Wow.... it's been a year since I posted anything!!! Really?? I feel like that can't possibly be.... and yet, the blogger dashboard tells me so.

So I guess I have a lot of updating to do.....

I DID graduate from Massage School with a 4.0 GPA and was honored to be asked to be the featured speaker at graduation.  For the last 8 months, I have been employed, mostly happily, at a massage therapy and energy center here in the devil's armpit we call the AV.  I love my job. Truly. I have had my ups and downs with it, as with any job, but I truly love what I do.  The hubby seems to have finally settled into his job and has a true love/hate relationship with it.  He has made friends, which rocks, and has even won a poker night (go honey!)  We moved in with my brother in law about 6 months ago and it seems to be working out for the time being.  We have our rules and we pay our overpriced rent, but we have a roof and a place to live.  The animals are all doing well, which makes me happy as I have determined that they will live forever!!! (Yeah, I know but let me live in delusion for a bit, OK?)

So that's the short version of the current situation for us.  Now, here's the future plans, desires and inevitables......

We are beyond ready to move from this place.  I know that many people love the desert, the landscape, the open space, the dry heat, the almost alien ground, but we are two people who do NOT love it.  I have been "homesick" for my family for a while now.  I left home, pretty much, when I was 14.  I went off to boarding school, my choice, and only went home for holidays and part of the summer.  I was always happier away from home than at home.  I went to college away and after college moved back to my hometown of Atlanta (more of a home city than a town but you know what I mean) for about 4 years.  That was about as long as I could handle it.  I quit my chosen profession at the time, quit my job, quit my apartment and quit my life and moved to the middle of nowhere Vermont.... and I loved it.  I was 1100 miles from my family and that was JUST FINE by me!  I met my hubby online (long story best saved for another day) and found a job that I liked well enough and made some amazing friends.  Then we moved here..... that story is in a previous blog post.

In the 2 1/2 years we've been here, both of our lives have changed.  I found a new career, my hubby found a great job, we have both made amazing friends and have survived some pretty awful stuff.  We have only grown stronger as a couple and I am grateful for every second of struggle as it has only served to form a bond that has withstood the test of time and stress.  I am more in love with my hubby every day (please, roll your eyes if you need to, if it weren't about me, I'd be rolling my eyes too!!). 

All of that being said, it's time to go.  I was fortunate enough to be able to visit my family in March of this year.  This was the first time I have been back to Atlanta in 6 1/2 years.  I had an amazing trip and was able to visit family in Tennessee and North Georgia as well.  For the first time in over 2 decades, I want and need to go "home".  Home, for me, is in the Southeast.  I know I could never again live in Atlanta.  Too much baggage.  What I know is that I need to be close to Atlanta so I have access to my family and friends.  SO..... we are planning to move to Chattanooga, TN.  There is a lot of growth there in both of the industries that my hubby and I work.  We just have to figure out how to get there!!!

My parents are aging, and beginning to show it a little bit in their mental health.  I don't want to lose one or both of my parents and then realize that I missed out on spending time with them.  I don't want to regret my distancing myself from them, though I needed it when I did.  I have siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews and friends that I want to see, get to know, spend time with, etc.... For the first time in my adult life, I really NEED my family and I feel like I might be needed too.

So there it all is... it's not pretty or tidy but it is me.  It is my current state of things..... it is my hopes for the future and I'm hoping that by putting it out there, I might get a hand up from the universe....