The Next Chapter

I haven’t been writing a lot of personal stuff lately… there’s a reason for that. Sometimes when you are in the middle of a big change, it’s hard to put into words all those thoughts and feelings in a way that makes sense to anyone else. The past several months, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes in our family. We’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching: figuring out what we really wanted to do, what we wanted to accomplish, how we wanted to live, where we wanted to live.

My marriage is great and my kids are all doing exceptionally well. Our jobs are fine and we’re all healthy. But the fact is, things have been stagnant in our lives for a long time. At some point, you realize that if you want a different outcome, you have to make some difficult changes. And we’ve decided it was time to make that big change. It’s time for a new chapter.

We’re leaving California.

This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. David was born here in the Los Angeles area and I’ve lived here for over 30 years. My girls are all California Girls and always will be. We will always think of California as our home. However…

California hasn’t been quite as kind. It’s gotten much tougher to realize your dreams here in the Golden State. It’s expensive to live and the gas prices have really taken a toll on us. David travels for business every single day… usually over an hour each way. He works all over Los Angeles County and every day it’s somewhere new. It’s not like we could move “closer” to his work. We have lived in the same house for 20 years. This was our “starter” house. We expected to be here for 3 – 5 years. We have now been priced out of the market. There is no way we can afford to move into a larger house here. With sky-high property taxes… and sales taxes… and income taxes… it’s impacted our ability to do many of the things we always wanted to do. While we are so fortunate that we make a great income, it just doesn’t go as far as it should.

So we’re heading east. Just a little. We built a house in Arizona.

Why Arizona? It seemed like the most logical choice for us. We have family there already and the cost of living is lower. Not much, but enough so that we could purchase the house we wanted for a lot less than our tiny California house cost. We’ll also be closer to Temera, although that is not the reason we’re moving… just a perk. David and I both have more opportunities and at this stage in our lives (we aren’t getting any younger, you know) it makes sense. It feels right.

So, we’ve sold our house and we’ll be heading out next week. We are so excited for this next chapter in our lives. And the designer in me is totally stoked to have the chance to decorate a home from scratch! And for the first time in my life, we’ll have plenty of room for guests!

I’m looking forward to being able to entertain, discover new shops and restaurants, and take weekend trips to new and undiscovered places. I’m also excited to meet new friends and build a different kind of life than we have now.

So, to answer your questions:

Yes, the kids are excited about it as well.

No, I’m not worried about the summer heat.

Yes, David and I can both work over there.

Yes, our new house is twice as big and half the cost.

Yes, this is why we have been remodeling our home.

This is the right move at the right time for us. We’re so looking forward to 2019!