Things have been HECTIC in our household since I blogged back in March. The biggest event that happened was that we moved! However, the move did not go as we had expected.
When we wrote up our contract with the builder of the new home we would be purchasing in Graham, we told him that we needed to sell and close our house in Colorado before we could close and purchase the new house he was building. He was kind enough to let us rent the house until ours sold so we would only have to move once. We wrote the contract stating those terms and everything was peachy keen.
Unfortunately, two weeks before we were scheduled to move into the house the builder called me and told me we needed to schedule our closing date. I told him our house hadn't sold yet and reminded him that our contract stated that we would rent. He informed me that he couldn't rent it to us because technically the house wasn't his and his bank wouldn't let him, and insurance wouldn't let him, and so on and so on. My response was, "you didn't know all this before we wrote the contract?" His response was no but he continued to pressure me to purchase and close the house even asking if I have ever heard of a bridge loan. I told him we weren't going to do that because we were actively trying to sell our house and that I was confident it would sell. He threw that in my face and said that he was banking on the fact that I told him it would sell fast. I replied that I never said that it would sell the day the sign went in the yard, but that I was still confident that it would sell fast. (At the time it had only been for sale for three weeks. I also didn't tell him that I was doing For Sale By Owner). Long story short, I told him we needed to be released from the contract since he was no longer willing to follow through with his end of the bargain. He said all he had to do was call the title company and the earnest money would be released, but I knew better after selling real estate for a couple of years. I called the title company myself, they faxed me the earnest money release form, Greg and I signed it and faxed it back, and then we waited, and waited, and waited for the builder to go by and sign the paper.
In the meantime I had two weeks to find us a new place to live. Which meant we had to rent and wanted a short term lease or a month to month lease since we really want to buy once our house in Colorado sells. I spent a full day when I should have been packing making phone calls and scouring the internet. Low and behold I finally found an ad online for a furnished cabin in the town of Jacksboro, which is 30 miles away from Graham. I called, and the owner was more than happy to do a month to month lease and we signed the lease the next day. I must admit, I'm LOVING our temporary home. It is on a 90 acre RV ranch with a fully stocked fishing "lake" that Greg loves. There are hiking trails that Parker and I explore and even some swings that I can push him on. The one downfall: the cabin is one big open room. And Parker doesn't sleep through the night. I was afraid it was going to be a bad situation for Greg since he never realized how much Parker was awake during the night since I turn the monitor off in our bedroom when I am taking care of him. But, I began feeding him a bigger snack before bed and amazingly he is sleeping better through the night. Normally only waking around 3:00 for a nursing.
Since we were no longer moving straight into our new home, I was then forced to pack for several different situations. I had to pack boxes for storage. Then I had to pack for the necessities we would need in the cabin. And finally, we were spending a week in Oklahoma before we made our final move to Texas, so I had to pack for Oklahoma. It was crazy and I'll just leave it at that.
During all of the chaos of packing I was still actively trying to sell our house. And by active, I mean active. I had it advertised in the newspaper, online, and even on the local radio stations (One station asked me to come in and read the ad and I was more than happy to do so. I loved getting a chance to flex my theater muscle. After all, radio is the theatre of the mind. At least that's what the Manager of the radio station told me. She was impressed that I nailed the reading in one shot. But she also has DJ's on her radio station who say "Ummm" every two seconds. I'm just sayin'). We had an open house every Saturday and Sunday, and sometimes on Mondays. I don't know if many of you who are reading have ever had an open house before, but let me just say that when you do, you want your house to look a certain way. As in, you want it to be PERFECT and CLEAN. Which meant that half of my week was spent packing, the other half was spent cleaning and staging the house for sale.
