Smee, our car, was stuffed to the brink. At the time of this picture we had not even packed my stuff from my parents house in Utah yet! Good thing Justin is a tetris master.
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At Phillice's house. Some times I wear a raincoat to do dishes:
Moving into the studio:
We had no table so this was how we ate:
Justin and I leaving after our lunch reception in Utah to drive to our first stop...Boise. My siblings filled the air vents with confetti. Poor Smee was blowing out confetti up until we sold it. The funniest thing? We forgot to tell the poor guy that bought it that confetti blows out when you turn on the air. Oops.
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When we got to Oregon we felt like there were vampires EVERYWHERE. It probably doesn't help that I had just convinced my husband to go watch Twilight with me, but check out these pictures! Vampire country, I tell ya!
Justin is convinced he is going to found a town named Spoons that will consist of werewolfs and vampire slayers.
One of my all time favorite movies was filmed a short drive from our house. What a treat! ;) HEEYY YOOOU GUUUYYSS!...Watch The Goonies. Seriously. Do it.
Time for some Q&A...These are actual questions we get asked quite frequently when telling people our story:
Q: Why in the world are you in Oregon?
Well, my dear husband decided that engineering was not for him and he wanted to be a helicopter pilot. Yes I was quite shocked but I support him 100%. He found a school in Newberg, Oregon (45 minutes south of Portland) that has everything he wants in training. He loves working with the helicopters and will hopefully be starting flight school soon:)
Q: Why did you move the day of your wedding? Didn't you want to go on a honeymoon?
Going to Portland was our honeymoon! We had originally planned to move out to Oregon in January, a few months after the wedding. We wanted to check out Oregon before we made a set decision. We actually booked hotels in Portland for our honeymoon to see if it was something we really wanted to do and then we would move out later. Funny how things work out... Our jobs for after marriage were not working out. Everything else we contemplated and prayed about were not right. The Lord needed us in Oregon. A mere three weeks before our wedding we decided that our honeymoon would actually be our moving trip. We packed up our essentials in the car and headed out the right after the reception. Talk about a lot of change all at once. You could technically say we're still honeymooning;)
Walking in the rain on our honeymoon/moving trip:
Q: Was that scary?
Terrifying. At the same time we knew it was what the Lord wanted us to do so that gave us some comfort. Sometimes when Justin and I tell this story it seems like moving to Oregon was a rash decision we made because we wanted an adventure. In part, yes, that is true but we really took the time to pray about the decision.
Q: What was the scariest part?
Actually something that only a handful of people know is Justin and I actually didn't even have the money to move. We were dirt poor. Seriously. We were so poor we could not see how we were going to make it, but we had faith. At our reception we put our piggy bank, Hubert, out asking for money to help us move. Rude? Probably. Haha, but you do what you have to, right? So as we left the reception we grabbed Hubert and all the cards. We couldn't take the presents. There was absolutely no room in our car! You know what the most amazing part was? The money from that piggy bank and our wedding cards was just enough to get us to Oregon and cover our first month expenses. Which was all we needed. Coincidence? I think not. Justin and I could never thank you all enough for helping us make it out here in Oregon!
Hubert:
Q: Did you have jobs lined up? How about a place to live?
No and no. We both had one interview lined up and its really hard to find an apartment online. We had a week booked at an AWESOME place in downtown Portland. Our plan was to find an apartment during that week? Did we? Nope, haha. The Newberg 2nd Ward Relief Society sent out an email asking if any one had a basement or such to rent out (Thanks 2nd ward!!) but there was no luck there. So what did we do? Went to trusty craigslist! The last possible day we found a lady in downtown Mcminnville (30 minutes south of Newberg) who had a very large house and rented out the rooms to people who needed temporary housing. Phillice was her name. We love Phillice! She is an artist and paints whimsical pictures of cats and dogs. She's great! Here is her website.
Our first month of marriage was spent sharing a space with Phillice and a man named Tim. There were 3 or 4 more people living on Phillice's property. Phillice called our room the honeymoon suite and called us "the kids". It was funny. During that month Justin found a cute little studio in Newberg, just in time for Christmas! We have since moved into a one-bedroom. Thank Goodness!
The view from our one week rental in Portland:
Q: How did those job interviews go?
At, Justin's job interview they told him he had a job and that he could go to training in three weeks, which he waited for and come training time nobody was there. They cancelled it without telling him and then didn't ever get back to him. Sketch. Justin was really frustrated. Mine went well and I got a job at a daycare where everyone that worked there was LDS! It was a huge blessing and I will forever be grateful to the Croziers. I have since moved on to sell wedding dresses, which I love. Justin was a little bummed about his job search but eventually had another interview at a car dealership. He was ecstatic and the boss man told him he basically had the job. The boss wrote out a schedule of what days and times he would work and everything. Then...never got back to him. You can only imagine how Justin was feeling and by this time it was January. But fear not, the most AMAZING thing happened. The school Justin was planning on going to called him and asked him to come interview for their line service position. He got the job! This was a HUGE blessing!
Q: Why is the job Justin got a HUGE blessing?
Well, at Precision, the school Justin will be attending, they only hire flight instructors from the position Justin is working right now. So Justin will have a job as a flight instructor when he is finished with school! Which is HUGE! We are now very grateful that Justin's other "jobs" didn't work out:)
Here's a fun video Precision put together:
Q: Why hasn't Justin started flight training yet?
This is always a complicated question. Getting financing for helicopter school is extremely difficult. You have to either have good collateral or a good cosigner. A while back some helicopter schools promised students training so the students went to the banks and got loans. It turned out to be a scam and screwed a lot of people and banks over. Now banks are weary of loaning money out for helicopter schools. Because of this it helps tremendously if you are also taking classes at a "typical" school as well as flight training. Banks will lend out money more readily this way, that is if you have good collateral or a good cosigner. As of right now Justin is looking into different class options and is leaning towards Utah Valley University online classes. After he has a clear vision of what exactly he wants to go we will pursue getting a loan. We shall see how it all works out. We'll find a way! And I'll keep you updated;)
Q: And the conclusion?
Well folks, moving to Oregon was a tremendously scary thing for us to do, but we took a leap of faith. I have truly gained a testimony of letting the Lord take the wheel even when we can't see how things will work out. We had no idea how this was going to go but we have been so blessed in so many ways. If you're doing what you know to be right and trying your very best He will provide. I promise.
