Andrea's Love Dare~Day 3

This challenge was really hard for me. Tyler and I have moved twice in the last year, not just to different houses, but to different cities. I used to support us by working full time while he went to school full time. I gave up my good job here in Mesa, AZ to move up to Flagstaff so my husband could attend Northern Arizona University. We didn't know it at the time, but that 6 months ended up being one of the greatest, but most difficult times of our lives. We found out just a few weeks after moving up that I was 5 weeks pregnant, and due sometime in early 2012. We had just moved into a TINY one bedroom apartment, and were trying to figure out how we could possibly work out living there with a baby. We did not want to live anywhere else, because we had an absolutely wonderful landlord, who kept the cost of living down, and helped his tenants any way he could. Despite the fact that we had the cheapest rent in Flagstaff, it was still $125 more than we used to spend for rent in Mesa. The cost of living in Flagstaff is very high compared to many places in Arizona. So, after we got up there I started applying for dental assisting jobs like crazy! Every office I could find, I applied at. Meanwhile, my husband applied at retail stores just across the street, hoping he could get something part time. He started working odd jobs with our friend, but it was not steady work, just enough to help out a little bit (my parents started paying for our living expenses, because what we had saved went to our first month's rent, deposit, and stuff like that). I kept applying for jobs like crazy, and thought on several different occasions that I had gotten a job at a good office, with a nice dentist. But then, my so called, "morning sickness" struck, and it was horrible! I was not sick in the morning; I was sick ALL DAY LONG! And I was not only nauseous, I immediately threw up after everything I ate. I lost 15 pounds, and had virtually no energy. I could barely move, let alone try to find and interview for jobs. After several weeks of that I started feeling better, and I got a call from Oasis Dental! I just knew this was our big break. It had been a few months since we moved up, and I was so tired of not doing anything. I interviewed at the office, and got hired on full time. We calculated it, and figured, with Tyler's school grants, we would be able to put away pretty much every other paycheck until the baby came! That would give us at least a few thousand dollars to get by for a little while after she came. The job was great. I trained for two weeks, and it was a busy, fun environment. But after training the office slowed tremendously! I ended up being on an "on call" basis, and if I was lucky I got 15 hours a pay period. That was not enough to live on, let alone save. Tyler kept applying for jobs, but it's a college town, and they have thousands of people to choose from. He got a lot of calls from places, but they didn't like his schedule so he didn't get hired.

After about 4 months in Flagstaff we made a very hard decision. We decided to move back to Mesa at the end of the semester, so we could be around family. So in December of last year we moved back, and into Tyler's grandma's house, who had passed away earlier in the year. We started looking for jobs again, but I was almost 7 months pregnant at this point, and Tyler had already made his school schedule, because he was starting school just a couple of weeks after we moved down. So once again, he was trying to find a job that would work around his school schedule, instead of vise versa. I gave birth to Millie on Tyler's birthday 2/29, and that was wonderful, but taking care of her made it impossible for me to look for a job. Tyler finally got hired at a new/used sporting goods store, but he doesn't start until the week after next.

Sorry, this is like a novel, but the point of my very long story is that, we have been through  A LOT in the past year, and have not been able to catch a break financially. We have virtually no money in the bank, and I try to be as frugal as possible. So anything I got was going to be a sacrifice for me. I ended up stopping and getting him a Dr. Pepper on my way home from my cousin's house. This may not seem like a big, or thoughtful gift, but he LOVES Dr. Pepper, and had been working on the yard for a few hours. I knew he would be hot and tired, and I figured he could use a little pick-me-up. He was grateful to me, for thinking of him even though I had been gone almost all day.

So that was my love dare. I'm sorry for all the history, I just kind of wanted to paint a picture of the depth of our financial hardships in the last year, so you would understand why a Dr. Pepper was a big deal! I hope your Day 3 went well also!