We were scheduled to do the big move on Saturday, April 9th. That meant the previous Sunday was my last open house. As fate would have it, a young couple came to our house and fell in love with it. The following evening they brought their entire family over to look at it as well. The next morning I got a phone call from the potential buyers mother. Apparently her financing wasn't going to work out, which was a bummer, but the good news was that she was interested in purchasing it since her daughter couldn't. By the following Thursday we were under contract and although I wanted to call the builder up and rub it in his face, I kept my cool since he still hadn't released us from our contract. I know that at that point we could have proceeded with the builder but Greg and I just felt that things were happening for a reason and that this would give us the opportunity to look at houses more thoroughly and not rush into something.
Obviously, the few days prior to the move were a whirlwind and were it not for the help from friends who came by to help us load the U-haul or baby sit Parker, I probably would have had a nervous break down.
Now, in the past, any time I drive away for the last time from a house that I'm selling I turn into a big bawling mess. I figured this time would be the same since it was the home I brought Parker home too from the hospital and he spent most of his first year of life there. Maybe I've gotten jaded in my old age, but I didn't shed a single tear as I drove away. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Maybe a good cry would have done me some good. But I had other things to stress over at that point. Like Parker's birthday party and then moving into a place I had never seen before. You know. Just normal things that happen every day.
The week in Oklahoma was great. I got to visit family and friends and had a great time at Parker's first birthday party (blog post coming soon)! The following Friday we drove down to TX and began settling into our "temporary home". The next day we drove into Graham to do some shopping at Wal-Mart and we drove by what would have been our new home. I was pretty surprised to discover a Realtors for sale sign in the yard. He still hadn't released me from the contract yet and since we had wrote a closing date of May 1st I knew he hadn't told the listing Realtor this information. I didn't hesitate a second to call that Realtor and explain the situation. They were very surprised but by Monday they had went to the builder and had him sign the paper work we needed to be released from the contract. The irony of the whole story is that they are now trying to close our house in Colorado by this Friday, which means we could have closed on the house here in TX by the date we established in the contract. If only that builder would have treated us better he could have had a sale. Instead, the house is still not completed. I told Greg things worked out just the way they should have because what would have happened is that even though he told us it would be finished by April 14th, we would have arrived that day ready to move in and would not have been able too.
Instead, now we have the joy of house shopping. I say that sarcastically. Don't get me wrong. I love looking at houses and could tour them all day long. But I don't like it when I'm willing and able to buy a house and the houses that are available for sale are priced at market value, yet we would still have to dump $30,000 into them to bring them up to date. Nor do I like the price of property taxes in the great state of Texas. Holy Moly! $300-$500 a month going to property taxes are ridiculous. Every one has told us that it's OK because Texas doesn't charge state tax. Well, we pulled out Greg's pay stubs and we would happily pay $120 a month in state taxes to not have to pay a larger property tax.
So that's where we are. We have an appointment to look at two properties tonight, but I'm not holding my breath. One I am in love with but it's at the top end of our price range. The other I haven't seen and it says it's updated but most people just throw some white paint on walls and call a home updated which just doesn't fly with me.
Wish us luck, and hopefully soon I'll be able to blog about purchasing a new house. And hopefully this time it wont fall through!
Showing posts with label I'd like a large serving of stress please. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I'd like a large serving of stress please. Show all posts
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Just a normal day?
The past few days I've been battling a sore throat and sinus problems. Lots of fun. Around 1:30 A.M. I woke up and absolutely couldn't fall back to sleep. This was in part due to a runny nose and an active little boy in my belly. Since I haven't been sleeping well lately, Greg hasn't either. Because I was wide awake I figured I might as well get up and try not to disturb him. I spent some time in front of the T.V. and reading hoping to get sleepy. I finally ventured back to bed around 4:30 only to be woke up by the blaring alarm clock at 5:45. As soon as I had Greg's breakfast and lunch prepared, back to bed I went. But it took me awhile to fall asleep and when I woke up around 8:45 my growling tummy was the only thing that motivated me to put my feet on the floor.
