My Renewal On Life Poem

I woke up this morning with such a new found feeling on our new adventures that are brewing up and moving back to California. We are in the midst of it all and packing away, with today as our last day in Omaha and then tomorrow, on Monday, the movers come and then we head out. Driving across country towards our next chapter in life together. My husband and I both grew up in California, and now it is time to raise our daughter there. It is such an awesome feeling to begin again, and move forward towards something that feels so right. I am overwhelmed with a sense of hope... and with God on our side, it is all working out so well.
So when I woke up, I was in the shower and this poem came to mind. I sat in my daughters rocking chair with a pad of paper and just wrote it all down.

Poem, On The Move By: Martiel Hay Jan 27, 2013
(read this with a rock star jingle in your head)

Got to pack it all away
for a rainy day
gotta get up and move
sing this song, our very own way
gotta get up and groove
I've got all day long
to pack away
pick up and move
the very next day.
pull it together
no matter what the weather
grab the keys
bring the dog along
and drive all day long
gotta get up and drive
all the way from 680
to the 405
I feel so alive
with God in my heart
we are on a fresh new start
I love my man
I love our girl
I love our dog,
Take them for a ride
along the country side
pick and move
we'll be dancing again
to this new groove
Cal-i-for-ni- A
here we come, the very next day!

Kara Cuteness

I have an ongoing list of Cute things Kara has either done or said. I useually post these as Facebook Posts marked, "Kara Cuteness" but I am writing so many every now and then, it is almost enough to start a whole new blog on just this topic! For now I am posting this one, so I don't forget it later.
I remember back on my 8 hr car ride with Kara. We were moving up to Omaha (from St. Louis, MO) earlier this summer. It is just Kara (3 yrs old) and I in the car driving for a long time. We stopped at a gas station and I bought her a single serving size cup of Lucky charms to eat in the car ride.

Kara Cuteness #8923:
      Kara: (hands me back the Lucky Charms cup) "Here you go!"
       ME: (I reach back for the cup and it is empty)"Oh you ate it all"
      Kara: "They're in my tummy, now. There's Sprinkles in my tummy!" (the sprinkles are the mini marshmallow shapes, she was referring to)

Poem By Martiel Hay 07/2012

I am getting ready to move again, with my family. We are going to move back to where we both grew up, in California. Currently living in Omaha, NE and it has been a quick 7 months here. This will be the shortest time frame of living somewhere. It was really hard to comprehend the feeling of temporary and moving up here to Nebraska, knowing that we were not planning on staying here for too long. We lived the past 6 years in St. Louis, MO and owned a house, and didn't think we were even moving till a few months before hand. It was all based on a job opportunity with my husbands work.

We wanted to make this move to Omaha for a promotion in becoming a manager, only it would be temporary to fill in the spot of Manager for a time frame of 2-5 years. We knew this was a good move and knew it was not permanent, and eventually we would move again to a place (in one of the 50 states) to then stay and raise our daughter in. Little did we know, the crazy time we would have in readjusting to a new area and starting all over again, with no one to know in the area, and not knowing the way to anywhere. Trying to drive around town, we relied allot on our Google Maps app with our phones. The Summer of 2012 was so up in the air, with mixed emotions and also having to sell our house in St. Louis, and downsizing into a smaller rental, becoming renters vs. owners...not knowing how long we were going to live in Omaha.

We were both going bonkers with the unknown. Our future was so unplanned and so up in the air. I hated the frustrations, that moving to an unfamiliar place gave me. I was upset so often, not knowing how to find a simple store, or find a park to play in, and to remember the area. I made so many U-turns while driving places and back tracking all the time. My preschooler in the back seat of the car was even catching on that we were lost at times. One day, after making another U-turn she says, "Oh-man!" I ask her, "what's wrong?" She then tells me, "We are lost!"

It made me smile, but made me realize that she is so observant and I need to be careful with how I feel about Omaha and try not to complain or show frustrations with her around. She was catching on...

So one day I was at Starbucks sitting in the cafe, and often I like to jot down poems that I write on scratch paper as I sit there. Here is a scratch paper poem I wrote (over the summer, when I was still new to the Omaha area) and forgot about this poem til I came across it today.

This poem, I wrote, is about my many times of getting lost: driving in the unknown, new area, trying to navigate and find a Target Store on L Street. In the end I found a different Target store located on another street and just settled for that location.

L STREET
    BY: MARTIEL HAY 07/2012

New State
New Town
New Streets to become my back roads
My destination from here to there
I found the L street
Camouflaged with three other streets
Each one meets in the West Center
A tangle of streets
My GPS was at its best
found a neighbor L
but not the L for me.
It wasn't meant to be
we shall see.
Give me the run around
Let's try another go around

L is for Long at last
I have found you.
My new state
My new town
My new street