After Five Months of Marriage

Soon after meeting Terry, a year ago, he moved here from near San Antonio, Texas and we were married a fews days later. Now it has been five months since making our vows. He had found work with a couple of companies doing field service. He has been disappointed in the way the city does its business and found that just doing independent work from home can be costly.

I was hired by the McKinley County Schools as a teacher's aide and began right along with the teacher I was assigned to, Mrs Crask-Stone. I found the work enjoyable but sometimes stressful because the kids were always disruptive and there were few days when they were ever quiet. I would take them to breakfast, lunch and escort them to the gym for their exercise.

My husband and I were referred by friends from church for a position as managers of a mobile home community. We both discussed the situation of my low income I received at school and his irregular jobs with the field service. He wasn't very happy going to the far reaches of the Navajo and Zuni reservations. At times the directions the companies gave him were incorrect and he would be wasting a lot of gas.

We decided to try for the interview. Once we finished going over our duties with the people interviewing us, we waited to hear their decision. We got the job. Terry went ahead of me and started staying at the mobile home provided for us a week or so before I actually was able to. I had a lot of packing to do in Vanderwagen. Terry had just moved here and found himself moving again. It was almost an impossible task. I had to quit my job at the school and gave them notice.

Thanksgiving came and we headed for Phoenix to enjoy a meal at my daughter-in-law's parents and then returned so I could pack and Terry could be on hand at the office until I arrived each morning. Almost every night, I would go to Vanderwagen, find some boxes and resume packing. It took almost a month to finish.

A few days before Christmas, I drove around Gallup looking for a closet because there was hardly any storage in the new place. I found a closet at furniture store and it was delivered just in time for me to empty the car. I had carried my clothes around for two days.

I had to set up satellite for the t.v. and for the internet because no DSL was available in the area. That was discouraging to find a city about 30,000 people and not have access to the internet. I had used Wildblue in Vanderwagen and so I gave them a call. Now we have two dishes, one on the house and one in the yard on a pole.

Terry and I finally got most of our things put away but we have several boxes in the storage room off the clubhouse. The clubhouse is huge and we moved the ping pong table in and a few games. He figured the clubhouse should be used more. We think the previous managers didn't want to be bothered with kids running through the place.

Tonight, New Year's Eve, Terry decided he wanted to make his seafood Portofino, with scallops, shrimp and fish in a butter sauce served over angel hair pasta...yum, yum..What a way to celebrate.. just the two of us. I hope he feels relaxed and energized after the weekend here. It has been miserably cold and snowed most of the night, just light flakes.