Whew.  I have had one of the most stressful months of my entire life.  It has, however, also been one of the most blessed months of my life so I cannot complain.  It was just one thing after another after another ’til you could hardly catch your breath.  Luckily, they were not all BAD things, but they were mostly all life-changing things though so that  sure made it interesting!

Here’s the deal.  We went on vacation while we had some renovations done on our place.  In the midst of our vacation we found out that we had to move.  In less than a week, or we would be homeless (we did not suffer a foreclosure, and that’s all the details I really want to give out).  So we spent countless stressful hours searching for a place and found a marvelous one that is going to work out long-term for our family much better than our old place did.  We did this in about three days.  Then we packed up as quickly as possible– which meant stuffing things in boxes and taping them up, then moving to the next drawer or cabinet or bookcase.  (I do NOT recommend this method.  It was a hell of a thing finding everything at the new house!)

Some wonderful friends from church helped us move and we literally could not have done it without them.  We really couldn’t have because we have Sawyer and he needs to be watched and when moving boxes, that is pretty hard to do.  So we went on vacation on Sunday, found out we had to move on Monday,  got the keys to our new place on Thursday, started packing on Friday and moved on Saturday….Helluva week.

It took about a week to unpack, and that was with me unpacking and putting things away pretty much all day long.  Now we are all moved in and we LOVE it here.  It’s such a blessing.  The neighbors are wonderful, there are lots of kids around for my kids to play with, we are close to schools and shopping…. it’s so much better than our last place that it’s not even funny.  I feel like God took a situation where someone was trying to harm us and turned it into one of the biggest blessing we have ever received.  He can turn all situations to good and this was a real testament to that.

Our autistic son has had a hard transition though.  He spent the first week and a half begging to go home everytime he woke up.  He tantrummed so many times when we wouldn’t take him back to the old place.  He finally seems to have accepted that this is home, though I know he’d go back there and happily forget about this place in a heartbeat if that were an option.

The reason I’ve been off for so long is because we bundled our services (cable, internet and phone)  and the first installation appt. we could get was May 11th.  I figured I’d be back that night, but alas, no such luck.  There was a small problem with the wiring at our new house, and they couldn’t install our stuff until it was fixed.  So we fixed it and then had to wait until Friday the 15th for a second appt.  They got things hooked up.  Then it was a free-for-all as my poor internet starved darlings fought to the death over the computer.  So I figured I’d update my cartoons and blog on Saturday (yesterday).  And THEN we woke up and everything was out.  There was an outtage in our area and this lasted almost all day.  (It made me uneasy about the bundling, but heck, it’s so CHEAP I couldn’t turn it down!)  I am beginning to wonder if God is trying to tell me something.  Seriously.  Because we have had SO many problem with our internet over the last six months.  Problems we never used to have, and every problem has had a different cause.  It’s not like it’s the same thing cropping up time and time again.   Maybe we’ve become too dependant on it?  I don’t know.  Hopefully, everything will be find now, but I’m not sure if I believe it or not.

Oh, and to top it all off, the transmission went out in our van on Thursday.    If this was the 12 days of Christmas, the transmission problems would be the Partridge in a pear tree.  Just a PERFECT ending to one of the most stressful times I’ve ever lived through.

I just keep thinking … FODDER.  It’s all fodder.  Perhaps the Torres’ will be about to face some trials.   … Hmmmm….  Evil grin…

I do hope my readers come back.  I know things have been flaky ’round here and if no one reads my stuff anymore, well, I can’t really blame them.  But I will continue to put it out because I love to do it.  Maybe if I draw it and write it they will come?  Or maybe not.

But for now, I’m back,  I’m grateful and I feel really blessed.  All of the stress of the last month was completely worth it.

JOY.  I feel tremendous peace and joy right now.  I’m so glad to be back!  Oh, and I’ve posted two new cartoons to boot!

Enjoy!