More on the saga of how we got where we are...

Last time I left off with us moving out of our condo after only three months due to damage caused by Hurricane Charley. We moved us and our stuff into my sister's house in Kissimmee. After a few weeks, my parents were coming to visit and Mike wanted to give them the guest room, so since our insurance was covering other housing for us up to a certain total, we moved ourselves into a hotel. We actually lived in the hotel for 6 weeks. What an adventure. The best part was the great free breakfast every morning. The air in the hotel room was kind of musty though as the air conditioner would not maintain temperature. We were always either turning it way up or turning it way down to try to balance it out. So, we started to get sick and decided to move.

We then moved ourselves into a vacation home. We couldn't get a normal apartment because they seemed to all be full. However, in Orlando there are tons of vacation homes for rent for families going to Disney. So, we found one and moved into it for a couple of months. During this time, we found a great church (really the first one since we had been married). Unfortunately, it was about 50 minutes away from the vacation home, so we decided to try to find an apartment closer to the church.

We were able to find one. So, we moved again. This time we moved all our stuff out of my sister's house and moved everything into the apartment. We thought we were staying there for at least a year and we were excited to finally slow down. Not long after that, Mike's boss asked him if we would move to Tampa and start another location and Mike would be 1/5 owner in the new company without having to invest anything other than his time. So we started looking for houses by Tampa.

In May, we moved again. We are now in a house in Plant City - about 21 miles from Tampa. The Lord actually blessed us with a brand new home that was going to be the same price as all the "as is" 30 year old homes we were looking at. We have now been here for almost 11 months and it has been wonderful to put down some roots. Now, believe it or not, we are starting the search again for a new place. Because I run the Ebay stores out of our house, I have already taken over 2 bedrooms and the little breakfast nook with Ebay stuff. We just need more space. More space would allow us to spread out the products more so it doesn't take as long to pull the items for orders. So, the saga continues and we are looking again...

A few lessons I have learned through all of this: 1. Don't keep stuff just because you have it. After moving so many times, you learn a lot of things aren't really important. If it doesn't have sentimental value and you haven't used it in awhile, sell it on Ebay! One less item to pack the next time. 2. I'm so thankful that the Lord has given me a husband with an adventurous spirit. As I look back at all those moves, we met each one with an adventurous spirit and looking to see what God would do in our lives rather than being depressed about moving again. 3. I'm so thankful we didn't have children early on in our marriage. I can't imagine all of those moving adventures with a child in tow. The Lord knew that would be more than I could bear.

Okay - I think that completes getting everyone caught up basically on where we are now. I promise that future blogs won't be so wordy.