Roots

My homesickness for Seattle is no secret. I miss the weather. I miss the water. I miss the culture, the people, and the whole PNW vibe. I miss vegetarian-friendly restaurants and grocery stores. I miss the breeze and the intense greenery of the Emerald City. I miss it all (well, except for the traffic and high cost of living). But there are things that Utah has that Seattle doesn't. Most of Jeff's family is here, and they've proven invaluable in these recent years. And Utah also has... hmm... well... okay so the family is what keeps us here. When we moved here, we had hoped it would be for about five years, then we'd move back. That just doesn't appear to be in the cards right now. So we've decided to plant some roots.

We are eager for Norah to be able to come home, but we can't bear to bring her home to this house we're in now. Our landlords are fantastic, and the rent is a great price, but we need a house better suited to Norah's needs. We began the rental search, only to find that our needs and our rental budget didn't match. After exploring several options, we decided to buy a house. Yes, those are some pretty thick roots to be planting.

With the financial burdens that we've been facing lately, we knew a home purchase wouldn't be an easy feat. So we brought out the big guns and bit the bullet (not sure exactly how that saying works, but I've said it). Jeff and I withdrew hefty chunks from our retirement funds in order to be able to pay off one of our auto loans to in turn afford a mortgage, put money down on the house, afford the move, and hopefully get some furniture. Sure, we may be mad at ourselves in about thirty years... but maybe we'll strike it rich by then. Besides, our retirement funds were only losing money. Perhaps this will be a better investment. We may need you to remind us of these things when retirement time rolls around.

The house is fantastic, and suits our needs perfectly. The scary thing is that now we are completely tapped out. Financially, we have little to fall back on in an emergency, but we always think of something... right?

So it's a quick close, scheduled for August 15th. Then we hope to move (from Layton to Farmington) the following weekend, on the 18th. Fortunately, our family (big strong Gunnells) will be helping. Remember what I said about Utah having things that Seattle doesn't? ;) We still hope to move back to Seattle someday, it just appears that it will be much farther out that we had originally planned.