I put a snipit of my life in the "old timers 3 " post but I will recap here with a bit more.

Spring of 2005, dh was getting frustrated with his job so he started looking around. My house was just getting to the point of me really liking it and it finally being "done" as far as decorating goes(only took 7 yrs), but I knew DH was unhappy. So when a major oil company in Texas contacted Dh about a job opportunity, dh snatched it up. I went along with it, thinking a big beautiful mansion of a house would make things great(houses in Texas are dirt cheap compared to Maine). So, in the summer of 2005 we moved to Texas. Had a new 5000 sqr foot home with 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3 car garage, wrap around front porch, and 10 foot ceilings. In a beautiful new master planned community with one of the best school districts in Texas. Sounds like a dream, uh? I learned that material things, like nice homes, don't make up for things you lose.

I was absolutely miserable, I missed the change of seasons, the small town feel(way to many people there), it was too flat, I missed the old New England feel of the buildings, I missed yard saling and antiquing, I missed our church and our friends and the kid's schools, and just didn't feel like it was me. I'm not into having a nail salon and smoothie shop on every corner and everyone in our neighborhood hired people to do everything, from clean their house to hang their Christmas lights, that just isn't me. And it didn't help that I had an absolutely horrible pregnancy, 6 months of nausea and vomiting(despite medication) and then the last 3 months of swelling and insomnia and panic attacks, oh and almost miscarrying at 8 weeks. Thank God my little chubby wubby made it safe and sound into the world and he is absolutely wonderful. Oh, and we also had a fiasco of an experience running from a hurricane, all I could think of is, I don't want to have to worry about doing that every year.

After the baby was born in May, dh knew he had to do something, he couldn't stand to see me so miserable and he found a new job back up north. We came back to Maine this past August to same town we moved from. I am so very happy to be back and don't plan on moving again! The kids didn't mind Texas(kids can adjust to almost anything) but they really missed the snow and are very happy to be back "home" too. Now I just wish that Dh's job would go a bit better, he's not too happy with it so I hope it improves for him. In the end, I don't regret moving to Texas, it showed me a lot of things, for one..I'm not a southern girl , and second, houses don't make up for a loss for more important things. Plus we sold our house in Maine at a really good point in the real estate market, bought the one in Texas eat a steal of a price and ended up selling for a substantial profit only a year later giving us enough money to purchase a nice home back in Maine and pay off some debt. Everything happens for a reason I guess.

So right now the house is pretty much unpacked and I have the Christmas decor up and I'm really in the mood to start crafting again, sewing and rug hooking, because I haven't done anything in a year.

In another post, I will have to tell you all the story of living in the camper for 5 weeks, I will just sum it up for now with " a smaller place is definately not easier to keep clean".

That's what's up with me now, sorry if I rambled and jumbled sentences, I couldn't do the post all at once

Ps, Stella, I remember too and think of you often.