This is where I will keep everyone up to date on the journey of POSSIBLY moving from Florida to Utah. Watch for updates to see where we are in this mad dash. UPDATE::: We are in Utah!!!!!!!!!
November 3rd, 2019. Getting close to 4 years now. The garage is still a full-on mess. The master bedroom curtains still are NOT hung (first curtains we bought). But other than that everything else is done and we have thought up and finished other projects along the way. Needed another pantry, done. Then needing yet another pantry once we started canning this summer, and bought a freeze dryer too, done. Now time to revamp the pantry in the kitchen to make it more user-friendly. It is always a mess and you can't find anything. We built a chicken coop castle, created a resizeable run. Put up a 11X18 shed, built some raised garden beds. More are going to be built this wintertime so they are ready to go in the summertime. Roy has finally gotten bitten by the bug of I love walking out back and eating what we grew. He is always finding more recipes to can, and we watch more YouTube videos than we do TV, on the big screen too. I can't believe it has taken almost 4 years to get here, and we thought we would be here within 6 months! HA! We did buy a new Jeep, it is built for anything. We don't get out too often, because of that 4 letter word, WORK! My work! Looking for a new job, the same company just somewhere that maybe I can have more weekends off. Hoping to start sewing again like I use to as well.
June 29th, 2016. Wow, 4.5 months have already gone by since we moved into our house. Things are slowly getting there. We are trying to kick it up a notch because we want everything done within 6 months of moving in. Got the spare bedroom/longarm room painted today, That will help snowball everything else into place. We will get my husband's office painted this weekend, and we will be on a roll to accomplish our goal. Every day we get something is done that needs to be done, even if it is just hanging something on the wall. We put all the empty boxes in the back of my truck, and when we pass the recycle dumpsters and they are empty, we empty the back of my truck. Gonna do that this weekend too. It is mighty full, realized that today when I went to put a file cabinet back there, that I picked up for $10.
February 12th, 2016 We are closing on our house today, So this weekend we will be moving ONE MORE TIME. Final time for awhile I hope. Lets recap, Moved Roy and most of our stuff in October. I went back to Florida in November, moved into the travel trailer in December, moved into the apartment in January, and now the house in February. Every time things get moved, I lose track of a few more things. It will be nice to get my sewing room all put back together and get back to normal.
January 22nd, 2016. Well right after my last update, I moved out of the Florida house and into the travel trailer in the back yard. Did I mention I have 4 Labradors and 2 cats that moved in with me too? Talk about tight cramped quarters. Worked on the house every day, sometimes till midnight, and took a 4-hour nap and back at it again, then off to work and repeat. I managed to get most of the stuff done I wanted to. I finished painting the night before we left. Had all new carpet installed throughout the house? It looks pretty good. Let's hope the market is good. I left Florida on the 11th of January, convoying our way across the country. Me and my daughter in the truck towing the travel trailer. the 4 dogs in the back of the truck and the cats, well they hid in the trailer, and I don't have time to look for them so off we went. My mom and stepdad decided to move to Utah too, kinda a last-minute decision, so they drove the moving truck (half my stuff, half theirs) and towed their truck. The first day we were on the road 13 hours, but yet only managed to get about 6 hours away from the house. WTH??? I do not wanna spend 10 days traveling a 3-day trip. Day 2 I left my purse on the back bumper of my truck, and after 30 minutes of driving 75 mph on the freeway, my mother radios "Hey your purse just fell out the window!" We answer, our windows aren't open. She says "I just say your purse flying through the air with money and credit cards going everywhere!" .........I look down, slam on the brakes, and pull over so fast, my mother almost s rear-ends the trailer. I slam the gear shift into the park jump out and start walking. Thinking, how am I going to get from Louisiana to Utah with no cash, no credit cards, no ID.......nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!! We the 3 of us ladies, walk 2 miles back along opposite sides of the freeway, and back again. Found my purse, shredded, We found over $700 in cash and every single credit card, ID, sticky note, that I could think of that was in my purse. I know I still had between $700-$800 in cash, So I am good with what we found. Lost a hand full of change, and maybe....up to $100 in cash. SO now 2 hours later, we are back on the road, and I am ready for a nap and it is the only lunchtime on day 2. Day 3 and 4 more or less incident-free, dogs got the hang of getting in and out of the back of the truck, so it was quick stops. Day 4 there was a blizzard snowstorm headed towards Salt Lake City in the evening, and I knew we had to go up and over those mountains, around evening time. So we had to double-time it and kick it in gear because I was reaching my destination today, and hopefully before that blizzard hit. As we climbed the mountains north of Albuquerque, we watched the temp plummet outside down to a -8 and then start to climb back up as we went down the other side. We hit a little bit of snow in the mountains of Salt Lake for about 10 minutes, we just took it slow and easy, and then it was downhill after that and hit just in time for the evening traffic jams. Oh, joy! But we made it, before 8pm, on the 14th of January. So now we empty the travel, and we all move into my husband's apartment, as we won't be closing on the house for another month. Now fast forward to today. I start my new job tomorrow on the 23rd of January.
