Let Me Come On Home

I re-read those last few posts and I want to assure both of you readers that I am fine, and I won't be fleeing the state or jumping off any buildings. The funny thing about a breaking point is, once you reach it, you're suddenly filled with an eerie calm.

We'd been planning for months to take this past Friday and Monday off of work to camp in Asheville, NC with friends. But after Zoe did the canine equivalent of tearing her ACL, we couldn't in good conscience leave her with my mom for four days. She literally couldn't even hold herself up to go to the bathroom. Serious bummer. She's doing better though.

Given all we had left to do with our move, canceling was the right thing to do, though I would much rather have spent 4 days running around the woods, sleeping outside and cooking over a fire. We're in the home stretch now – by Sunday we should be completely moved. Then we can spend the rest of the year sorting through all the crap we shoved in boxes and didn't bother to look at, in an effort to get the job done as quickly as possible.

The new house rocks. Every time we get in the car to go some place, we can't believe how short our drive is. I'm not sure everyone can fully appreciate what this means to us, but it's huge. The layout of our house is so conducive to our pet situation, too, that I don't think we even realized when we put the offer in how well it would work. Having a basement where we can store stuff and put the litter boxes is awesome. Living on one floor is great for the dogs – no difficult stairs for them to climb. Plus, we've finally got a porch big enough to hang out on and a dining room with lots of seating that we've already used a bunch. Living closer and having spaces to hang out in means B & I get to be much more sociable. We like to cook for people and have parties, and we just couldn't do that very often living where we did. Things are a-changin'.

One drawback to the house is trying to park our van on our parking pad. The van is huge; the alley is not. B. accidentally bumped the fence and scraped up the side rail. If you don't do it just the right way, it takes about 50 turns to back it in. But we're starting to get the hang of it.

With all the chaos and stress of moving, it still hasn't totally sunk in what we've done. We just got our first mortgage payment though...something tells me it won't be long. Regardless, it feels great not to have to answer to anyone about anything. I feel like I'm finally where I've always wanted to be in life: independent and self sufficient. I don't owe nobody nothin' except the bank, and I don't have to hang out with them for holidays.

I'd offer more, but I'm gonna jump in my car and go home for lunch. Gonna play with the dogs and make food in the peace of my own kitchen.