The rest of my morning proved to be very un-productive. I had a lot to do but no motivation or energy to do any of it. Finally after lunch I told myself I needed to hop to it. I put some CD's in the stereo and blasted it. That seemed to do the trick. My goal for the afternoon was to finish cutting in (you know, painting by brush the parts of walls and along the baseboards that a roller can't touch) the nursery. I didn't want to, but the curtains I bought the day before were strategically laid in the middle of the room to help encourage me. While I was busy painting, I also took several breaks to rotate four loads of laundry from the washer to the dryer to their appropriate closets.
4:00 rolled around and I finally finished the last stroke of my paint brush. I stepped back to admire my work and headed downstairs to our "paintbrush cleaning" bathroom mentally giving myself a pat on the back all the way down to the basement. As I was cleaning out my paint brush in the sink I had visions of me "relaxing" for the remainder of the afternoon since I am still pretty darn exhausted after my lack of sleep the night before, not to mention battling my runny/stuffy nose. That was when I felt it. A wet feeling on my foot. Then I heard it. The sound of gushing water. I vaguely remembered Greg mentioning a leak in the downstairs bathroom. And I remember noticing that the trash can was missing that I assumed he had placed underneath the leak to catch the drips. What I hadn't assumed was that hubby would take the plumbing apart, leaving the trash can to catch ALL OF THE WATER THAT CAME OUT OF THE FAUCET.
Now, keep in mind the task I was performing. I was rinsing out a paint brush. A paint brush I used to paint bright green paint with. Great...this was not the way I had planned the remainder of my afternoon. Somehow, despite my raging pregnant hormones, I managed to remain calm despite all the curse words going around in my head. I managed to pour a little bit of the green water from the trash can down the toilet. The rest I'll let hubby deal with. Then it was off to find the shop vac. You'd think that would have been easy considering it was in our coat closet, which I get into at least once a day. But no, it took me a good 10 minutes to find it. Then, as I was sitting on the floor trying to put the hose on the shop vac (which I can never do very easily for some odd reason), sprinkling myself with dust from the hose, frustrated that on top of everything else I was now going to have to vacuum the spot I was sitting at due to all the dust, the sound of the dryer went off, and that's when I about lost it.
Luckily, deep breaths really help me in situations like this. I closed my eyes, told myself the clothes could wait, and took a few good, long, dust-filled breaths. Then I retreated to the bathroom to suck up all the water I could. Afterwards I used paper towels to dry the areas. As I was drying the inside of the cabinet I noticed the paper towels were coming out black. I prayed it wasn't black mold that developed during the time the faucet was leaking. Then immediately put the thought out of my mind because I just can't handle anything else. I left the shop vac in the bathroom for hubby to deal with.
Next, I took the paint brush and paint container I was using up to the kitchen to finish rinsing out. Realized I still hadn't loaded the dishwasher and the sinks were full of dirty dishes. Cleaned out one side of the sink and proceeded to clean my painting utensils. Only when I finished did I retreat back down to the basement to get the clean clothes and put my final load of laundry in the dryer.
Greg will be home soon, and I know as soon as he sees the dirty kitchen, he'll look at me and ask, "What did you do all day?"
The rest of my morning proved to be very un-productive. I had a lot to do but no motivation or energy to do any of it. Finally after lunch I told myself I needed to hop to it. I put some CD's in the stereo and blasted it. That seemed to do the trick. My goal for the afternoon was to finish cutting in (you know, painting by brush the parts of walls and along the baseboards that a roller can't touch) the nursery. I didn't want to, but the curtains I bought the day before were strategically laid in the middle of the room to help encourage me. While I was busy painting, I also took several breaks to rotate four loads of laundry from the washer to the dryer to their appropriate closets.
4:00 rolled around and I finally finished the last stroke of my paint brush. I stepped back to admire my work and headed downstairs to our "paintbrush cleaning" bathroom mentally giving myself a pat on the back all the way down to the basement. As I was cleaning out my paint brush in the sink I had visions of me "relaxing" for the remainder of the afternoon since I am still pretty darn exhausted after my lack of sleep the night before, not to mention battling my runny/stuffy nose. That was when I felt it. A wet feeling on my foot. Then I heard it. The sound of gushing water. I vaguely remembered Greg mentioning a leak in the downstairs bathroom. And I remember noticing that the trash can was missing that I assumed he had placed underneath the leak to catch the drips. What I hadn't assumed was that hubby would take the plumbing apart, leaving the trash can to catch ALL OF THE WATER THAT CAME OUT OF THE FAUCET.
