Moving Journey

I kinda feel like I recently made a post about moving, and I guess I kinda did. Two years and five months ago James and I bought a house in Florida. Now I know, two years doesn’t seem like that long ago, and it’s not really.

A little back story:

James and I moved from Maryland to Florida in 2015 because we wanted a fresh start. We wanted to move to a place where we thought we would be the happiest (and who wouldn’t be happy living near cruise ports when you love cruising?)
In 2019 we were asked to be Godparents to my cousins kid, and at the time, I thought we would need to be closer to them, so we talked and decided to move to North Carolina (a bit closer to them, but not on top of them and not close enough for people to just randomly show up at our house). Our time in North Carolina was hectic and short. We found ourselves in a rental we hated (before moving about an hour away from the rental to a place we actually enjoyed!) We also found ourselves driving to Florida every single month. It was insane. that was a more than ten hour drive every month with two dogs and two very tired adults.
So again, we talked and decided it would make more sense to move back to Florida. Let’s face it, we shouldn’t have moved in the first place. The only good that came out of us living in North Carolina besides visiting family was that we met Sarah. We wanted to live closer to our friends who we were visiting so much.
Off again on another move! We moved back to Florida. For a while it was great. We got to spend time with our friends (some of them), and we were happy to be back.

Then, something changed. A lot of somethings actually. James and I realized that Florida just wasn’t for us anymore. Even though we tried, and we pushed and forced ourselves to smile, we just really didn’t like it there anymore. I didn’t even like leaving the house because I strongly disliked the area we were in.
I was so happy though that we got to meet and become friends with our neighbors. Jen and Jeremy became instant friends for life. Even though we aren’t neighbors anymore, we still talk all the time and I can’t wait to visit!

So at the end of 2023 James and I were really pushing to find another place to live. We wanted out of Florida as soon as possible. Then we found a place. Technically we picked Augusta, GA area. We went to visit the area and the branches up there that James could transfer to and then we fell in love with a small community in South Carolina just over the GA/SC line. That was it. That’s where we wanted to live.
We found realtors, fired realtors, but finally got an offer on our house. While we had to pay a bit to get out, we were okay with that, we just wanted out!

Now we’ve been here less than a week, and I know, we need more time around here, but already this feels just like home. The weather so far is amazing (I know, summer is coming!) The community so far is great. The branch he works at isn’t bad (so far), the area is cute. Lots of small town feels, but stuff is close by (which we like).

I’m beyond happy to be out of Florida and Polk County. When we moved from Florida the first time, I cried. I was sad to leave the house and the area. This time. I teared up a little, but that was it. I take that as a sign. Now of course we will still visit Florida (we have to so we can cruise on certain ships from there). We picked this place for us. No one else but us. We didn’t pick a place based off of living closer to family or friends. We picked a place where James and I felt we would be happy.

So hello to our new adventure.
For anyone who wants to see our house before we unloaded everything we own inside of it, here’s the video. I plan to do another one once we actually get things in place.
https://youtu.be/LzuerbIN17o