Join the club ( a bit raw and personal)

It's not a club you'd want to join. First we joined the Unemployment Club. I would have thought that we would fall apart. But we're standing strong. In a way, I feel that things have never been better. Not financially of course, but we're spending more time as a family and we're happy. It's kind of weird. Shouldn't we feel depressed or in despair? Well we don't. Sure, it's a bit scary at times, but I guess we know that it won't last. We've all had to step up a little and it feels good.

Here is a chance for new opportunities. John and I had talked about donating plasma before and we just never did. Well now we're going as often as we can. It's nice to bring in a little extra money and spend time together doing something to help others. John is working on going back to school. I think it's awesome. He has wonderful benfefits to use from being in the military. As a homeschooling family I know that this will be great for us. It will teach our kids a lot and leave a big impression. Heck, it might even teach me a thing or two.   ;-)


I've mentioned before that money has been tight since John got out of the Navy. We had carefully planned it out, but some things didn't happen like they were supposed to, which meant that we didn't have as much income. About a month or two before he got laid off, we started talking about short selling our home.

There were multiple reasons:

• Our income was about $1100 less than when we qualified for the home in 2006
• Even though our income shrank, the bills weren't getting any smaller
• We were extremely upside down (our home is worth $70,000 less than what we paid for and we've refinanced a few times)
• The commute was getting to us (we live a good hour and a half round-trip from anywhere or civilization as I call it)
• Because of the commute, we were spending a good amount of money on gas (and putting plenty of miles on our vehicles)
• It was all wearing on us, we were getting tired on the drives home
• We felt like we were getting nowhere, struggling just to get by
• When we first moved out here, part of the reason was because we couldn't afford to stay in the same county as we were before. Now that houses have gone down, we feel that we have a chance to get back to where we came from. (eventually)

Then my husband got laid off in October, so we really had no choice but to join the short sale club. We could barely get by before, how could we get by with even less money coming in? We're surprised that we've been able to stay here this long. Over the last 2-3 years we have watched our neighborhood disintegrate as our neighbors have moved out up and down and all around our street. So here we are next on the list.

Please know that we do LOVE our house, our neighborhood, our neighbors and our community. It's just our time to go. It has been awesome and we'll miss it, but we are ready to move on to our new chapter in life.

Our kids are definitely learning life skills right now.

• Coping Skills
• Problem Solving
• The power of laughter
• The importance of a good sense of humor
• Working together as a team

Our home is a decent size. Including the partially finished basement, we have about 3200 square feet. Well we have gotten pretty darn comfortable here. Yet, I doubt our next home will be the same size. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to downsize. Besides, I know we have too much stuff.  We have all been working our butts off to get this house ready to show to people. And they have been filing in left and right. Our lives are chaotic and crazy right now. We still have plenty of stuff to do, but it seems doable. I'm looking at this as a fresh start. I'm usually pretty positive and easy going, but I'm surprised at just how well I'm handling all this. I've been pleasantly surprised that my husband is reacting in the same way. When we heard that John might got laid off, I thought I'd cry when it actually happened. Then I thought I'd cry if we had to sell the house. Yet I keep getting through it all without a tear. We'll come out of this better than ever.