt have class so i drove over to our new home and met the landlord at her house to sign the lease. I being a silly, trusting, nieve girl signed the lease before checking out the apt, Braydon still needed to sign it on the main line so i wrote mine at the bottom not on a line. I gave her $500 cash and happily took the keys. :) So excited to see our new apt, i drove around the corner and pulled into the driveway of our new place. Hmmmm first impression not to bad. i mean it was backed up to the freeway, which seemed a little noisy. & it was a little further from the school than I had hoped. But what the heck it was cheap and there were other students around.... right?? I started unpacking the car. neighbor #1 pulls up in her car. (it was a fourplex so we had 3 close neighbors) she gets out and grabs her grocerys. I looked at her, guessed she was prob about 50, a rather large lady. I smiled and she smiled back. "Hi Im your new neighbor" i said. She looked at me for a moment and said "oh". "well your going to have lots of fun around here" That had to be a good sign right? She started walking up the stairs with her hands full of bags, i thought oh i should go help her! but then i paused a moment and noticed how slowly she was walking up.... right foot. two bags swing forward and land on the stairs. left food. left hand swings forward and the other two bags land on the stair. Right foot again. (1 and 1/2 stairs conquered in 1 minute).....On second thought, I think i will let her get the excercise. I continued to unpack my car, neighbor #2 comes out of his door. He looked about 45, a little scruffy. I said Hi, and told him me and my husband were moving in to apt #1. He welcomed me, as he pulled out a cigarette. (HEY DUMB WOMAN THAT POSTED THIS ADD, THESE ARE SOME GREAT BYU STUDENTS) I decided to ask him a few questions.. "so how long have you lived here?" ....."almost two years now" he said. "oh so you must like it.... is it a good area?"..... "yea, its good. Just make sure you lock your door...and shut your windows..... Oh and we like to park our car out front so we can keep an eye on it. There are a bunch of little trouble makers that run around here, and sometimes like to cause. problems............(are you freaking kidding me!!!)...... "ohhhhhh right. yea okay no problem. thanks for the info" I went inside and looked around. something just didnt feel right. I texted braydon. "hey... the toilet is clogged, and i met our neighbors. they are wierd"..."I am kind of really wishing we would have signed the other contract instead of this one". Braydon texts back.. "is it really that bad".... me: "I dunno i guess not, (since i couldnt say anything else. we were STUCK there). I dropped my phone and sat on the ground and started to cry... This was going to be a loooooooooooooong six months in this dive. An hour later I picked up braydon and we went back to see the apt. He walked inside.. this isnt bad. and the inside really wasnt.. it was the area! We decided to go for a walk to check out the neighborhood. after our walk we new we couldnt live there. It was not safe! we called the landlord and insisted she gave us our money back. Afterall I never signed the line and Braydon still hadnt even signed it. She of course said Nope. Your wife signed the contract. We were stuck. We slept that night at my cousins house, Thank you mike and brittany! The landlord said she would help us sell it but if not than we were stuck paying the rent, and she still had our $700 dollars. I went to BYU upset and asked them why on earth they would approve an apt in that area! They plugged in the address and were confused..."we dont approve anything in that area" they said. They asked to see my contract, I told them i still didnt have a copy. The man helping me said well if she used our BYU contract saying it was approved the contract is not valid. I looked at his copy and part of it did look familiar. I immediatly let our landlord know that i needed a copy of this contract asap! She taped it to her door i went and picked it up and sure enough it was the same one they had showed me at BYU. and better yet she had forged my name on the signature line where braydon was supposed to sing! How dare she! So excited I ran back to byu and took the contract to them. they laughed and said yea, this is not valid she legaly cant use this contract. YAY! so legally we were not bound this contract.. but how the heck are we going to get our money back. straight $700 cash. Braydon called her up. no answer. I called her, no answer. We decided we had to go to her house if we wanted to get anywhere. We pulled up and knocked on the door no one answered. We waited and noticed some guys around back. braydon walked back there and asked where the lady of the house was. All the sudden i looke through her glass door and saw her! She started backing up and shaking her head no. So i walked to the door and waved motioning the older lady to come out. (this was the landlords mom) She finally did and we asked how we were going to get our money back and the contract was not valid. She said i dont have the money.. lisa does. Braydon finally talked her into trying to call lisa because she wouldnt answer for us. so she did and she was not home, we then talked her into calling lisas husband. And the older lady didnt know what to do so she asked lisas husband to just talk to braydon. Braydon got on the phone and i was so proud of him! he was mature about it and didnt swear or yell. He told him we needed our money back today. and the guy said what money?? anyways, he had to talk to him for about 15 min before he got anywhere the guy was being an idiot and said he didnt have the money either. Finally they agreed to meet that night after he got off work and he would give us the cash. We were very sceptical that he would show up but he actually did. and the conversation went like this...
They both got out of their cars... Braydon walks up to him. and holds out his hand for the cash. The guy says give me the key. So braydon gets the key and they switch off at the same time. Braydon started counting the money to make sure it was the right amount. The guy says "Your money, your envelope" Braydon says he just wants to make sure. He then says to the guy, "Im sorry that it had to turn into this....." then he paused... "actually you know what. Im not sorry. I am just sorry to people your age lying!". He was dumbfounded. and literally just stared at braydon and didnt say a word. He got in his car and slammed the door. and we both drove away :)
what a crappy experience but we def learned a lot! and we got our money back!!!!!
Horrible experience #3 Broken Rib
On a whim one weekend in september we went to boise with some friends to go wakeboarding. Braydon is an amazing athlete and wakeboarding fits right in there with the sports he rocks at. He was wakeboarding and all of the sudden crashed, it didnt look like a very bad crash but when we pulled the boat around he was sitting there stiff, saying that he thinks he broke his rib. Josh our friend pulled him into the boat and his rib popped back into place. he could tell it was broken by the popping in and out. He sat down in the front of the boat. Worried because Pole vaulting started that monday. Talk about horrible timing! Two months later, 3 Doctors later, $1000 in bills later, we are still stuck in the same spot.
it has improved a little but very very slowly. the drs cant do anything. he just has to rest. He broke the costal cartilage, so it has to heal cartilage to cartilage which some say never happens.... He is doing his best to rest and be careful but as you can imagine this is driving him crazy. It has been such a hard challenge and niether of us can wait until it is over. I just hope and pray that it will heal completely, He is starting to wonder if it ever will. :( I really do feel like it will heal for him and he will be able to get back to those things that he loves.
even it it does take a miracle.
Life is not easy. lately it feels like everything is hitting us all at once. I keep wondering what is gong to happen next. I remember this summer me and braydon were talking about how good life was, and blessed we were. and how easy it seemed for us. NEVER EVER SAY THAT. Life is not easy.
Things happen when you least expect them.
I dont know why braydon got hurt but I just really really hope and pray that it heals soon.
I know that Heavenly Father is there and he does hear our prays. I know that he has a plan for us and he sometimes gives us challeges that are extremely hard. I do believe that he will not give us challenges that we can not make it through. I dont know what Heavenly Fathers will is for Braydons rib, but i hope it has a good ending.
Its hard keeping life in perspective sometimes. But i know whatever happens is for the best. Heavenly Father does not want us to be miserable, but he does want us to grow, and the only way we can do that is by accomplishing difficult things.
