Why, Indeed?

One of my favorite readers pointed out that I haven't explained why we were making the move that is being shared in The Journal. An oversight on my part, and if it will make reading the entries more enjoyable or satisfy any curiousity, please read on. I tapped into my husband's memory for this project, so some of this is from his brain.

It all started rather innocently...

We had been living in a beautiful house in Auburn, Washington for about 7 years.

During this time we were the owners and operators of a small, franchised print shop. While we were doing well with the business and earning a comfortable living, we also found the stress of being small business owners too much for our liking. We worked with the franchiser to sell our business, and after receiving an offer (just post 9/11 by the way, which is a whole other story), we decided that since we were going to have to enter the job market and "start over" anyway, why not do it in a completely different state.

Now, I'm not sure at what point this next thing happened, it may even have been before we decided to sell the business, but it was a HUGE event disguised as a throwaway moment: Dad and Elsie were visiting, and Dad mentioned that he had been in contact with the people that owned the house I had grown up in, in Ohio. I can't remember what all he said about that, but I remember he and Elsie were sitting in the back seat of the car while David was driving, and Dad said he thought they might be ready to sell the house and retire to Florida. I remember briefly meeting David's eyes, and the seed of an idea was planted.

My family lived on the eastern side of the country, and David's sister was his only remaining relative. Even though she also lived in Washington state, they didn't visit each other frequently (she has since moved to Arizona). If we moved to Ohio, friends would be missed, but since we had been business owners for many years, we hadn't really had time to enjoy much of their company anyway. Plus, with the proceeds from our business sale and our house sale, we could purchase acreage in Ohio and live for a year or two before going back to work.

So, we decided to make a pass at buying my childhood home from the current owners, even though it wasn't up for sale, and start a new life in the Ohio countryside. I pumped dad via email for whatever info he had, and sent a nice "how do you do" letter to the homeowners. We let them know we would be visiting Ohio in September, and would like to get together. 

Well, the rest of the story is what you're reading in The Journal. Now if you'll excuse me, I simply must get back to posting breaking news from 2002!