What I thought I’d never do…

If you had asked me a little over five years ago if there was a chance (even the slightest chance) that I’d be moving from my hometown of San Diego to the Midwest, I would have laughed at you.  I typically don’t laugh AT people, as I prefer to laugh WITH people, but I think I seriously would have laughed at you.  In fact, if you had asked me if I’d move from San Diego to ANYWHERE else, I would have given you a very strong “no way!” response.  I’m a San Diego native.  Third generation, to be exact (there aren’t many of us around).  Born and raised with flip-flops, warm sunshine, salty beaches, and palm trees.  Why on EARTH would anyone ever want to live anywhere else?

Enter, a boy.  Isn’t that always the way it goes?  A boy enters the picture and suddenly things change?

I met this guy named Josh in December of 2008.  I’m sure I’ll share our “love story” later…

Josh was from Minnesota, and very early in our dating relationship, I realized that if I kept dating this guy, we could very well fall in love, get married… and move to Minnesota!  I could tell that’s where his heart was.  Though he had recently moved to California, the Midwest was in his blood and that was where he really wanted to be.  I kinda had to decide at that point – fairly early in our relationship – if I was okay with moving someday.  I realized I had two options: keep dating this guy and risk doing something I NEVER thought I would ever want to do and move… or decide I didn’t want to risk it – I didn’t want to take the chance on being faced with the hard decision to move from San Diego someday – and break up with him.

I decided it was worth the risk.  For the record, I’m really glad I did.

We had many talks throughout our first few years of marriage as to when/if/how/why we would move.  I’ll be honest, there were usually tears (on my part) involved.

Then…

This August, two years and nine months into our marriage, we made our largest purchase to date as a couple: 2 ½ acres of beautiful, partially wooded land in Andover, Minnesota.  Josh has always dreamed of building a house, and what girl hasn’t dreamed of a custom built house with massive closets, spa like bathrooms, and an expansive kitchen?  FYI, Josh and I are still discussing the reasonable and realistic nature of “massive,” “spa like,” and “expansive.”  But I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  This purchase (obviously) kind of established the fact that we were indeed moving and that it would be sooner, rather than later.  I’m sure I’ll share the story of our land purchase later too.  It’s pretty cool.

Now fast forward to three years and a month into our marriage.  I’ve quit my job, Josh has new work opportunities waiting for him in Minnesota, and we are turning in the keys to our (now) empty tiny one bedroom apartment that’s been home for the first few years of our lives together.  A trailer hitched to Josh’s truck is packed with all our worldly belongings and I am faced with saying goodbye to the city, people, family, and home that I’ve known all my life.  And, cue more tears.

So, while it’s kinda been looming overhead for a while, and I obviously knew it was coming, it seems all too sudden that this California girl is packing up her flip-flops and heading to the Midwest.  I hope to use this blog as a way to share my new, exciting, scary, strange, and definitely fun new experiences with all those smart people that stayed back in Sunny San Diego while I up and moved to Minnesota in the dead of winter, as well as some of the new friends I hope to make along the way.  I suppose I should warn you, I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve and am terrible at hiding my feelings.  So I suspect this blog might get a little real at times… but then again, I suppose this blog is also for me… a way to cope with all those new, exciting, scary, strange, and fun things.  And, above all, I hope you’ll laugh WITH me and not AT me.