Moving

"AGAIN????"

That is what the kids said when we told them. We are moving AGAIN!!! My poor babies. My heart breaks for them as they leave for school this morning for their last day- saying good bye to yet another group of freinds. This is their 3rd elementary school and they are in 1st, 4th and 5th grade- we are headed off to school number 4. Actually for Katrina this will be 5.

Bradys change in careers and the closing of his home theater business has caused us to rethink our finances. It's time to think more long term and stop living month to month. It's time to get our credit back under control and build a savings account.

Our solutions-

#1 Get closer to my work. Currently we live 30-40 minutes from the gym. So it is not convient and VERY rare for me to take on extra classes. Plus just my regular schedule takes a huge chunk of my paycheck in gas.

#2 Get closer to the airport. Brady travels A LOT and currently we are 1 1/2 hours form the airport, depending on traffic. It is NOT convenient for me to drive him to the airport so he drives himself and we pay long term parking. With him spending up to 20 days a month out of state that adds up-plus all the gas back and forth.

#3 Lower our monthly expenses- Our new home is smaller, not MUCH smaller, but smaller, and is MUCH less expensive in both utilities and monthly rent.

#4- Get closer to family- When I have to work and Brady is out of town my kids are often left to fend for them selves for several hours a night. Our new house is only 5 minutes form Becky's so we will have more family support. Lizzi is close here and has been a HUGE help, but she is often up at Beckys and rarely has a car herself.

#5- Reduce Maintenance Time and Expenses- Our current home sits on just over 1/2 acre of wooded, tiered, landscaped yard. It is beautiful but very hard and time consuming to maintain. So we hire it out. We just don't have the 8 hours a week needed to do basic maintenance on this yard. And the snow is coming- if you have ever seen our driveway you understand what I am getting at. And remember my hubby is RARELY home. So shoveling is my job. So no more yard guy and no more paying random strangers to come plow the driveway so I can go to work. The new house has a small- normal drive way and a fairly large, flat, square yard with nothing but grass. This year the kids will learn to mow the lawn.

So there you have it- we are moving AGAIN!!! But we did sign a 2 year contract this time so fingers crossed.... it will be a long while before I repeat this post!