The first, last and only time a kitty picture will ever be featured.We are moving.
Not just across town. We are moving across the country, people. Trading Northeast for Southwest. Snow boots for flip flops. Longjohns for SPF. Green for brown. Wet for dry. You get the idea.
Why?
Because, for the past six months, we've been asking ourselves the following:
- If Brad's new job can be done any place with a major airport and high speed internet, then why are we living hundreds of miles away from our closest relatives?
- Do we love our current house enough to sink a boatload of cash into bathroom and kitchen remodeling? Or do we just want to start over with a newer house? In a place with lower taxes?
- When exactly is the least-pyschologically-damaging window for uprooting children? Before, during or after middle school?
- Can we just count moving cross-country as our joint midlife crisis and get it over with?
After letting the answers simmer for awhile, and giving the whole thing a lot of thought and prayer, we feel like we're doing the right thing. Gulp.
So, that is the February excitement around here.
Please, feel free to share your advice and opinions.
I would particularly appreciate suggestions regarding:
- Blitzkrieg cleaning strategies.
- Staging a home to sell quickly.
- Keeping a house "realtor ready" with four active children.
- And a traveling husband.
- Without abusing refined carbohydrates.
Also:
- Finding the best homes/schools/neighborhoods.
- Helping kids cope with a cross-country move.
- Living in the same town as the in-laws. (Just kiddin', Nana!)
- Making new friends at age 39.
- Camouflaging figure flaws in 110-degree heat.
And, please. Don't ask how I am going to survive without cheesesteaks, water ice, historic charm, spring blossoms, fall foliage, trainrides into New York, day trips to the beach, and thirteen years' worth of the absolute best friends a girl could ask for. I can't go there.