Now, keep in mind the task I was performing. I was rinsing out a paint brush. A paint brush I used to paint bright green paint with. Great...this was not the way I had planned the remainder of my afternoon. Somehow, despite my raging pregnant hormones, I managed to remain calm despite all the curse words going around in my head. I managed to pour a little bit of the green water from the trash can down the toilet. The rest I'll let hubby deal with. Then it was off to find the shop vac. You'd think that would have been easy considering it was in our coat closet, which I get into at least once a day. But no, it took me a good 10 minutes to find it. Then, as I was sitting on the floor trying to put the hose on the shop vac (which I can never do very easily for some odd reason), sprinkling myself with dust from the hose, frustrated that on top of everything else I was now going to have to vacuum the spot I was sitting at due to all the dust, the sound of the dryer went off, and that's when I about lost it.
Luckily, deep breaths really help me in situations like this. I closed my eyes, told myself the clothes could wait, and took a few good, long, dust-filled breaths. Then I retreated to the bathroom to suck up all the water I could. Afterwards I used paper towels to dry the areas. As I was drying the inside of the cabinet I noticed the paper towels were coming out black. I prayed it wasn't black mold that developed during the time the faucet was leaking. Then immediately put the thought out of my mind because I just can't handle anything else. I left the shop vac in the bathroom for hubby to deal with.
Next, I took the paint brush and paint container I was using up to the kitchen to finish rinsing out. Realized I still hadn't loaded the dishwasher and the sinks were full of dirty dishes. Cleaned out one side of the sink and proceeded to clean my painting utensils. Only when I finished did I retreat back down to the basement to get the clean clothes and put my final load of laundry in the dryer.
Greg will be home soon, and I know as soon as he sees the dirty kitchen, he'll look at me and ask, "What did you do all day?"
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I'm Cursed
I have the Vacation Curse to be more specific.
Greg and I haven't been on many vacations since we've been together. In fact, the only "real" vacation we've been on is when we went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon. We were both so excited! Mainly because we didn't even know until two weeks before our wedding that we would have extra money to afford to go on a honeymoon. If it hadn't been for all the money that we received as gifts in the mail from family members, it wouldn't have been possible! We were to spend four days in Vegas and we were staying in the Stratosphere hotel and casino. I had never even been to a casino before and neither of us had ever gambled so we were excited to experience that. It's no secret that my husband and I both love to eat, so we were pretty stoked to get to try out different restaurants. Not to mention all those endless buffets you see on the travel channel that Vegas is known for. I was also looking forward to taking in a couple of shows!
We arrived in Vegas around dinner time. Once we checked into the hotel and deposited our suitcases in the room we headed straight to the buffet! From there we had our first, addicting experience with slot machines. Once we tore ourselves away from those we checked out all the shops located in the Stratosphere, along with traveling to the top of the building to check out the Vegas lights. Afterwards we realized we were pretty tired so we went to bed. It wasn't even ten o'clock.
The next morning we woke up and began our tour of the Vegas strip. After a couple of hours I realized I wasn't feeling well. I thought maybe I was hungry so although nothing sounded good, I forced myself to eat McDonalds for lunch. Soon after I was literally begging Greg to go back to the room. Not even thirty minutes after we arrived back safe and sound, I was running to the bathroom to throw up. As I was hunched over the toilet an article that I read in one of the many bridal magazines I had purchased flashed through my mind. The article posted a statistic of the percentage of brides who got physically ill on their honeymoon. The reason for this phenomenon being that a bride is usually so stressed about the wedding and all the details that go into planning it. The stress lasts throughout the planning stage and the wedding itself until the bride finds herself on her honeymoon. Suddenly, she has nothing to stress about. Since the body doesn't know how to cope with this sudden loss of stress, it relieves itself the only way it knows how; by causing the bride to be sick. That article made a lot of sense to me.
