Baby Steps

We've decided to take the plunge and head to FL. Florida is meant to be a stopping point and NOT our final destination on this journey. Our casa is now officially listed and available for rent starting 4/1.

The moving pod is coming on 3/16. I need to get my act together.

Uprooting your whole family and leaving a home you've accrued crap in for 8 years is no joke. Since the hubs' job said no to remote work from Colombia we are forced to head to FL with a 'we'll make it happen' attitude. I'm ok with that.

Here are a few things that we've been working on:

1. Researched Property Management Companies in the area (we used Thumbtack and Yelp mainly). We narrowed it down to 3 property managers, met with 2 of them and then ultimately went with a family business that we are confident will take care of our home (and anyone that tries to muck it up). After meeting with the property management company we made a list of all the things we need to complete in the house.

• Re-tile boys bathroom
• touch up paint/holes the baby gates made
• get a HVAC contract on our ac unit for maintenance purposes
• have a chimney clean/inspection
• polish main floor hardwoods

2. Hire a moving company- We decided to go with a pod-like moving and storage solution as we are banking that storage will be necessary for quite some time. We ended up choosing United Mayflower.

3. PACK like a crazy woman!

• I need to organize everything into 5 (that is a ton!) piles: sell, garbage, donate, storage and FL (there is a sub pile under FL, too: my hubs' parents house and my mom's house
• Find boxes: I called a bunch of local businesses and have an idea on when to call and when to stop by. 

These are my baby steps. I still have to entertain an almost 2 year old while all this is going on.

What does all this mean? It is less than a month away from the date that the container arrives and I've got 7 boxes packed. Yep- 7 boxes. It' a start!

Happy Packing!

Let's Get It Started In Here

There are pertinent questions when a huge life change is imminent. It's that Five W's and One H thing we all learned when we were in elementary school.

The WHO is obvious. The WHY has been determined in a previous post and is our driving force behind it all.

To eliminate the need to worry about getting a visa, renewing visas, etc. the hubs decided to go ahead and apply for his Colombian citizenship a while back as his parents were born there. That was a whole blog post in itself (tip: be patient at the Colombian Embassy- he had to go back 5 times as they all told him different things). That answered the WHERE in the world do we go? Colombia, South America

The hubs has been talking to his employer for quite a while now. They'd agreed that he can work remote from anywhere as long as he has a reliable internet connection. We had an IN! That would be our HOW. We would sell our stuff, keep some in storage, rent out our house, make DC money and live in Colombia where the cost of living is nada and the average monthly income is something like $800. We would save, be around family and we could have the kiddos in school there and travel South America on the weekends. Sounds ideal in my head.

That scenario would have made my blogging life a lot shorter and far less interesting. Basically when I knew I would no longer have a job the hubs told them we might need to move up this full time remote thing to late March 2016 (the WHEN). They agreed and said they would talk to HR. Good ole' HR- they screwed us. What did they say you might ask? UMMMMM NO he can't work from South America. What did we say you might ask? @&$$@&&@#@#&**&#@**

It's our first real obstacle. It's not going to deter us.  It wasn't something a couple glasses of wine wouldn't fix.  Let's call that the WHAT. That was what I was going to do.  :)

Back to the drawing board...

The Why

We have a good life. We have everything we need and then some. The problem: we want a change. We need a change if we want to have financial freedom in our future. We want to be able to invest for our future and the future of our kiddos. Right now we spend every penny we make. We aren't crazy spenders and we aren't super frivolous.

We live in Northern Virginia and it is SO expensive. Dolla dolla bills are flying out the front door every pay day. SHIZAH! What the f do we do?

Image found on lockerdome.com


Do I look for a new job that pays more moola? Does the hubs? Do we sell our souls to the devil? All viable options. We've attempted these things (minus that last one) and decided that won't work. We have 3 kids and more office hours equates to more money goes towards childcare. ANSWER: PEACE the F OUT! We started brainstorming. Where to go? What to do? Blah blah blah blah and all that jazz.

I started doing some research. You know of the google variety. I spent a lot of time researching options and looking into other families that have done something similar. The result: I didn't find much. My idea is to record our journey. This will be our journey of how we plan to PEACE OUT: the steps we take and all the bs in between.

BOTTOM LINE:

We'd like to Peace the f out of Northern Virginia and move to a Spanish speaking country where the cost of living is low and the quality of life is MUY ALTO (that's very high in espanol, I think). :)

Hope you are intrigued.

Job DONE

My job has ended. It was time. It has been time to leave for a while now but they gave me the extra push to Peace the F out. It's time for the next adventure. I'm motivated and I'm pumped. I needed a kick in the ass (and a rather large one at that) to get me moving in a new direction. A direction towards change. I'm not going to lie or sugar coat, nope not me- this was no rainbows and unicorns type of thing.

The last couple weeks I was feeling low. There was some major self-talk happening on a daily basis. I still remind myself to get it together. It's hard losing your job. It's a blow to the ole' confidence for sure. That being said I AM moving forward so let's talk new beginnings.

I'm ready to take on 2016. Let's start with a few things I want/need to do to get this change going:

• Taking on the world will take a fierce woman: one who is confident and healthy. That being said, exercise and healthy eating are on top of this list. I started Weight Watchers and the hubs and I are doing Insanity. It. Is. INSANE. It is only night 7.
• Take steps towards making this move a reality. What do I need to do to make our goal a reality? More on that in future posts.
• Have me time. I know for a fact that I am not meant to be a stay at home mom. Nothing against those that are AT ALL. I've done it and I thought I was going to lose my mind. Literally. I just wanted to scream. Anywho, in order to make my family and me happier I need to include some weekly me time in the schedule.
• Over the years I've gotten a few gift cards (Red Door and some random Spa near me) and I'm going to use them. NOW.
• The hubs got me guitar lessons for one month as a Christmas gift. On lesson 3. My goal is to practice 10 minutes at least a few days a week.
• Lastly, my mom got me a book titled The Secret. I need it in my life. It's all about the law of attraction. If you think positive thoughts that is what you will attract and the opposite applies (negative thoughts, negative things).

Just a few thoughts to make the rest of 2016 my BEETCH. Big things are a comin' so stay tuned for more on how we are going to make this move a reality. We will be keeping you posted every step of the way.