The butterfly effect...

Have I told you about our duplex in Provo? I came home from Oregon for a long weekend to find a place for us to live upon our return. There was a little duplex on 9th E that had been remodeled on the inside, it looked great! I made the decision and looked forward to moving back to Utah to live in such a cute little duplex.


When we pulled up in our moving truck and opened the door to our new place Blaine was thrilled! It looked awesome. We went from room to room checking our new place out. Then we got to the bathroom. The tub was full, FULL of raw sewage. It was disgusting. We called the property manager "JR" who informed us that there wasn't much he could do about it until after the weekend.


So we turned off the water and had no water for a couple days and a tub full of raw sewage.


That was just the beginning.


Gwen was learning to crawl and as she crawled her legs and arms would turn black. The carpet was covered in a layer of grime that came off when crawled upon.

We were promised a storage shed...JR hired the drinking trio of hicks on the other half of the duplex to build it for us. He promised them a six pack of beer to build our shed. I remember the night they finished as they walked past our front door they said, "if they wanted a professional job they should have hired a professional".

It was miserable. We had signed a year lease and we were in pure misery living there.

The ceiling started bulging with water from a broken pipe and mysteriously a brown stain was mutating in the corner and getting bigger.

I told Blaine we had to get out.


Then by a strange string of events we got an opportunity...an internship with IBM in Minnesota...the only stipulation? We had to be there in the beginning of January. We were in the middle of school, the middle of a contract for the worlds worst apartment and we had a trip to Disneyland planned.


Plus, who in there right mind would live in Minnesota? I mean did people even really live there?

Then a light clicked ...moving to Minnesota meant leaving the death trap that was our apartment and the fuddy duddy landlord (who on a recent call to ask him to fix something pertinent, like our water when it got shut off because he hadn't paid the bill replied..."I can't do everything, I'm only one person").


So we went for it. We moved to Minnesota.


I think you know I loved it there, that isn't the point of this post. While there a new family moved in. The Worthington's. They had a little boy about Gwen's age and we met them at a dinner at a friends house. Katie was a riot. I wish I could go into more detail but suffice it to say that at our first meeting I came away thinking she was awesome, but that our personalities weren't a very good fit.

Little did I know! Katie and I hit it off smashingly and what's more, our husbands and kids got along great as well. I have awesome fond memories of Katie! But that isn't the point of this post.


When Katie heard I was moving to Round Rock, TX she mentioned she had a friend who lived here. She suggested I give her a call to find out what neighborhood to live in. I didn't want to call some random person! I could find my own place!


After having lived here for about a month Katie encouraged me to look in my ward directory to see if her friend per chance was in my ward. I looked and her friend's name was in my directory! I hadn't met this person in church but figured I would give her a call and see if she and her family wanted to come over for dinner.


Turns out they had been visiting family for a while but we scheduled a time for them to come over once they got back in town.


It was weird inviting someone over who I had never seen, but if she was good enough for Katie I was certain she was good enough for me.


And guess what I saw when I opened my door that night to meet my friend's friend?





And I've never been so grateful for raw sewage!