Through all our adventures in life together..

One particular part of our vows has been running through my mind for about a month.  I can't remember the exact line or wording...but it was something to the effect of "I promise to stand by you through all of our adventures in life together." I loved that line then, and I love it now, especially because it is VERY applicable!

We are moving....to North Carolina! An amazing opportunity has arrived for Ben, so we are packing up, putting the house on the market, and heading south!

It's hard to believe, but Ben has accepted a job with a NASCAR team.  I never, in a million years, thought we would even consider the world of NASCAR, but opportunity (aka money) talks! This is a great option for us for a lot of reasons.  Obviously the money is better which is great. We are going to live in an apartment for at least a year, and assuming we can get what we need out of the house, (which looks very promising!), we can be 100% DEBT-FREE.  No house payment, no car payment, nothing.  It is hard to imagine going from a house to an apartment, and I keep thinking we are going to have less money, but in reality, we are making ourselves so much richer by becoming debt-free.  Like Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else." Awesome. The thought of downsizing is stressful for me, but the apartment situation will be temporary.  Plus, this is an opportunity to save money as well, and build up a great emergency fund.  In fact, with the sale of our home, (at the right price), we will jump like 3 baby steps on the Dave Ramsey system.  Hooray!

  The position he has accepted is also shop-based, which means just a little travel! For about a year we have been trying to figure out how Ben could have a non-travel job and still be in racing, and it is really a blessing that this has happened the way it has.  The traveling with his current job has been a real strain on our relationship and our life in general, so a shop-based position was something we just couldn't pass up. With him being home maybe it will finally be time to start a family! We sure hope so. :)

I have to say, it will be tough to leave our friends and a few family members that we have close by here in Indy.   We have the world's greatest neighbors, and I can't imagine we will meet anyone better than them.  We've also got several couple friends, work friends, and ECR team members here in Indy that we have really developed relationships with.  Moving away from all of these people is going to be TOUGH, but we are thankful for phones and social media. That's something I love about social media, we can all be connected across the miles, and it makes me feel just a little closer to everyone.  We are also moving 3 hours further away from our parents.  (We are 3 hours away now, and will be 6 hours away down there).  Luckily, both of our parents are good travelers, and will be down to visit all the time.

Good news: My grandma, uncle, aunt and cousin in South Carolina will only be 2 hours from us! So we won't be completely alone.  I also have friends on the coast (4 hours) and my biffle is in DC (5 hours).  I am excited to be closer to these people!

Although I feel like we were JUST settling in to life in Indiana, and now we are up and leaving, I know we are doing the right thing by moving.  This is the right thing for Ben, it's the right thing for our family, and the right thing for our life together.  We are so excited for the next adventure!!