Yes I am now in AZ, Mesa to be exact... along with Karen Sherwood and Valerie... What a small world. I hope to meet up with Karen on Sunday for some torch time and glass talk.
Details... gah I hate being long winded lol. (VERY LONG WINDED)
Let's see...
This has been in the works for about 9 months. Jason and I wanted out of California badly. We needed to save up $$ for the move and get the ok for Jason to transfer to another place from his employer. At that time we were not 100% sure it was going to be AZ. We have pondered the entire west coast, WA State, Or, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Looked at the economy or all those places and the job market as I would be quitting my job at "the bead place" and having to find something that would pay me the same or VERY close to what I was making there. Phoenix fit the bill. They also have some laws/legislation that DH was very "into".
So about 8 months ago I out in my notice at the bead place, Yes that's a huge notice but when you are the Office Manager and have basically run the company for the last 6.5 years they need lots of notice. LOL. Jason and I started preparing for the move. Mostly at that time was pinching pennies and getting bills paid off.
I would say about 6 months ago is when we KNEW it was going to be Phoenix. Can you see the surprise on my face when I found out that Valerie was also moving to Phoenix???? HOW cool was that!
Everything went along as planned... we started de-cluttering and de-junking the place we currently lived in over the next few months. I believe it was early December that we actually starting packing some things up and ridding our selves of large furniture (I was needed new furniture anyways. This was hand me down stuff from when Jason and I moved in together 14 years ago) It was just time. The local Goodwill loved me... I think I donated about 7 LARGE garbage bags of clothes and shoes.
OK... so now we are down the beginning of March. The countdown is on... we have 4 weeks until the move. Boxes are taking over the living room and my torch/glass/beads are all packed up. Work is stressful trying to get someone trained to do my job when all the girls are only about 5 months new there. EEKS! I have been spending more time than I wish looking at moving companies and prices and U-Haul sites! Finally we make a decision and use U-pack.com and get these things called Relo-Cubes. I am starting to think my brain is MUCH from all the decisions I have to make about things.
March 23rd... It is my last day of work, I am sad I am leaving... that place had been like a 2nd family, Dysfunctional at that. LOL It is only one week until we depart California for the Dry desert of AZ...Things are crazy. DH works up until 2 days before we leave CA, so I am left to get the last minute things done.
4 days before we leave... Upack.com (ABF) drops off 3 relo-cubes for us to pack up in 3 Days. DH gets home and we have 2 full by that evening. I am really hoping everything fits into just the 3 I have reserved and that we have not gone over the weight limit on one of them (the one with all the beads and glass in it)The relo-cubes get picked up on Friday the 30th and we have a few things that we are taking a small U-Haul trailer for. (Bed, clothes and computers)
Saturday march 31st... We pack up the cats and are on the road. Late but on the road, I hoped we would get out of Sacramento at about 9am. We didn't leave until almost 11am. We made it all the way from Sacramento to Blythe, CA (12 hours) of driving on the first day. The reason for the hurried pace was that the friends that were driving our other vehicle down to AZ had to be in Phoenix buy Sunday at 4pm to catch flights home.
Sunday we headed out of Blythe at about 10am and made it into the out skirts of Phoenix at about 1pm... Hit MAJOR traffic. They close down the freeways on the weekends to do construction on; well they closed I-10 down that Sunday. GREAT! SO we get off the freeway after sitting in stopped traffic for 1 hour, we head towards the airport on surface streets. THANK GOODNESS for GPS!
We drop the friends off at the Airport and head to the hotel for the night because we were unable to get the keys to the new house until Monday April
2nd. SO far the kitties have been wonderful passengers! Not to much meowing and carrying on. No potty accidents. I am a happy camper!Monday Morning we went to the property management place and pick up keys and sign the lease to our new HOUSE... well rental house. We plan on buying in about a year. (Pictures here:
Everything seems to be telling me this was the right time and place to move to. I love the house we are in. We are about 30-40 minutes drive from Downtown Phoenix. The mountain views are awesome and the weather (SO FAR) has been awesome, Well other than last night when a dust storm turned into a Mud storm with the addition of rain! Being from Sacramento we had the Heat AND humidity.
I am sure I am forgetting so much that happened... but that's the bulk of it. :)
Nicole
*************************AIM: Blackcatbeads74