December 22, 2015, I have been notified that my report date to Utah is the 23rd of January 2016 for my first day of work. Merry Christmas to me!!! But OH MY, I have got a TON TON TON of stuff to do before heading out of Florida. Did I mention I am just pure exhausted too! Gotta get busy, stay tuned for updates.
December 2015, Christmas season at the Post office has started early this year. If I make it through this month it will be a miracle. I am so exhausted, and my body hurts from head to toe every day, all day long.
Friday the 11th of December my boss informed me she received an email to do an evaluation on me for a job transfer to UTAH, WOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!! I got a job. Oh, no............now I have to step it up and triple time it to get this house on the market, like yesterday. I just don't have the energy. Thank God for my mother who has been coming over almost daily to prepare for the yard sale which is Sat the 12th.
Sat the 12th, made $450 on the yard sale, and there is still a ton of stuff leftover.......tomorrow for a few hours too.
Also, my mom and good friend Karen (retired postal co-worker) came up with a plan, that Karen will come over and paint for me while I am at work, and my mom is going to clean. I am not going to argue with free help at all, I can use all the help I can get. I should have to be in Utah, somewhere between the end of January and the end of February. I asked my boss to try and see if she can hold me here till the end of February, but we will see within the next few weeks. So I only have a few weeks to get everything else done. Wish me the best of Luck, because trying to get someone to come do any job on the house is worse than trying to pull a crazy animal's teeth. Why can't people just do what they say they are going to do when they are going to do it.
November 2015, made it back to Florida, OH MY did we leave a lot of crap behind! Can you say YARD SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is exhausting getting all the stuff gone through and ready for this yard sale all the while working 40-50 hours a week. Plus trying to fix up the house and get it ready to be finished painting inside and get all new carpet installed too. Still no word on my job. I fired our banker we were working within Utah, so now we have to find another bank to give us a loan to buy a house in Utah too. Urgh.
October 2015, We finally sold the other house a week ago. Roy is doing great after his neck surgery, he is now pain-free. He is also now unemployed due to the layoff. He has found a job in Utah, starts on 2 November. So I am on 6 weeks of vacation if that is what you want to call it! Not even close to a vacation!! We are going from 4am till midnight or later, 7 days a week. What are we doing, you ask. We are purging and packing our house. Man o Man does the crap keep multiplying. We finally got what we want packed, bought a car hauler trailer to put the 69 Mustang in a box, both motorcycles, and all the workshop, garage stuff into. Lawnmower, grill, smoker, tools, etc..... stuff we won't need for at least 6 months. Loaded up a 28-foot moving truck and towing the Jeep, off we went in different vehicles on our 2200+ mile journey. We made it to Utah with no problems, took the car hauler to some old man's warehouse for indoor storage for the winter, and got the moving truck unloaded into Roy's 3 bedroom apt.
I still haven't gotten my job transfer yet, so we will be spending the week in Utah house hunting, and then Roy starts work, and I head back to Florida to finish up the house by myself and get it on the market all the while I go back to work too. I need a real vacation already.
Here we are the beginning of 2015 and life keeps going. The other house is still up for sale. Please send good vibes that sell quickly. Roy is needing surgery to fix 2 herniated disks in his neck and spinal stenosis too. He will be laid off 30th of September sooooooooooo , looking into our future looks like UTAH is back on the books. I am applying for 2 supervisor jobs out there so send good vibes our way. If I get one of these jobs life will go into major chaos in overdrive. We need to get a lot done to our house so we can put it up for sale too. More to come when I find out if I got a supervisor job or not, till then I will start supervising here in town again to get back up to speed with things.
