This was a year of new beginnings. Most of the year I walked around in a daze feeling like I was living in a dream. I had never been so happy in my adult life. I had found my soul mate in Aaron. Every morning when I awoke I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Just about every night I had nightmares about my first marriage.
My art business, on the other hand, was in complete shambles. I continued painting, completing La Cueva, Montezuma and Rebirth by May. My step dad held on to all of my artwork; prints and originals, mat cutters and other equipment. Rather than let it get me down, I decided to start over, what else could I do? There really was no choice.
Aaron had already decided prior to our moving in with him that he wanted to leave Las Cruces. He was looking for a University that had a better music program than NMSU. After all the terrible things that had happened to me there in Las Cruces, I decided that the boys and I would follow Aaron wherever he decided to go. We decided on Fort Collins, Colorado because of the Guitar professor and started to plan our escape from southern New Mexico.
So, after Aaron finished the spring semester at NMSU, we packed our things into a moving truck. June 10, 1996 we left for Colorado. We planned to put our things into a storage unit and camp at a KOA while we searched for a place to rent. Unfortunately, Fort Collins was a very popular destination and we had a difficult time finding a place. With a dog and three kids, no one wanted to rent to us. After three weeks of searching with no luck, we were extremely discouraged. Aaron and I both had jobs, but still, no one would rent to us. I found a job right away at a frame shop that had bought prints from me the summer before. Aaron found work as the music guy at the local pawn shop.
We finally decided to return to New Mexico and even reserved a moving truck to take us back the following day. Talking to the owner of the KOA about our situation, we found out he had a 2 bedroom duplex for rent. He said we could move in right away! Apparently, we were meant to be there! We moved in and lived out the rest of 1996 with no problems. While the 2 bedrooms made for very cramped quarters with the three boys sharing one room, we were happy just to be there and be together!
Read previous years by following these links;
1995; Second half
1995; First half
1994
1993
1992
1991
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2 comments:
Paula, your one tough cookie ! I have a print that you did in 1992 of a Native American woman pointing to the sky with her fingers. And had to find out about the artist. It's Beautiful ! I hope you are still as Happy as your last post. Thank you for sharing your story.
Thank you for your comment! :) You can see my newer posts on my new blog at www.paulamanninglewis.com I am very happy these days! Thanks again! :)
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