A Terrible Blogger

...but an awesome mover!

After waiting for so darn long to be able to get to a warm weather place, this move sure is happening fast!  We found out that we would be moving for sure when a final offer came in from my husband's soon to be new workplace on May 29th.  We will be moved out of our house completely by June 25th, with said house being sold and closed no later than June 27th.  Now that's some seriously fast moving.

Everything is whizzing right along and happening as it should.  We are so excited to be seeing this through!  In the meantime, it doesn't leave any room for anything extra at all.  No time for playing around.  No time to think twice.  Just get rid of stuff, pack and move, and repeat.   That means my blog visiting is seriously lacking.  I will be back at it just as soon as I am in the new place, which should be shortly after the 4th of July as we are spending time with family in Palm Springs for the holiday.  I am so looking forward to getting back to more blogging interaction.

Let me leave you with a wonderful little coincidence:  while picking up some dog supplies at our local pet store, I ran into Tanner's trainer.  She told me that the English Bulldog that had trained along side him and his owner will be moving to SoCal as well.  It turns out Tanner's good buddy will be in the very next town over, a little closer to the beach.  We are already planning to have them meet up to play!  How cool is that?!

A.C.A.S.

My husband has passed the test needed to become an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society!!!

If you don't know what that is, you are completely normal.

I, on the other hand, never claimed to be normal. 

And I am super excited!!!  Honestly folks, this is a major deal around here and we are celebrating big time!!!

Update: Looking Forward To A Summer Of Change

credit: picturedepot.com

Wow, I have been at this here blogging thing for about a year and half now.   I can hardly believe it!

Not only am I shocked that I am still in the same location geographically that I started in- since this whole blog got started as a way to document the process and express myself during my much hoped for move to Texas, but certainly maybe more surprising and rewarding is how much I have learned from the other wonderful blogs that I read on a regular basis.

There are simple and major things that have just clicked for me over this past year and a half and I can't really believe that my everyday life would have been as enriched, brought down to earth, or given as much perspective if I hadn't been sharing it, even in a vicarious way, with so many of you.  I appreciate your posts and the comments that you kindly take the time to give, in a huge way.

Now, as to the update: 

This coming summer is shaping up to be a doozy.  On May 16th my husband will have his much anticipated reconstructive surgery.  It will come exactly one week after his next big actuarial exam.  We planned it that way so he could recover without having to study intensely for another test right away.  He will have a major test every 6 months for at least the next 2-3 years.  Although I am pretty OK with all the medical things and physical therapy stuff that my husband will need to deal with, I have to admit that I may run into some emotional roadblocks.  I know that I am much better equipped to deal with the challenge this time around and I trust that things will go smoothly.  My husband deserves the best outcome and I will do whatever it takes to help get him through this.

This past week my husband and I have truly set things in motion to make our dream of owning a condo in Palm Springs happen.  After lots of research on what it will take to be successful with owning and managing a vacation home, we are starting the pre-approval process.  Even though I am aware that things are different these days when it comes to mortgages, we do have a down payment ready and should only require a small loan so we are trusting that the bank will see us as a good risk.  It feels like a huge step and yet it feels right.  By the week of July 4th my husband should be feeling pretty darn good and we plan to be in Palm Springs, physically looking at properties.  With some major prayer and a little luck we are hoping to be owners of a vacation rental that is available to rent by October 1st. 

To top it all off, my husband and I have absolutely not given up on our dream of moving to Texas.  As soon as he is recovered enough to make it feasible for him to travel for an in person interview, my husband will hit the application process hard again.  With another test passed, he should be a more interesting candidate within his chosen career.  If all of our wildest dreams could be realized, my husband and I just might be putting the finishing touches on a vacation condo in Palm Springs on our way to a new home in Texas.

I certainly do believe that everything we do in this life has meaning and that all things happen when and how they should.  I also feel as if these things that we are wishing for are possible and worth planning for.  I can dare to envision a future that holds so much for my husband and I to work hard for and share with everyone we love. 

Credit: sea-life-style.com

Sometimes My Husband Still Surprises Me

I have a feeling that my husband is somewhere on the Asperger's scale.  No seriously, but just mildly so.

I have a good friend with a husband who is diagnosed with Asperger's and he and my husband get along famously.  It's like a bog ol' nerdfest when the two of them get together.  And nobody else seems to get this guy better than my husband.  (Asperger's is a form of autism that affects social skills more than anything and a person with Asperger's is likely to be highly intelligent yet very bothered by overstimulation.  Mozart, Einstein and Thomas Jefferson all shared symptoms of Asperger's .) 

What could possibly make me think something like this? 

I'm won't pretend to be an expert on the subject.  These are just my observations:
My husband sometimes misses social cues- big time.  He has to cut the tags out of every piece of clothing he owns and food textures can be quite troublesome.  He's such a freakin' number genius and yet sometimes he panics if you ask him to add up a simple list of things and then he has to double and triple check his answer and explain how he got to it.

I'm not complaining.  Again, just my observations.  It's actually a part of his charm.  And he balances me out quite well.  Besides, I may or may not be known to let his quirks get me out of a bind here or there on occasion, but I'm not admitting to anything...

So yeah, he's just not a real emotional guy.  (But like I said, that keeps my 'fieryness' in check.)  While I appreciate how rational my man is, I must admit that I do sometimes miss out on romantic notions.  Small things like not thinking about the resale value of a gift, or how much it will cost to insure it.  Or sometimes he just doesn't seem to get the emotional intricacies of a given moment.  He can be perceived as pretty cut and dried with an affect that comes off as rather flat.

And yet, at times he is so clever and funny and brings out a childlike joy in just experiencing something.  And he will do literally anything for me, even if it goes against his highly logical side.  These are the times when sharing his life is magical.  So... what a wonderful surprise it has been to see how excited my husband has become about the idea of having a vacation place in the desert.  Imagine how wonderful it has been to hear him almost gush at how good he feels in that heat, how 108 with no humidity feels just right, how being able to get away to a place that is just so different is amazing to him, how he just never dreamed that he could want something so much.  It's just so cool to see him willing to take a chance on something without over thinking it.  Just because he wants to.  He doesn't often verbalize about goals much outside of rational lists and good investments.  So this is just fun.  And I'm happy for him. 

It's good to be able to share a dream and actually have a concrete plan to make it work.  My husband keeps me grounded so my dreams can take flight.