October 5th, 2012 update: We have decided we are NOT moving to Utah.....Roy got a pay raise this week, and next week he starts a job promotion. That means about $4.00 more an hour here, and brings the pay loss up to $12.00 an hour if we move. Nope, not gonna happen. Way too much money. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Mixed emotions on this decision, but probably for the best anyway. So we will get the other house finished and sold and just start banking the cash for travel, play and retirement too. So there is always a silver lining to every thought. This will also be the last update on this unless a Really Good paying job comes up in Utah then we will think about it.
June 17th 2012 update: Won't be working on the house today...........our water heater went out. Ended up taking 14 hours to fix this one, 5 trips to the store, the last one we got there 2 minutes before closing. I am soooo over all this. I want it all done. The worst hasn't even started either. I am probably just really stressed, because I wanted all the sheetrock and greenboard done by today, so the mud man could mud this week while I was dealing with company and the wedding, so I could have painted next week while I was still off from work. urghhhhhhhh......I really dislike the New Moon cycle, this happens everytime.
June 16th, 2012 update: Still don't know when the next interview is going to be. But our house we found that we really wanted badly! SOLD! It had been on the market for over a year. That sucks!!!!
Oh well. I am off work for the next two weeks to work on the rental renovation, work on my house, clean everything, company coming, wedding the 22nd, garage door installation (means I have to clear out half the garage, which right now is hosting a thousand empty boxes) Stressssssssssssssss!!! breathe, Ann Marie, breathe!!! Running into a few bumps on the other house, I am sick of having to run to Lowe's 3 or 4 times a day, it sucks up a lot of time we could be working.
June 14th, 2012 update: Hubbie got a phone call today from Utah. The guy that did the interviews was out of town, but told my husband when he mentioned about hearing the interview didn't go good, that the entire process didn't go good. He had been handed a paper that said the interviews needed to be done by the 30th of May. Well he did all the interviews the 30th and tried to input them in the computer, it wouldn't take anything, it needed to be inputted BEFORE the 30th, as in the 29th! Sooooo, they have to do the entire interview process over again with everyone. At least that is the story. That is good news for us, buys us more time on getting the other house renovation done. It is moving along.
June 13th, 2012 update: Hubbie emailed the guy in Utah that did the interviews, to let him know it had been 2 weeks and he still hadn't heard anything. They messed his email addy up once before, so wanted to make sure they didn't mess it up again. Then he went to work, and got with his boss here, that is going to be his boss out there. He said the Colonel told him the interview didn't go so good...........so, now what???
June 10th, 2012 update: Still haven't heard anything about my husbands job in Utah. We do know the Colonel really wants him out there, so maybe they are seeing if they can hold that position till Octoberish. Until then ,we are working our butts off, trying to finish the other house, it is getting there. Once we get this slower part done, the rest of it will fly. In the meantime we found a house already, well at least online we did. Sometimes it is different when you actually get to the real thing. But I think this is it. Now all we need to do is sell at least one house here, to be able to buy a house out there. Please help me make it all happen, send me all your good vibs. I am working Mon-Wed this week, then I am off till the end of the month. Keeping my fingers crossed that this slow stuff will be done by this upcoming weekend, so I can fly through the rest of it while I am on a 2 week break. Plus I do have my daughter wedding in the middle of that 2 weeks as well, so I will have company at my house too. Which I am also working on, trying to get it ready for company, still purging drawers and closets, throwing out tons of stuff, etc.......Whew, I am exhausted and I have to go in early tomorrow for work. Till the next update. I hope our house in Utah is still for sale by the time we get there. Usually the way things work is it will sell the day before we get there, even though it has been on the market for over a year now. Fingers crossed, only good thoughts, It will happen, It will happen, It HAS to happen!!!!!
