2002 in review

The year started off with Joe in his 2nd quarter of school at SFCC. He was doing a full load and he was working for a company in Liberty Lake doing Microsoft support. I know a long drive and busy schedule. I was 6 months pregnant with Gabbie and we still lived in a one bedroom apartment. We wanted to move. In March we became managers for Cheney Real Estate and moved into a 2 bd apt. This was our 6th move in less then 2 years of marriage. Crazy I know. Managing apt was nice and an answer to prayers, but I will never do it again.


We had a lot of snow that year, and we had to shovel all of the side walks before a certain time each day. Most of the time Joe did it, however there were the times that I had to get out there, 8 months pregnant and shovel show. It sucked. I only mention this because I don't recommend shoveling snow when your 8 months pregnant.


Gabbie was born May 2, 2002. My in laws were able to come and stay with Cordin while I was in the hospital and Joe had to work. Her delivery went smoothly. We went in at 10 in the morning and had her at 10 that night. It was a Saturday. She weighed 8lbs 3 oz and was 21in long. She had some issues with jaundice and had to be put on the lights. Thankfully we were able to do it at home. She had to be under them for 3 days. Other then that she was healthy and strong.


Shortly after Gabbie's birth Joe lost his job with Microsoft. We were a little distressed at the time but it ended up being a blessing. Joe was able to get on with the school doing work study in the area he was studying. He was able to add this to his resume which helped him in the long run.


The summer was pretty much a blur. New babies will do that to you. Joe went to school all year round so he didn't really get much of a break. He did pretty well in school. I think he enjoyed it. He had a little bit of an adjustment since he was older then most of the students there. It was a pretty quiet summer. We spent a lot of time at the kiddy pool in Cheney. It was free and we were poor.


The fall meant Joe was starting his second year of school. We had our first "Crunch" time with the apartments, when all the students move in for the new school year, we had to check them in. That was crazy. Long days toting a 4 month old in a pack and a two year old that didn't understand why mommy and daddy couldn't play. Thank heaven we had my brother and sisters to come and help. The Holidays were uneventful. We stayed in Washington again and spent them with my family. That pretty much rounds out the year. I know not very exciting huh?

Recalling 2001

2001 was kind of a crazy year for us. It started out with Joe joining the Army. I think he signed in February. We were told that he would have to report and be sworn in in March so, we decided that it would be nice to see family before he left. We went to Spokane to see my siblings. That was in early March. We were there for a week and that is when I decided that I would like to move home to be close to them while he was in boot camp and training. We came home from our trip to have enough time to get him ready to go.

He left the second week of March. It left me with a lot to do. We had given notice on our apartment so I had 2 weeks to get us packed and our stuff put into storage. It was hard not having him there with us. Cordin was about 10 months old when Joe left. Cordin had a really hard time. He used to wake up in the morning and sit on the end of the bed waiting for his daddy to come back from the bathroom. When Joe left, he didn't get to say goodbye because he had fallen asleep. Looking back I would have done it differently and woken him up to give Joe a hug and kiss goodbye.

Our plan was to go to Germany. (Boy, that is so not what happened)! I was able to get everything ready with lots of help from Joe's family. My grandma found us a little one bedroom furnished basement apartment in Cheney. It sucked, but it was a place over our heads for the 3 months that we had planned on being there. Everything was going pretty smoothly until Joe called me and said that there was a hiccup in his paper work. He was promised a certain type of job and because of an indiscretion in his past (won't go into that) they were not going to give him said job. They gave him three options, he could rejoin as...1. infantry man...2...calvary scout...3...he could make it so it was like he never joined the Army and could come home. That was easy for me...COME HOME. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. I talked to his dad and a brother in law and we all fasted and prayed about it and the end result that we all got was that Joe should come home. So he did. It only took the military 4 weeks to send him home. He got home on April 30th which was nice, he was there for Cordins first birthday (May 1st).

The summer was pretty lame. We were now stuck in Cheney. Joe was out of work. We had a little in savings which is what we lived on. We weren't sure what we should do. At the end of the summer we moved into another one bedroom apartment. Joe enrolled in school at SFCC and started on his career path. I was able to be at home with Cordin. I babysat for a friend to earn a little extra income. That helped some. As the fall came I found out I was pregnant with Gabbie.


That fall the terribly sad event of 9/11 occurred. I know that the Lord was watching out for our family. I have no doubt that if Joe had stayed in the Army as a Calvary scout he would have been one of the first soldiers over seas. I am so grateful that Joe was able to come home. I really admire, respect and am eternally grateful for what our military does for us, but it was a blessing that Joe was with us, even if it didn't make sense at the time.


The end of the year was pretty quiet. We spent it with my family. The holidays were nice as I recall. Pretty laid back but very nice. I think that all of my siblings were there. That was the first time in several years that that happened. We were able to be together and make memories. Those first two years of marriage we not a walk in the park. There were some rough patches in there too. I just choose to look back on the more positive stuff.