Thursday, January 21, 2010

Never Going to Move!

When I was just becoming a pre-teen something wonderful happened. My older sister got married. Sure, I was happy for her and all; but the real joy came from the fact that I would be able to move into her room and have my own room all to myself on the second floor! Now that is heaven.

I loved having my own room, I loved the house I had grown up in. It was all I knew. So you can only imagine my pure terror when my sophomore year, due to a job loss, there was talk that we may have to move. Move when I had two years left in school?? No way!! Moving was not something I wanted to do at all.

Fast forward a few years later, I was still in that same house luckily, but was about to make a big move across the country from Illinois to Provo, Utah for college. I felt pretty cool that I was going away further than pretty much everyone I was graduating with. For the next year I called a little box of a room home. It was a wonderful year.

After a summer back home, it was back for my sophomore year. This time I would be living off campus with my best friend and a couple of strangers. We lived in this, semi-ghetto cinder-block walled apartment.. but we were surrounded by other students so it was heaven. Including this cute guy that lived across the way named Eric. After spending lots of time with Eric, we decided that next year instead of having 3 roommates I was just going to have one-one wonderful husband that is.

The semester ended and I needed to be out of my apartment, but was planning on sticking around Provo for the summer. So I moved into what would be Eric and I's apartment by myself and he went home with his parents (no pre-marital co-habitation for us). In June we got married then moved in together.

We liked our first apartment, it was our first place! Sure there was no dishwasher, and sure you had to walk through the bedroom to get to the only bathroom, but it was ours... that is until they were going to raise the rent. So we moved to the other side of town to Villa Maria. Definitely an older, needing more TLC kind of place--but we were young, broke and in love.

We loved Villa Maria. We were both going to school at BYU and Eric was working long hours in Salt Lake and would get home very late. I was about to graduate and figured I would most likely end up working in Salt Lake anyway, so we moved to Lehi, UT--halfway in-between.

Now this was an upgrade! Two bedrooms, huge kitchen.. so wonderful! Except for our upstairs neighbors who fought, let their toilet overflow into our apartment.. those sort of neighborly things. I had graduated, was working for DCFS and Eric just had one more year of school left, so we had a home built.

We loved this home! It was wonderful. We had all of these great plans for the basement. We even built a pool table in the basement. Eric graduated and started applying to lots of local companies.. and nothing, after nothing... we really wanted to stay in Utah. We had only lived in our home we had built for a year! Finally he did get hired by a local company, the company he had always wanted to work for... but well.. they had some different plans for us.


Off to Durango, Colorado for us. Durango will also hold a special place in our hearts as this is where Lucas was born. But we knew we would never stay; we knew once the hospital was done that Eric was building we would move again.


After about 15 different places that they were going to send us (it seriously changed week to week), we ended up in Mesa, AZ. This move occurred two months before Alex was born. So at 7 months pregnant I had to find a new doctor.. fun I know. We bought a home in Mesa as Eric's company has an office there and lots of jobs were happening so it was probably going to be a 5-7 year stay.

Well a little thing called the economy collapsed. He finished the job he had been sent there to do and there just wasn't any new work there.. so once again, we moved. This time to Southern California. This house is my favorite of all of my homes by far, but we are just renting.. as we still have that darn house in Mesa (word of advice--don't buy a house shortly after the peak before a major crash). So here we are, we have been here for a year now.. and well it is looking like we might be here a while. But, I never hold my breath about this anymore.

So this non-moving girl who never could dream of moving... well I guess you never know where life is going to take you.

Inspired from a writing prompt
Mama's Losin' It
at Mama's Kat's

25 comments:

  1. Yeah, I hear ya! I so HATE to move.
    I really really like it here where I am now. Never thought I would say that. It's a small town AND I LOVE city life. Ahh well.

    Such is life, right?

    You have lived in some nice houses, girl. ;)R U planning on attending Casual blogger conference 2010?

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  2. I was like you growing up, we moved 1 time but it was only across town, so I lived in the same city my whole life! I didn't move until I graduated from college but then I couldn't stop moving it seemed from 2002-2008 I moved 8 times! 2 were to different states. 3 were in the same cities and now I'm really happy with the place we are renting! Luckily I never bought a house, but moving is not fun! I'm hoping we don't have to move this year. My husband and I are both up for tenure in our schools, but his district is looking at HUGE cuts. If he loses his job we may have to move and I don't really want to leave our little house. We were hoping to stay at least until after we had one child. It seems God may have other plans.

