I thought that I have written something about our NEWS, but I haven't! Where does the time go? We got for sure news in June that the Army was moving Ronnie (and us) to Lowell, MA in September. This has been an ongoing, up in the air possibility since about March. The Army is moving and shuffling around everyone! I believe after we leave there will be 1-2 people left from the crew in Ronnie's office/area. We have no clue when we would come back to MN. We will be away for at least 3 years and Ronnie can retire in 13 years from the Army. Quite a range, but very exciting!
"I am now a women of leisure" I like to say that because I wish it were true! I closed down my daycare in July and it was first hard thing I had to do through all of this experience! I will be home chauffeuring the boys to and from their schools and enjoying the time off to figure out what I want to be "when I grow up." I barely remember the month of July...what month is it? The first week of July, we took Ronnie's sister, Rebecca, to Harry Potter World. Very fun! No matter what age you are, Disney World is the best place on earth! There are musicals in the streets and everyone is on a sugar high! What a great vacation! NO, we did NOT bring the kids! We are going to hear about that in the years to come!
The last week in July, my Aunt Kathy and I went to Massachusetts to scope out a new place to move my family. Lowell is an old Mill City and is a little run down, but has personality! However, its not a place to live and their schools aren't great! So, I had my heart set on living just outside or Lowell and the places we looked at were SCARY in our price point! There were 3 bedroom single family homes for rent there for $1800-$2000 per month that would be probably $1000 or less per month here! They were scary and I was so overwhelmed and felt like our life was not going to be the positive and wonderful experience I hoped for. I was scared and pessimistic to say the least, my first night there. My realtor in MA (yes you HAVE to have a realtor on the east coast to find a rental) told me if I raised my price point to $2400-$2600 per month that we could find a decent place-YIKES! The next day, we went with my New Hampshire realtor and found MORE hopeful properties- I actually had choices! We found a condo where I didn't feel like I was compromising as much and it was in the school I wanted to send the boys to! I feel that everything is falling into place now. I can go into more detail about this trip, but that is for another blog ;-)
We have been back and forth on what to do with our home. We started fixing up the house to get it ready to rent and then Ronnie and I had a logical conversation about how we imagined this experience and our lives to be like. Travel was a really BIG agreement, whether we come home often or travel that region of the country. If we rented our home, we would still be paying a difference of $500+ per month and that would limit what we value these days. We decided to sell. It has been an emotional decision, but our lives are going to be great and closer to what we dreamed of our lives being like. A house is just a house, you can't bring it with you when you leave this world. I could write a whole blog on just his topic alone too.
It is a couple weeks out until we leave good 'ol MN and the countdown is on. Emotional roller coater is about to start......stay tuned!