May 30th, 2012 update: Today my husband had an interview over the phone in a telecom type setting. He more or less has the job, but they want someone there within 2-4 weeks from now. He has been up front with them the whole time telling them he can't go till possibly Oct-Nov. So I guess he will be passing this one down for now, and we will continue to press on with trying to finish that rental house so when the next job goes up, he can take it. The house is coming along, I have to keep kicking him in the rear end to to keep moving. He can procrastinate for eternity sometimes. So now that my mini break is over for now, I am going back to work on the house for a few more hours. Time to close up the walls in the bathrooms........yippee. Get the last few walls done, then beg my mud man to finish the sheetrock mudding, and then I can get it painted, and maybe looking like a house even before that wedding happens, which is in 23 days. Not that I am counting down, but I need to get working on that wedding quilt too............off to work on the house, Priorities!
May 15th, 2012 update: Ok my husbands boss here in Florida has a job as a supervisor in Utah (where we are trying to go), he just hasn't left yet. End of the summer I believe is when he goes. Well today that boss got an email from the Colonel out in Utah, who will be his new boss, asking about my husband. Asking how his work ethnics are and would he hire him. The boss here replied he would hire him in a heartbeat and went on about all the training he has had, how he runs all the different crews doing differnet things that they do, and how much he knows the job. Then forwarded the whole thing to my husband and said to find him tomorrow before he talks to the Colonel in Utah. Sooooooo on top of everything else I have going on, now I really have to kick myself in superdrive to finish the other house. The other house renovation is moving realllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy slllllllloooooooowwwwwwlllllllllyyyyyyyyy right now. On my husbands application he did put down, he was looking to move in October, and he is going to let the Colonel know that he can't just up and go right now. But since he is one of the best trained ones out there for this job, and there aren't that many of them out there at all. I am sure the Colonel will probably wait. I hope he will wait. All this after we talked ourselves into probably having to stay here for a few more years. It figures. Well whatever happens, is what is suppose to happen, we will be happy with either decision at this point. Florida for a few more years or UTAH here we come!
May 1st, 2012 update: My husband is putting in his application for his job in UTAH, I still don't know what I am doing with my job there. If his job wants him to report for duty too soon, he will have to turn it down and hope for another one later in the year. We have to finish the rental house and get it sold before we can go. Looks like I will be taking a lot of vacation in the very near future to get that house done and hopefully sold soon. Plus plan my daughters wedding too.
April 15th, 2012 update: Still waiting for the jobs to be posted for dear hubby, he said they have been postponed, which in my opinion is a good thing. Gives us more time to finish the renovation on the rental house, which is going waaaayyyy to slow right now. One of his bosses, has a job in UTAH as a boss. His reporting date has been pushed back 3 months as well. So we know when he goes, it is coming quickly. Other than that nothing new. Oh and the answer from the 7th of March is No, just like I thought it would be too.
March 7th, 2012 update: I did have someone from Utah call me today inquiring about a swap. But I don't think the two of us can swap because we would have to cross crafts, meaning we don't do the same job. I am trying to find a definite answer to if we can or can't. I think the answer is NO.
March 3rd, 2012 update: sent out 17 more envelopes today. To the other post offices that the wonderful postmaster suggested. They were on my list along with others too. But it was nice to know which ones to do first. Now the waiting.......did I ever tell you I really dislike waiting, and not knowing. This is going to kill me!
March 2nd,2012 update: got home from work today to find an email from one of the postmasters, a very long letter giving me more address of others around to help me in my search and make a success of my searching. Woo hoo! I want to work in HIS office, period! Guess I got more work to do now.
February 28, 2012 update: I sent off 7 letters today to post offices in Utah asking for a swap. Keeping my fingers crossed.
OK February 23, 2012 update: Not only is there crazy stuff going on with my husbands job, now with my job too! Talk about kicking us while we are already down. Just heard this morning that they are closing the processing plant at the Post Office in Panama City, along with 240 others across the nation. This effects 30+ employees here. I should be safe if I stay, but if I am trying to swap with someone in Utah, in a mutual swap both parties involved keep the junior parties seniority date. So if I can't find someone else with more seniority than me, then if they swap here, they could be excessed almost upon arrival, who would want to do that?!?! What that means is, they could be wanting to come to Panama City, and end up in Tampa or some place else. Will know more on the 5th or 6th of March. All the unknowns is what is driving me crazy. Till then I am going to keep pressing on like everything is going to work out. Think positive and maybe positive will happen, right?!?!?
Here is how it all got started: Jan 29, 2012 The beginning of the story!
