Beyond Fiction

Tonight I have big news! It is news that will affect my blog, website, Facebook and everything else!

I am moving back to Texas!!!

Yes, I know I have only been here in North Carolina for 3 months and that I have just recently found a job and things seemed to be working out. However, things are never quite what they seem, are they?

I began to contemplate this about a week ago. I sat down my wife and daughters and talked with them for some time about how they felt things were going here. I could tell they weren’t all happy and that perhaps we should think about moving back to Texas. My youngest daughter was dancing and saying “Yes!” and even my oldest daughter was thrilled about it. My wife was a different story. Saturday was a strange day, what with my daughters going around happier than I have seen them in a while and my wife hardly speaking because she did not agree with the idea of moving back.

Sunday I sat down with them all again and said that I could understand where my wife was coming from. We both had jobs now and we would be going back to no jobs at all. It only makes sense to stay here! Well, now my wife was happy but my daughters weren’t! What to do?

On Monday we got a note from my youngest daughter. She wrote that she didn’t think we were listening to her or understanding her feelings. We talked with her and explained that they only way we could go back to Texas was to have a job and that was that.

Tuesday I got a call from my wife. She said she had something to tell me and to call her as soon as I got off! So, like a good hubby, I called her and asked what was up. She said she had gotten a call from her old job in Texas and they wanted her to start on Sept. 21. She told them that the earliest she could do so would be the 28th! Great, now my wife has changed her tune!

We began to make plans for how we would go back to Texas. We would put everything in storage here and then take just the clothes we needed to get started. We would return later to get the rest of our stuff. I called my old job and they confirmed that I had left in good standing so I am eligible to be rehired. Of course, they probably won’t hire full-time until Spring but I would have a good chance of getting back then. In the meantime, I am eligible to work through a temporary agency until then. That was good news.

Wednesday we had to change our plans again. We had been in a financial bind as I had gone for several weeks unemployed and we had burnt through the money we had saved for our relocation quicker than I had expected.  We had gone to a place that promised to help us pay our rent and that would help us to get back on track. They called us on Wednesday and told us that things had changed. The employment verifications we had sent in were showing that my wife wasn’t even  on the schedule for October and therefore our income would be bad and we would be asking for help again in October. Because of this they said they wouldn’t be able to help us.

Now, Thursday, we find ourselves trying to pack everything as quickly as possible and get it out by the weekend so that we won’t be evicted and lose everything. We got a storage, made arrangements for a truck on Saturday and got tons of boxes to begin packing. This afternoon, my wife and I were sitting down talking about it and decided that it was going to be too hard to try to pack it all, put it in storage and then come back later and get it. First off, it would take 2 days driving up here, a day to pack and another 2 days to bring it back. Of course, then we would have to add a day to unload it all. That’s 6 days, 2600 miles round trip, several hotel rooms, and the price of a truck rental and gas. The least we were looking at is $1500 to do this and the earliest time frame was Thanksgiving.

Fast forward to now and we have made up our mind. We are going to get a hitch put on our car, rent a small (4X8) trailer and take back just the bare essentials. The rest we will leave here. We will let my son and daughter-in-law choose any of our home interior, furniture or whatever and then let them see if any of their Marine friends need anything. Everything that is left can be sold by the apartment owner. Our little trailer will be enough to hold our washer and dryer (my wife says this is a woman’s best friend!) and then all our pictures, my genealogy, the computers and other non-replaceable things.

It will be hard to walk away from these things but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. It’s all just stuff anyway. I can always get a new entertainment center, dressers, beds, whatever. We already have a couple of beds set up when we get back anyway! We knew when we moved up here we were taking a chance. I’m just glad that we will have the opportunity to get the things we need back to Texas with us!

For those of you who may wonder, yes I did make a mistake by moving up here. It was a mistake we all made together however. I should have stood up and said “NO!” but I could see that everyone wanted to go and I gave in. The happiness of my family has always been what is most important to me. This move back to Texas will make those I love a lot happier.

We will be just fine! I’ll miss Isaiah, Joseph and Stephanie! We will be back around the rest of my family though. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and I believe that being away from Texas has helped me to see that I really love my family a lot more than I thought. We may all have a few hard feelings between each other but we are still FAMILY! I plan on trying to resolve my differences with my loved ones when I get home!

In the long run, this little adventure will prove to be a turning point in our life. Yes, we made some mistakes but in doing so we learned some valuable lessons and we learned a little more about ourselves! That’s worth a lot more than any money we lost, any “stuff” we lose or any other shortcoming that may have happened over the last 3 months.

For all my readers I ask that you understand that this blog will be inactive for a while. I am going to be staying with my sister until we get things together and therefore will be limited in my online activities. I will try to keep up with my Facebook and such but it will most likely be done by using the computers at the library. I’ll get back online as soon as possible but that will not be the number one thing on my list!

For all those who have sent me such kind wishes in the past few months, I thank you for your encouragement. I regret that I was not able to stay long enough to be able to share the adventure with you all but I believe that this experience will help me to grow into a better person (and blogger) later.

For all my family in Texas, I can’t wait to see you all again. I’ll be there for the birth of my new nephew and niece in January and for the birth of my niece’s first child. I’ll also be there for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I look so forward to it all.

For my son, daughter-in-law and grandson here in North Carolina, we will miss you so much. It’s been fun and I wish it could have lasted longer but we will still stay in touch, visit when we can and you’ll always have a place you can come to in Texas where you will be welcomed with lots of love!

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my saga!  I’m sorry if I shared too much information. I consider all my readers as close as if they were my own family. It’s like sitting down and talking with old friends!  Just know that I and my family will be just fine. I look forward to being able to get back into the swing of things later.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Ken