My ailment went on for the remainder of the afternoon. I to this day cannot even tell you what Greg did all afternoon. Again, we were in bed by ten o'clock that evening as well. The next day wasn't much better. I didn't feel like my normal self. Food sounded disgusting. Walking around sounded like a chore. I toughed it out as much as I could and we did manage to see some amazing sights and take in a couple of the shows our hotel put on. Unfortunately, I was tired every night and each night we went to bed by ten o'clock. Who goes to bed that early in Vegas? I'm still determined to visit Vegas again for the sole purpose of experiencing the night life.
A while back I wrote a post about how excited I was that Greg and I finally applied for our passports. I also wrote that we were going to Cancun for some of our best friends wedding. I was literally counting down the days from the day we booked until the day we would be leaving. This was about ninety-six days ago. The trip is now exactly one week away. And I'm dreading it.
Here's why: For the past four weeks I have thrown up virtually every day. And it's not just morning sickness. It's more like all-day sickness. When I'm not throwing up (skip to the next paragraph if you have a queasy stomach!) I'm doing this disgusting, embarrassing thing. It's kind of like a dry heave/burp. However, I cannot distinguish if I'm about to do that or actually throw up. So I'm continually running to the toilet or trash can. Luckily in the trailer I don't have far to run! I have a prescription of anti-nausea tablets as well as an acid reducer, but they don't really help me that much. The worse part about this, is that I don't want people to witness me doing this. Anytime I leave the house, I have a slight feeling of anxiety. I'm just waiting for me to throw up in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store, despite the fact that I carry a plastic sack with me. My luck I just won't get it out in time. The thought of being in an air plane while I'm dealing with nausea, with a stranger seated next to me, makes me want to cry.
My next worry is how we are going to get to Mexico in the first place. When we booked our trip we weren't sure where we were going to be. So we went ahead and arranged to be flown round-trip from Oklahoma City. The thought of the long car ride to and from OKC again makes me want to cry (are you noticing a theme here?). What makes matters worse is that on the way back, I'll be driving by myself again. That's because our friend Tim who drove the U-Haul to Colorado for us drove my car back to Oklahoma.
My third and final worry is the biggest. I want to experience Cancun. I really do. But I'm afraid I won't want to leave the room. I was really looking forward to so many aspects of this trip: The endless buffet of seafood, which, duh, I can't eat. Going to Senior Frogs and dancing the night away. Going on a booze cruise with all our friends who are going to Cancun as well. Visiting the Mayan Ruins. And, of course, shopping!
I'm usually known for being able to see the positive in things. And I'm really trying to focus on that. I'm so excited to be able to attend a beach wedding. I'm excited to wear my fabulous floppy hat I bought as I lounge by the pool. But that's about it. I will be 12 weeks next Tuesday and I'm praying like crazy that all of these nasty symptoms I'm experiencing will magically go away like so many people have assured me they will. I'm also really praying the bartenders will know what a "virgin" pina colada is.
I know that it sounds really stupid and petty of me to ask for you to pray for me while I'm on vacation in a tropical paradise, but as you can see, I am cursed when it comes to vacations.
***After re-reading this, I realize readers may take this the wrong way. My pregnancy was in no way an "accident" and I do not consider being pregnant a curse! I just had to make that part clear! ;)***
Greg and I haven't been on many vacations since we've been together. In fact, the only "real" vacation we've been on is when we went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon. We were both so excited! Mainly because we didn't even know until two weeks before our wedding that we would have extra money to afford to go on a honeymoon. If it hadn't been for all the money that we received as gifts in the mail from family members, it wouldn't have been possible! We were to spend four days in Vegas and we were staying in the Stratosphere hotel and casino. I had never even been to a casino before and neither of us had ever gambled so we were excited to experience that. It's no secret that my husband and I both love to eat, so we were pretty stoked to get to try out different restaurants. Not to mention all those endless buffets you see on the travel channel that Vegas is known for. I was also looking forward to taking in a couple of shows!
