2011 AT A GLANCE

A lot has happened in the almost 2 1/2 years since I have neglected my blog.  Here is a quick run down and possible picture over load!

January 2011 - Caleb started his first semester of his apprenticeship for insulation.

March 2011 - We got tired of being a long distance family and found an apartment in Mesa and ended up living in the most amazing, friendly fun ward!  It happened to be the same ward one of my cousins was in, so that was nice to have someone I knew already.  But our first sunday there, more than half the ward came up before church started and introduced themselves and several people took us under their wings and showed us around and made us feel welcome!
                      
Caleb started with a new company in his local union, KMI (Karber Mechanical Insulation) the same week we moved down!

June 2011 - Ryan turned 3!

July-August - We spent a lot of time playing in the water.  Discovered Butcher Jones (saguaro lake).  Luke learned to swim and earned a fishing pole by swimming across Grandma Cates swimming pool all by himself!  It was really hot and miserable and I REALLY wanted to move back to snowflake.

August - Luke started school!  That long awaited day had finally come!  We enrolled him in Benjamin Franklin Charter School because it was the only one I could find with half day kindergarten!  And we loved his kindergarten year, what a wonderful teacher he had!

Also in August Caleb got sent out of town for work.  He went to Nogales to work for a week at the border crossing station.  While he was there he wrecked on his bike.  He was pretty scraped up and messed up the bike.  We were trying to figure out how to get him home with a motorcycle that couldn't shift down past 3rd gear.  Luckily, our prayers were answered.  There was a truck driver staying at the same hotel as Caleb and had to drive through phoenix.  Luckily Caleb is a likeable guy and this truck driver and his wife were very friendly and offered to bring Caleb home and put his bike on the empty trailer they had!  I had planed to go pick him up somewhere on the I-10 but this kind man brought him all the way up to our house, and dropped him off in the frys parking lot about a block away from us!  Caleb tried to get them to come to our apartment to shower and have a meal but they declined.  They thought I would not appreciate smelly truck drivers in my space.  How wrong they were!  I (having smelly truck driver brothers) would have LOVED to offer my thanks and show them my appreciation for saving my husband! 

December 2011 - Luke won the poetry contest at his school!  He got up on stage at the school Christmas program (that happened to be on his 6th birthday!) and recited his poem 'naughty little soap song" and got a medal!  He was sure excited!  I was SO nervous for him!  But he was a pro!

From about September until the end of the year construction slows down.  This year was no different.  Infact, to me, it seemed like it was worse than it should have been!  Caleb was only working a 2-3 days a week (if we were lucky)!  I was so beyond stressed and didn't know how I was going to provide much for my little boys to put under the Christmas tree.  We knew it would be small and tried to really focus on Christ and make it special for our boys.  Then one night (exactly 12 days before Christmas) we got a knock on our door.  Someone had left the boys some toys.  The next night, same thing!  And this happened for a few nights and the boys had a great time!  Then, one night, there was no knock...the boys were getting antsy so they opened the door to check and there was our treat of the night!  Our sneaky Santa's didn't knock.  It was a plate of goodies with an envelope taped to it.  While the boys dug into the treats Caleb and I opened the envelope and there was $200 cash and some gift cards.  We both had tears in our eyes.  Then that same night my 'Uncle' and his wife came over and brought us a little gift in a bag that Luke grabbed and pulled out some kitchen towels and hot pads.  They left and it was a little while later I noticed they had included a Christmas card with the bag, inside the card was $100.  At this point I was beyond tears.  Caleb was getting just a little concerned.  He is a proud man, and takes pride in providing for his family, and this generosity was starting to bother him.  He felt that people thought he couldn't provide for us.  I tried explain to him that it wasn't because he couldn't provide, it wasn't that he was turning work down, he just had no work!  Well a few more days went by and it was Christmas eve.  The boys were inside watching movies and I was out helping Caleb work on our truck.  We went in the apartment because it was getting dark and as we walked in the back door we realized some one was in our apartment!  I stopped in my tracks and realized these people had their arms full of wrapped Christmas gifts!  They smiled and said 'Merry Christmas'!  I told them they must have the wrong house but they said 'no, we have some gifts here for Luke, Ryan and some for you and brother Cate.'  oh boy!  I had no idea who these people were!  I said who is this from?  And all they said is they were Santa's helpers.  They must have brought 50 packages in!  We were absolutely stunned!  All we could say was thank you! 

There were clothes and toys for the boys, gift cards and cash and a couple of gifts for caleb and I, it was so surreal!  To this day I can not even think of this Christmas without tears coming to my eyes!  Someone saw a need and took action.  our kids were not going to go without, they had a few simple gifts that I had found on sale months earlier and would have had fun with them but WOW!  We didn't know who to thank.  Christmas was on Sunday.  When we went to church Caleb found our wonderful bishop and asked if he knew what had happened and he just gave us a smile and said he didn't know what he was talking about.  We told him, to tell whoever was involved how much it ment to us and thank you.  He gave us a huge smile (like only he could give!) and said he would relay the message.  It was truly one of those moments where I knew I wasn't forgotten by our Heavenly Father.  It also made me realize how genuinely loving our ward members are.  I will NEVER forget this.  EVER.