The Story of Us, part three

To catch up:

The Story of Us, part one

The Story of Us, part two

So, we were finally in our new home.  You know that phrase: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone?"

Having our own home again was so wonderful.  I had longed to have our own house again for such a long time.  I couldn't wait to decorate, clean, and cook.

Clearly all the post-partum emotions were taking a toll on me.

We were happy. 

However, the dogs were driving us nuts.  I was home with a 2 month old and a 17 month old, and I did not have the time or the patience to deal with the world's naughtiest dogs.  We knew Jack was the naughtiest of the dogs and that Mabel was much more mild-mannered.  And so, we decided to give Jack away to a family friend. 

We decided that we would like to start camping with our new, little family.

You may ask, "Taylor!  What do you mean start camping?!"

Yes, readers.  We hadn't started camping yet.

I'll give you a moment to recover from the shock.

Remember!  I'm not the wilderness type.  All we had back in the olden days was a tent.

A tent!  ha!

I laugh at the thought.  I'm too much of a camping snob now to camp in a tent.

But, alas.  We were still broke.  We did, however, find a ginormous, old camp trailer that slept 8, had brown carpet, orange cushions, and a funky smell for $800. 

That trailer was David's nemesis.

 And so, the era of camping was born in our family.

And as you all know, we have been camping ever since.

***

And so, life continued.  Here are a few, random bits for you:

1.  We decided to heat our new house with wood, so David became quite the Lumberjack in those days.  He determined to get himself about 10 cords of wood each year.

As you have probably already surmised, the days of shopping at The Gap, tanning, and highlighting hair were long gone.

2.  I even went wood cutting with him once.

3.  For our 5 year anniversary, we went on a cruise to Mexico.  I cannot remember one, single happenstance from that trip.

4.  David kept working on the house.  He ripped off the old siding and put up that Tyvek paper.  Then he ran out of time and our house sat covered in Tyvek for a year.  I'm sure the neighbor's appreciated that.  He ripped out the kitchen floor to redo the plumbing and lovingly set up a "plank" for me to walk across to get to the laundry room.  I did dishes in the bathtub.  There was always sheet rock dust everywhere and random drill bits lying about.  It was the project that would never, ever, ever end.

5.  In 2006, I discovered I was pregnant for the third time.  Since all we could create were girls, we knew to expect a sweet, calm, new little girl.

6.  God looked upon our sweet little family and declared, "Let them have a boy."

In March of 2007, our son was born.  He melted my heart from the beginning.  He was so handsome and precious.  The girls were enthralled with him and were helpful "little mothers" to him.

7.  We decided it was time to upgrade our trailer to one that didn't have mold and a nasty smell. 

Here are pictures from our first camping trip in our new trailer:

You can't tell from this picture, but I can assure you that David's heart is overflowing with joy in his blessings.

8.  Remember how I got pregnant with Daisy Mae when Sweet Pea was 6 months old?  Guess what happened when Handsome Dude was 6 months old?

9.  My 4th pregnancy did a number on me.  My body began to fall apart.  I developed a heart murmur and some gnarly varicose veins. 

See?  Gnarly.

10.  In June of 2008, we had our second son.

He was the world's easiest baby.

10.  Sweet Pea was entering kindergarten that year, and I had planned on homeschooling her.  But going from 3 to 4 was the hardest transition for me.  Life was spinning out of control.

And would you like to know whose fault that was?

Handsome Dude's.

When Handsome Dude turned about 15 months old, he became a tiddly bit naughty.

So, David, concerned for my mental well-being, told me we should enroll our daughter in school.

It was the right choice at that time in our lives.

***

During all these years, I was growing up and learning fast about how to be a wife and mother. 

David and I were married young.  We grew up together.

I used to get upset with him when he would be home late from work.  I thought a good wife was a wife who had a tidy house and dinner on the table when her husband walked through the door.

David would tell me he would be home by 6.  And often, he would call me at 6:15 and tell me he would be home in an hour.

Oh, it would drive me nuts.

Didn't he understand how hard it was for me to time everything out?  Didn't he know how busy I was with these kids?

But my husband is a hard worker.  He does what it takes to provide for our family.  I had to realize that he wasn't being mean to me.

Quite the opposite.

He was doing whatever it took to make sure he did what his boss wanted of him.  And if that meant working late, he would work late.

It is not easy to bear the burden of being the financial supporter of a family of 6.  I have never seen anyone who can work as hard as my husband does.  He gets up at 5am and works long, long days.

He comes home, cheerful and happy to help me.

The day I realized that he didn't care about dinner was a good day for our marriage.

It's okay with him if the house isn't perfect and dinner isn't ready.  He would rather come home to a bowl of cereal and a peaceful house, than a cranky wife trying to keep dinner warm.

In all the years that David has been an electrician, he has not been out of work once.  That's quite the feat for that line of work

So, I have learned to trust him.  If he says he needs to work late, that's fine.  It does not happen every night.  He still makes time for us.

In your comments from the last two posts, some of you said that I was a saint.

Trust me.  I'm not a saint.

But I have been learning to let David lead and to trust that he knows what he is capable of and he sees things that I don't.

I'm thankful that he is willing to work so hard for us.

Alright.  I'm hoping to finish this up tomorrow.

Happy Thursday!