We arrived in Vegas around dinner time. Once we checked into the hotel and deposited our suitcases in the room we headed straight to the buffet! From there we had our first, addicting experience with slot machines. Once we tore ourselves away from those we checked out all the shops located in the Stratosphere, along with traveling to the top of the building to check out the Vegas lights. Afterwards we realized we were pretty tired so we went to bed. It wasn't even ten o'clock.
The next morning we woke up and began our tour of the Vegas strip. After a couple of hours I realized I wasn't feeling well. I thought maybe I was hungry so although nothing sounded good, I forced myself to eat McDonalds for lunch. Soon after I was literally begging Greg to go back to the room. Not even thirty minutes after we arrived back safe and sound, I was running to the bathroom to throw up. As I was hunched over the toilet an article that I read in one of the many bridal magazines I had purchased flashed through my mind. The article posted a statistic of the percentage of brides who got physically ill on their honeymoon. The reason for this phenomenon being that a bride is usually so stressed about the wedding and all the details that go into planning it. The stress lasts throughout the planning stage and the wedding itself until the bride finds herself on her honeymoon. Suddenly, she has nothing to stress about. Since the body doesn't know how to cope with this sudden loss of stress, it relieves itself the only way it knows how; by causing the bride to be sick. That article made a lot of sense to me.
My ailment went on for the remainder of the afternoon. I to this day cannot even tell you what Greg did all afternoon. Again, we were in bed by ten o'clock that evening as well. The next day wasn't much better. I didn't feel like my normal self. Food sounded disgusting. Walking around sounded like a chore. I toughed it out as much as I could and we did manage to see some amazing sights and take in a couple of the shows our hotel put on. Unfortunately, I was tired every night and each night we went to bed by ten o'clock. Who goes to bed that early in Vegas? I'm still determined to visit Vegas again for the sole purpose of experiencing the night life.
A while back I wrote a post about how excited I was that Greg and I finally applied for our passports. I also wrote that we were going to Cancun for some of our best friends wedding. I was literally counting down the days from the day we booked until the day we would be leaving. This was about ninety-six days ago. The trip is now exactly one week away. And I'm dreading it.
Here's why: For the past four weeks I have thrown up virtually every day. And it's not just morning sickness. It's more like all-day sickness. When I'm not throwing up (skip to the next paragraph if you have a queasy stomach!) I'm doing this disgusting, embarrassing thing. It's kind of like a dry heave/burp. However, I cannot distinguish if I'm about to do that or actually throw up. So I'm continually running to the toilet or trash can. Luckily in the trailer I don't have far to run! I have a prescription of anti-nausea tablets as well as an acid reducer, but they don't really help me that much. The worse part about this, is that I don't want people to witness me doing this. Anytime I leave the house, I have a slight feeling of anxiety. I'm just waiting for me to throw up in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store, despite the fact that I carry a plastic sack with me. My luck I just won't get it out in time. The thought of being in an air plane while I'm dealing with nausea, with a stranger seated next to me, makes me want to cry.
My next worry is how we are going to get to Mexico in the first place. When we booked our trip we weren't sure where we were going to be. So we went ahead and arranged to be flown round-trip from Oklahoma City. The thought of the long car ride to and from OKC again makes me want to cry (are you noticing a theme here?). What makes matters worse is that on the way back, I'll be driving by myself again. That's because our friend Tim who drove the U-Haul to Colorado for us drove my car back to Oklahoma.
My third and final worry is the biggest. I want to experience Cancun. I really do. But I'm afraid I won't want to leave the room. I was really looking forward to so many aspects of this trip: The endless buffet of seafood, which, duh, I can't eat. Going to Senior Frogs and dancing the night away. Going on a booze cruise with all our friends who are going to Cancun as well. Visiting the Mayan Ruins. And, of course, shopping!
