Something big

At the beginning of 2014 I announced to Jason that we needed to do something big this year. "Why?" he asked. I told him that after looking at my "about me" section on the side of my blog I realized that every even-numbered year we did something big. We:

Met in 2004

Graduated and moved in together in 2006

Bought a house and got married in 2008

Had Drew in 2010

And had James in 2012. 

Given that I have a strong preference for evenness and even numbers, it may be surprising to know that the fact that these dates are even is purely coincidental. It may be even more surprising to know that, in spite of the fact that I announced that this was our year to do something big, I completely forgot about it until halfway into planning something big.

So what is that something big?

If everything goes as planned, that's me standing in front of our new house. Not just any new house. A new house in Naperville, IL. 

The Floods are leaving Georgia!

Jason and I have often discussed the possibility of moving. In fact, for us it's kind of like the "if we were to win the lottery..." conversation. We discuss where we would go, how we would get there, what we would do there, even down to the minute details of whether or not we would hire movers, all without any real intentions to leave. Usually we're just fantasizing, but the last time this conversation came up was in the middle of our roller coaster ride and after my parents took the boys to the lake house for a weekend; we realized just how much we wanted and needed to be close to family. Our little fantasy very quickly turned into a reality as our parents and families excitedly jumped on board with the idea.

Our family is spread out pretty far. Literally from east coast to west coast, north to south. Jason's mom and siblings are in Virginia. His dad and family are in Wisconsin. My parents are in Illinois. And my sister is in California. Not to mention extended family in other states and Canada. We're here in Georgia on our own, and we've done very well, I might add, but between the ache I feel every time family leaves after visiting, and the help we need with two little ones, it seemed to only make sense to be closer to family.

And I honestly hesitate to label it as such. We're moving "to be closer to family", but to say we're not near family would be a lie. Our amazing friends have become our family and have been there for us through so much. Drew knows everyone as "aunt" and "uncle". It hurts so much to leave them. In fact, if it weren't for our friends, we probably would have left long ago. But it just seems to be what we need to do now. My best friend Stacey was not happy when I told her about our possible plans, but said she'd pray for doors to be opened one way or the other to make our path clear. I have to admit that God opened some pretty amazing doors for us making the move up there so much easier than it should be.

So here's the scoop:

We have a contract on the house shown above and it happens to be like... maybe 5 minutes from my parent's place? How amazing is that? We'll also be only 2 hours from Jason's family in Wisconsin. Super bonus! Naperville is about 40 minutes outside of Chicago and is a pretty amazing town for families with children and I've always admired it when we've visited. I carefully selected our school district so Drew and James will have the opportunity to be in a dual language program (ie. Spanish immersion!) which has me just about over the moon.

The house needs some work. Check out this kitchen!

Oven

Oven

Stove

Awesome cabinets, right?

Do you think the appliances are 1960 originals?

Some bathrooms need some updating, as well...

If you can't see, the toilet is a beautiful shade of ecru (in other words, brown). And that tile, while it actually looks sort of decent in the photo, is a perfect shade of 1960-ugly.

Aside from a necessary kitchen upgrade and a few aesthetic issues, however, the house itself is in excellent condition and is super spacious. Four bedrooms plus a basement and an incredibly large yard means I don't even know what to do with all the space!

It's likely a temporary move as we will probably return to Georgia where my parents will eventually retire and where our hearts have grown (and before the boys develop a mid-west accent, according to Jason), which leaves us questioning if this is really the right thing to do. But my heart really feels it is, so even though we're dreading the cold, and dreading saying good bye to our friends even more, we're excited as we move forward with our quickly developing plans.

P.S. We have a nanny who comes with incredible recommendations (I'd move her with us if we could) who will be looking for a family to love sometime in June. Please message me if you are interested and I can put you in contact with her!