It's been a year.

Last April was the beginning of a series of life changing events that took place over the past year. (And the changes are still rolling in!)
It was the month we closed our second Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store. The first one, we closed in February, shortly after Valentine's Day.
Many of you know the story, so I won't go into details again.
But those stores were such a huge part
 of our lives! Everything was dictated by the family business. I don't say that like it was a bad thing at all. It's just how life was flowing.
I was working basically full-time for the last 7ish months, when it was down to just me, my dad, and one other employee to run both stores. My dad was able to take Allen and Allison pretty often, but I was still the only other driver. Before that, point, even though I wasn't working quite full-time, the stores were still my life. When I was at home, it seemed like I was doing business related things (making signs, etc) or simply resting and getting ready to go again. We were also in a homeschool co-op for two years, and I felt like it was all I could do to squeeze in my homework and still attempt to put family first.
My dad was at work alllll the time, it felt. Store number one had to be open on Sundays, much to his chagrin. The mall had promised him that they would rework his lease shortly after we opened. They never let him. Store number two was in an outdoor area, so he had more control over setting his own hours, and was able to be home and relax with us some Sundays or other days he decided to open later. But often when Daddy was at home, he was trying to catch up on paper work.
My mom was busy holding down the fort, and doing accounting and other work for my dad.
Andrea basically ran the house for a time, especially while the stores were being built and first opened.
Again, I don't mean for this to sound negative. I just want to try to show how those stores were literally our way of life for 3 years!

Now, a year later, the whole thing almost feels like a dream. It feels so long ago, and yet, I don't think I ever quite moved on. Other things, like the move, new church, etc. have happened since then, and I don't think I ever got a chance to recuperate and reset my life. It's such a strange feeling.

Lately, since things are finally calming down, I've felt like, "Okay, now I can finally move forward. Now I can get my life back on track." But what is "on track," really? God's had me on His track the whole, crazy time!
You can never really make your own plans. God always has a different (much better!) idea. We have to embrace and love His plans! I think that's so neat about life. I had ideas for how I would've spent my teen years, personal goals and projects I would've worked on, but some of those things were put on hold and God showed me other things that I really needed to be working on. I wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world! I guess I was moving, after all.

Anyway, here are the pictures I posted when we closed. Click below to access the album.


As I explained in the original blog post, these pictures are mostly of the Longmont store. That one (opened Dec 2006) was like our baby. Mommy spent so much time and poured so much effort into having it built out. The Westminster store, which we opened in November 2007, was already built when we acquired it. I spent most of the time at our Longmont store. I can't believe how many memories I have from that place! Wow. Anyway, there aren't very many pictures of the Westminster one since I wasn't there too often. Haha when I was there, my time was consumed by cleaning up after my dad and the other guys. (I never touched the bathroom, though. My mom was the only one brave enough...) How the place got so messy, I never quite understood. I guess it was all the creativity and hard work going on. I think.
 But here is one I found that a friend took on our Grand Opening of the Westminster store. That is our pastor from our former church with us. (Yes, this is a picture of a picture... we somehow lost the power cord for our scanner in the move.)

Haha look at us! Allison is now almost 2 inches taller than I am, Allen's probably at least 5 inches taller... how did that happen?
I love this picture.
I'm so thankful for that time in our family's life!