I'm usually known for being able to see the positive in things. And I'm really trying to focus on that. I'm so excited to be able to attend a beach wedding. I'm excited to wear my fabulous floppy hat I bought as I lounge by the pool. But that's about it. I will be 12 weeks next Tuesday and I'm praying like crazy that all of these nasty symptoms I'm experiencing will magically go away like so many people have assured me they will. I'm also really praying the bartenders will know what a "virgin" pina colada is.
I know that it sounds really stupid and petty of me to ask for you to pray for me while I'm on vacation in a tropical paradise, but as you can see, I am cursed when it comes to vacations.
***After re-reading this, I realize readers may take this the wrong way. My pregnancy was in no way an "accident" and I do not consider being pregnant a curse! I just had to make that part clear! ;)***
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Never Mind
So in case any of you reading have every wondered what it would be like to live with or be a contractor, let me just give you a tiny glimpse into my world! We choose to live in a Fifth Wheel which is basically like an RV because on any given day, at any given time, a contractor can be told they need to be in a different location within a few days. So, a Fifth Wheel beats living out of a hotel, and I feel like we aren't just "throwing our money away".
Right now we are in Lamar, CO and I think we will be here until March but we could also be here until June, or they can tell my husband he needs to be somewhere different next week. We just never know. This was the main reason I quit my job and we sold our house and put basically everything we own in storage. Some people would probably be a little stressed out if they knew their world could turn upside down within a matter of a few days. But since we live full time on the road, I really would welcome the opportunity to travel more.
However, this is where I will also put my foot in my mouth. One of the main guys that my husband is working with right now is moving to Hawaii in February to become a site lead for GE. Greg has told him several times that if he needed anyone over there to please let Greg know. This was supposed to mean that we would like to come over there for a month or two. Well, this is how it apparently was interpreted: My husband calls me yesterday morning and all he says is this, "Do you still want to go to Hawaii?" Well, yeah! But he doesn't tell me the whole story until after I say "yes". After which he proceeds to tell me that there is a position open with GE (he is a contractor now and is not employed by GE) that the guy here thinks he can get Greg hired on. And, since it would technically be less money, there was also a job opening for me as a data entry person. Basically we would both be working in HI making the same amount of money that we do now but minus the whole traveling part. But here was the kicker. We would be LIVING in Hawaii until at least 2014. Now, I know it's probably easy for someone to say they would move to Hawaii in a heartbeat, but to actually do it is another thing.
So yesterday I spent all day stressing about this huge life change and looking up information about Maui online. Housing is so expensive. One can literally spend $250,000 on a "house" and all they will get is maybe a stand alone home that is 500 square feet or more than likely a condo that may go up to 750 sq. ft. That didn't appeal to me at all. Then, we have a dog, and Hawaii does not have rabies, so they make incoming animals from the mainland be quarantined. Which not only made me feel so sorry for our precious Shady, but we would have had to get a microchip implanted in her prior to moving, and then all the necessary forms/paperwork. Another thing was that my husband said we would sell our truck AND our fifth wheel. Which made me sad because we had talked about turning it into a lake place one day, but whatever. Do you want me to keep going? OK. We would have had to ship my car to HI which from OK would have probably been a few thousand dollars. Then, since everything we own is in storage, we would have had to probably spend a good week going through everything, re-packing them into pre-sized boxes that would actually fit into a crate to be shipped. We would have literally had to either sell or give away probably half of our belongings.
Along with the reality of the impact this move would have on our lives, I had other worries as well. We wouldn't be able to just drive to Oklahoma if we wanted to so we wouldn't see our family and friends except maybe once a year. I was afraid we would be working so much that we wouldn't even get to enjoy the island anyway. I'm scared of tsunami's and earthquakes. What if the two volcanoes on the island suddenly decided to erupt? The cost of living is higher. Etc, Etc, Etc.
