We’re Moving!

Now that this information has been given to our bosses and co-workers, Paul and I can officially publicize that we will be moving next month!

Paul was recently approached by one of his manufactuers for an internal sales position with them.  This was a long 2 month process, and if you know me it was a TORTUROUS secret to keep.  From the very beginning, we thought he had a great chance of getting the job.  He was told he was the “top candidate for the position”  (yes, that’s my husband that was APPROACHED as the TOP candidate for a position – super proud wife moment so I have to brag!)  Originially we were under the impression he could stay in Tallahassee and work.  As the weeks progressed, he learned that was no longer the case.  Due to his new territory, and the amount of business in Orlando, we decided the best place for us to relocate to within his territory will be Orlando!   This new job is a huge blessing, and with Paul covering less territory and the majority of it in Orlando, it means a lot less traveling for him!  Which makes us both happy!

This past weekend in Orlando, we started looking for places to live.  Our next hope will be to find a house to rent that allows 3 dogs… call that landlord crazy but I will love them forever if it means we get to take our 3 babies with us!  Luckily for us, my parents are in Lake Mary, and so we have a place to stay if it takes a while to find a place (thanks mom and dad!).

We are extremely excited about this opportunity for Paul, but it is definitely bittersweet.  Tallahassee was home to each of us before we met, and now it holds all of the memories we have created together.  Paul and I both really love our jobs, and not just our jobs but the people we work for!  Which only makes the decision that much harder, but we know it is the right one for us.

God has really outdone himself on this one.  It just goes to show that God’s plan will prevail. Without the job opportunity Paul was given two years ago, he wouldn’t have the opportunity he has now.  He has gone above and beyond when answering our prayers! We even already have someone to rent out our house when we move at the end of September!  Whew!

Paul starts his new job on September 1st in Orlando.  We will basically have a long distance marriage for a month, and we will move at the end of September.  September will be busy… and stressful!

We are sad to leave Tallahassee, but since it is the Home of the Florida State Seminoles and football season is approaching… so there is no doubt that we will be back regularly! Well back for football… and our adorable nieces and their parents 🙂

Out With the Old, In with the Newish…

When Paul got his job as a Sales Rep almost two years ago, we quickly realized that with all of his traveling he would be doing he needed to be driving a car.  Not his gas guzzling F-150.  Being the loving girlfriend I was at the time, I let him take my car on his trips and I would just drive his truck.  Then we got married and we kept this same pattern.  Sounds like it works pretty well, right? WRONG.

• I am a little organized (maybe OCD organized). My wonderful husband is not.  Then stick him in a car where he is traveling for days at a time, lugging boxes of literature for customers, business cards out to wazoo, luggage, food, etc. and I think you will know where I am going with this.  Whenever Paul would get back in town we would trade back cars.  I would never be able to put groceries in the trunk.  I would have panic attacks from the amount of junk piled everywhere, but I’ve dealt with it because I love him and he loves his job.
• Some girls can drive big trucks… Some girls cannot.  I am the later of those two said groups. I am NOT comfortable behind the wheel of a truck that is so MASSIVE!  Once I backed up too far… into the bushes.  Another time I cut a corner a little to close at a drive through, hitting a pole (luckily it was just a paint transfer from the orange pole onto Paul’s gray truck and was easily buffed out).  This past weekend I had a small fender bender… I shoud not be driving a truck (or maybe at all, but I don’t have much of a choice).
• Paul has terrible back issues and my car provides ZERO lumbar support.  My back starts to bother me in my car if it’s longer than a 2 hour drive.  We’ve bought him cushions to alleviate the issue, and it does help, but not much.  I feel awful knowing he is uncomfortable/in pain while he is driving especially when he spends so much time on the road.
• Our biggest issue with our car situation is that Paul has been driving my 2001 Nissan Sentra.  It’s a great little car.  Though this car is still working, neither one of us is really comfortable with Paul driving it such distances.   In the last year we’ve had to put a LOT of money into it to ensure his safety.  I know what you may be thinking… repairs are cheaper than a car payment.  Yes you’re right, but the car is still 13 years old.  We repair it and then he drives 10,000 miles in approximately 2 1/2 to 3 months.  The repairs are not lasting as long as they should (we’ve already replaced the motor mounts 3 times…).  The repairs are adding up.  (Yes Dad, I know we will have to do repairs on any car we own…)

Paul has wanted to get a new car for about a year (maybe more?).  I loved that we did not have any car payments.  In my head, we could make it work, and we did… for almost two years.  After my recent issues in Paul’s truck, we decided it was probably best to get rid of it (before I made it lose the rest of it’s value).  This is not something we rushed out and did.  We’ve talked about it for MONTHS.  Everytime he would bring it up I would get anxious about finances and not wanting a car payment and we need to save to move and blah blah blah.  This time when he brought it up I knew something had to be done.  He’s been looking at deals on cars for almost a year so when this one came up I actually felt pretty comfortable and at peace with the decision.

So last night we headed on over to the Ford Dealership (after Paul had made rounds to countless dealerships throughout the day) to take a look at this car.  After a long night at Ford,  I have a happy husband, my own clean car, and an aggresive plan for early repayment of our little loan.  Even though the loan is conservative I’m still pretty sure Dave Ramsey wouldn’t approve…

 

Change for Happiness

When Paul and I first met I was really impressed by his job.  He used to work for the school system in gang prevention and served as a mentor for boys in middle and high school that were in and out of the court systems.  He had a certain pride when he talked about what he did, and you could see his passion for working with the kids.  He wanted to leave an impact on their lives.  I knew immediately that he had a huge heart.

As much as he loved working with the kids, his job itself was exhausting.  In short, he worked long grueling hours, attended events, worked weekends, made house calls (sometimes late at night around 10pm) and was not compensated for those long hours.  He would only get paid 35 hours per week – even if he put in 60.  The job itself was wearing him down.  When we started talking about getting married, Paul decided he wanted to start looking for a new job. He wanted to provide for his family and his job seemed unstable being a grant funded program.

Paul then got his job as a Sales Rep.  We knew going in that this was going to be a long process.  The potential is great for him, but we knew it was going to be tight financially until he grew his territory.  On top of that, he has to travel… frequently.  We talked and prayed about it and decided it was a good opportunity for him.  About a year and half into his job he is so much happier, but he has random days that cause him to question his ability to be successful and if he is in the right field.

Then there are days like today.  He is on the road and I get a text from him that is filled with so much excitement I literally can feel it through a text message.  I didn’t even have to hear his voice to know how excited he was.  It’s days like today where I am reassured we made the right decision to change his career.  He was proud of his work mentoring kids, but he was always too frustrated to actually get excited about it.  I love when he gets excited.  He’s like a little kid on Christmas.  You can feel his happiness radiating from him, and who doesn’t want to be around someone who is happy??