wow, this has been a long time coming!! a really really long time. The summer of 2005 was a busy one for us. We had been living in southern Florida nearly 2 years, just south of Miami. Moving there sounded like a dream, a great idea! We were 35 minutes south of Miami, 20 minutes north of Key Largo and about a 3 hour trip to either Orlando to the north or Key West to the south. But, the shine had worn off and we had begun to see life in south Florida for what it really was – like living in a foreign country.
Then the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history arrived. I was scared. It seemed like every couple of weeks there was a new threat, a new storm that could wipe our house off the planet or fill it up with seawater. We were 4 miles from the shore and only a mere 7 feet above sealevel. Of the storms that made landfall, five of the season’s seven major hurricanes—Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma—threatened our little parcel of land at one time or another, south Florida was always “in the cone”. Katrina, Rita and Wilma passed directly over us, causing damage and flooding – but luckily our house escaped unscathed. By the time Wilma was forming in the Atlantic, we had a contract on our house, and were sweating that one out. I was terrified that our house would be damaged or flooded or something right before we sold it. We only had water up to our sidewalk, with fish swimming down our street. Of course power was out for nearly two weeks, and this was the week that we had scheduled the movers to come.
The movers finally arrived three or four days behind schedule, and began packing our belongings with no power at the house, which of course meant no a/c. No a/c in any part of Florida is a terrible thing! On the last day, the power returned and everything was packed and on the truck. We said goodbye to our friends we were leaving behind and left to spend the night in a hotel before making the long trek north the next day. Our belongings were moved to a storage facility in Port St. Lucie and were supposed to stay there until we needed them in late Spring or early Summer of 2006. The plan was move into an apartment in Charlotte, NC because Todd’s new company was moving their headquarters to Wilmington, NC that Summer. We got settled in an apartment with only the bare bones of living essentials. Todd got settled in his new job but soon found that it was not all it cracked up to be either. He wasn’t happy with it at all, so we started talking about a new plan.
Finally, in July of 2006 he had enough. We decided that we had made previous career decisions the wrong way. He had always found the job and then moved to that area. This time we decided to choose the area and then find the job. Either Tuscaloosa or Birmingham AL was fine, we had family in both places, and it is only a 45 minute drive from one to the other. Fate sealed the deal when University Church of Christ called me and offered me a preschool teachers job there. I was so excited, I love teaching children. This was perfect also because the twins could go to preschool there and everything just fell into place. We moved into Todd’s mother’s house, because she had plenty of extra room and Todd found a job at Afflink soon after. Life was good again, we love living in Tuscaloosa! It is a great city, plus we are so close to family, which is very important to me.
Once again, Fate intervened and Todd was offered a job at the TVA nuclear power plant near Decatur, AL. This is a dream job for him, so he accepted and we are about to move again, which brings me back to the point of this whole post {yes, I got a little off-topic giving history} – we are getting a new house!!! 
I am beyond excited, I can finally get my things back – I haven’t seen my dishes in over 2 years! We are supposed to close on the 28th.