Last night we talked it over ALL NIGHT LONG and still went to bed not knowing what would be best to do. This morning my husband texted me from work and said that with GE he would be sent to more schooling and he would be more qualified which could advance his career in the future. So, I told him if he thought we should move, then let's do it. And then I cried. I knew that I had a lot on my plate prior to moving and that I would be super stressed out until we lived in Hawaii for probably a month.
I decided to go to the library and load up on some books on Hawaii. I have all the books in my arms ready to be checked out when my cell phone rings. It's Greg. Calling to tell me that they had already filled the position and that we weren't moving.
That's the life as a contractor.
Right now we are in Lamar, CO and I think we will be here until March but we could also be here until June, or they can tell my husband he needs to be somewhere different next week. We just never know. This was the main reason I quit my job and we sold our house and put basically everything we own in storage. Some people would probably be a little stressed out if they knew their world could turn upside down within a matter of a few days. But since we live full time on the road, I really would welcome the opportunity to travel more.
However, this is where I will also put my foot in my mouth. One of the main guys that my husband is working with right now is moving to Hawaii in February to become a site lead for GE. Greg has told him several times that if he needed anyone over there to please let Greg know. This was supposed to mean that we would like to come over there for a month or two. Well, this is how it apparently was interpreted: My husband calls me yesterday morning and all he says is this, "Do you still want to go to Hawaii?" Well, yeah! But he doesn't tell me the whole story until after I say "yes". After which he proceeds to tell me that there is a position open with GE (he is a contractor now and is not employed by GE) that the guy here thinks he can get Greg hired on. And, since it would technically be less money, there was also a job opening for me as a data entry person. Basically we would both be working in HI making the same amount of money that we do now but minus the whole traveling part. But here was the kicker. We would be LIVING in Hawaii until at least 2014. Now, I know it's probably easy for someone to say they would move to Hawaii in a heartbeat, but to actually do it is another thing.
So yesterday I spent all day stressing about this huge life change and looking up information about Maui online. Housing is so expensive. One can literally spend $250,000 on a "house" and all they will get is maybe a stand alone home that is 500 square feet or more than likely a condo that may go up to 750 sq. ft. That didn't appeal to me at all. Then, we have a dog, and Hawaii does not have rabies, so they make incoming animals from the mainland be quarantined. Which not only made me feel so sorry for our precious Shady, but we would have had to get a microchip implanted in her prior to moving, and then all the necessary forms/paperwork. Another thing was that my husband said we would sell our truck AND our fifth wheel. Which made me sad because we had talked about turning it into a lake place one day, but whatever. Do you want me to keep going? OK. We would have had to ship my car to HI which from OK would have probably been a few thousand dollars. Then, since everything we own is in storage, we would have had to probably spend a good week going through everything, re-packing them into pre-sized boxes that would actually fit into a crate to be shipped. We would have literally had to either sell or give away probably half of our belongings.
Along with the reality of the impact this move would have on our lives, I had other worries as well. We wouldn't be able to just drive to Oklahoma if we wanted to so we wouldn't see our family and friends except maybe once a year. I was afraid we would be working so much that we wouldn't even get to enjoy the island anyway. I'm scared of tsunami's and earthquakes. What if the two volcanoes on the island suddenly decided to erupt? The cost of living is higher. Etc, Etc, Etc.
Last night we talked it over ALL NIGHT LONG and still went to bed not knowing what would be best to do. This morning my husband texted me from work and said that with GE he would be sent to more schooling and he would be more qualified which could advance his career in the future. So, I told him if he thought we should move, then let's do it. And then I cried. I knew that I had a lot on my plate prior to moving and that I would be super stressed out until we lived in Hawaii for probably a month.
I decided to go to the library and load up on some books on Hawaii. I have all the books in my arms ready to be checked out when my cell phone rings. It's Greg. Calling to tell me that they had already filled the position and that we weren't moving.
That's the life as a contractor.
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