Nashville or BUST

As a family, we decided about a year ago that we wanted to move the summer that Annabelle finished kindergarten. We have really loved our time in Washington, especially in the Meadowdale Ward, but we knew it was time for us to settle down somewhere where we could progress financial and buy a house again someday. We've been working towards this goal ever since. We really started getting serious in April of this year. We started packing up boxes and even decided that we had better start listing our things on Craigslist because it would probably take a while for them to sale. On April 8 I listed our couch, love seat, chair and ottoman on Craigslist. We honestly thought we were going to have to list and relist and list again; after only 30 mins there were already nearly 100 furniture items listed above them. But, by some crazy twist of reality, our couch, love seat, chair and ottoman where sold within 3 1/2 hours. We were astonished. Some of you may be SHOCKED to know that for the last 11 weeks we have been sitting like this:

That hasn't kept us from entertaining:

Don't be mislead at the sight of Kevin sleeping that these chairs are more comfortable than they appear. "Grandpa" can fall asleep anywhere. A two hour movie feels like four to a butt sitting on hard plastic. And the camping chairs have thier own issues--don't get me started!!

We continued packing and selling even though we hadn't started applying for a new job. We were met with some very quizzical looks on this matter. We wanted to be ready to go and we had faith that Earl would find a job.

On May 6, Earl stayed home from work and made phone calls to the seven dealerships in areas that we were interested in living. Out of that seven, only one person thought they would be hiring come summer but they all agreed that Earl could email his resume their way. We were optimistic--we only needed one and it happened to be in Cary, NC which was our FIRST choice. Within days Earl got a call from Chattanooga, TN who had looked over his resume and decided that they wanted to hire him. Chattanooga was our number TWO choice. We were pretty certain at this point that something would work out and that we would be able to move as planned. We spent the next two weeks mailing and emailing, scanning and sending paperwork to these two dealerships. After the first week it became pretty clear that Cary wasn't as excited about hiring Earl and Chattanooga became the plan.

On May 20, Earl received an email from Jaguar of Nashville that said one of their technicians had DIED and they wanted to talk about a job. We went ahead and started the application process with them as well. It came down to Chattanooga and Nashville. On June 5, we got an official offer from Nashville and it was a good one. They were going to pay more than the other places we had applied and the benefits were great. Earl told him he would think about it and get back to them the following week. I wasn't so convinced that I wanted the girls to grow up in Nashville. It's much larger and more populated than Chattanooga. Earl contacted the Service Manager in Chattanooga to check on their offer. Because of a General Manager switch during the hiring process the policies had changed and they would need Earl to come for a face to face interview. Earl expressed his disappointment because he had already been given another offer. The Service Manager asked what is was and told Earl that was a great offer and they wouldn't be able to offer more than $4 less an hour than Nashville. He told Earl he was sorry and if things didn't work out, they would still love to have him in Chattanooga.

On June 8, Earl accepted the job with Jaguar of Nashville and phase two of our plan began: FIND A PLACE TO LIVE. This proved the most difficult part of the plan. It turns out you have to go a good 20 miles outside of Nashville and Davidson Co. to find a decent school. This greatly limited our choices. Earl, my sister and I spent countless hours on Craigslist looking at homes for rent. I even went over 306 mins on my cell phone plan talking with her and calling on listings. It seemed that our plan would change daily. One day we were going to rent for 6 months then buy a house. Then we were fore going the house buying and renting for a year. One day we were going to stay in an apartment for 3 months, then buy a house. There were houses we thought we were going to get, but didn't. There were apartments that we were going to live in that turned out to have weekly drug busts, chalk outlines and neighbors with chickens. It was all very overwhelming. It came down to this one house. It seemed quite perfect for our family. It is a little in the country, but still 10 mins from civilization. It is zoned for a school that received a 10 out of 10 on state standardized testing and it has a fantastic yard. On Friday June 19, my lovely sister drove 3 hours from Knoxville to Nashville to look at the property and to give the owners our application. Then she drove 3 hours back from Nashville to Knoxville. 6 HOURS ALL IN ONE NIGHT! The owners seemed to like us and my sister, but told her that there were 5 other people looking at it. We weren't discouraged. I even stopped looking on Craigslist. This morning at 9AM, I got a call from the owner that said our criminal background check came out clear (surprise) and if we were still interested the house was ours. YES! This is where we will be living for at least the next year:

It has 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms and is on .83 acre. We couldn't be more RELIEVED AND EXCITED. Coming from a two bedroom third floor apartment, the girls are going to have way too much fun here. Everyone is welcome to come and visit us in our cute little house just 20 miles from Music City, USA. YEEHAW!