Moving Right Along...

We've been married for almost 29 years! Wow, that sounds like a long time, but boy, how the time has flown. Four children later, we are about to become empty nesters, and I'm really having a hard time with that. I have enjoyed our children so much!  We just have one more left, and he will be a Senior in high school this next year.

As I look back on the years, I realized we were quite the busy family! We moved every three to five years. Because we moved so often, we were able to meet all kinds of people and live in different parts of the United States. I often wondered what it would have been like to stay in one place for 20 or 30 years. A lot of my friends have stayed in the same place forever, and they wonder how we were able to move so much.

Just the other day, my 22 year old, married daughter made a comment that I had to chuckle at. Her and her new husband of nine months were talking about where they would like to live after he finishes Physical Therapy school. Unlike my daughter, her husband lived in the same house for 19 years before he left for a two year mission in Chile. They would like to stay in one place and build up a good clientele (with a wellness center they would like to open up after he finishes school); which means not picking up and moving every few years.  Realizing this, my daughter said to me she thought that would be weird; to stay in one place for 20 or so years. I guess that would be kind of strange to her.  I told her there are some really good things about staying in one place.

Even though I have pretty much enjoyed moving around, seeing new places, meeting new people, and learning new culture, I have also often wondered, what it would have been like to stay put. Many times, I caught myself daydreaming about living in one place and seeing my children with friends they have known all their lives; growing up with these children since birth, listening to them reminiscing about things that happened in kindergarten or grade school, etc.  Sometimes I sit back and listen to others talking about their childhood with each other, hearing that, "Ha ha, hey, do you remember when we were in the 2nd grade when..." and then seeing my kids just sitting there looking at them with a blank look. But soon, these same kids will turn to my children and ask them something like, "Hey what's it like to live somewhere where they....." My children then brighten up and start talking about whatever it was they were asked, while their friends say something like, "Oh, cool!"

My husband is from Tennessee and I am from Florida. After we got married, we lived a year in Utah. Then we moved to Tennessee (where our first two children were born) and stayed there for five years, then it was off to Alabama. Three years later we were headed to North Carolina (our third and forth children were born there) where we stayed for five years. Arkansas was our next home for three years. Indiana would be our next place of residence--just over 5 years. We are now living in Louisiana. This August it will be five years. Not sure if we will make it that long, as my husband started his new job in Kentucky almost seven months ago. I'm still in Louisiana trying to sell our house.  As you can see, it is that three to five year thing we seem to do (no we are not military). Kentucky is going to be great, since we will only be a couple of hours from his family in Tennessee.  Hopefully this time, we will be staying in one place; at least until we retire. Then maybe we can head to Florida, to be with my family, and all the Snowbirds...