Back to my roots.

I'm taking a break from my insanely busy schedule of doing NOTHING so that I can talk a little bit about West Virginia.

I started writing an unnecessarily long post, and was waxing philosophical about it, when I realized that a very simple answer will do.

My mother's family is there, and living a nomadic Army life as I did during my childhood, is the closest thing to home that I know.

I'm a simple girl, and I want a simple, wholesome life for my children.  I'm convinced that I cannot find that here, and I'm further convinced that what I want can be had in West Virginia.  My parents moved here when my dad retired from the Army; I did not choose to live here.

Furthermore, there is no way in HELL that we will ever ever EVER be able to afford to buy a home here.  I don't want much, but I do want to own a home, and $40,000 goes a lot further out there than it does here.

I want for my girls the things that I had growing up.  I want them to know their extended family.  I want them to catch lightning bugs in the backyard, and make snowmen.  I want them to catch crawdads in the river.  I want to go to huge ass family reunions and try to explain what a third cousin once removed means to them.

I know that moving to West Virginia sounded strange and bizarre just coming out of the blue like that.  I hope that answers some questions, and makes me seem, at the very least, closer to the sane side of crazy.

Braniac.

Last night I dropped a can of green beans, and I deftly moved my fragile toes out of the way before the can hit my feet.  I felt very much like a ninja, and was silently disappointed that no one was there to witness my superstar moves.

As I was preparing dinner I reached for the same can of green beans, and then paused.  This thought actually formed in my brain: "I can't use that can since it fell on the floor earlier.  If I open it before it's had a chance to settle it will explode.  Oh............ wait a second.  That's only for soda!"

I lost all my cool ninja points, didn't I?

Mystery revealed.

And the winner is.... (with the closest guess).....

Jennifer, with her guess of North Carolina!  Andrea came in a close second, with her guess of New England.  Please e-mail me your address, little Ms. Good Guesser, and I'll send you something pretty.

We're moving to West Virginia, after escrow closes on the house.  We'll have a small yard, but it will be big enough to have a compost pile, and a garden.  The girls will be able to play out back, and hopefully have a swingset.  We'll be able to paint the walls, and replace carpet, and build shelves.  It needs some work, and some love, but I think it's beautiful and magnificent, and I can't wait to get there.  We will have a place that is ours, and ours alone, in which to build some great memories.

This is the realization of one of my biggest wishes, and I'm so thankful to have this chance to make it something great.