    Where did you live in IL? That's where I'm at now, back in the town where I grew up!

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  3. I have only lived in one other city my entire life. At the moment I live in the same ward I grew up in. A block and a half away from my childhood home.

    There are times I really would like to move but it would take some serious voices from heaven to get that happening. Not because I don't want to move but because our oldest son has Autism and I just don't think I could do that to him.

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  4. Wow what an awesome blog, I did the same prompt :) Really enjoyed reading this!

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  5. I used to love to move! After I graduated HS I moved every 3-6 months until I got married... five years later! Since being married I re-arrange my house often to give me that same feeling as if I did actually move. Now with really moving looming over me, I am not so excited. The thought of packing up a whole house sort of frightens me.

    Way to go you for facing your fears, though! That is awesome!

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  6. You just never know where life is going to take you. I am glad it brought you here.

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  7. I moved around a lot as a kid. It made me very flexible and ok with change. Now as an adult, I don't ever move. I did move from Dallas to Austin, but now that I'm married to a fireman, we are here to stay. They have incredible job security and don't get transfered. Anywhere. We just built our dream home and I am in love with our new home. I still have lots of decorating to do, but I'm taking my time and doing it right.

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  8. Will, I for one will be keeping my fingers crossed that life brings you back to Utah one day!!

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  9. HI, im brand new to your blog. and I love it!

    Thank you for your cute ideas to keep little chickens busy. I struggle making the day educational and entertaining.

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  10. I know moving more than I would have guessed myself, too.

    Crazy life. I hope someday I get to visit you in your favorite house of all! :)

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  11. I too did not move as a kid but did changes bedrooms, that was moving for me. I went off to college and then back home until I got married. Now 9 moves in 13 years and another one this summer, I love to move and do things that I never would have had the opportunity to do. My favorite was Germany. Now I am waiting to see where we move to this time....

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  12. Ahh... your post reminded me of the crappy house I lived in in college... so much - ahem - charm.

    I love your home now.

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  13. Now that is what I call moving around. :)

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  14. Wow, that is a lot of moving! Good luck selling your AZ home.

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  15. Wow you have been quite the mover. At least you get the opportunity to go through junk and clean out all your unwanted stuff on a regular basis. :)

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  16. I hate moving. (The unpacking....blah)

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  17. Wow! you have moved a lot! Me, not so much! Right now I would love to move but that cursed economy is keeping me in my little postage stamp of a house. Oh, lots of memories here!
    Nicely written! :)

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  18. This is a cool post.. I'd love to relay all the various homes we've had, that'd be a fun trip down memory lane! I like this!
    I haven't done Writer's Workshop in some time (since I had my 2nd baby!) but hope to soon..

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  19. Great post and very well written too I just love it. Your pictures are beautiful too :)

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  20. Wow! What a fun story! Thanks for sharing! Good 'ol Provo and it's ghettos! LOL! I spent some time there too in college!

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  21. love memories of first apartments:-) makes me remember our first place. we were really luck in rexburg b.c all of the married housing was brand new AND cheap. it was so fun:-) we had great apartments and so many memories! thanks for sharing yours!!!

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  22. i love your upbeat recollections of your past along with your hope and acceptance for what lies ahead. me, not so much on the upbeat or accepting.

    i am still enjoying FULFILLING my daily commitment to p365. very grateful to you for the idea. maybe the most meaningful thing i do all year. your home is beautiful. enjoy.

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  23. My mom and dad started out at BYU too! How fun! Oh that's assuming that it was the Y and not UVSC. I have only moved four times in my life. And I've never left the city where I was born. In fact my parents still live in the house that I was born in. And the saddest part is that I live only 5 blocks away from them.
    I CAN NOT imagine what you have been through! Has it been hard to uproot your family or has it been ok where they are so young still?

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  24. That sounds so much like the first 6 years of our marriage. We literally moved every other year, at least for those first years. It was crazy!

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  25. I was the opposite-- I dreamed of moving. It gets harder with kids though, because you see how it affects them.
    Great post prompt.

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