Going back home

As you know, our family has been through some difficult times as of late. We uprooted our family and moved to Tallahassee to start over, only for Todd's new job to come to a dead-end. Unfortunately our enlightenment came after we moved up here, instead of before. We've now made two decisions: (1) We are never moving to take a job again and (2) We are tired of relocating and starting over so we are going home to Cincy to put down our own family roots. I told Todd and he agreed that before Kate was ready to start kindergarden we had to be settled. I am not uprooting her to move across the state or country every five years when one of us takes a new job. We've made a decision to make OH/KY work no matter what. Jobs come and go but family is forever.

The area is nice - I have lots of family there plus a couple of friends from high school. I know I will enjoy four regular seasons again. I can't wait to see Kate and her first snow! The near-by Smokey Mts will be great for family vacations. We can even drive to our Luna family reunion in MI, instead of flying.

I've thought several times over the past years about moving back but could never take that leap of faith. I was scared to move with no job and then what? I was raised to believe that an income, no matter how crappy the job, was paramount and to be without a job was unthinkable. My parents were totally unconcerned with being happy with their work. It was a paycheck and that is what mattered. Not for me to live like that anymore - life is too short to spend it doing something you dislike. Can't wait until I finish my master's so I can go forth and get my dream job.

In light of these "revelations", we have decided to do some other things we've discussed in the past but never implemented. We are simplifying. For starters, we are selling one of our cars. Right now we just don't need two cars, especially since I work at home and Todd is not working at all (and might end up working from home also). This will rid us of one car payment, the insurance on that car, and net us some additional money to live off until Todd has a new job. Another car can always be bought, if needed. Also, we are selling our huge entertainment center and our loveseat couch. Both are much too heavy to bother bring with us to Cincy and the loveseat was from our pre-Kate days. It is not really a family piece. These are all just 'things' and not really important to our overall goal.