Monthly Archives: October 2012

A Year and A Day? Or Do it Anyway?

Well I have just about rounded out my stressful on-call week and I turn the pager over on Monday.  I had a Saturday upgrade that went flawlessly, which is a good feeling and proof of my accomplishments thus far in learning an entirely new language (TACL) as well as all the intricate goings on for the custom applications the company I work for has developed.   Most of the information isn’t attainable except thru doing and it’s been the most challenging position I’ve ever taken on.  It will feel  WONDERFUL to hand over on-call come Monday and have my after work life back for a week.  To do things like see the sky, mow the lawn, do the dishes…You know, the basics.  I took on the challenge for a few reasons, one was because I knew I could do it and another was for the experience of doing it.  Not to just say things are “stressful” but to know how that feels.  Not only to say I took on a challenge but to go thru that expeirence and come out on the other side of it.  It may just be that it’s time to let those experiences go, and take on something new again.


What the Feeling of Freedom Might Look Like

This is an interesting feeling for me because when I can go for a walk and see the sky it feels…well I feel totally and comletely free again.   The juxtaposition of these two mental states is drastic.

This past week has been challenging not only for me, but for Cassie as well.  I’d say we have come the closest to pulling the “GTFO lever” we have been so far.   This is a good thing, as it means we are ready not only financially but also mentally for the transformation/graduation into our new lives.   We are at the point where our minds are picking out signs from the universe that our new program has been developed and is ready to run.

The program has been developed and ready to run“: I have had the strange belief that our environment is simply a software program since I was little and that when a person goes on vacation, it is just a new “level” in the game.   When you go to new places it takes time to get there because it has to be created or developed before you arrive.  All the people, places, plants, roads and everything in your story that makes up our reality has to be created first.

So I think the program is set.  We have decided that we can stick it out longer if we want, but if we continue to have these discussions at a serious level that we have been, that we can go at any time.   One of the signs the universe has given us lately is a video we saw online (thanks Claire!).  It speaks to us because there are so many reasons that we can come up with to wait and plan more, and save more, and talk about more but really when you get down to it, we should just DO IT ANYWAY!

If you’re paralyzed by the voice in your head,
It’s the standing still that should be scaring you instead.
Go on and … do it anyway.
Do it anyway.

check it out the video below:

The comments made on the previous post are wonderful and we thank those who give us feedback!  We don’t really have a reason not to, except that we don’t want to give up the opportunity for saving more “goal fodder” as I call it.  Otherwise known as money.  That however has become less important, especially when work gets us down in the dumps.

Call it surrender, but you know that it’s a joke
And the punchline is you were actually never in control
But still, surrender anyway…

We want to leave on our own wishes with a feeling of preparedness and that we are looking forward to our new lives, not that we got pushed out by our old.  We will continue to push forward, it’s getting close though…Very close! We have set a drop dead date of October 15, 2013 which is a year and a day from today. I think we have come to the conclusion that it can be any time between now and then! So watch out world, here we come!

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Can We Make it a Year (And Do We Want To)?

We are nearing the year mark for the countdown to Puerto Rico. But lately we have been asking ourselves, “Can we make it a year…and do we want to”? As I mentioned before we are pretty well set up to move. We have a good savings. We have some income set up. We have the property paid for in Puerto Rico. Lately it just seems like we are READY! In late January Britton had a dream that he would leave work in 9 months…which is now. October. I told him then that he was one year off of the goal. But now I wonder if he had been on to something.

Everything is changing at both of our jobs. Britton is down to a team of two from five when he started and the additional work is a heavy burden. His on-call has gone from once every 5 weeks to every other week which is super stressful to him. At my work, we’ve been having delays with grant contracts. As I await the start date of the grant in which I do inspections, I have realized how much I really do enjoy being out of the office. Because of a delay in this grant, I’ve had to do much more office work, and I just don’t think I can live in the cubicle anymore! I have had a small taste of freedom and want it back! We are also getting a new division director and so there has been a lot of change in this season of change.

And what’s more, as the weather begins to turn cold we just keep asking ourselves, is it time? Is it time to make the leap to the unknown? To our own personalized paradise? Then come the doubts and excuses…should we be more prepared? We should save more. What if I wanted to come back? What if this is all just some crazy (early) mid life crisis? Will I regret this? Blah. Excuses not to move. Excuses not to grow. Excuses to be comfortable instead of hit in the head with LIFE!

I know this is a bit of a rant, but I just really felt like I needed to get it off my chest. What do you think? Are we crazy? Should we stay and be cautious or throw it to the wind and roam! Can we make it a year? Or should we?

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Gleaning and Cleaning

The weather dipped below freezing last night and so our beautiful greenhouse jungle turned into a limp mess of blackened smushy tomato, squash and cucumber plants. So today, now that the weather has improved, we decided to clean out the greenhouse and glean all the veggies from the dead vines.


Here Britton and the eager chickens get to work


Britton in the process with a watchful Kitty


Some of our find: cucumbers, carrots, lots of tomatoes, peppers, and squash


Spaghetti Squash from our garden. Funny story…the whole time it was growing we thought it was a freaky watermelon! 😉


Pretty chickens in the yard


Kitty in the littered yard. One of our chickens, Henrietta, is molting along with the trees


Schnoodle, Kitty, Britton and chickens -in the greenhouse- after cleaning it out

In addition to cleaning out the greenhouse, we also started the multi-phase task of cleaning out our closets. I started with my clothes since I have way more than Britton.


Pile of clothes that I sorted in the basement on a cold day


Pile of clothes ready for Goodwill

Even though this pile of clothes looks impressive, it barely scratched the surface on the amount of clothes I will have to sort through before we move.

 

 

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Bathroom Remodels: What We are Working For

I think these monthly reflections on why we continue to stay in Colorado working are especially helpful this month. Britton’s work load has dramatically increased as his team has decreased from five people to two. At the same time, we have realized that really we have enough resources to move to Puerto Rico now, if we want to.

That’s a great feeling, after all, who can argue with having too many choices?! But sometimes it makes the choices a little harder than when your hand is forced. So, even with the added stress, we continue on day by day, week by week, month by month, and hopefully within about one year, we will be there. But I told Britton that if we need to adjust the time table for any reason, I am completely flexible. After all, it’s just us! We can create our lives however we want! Isn’t that awesome (and a little scary)!?


This isn’t our bathroom, but it’s kind of cool in a strange jungly way

So this month we are focusing on working and saving for the bathroom remodels that desperately need completed in all three of the bathrooms at the property in Puerto Rico.

The first bathroom we will finish up is in the concrete cabana. Really, this bathroom is not too bad. It needs a new toilet because it is cracked and leaks a little water.  I would also like to tile the shower area and add a better hot water solution rather than just the Duromatic electric water heater.  Maybe we could even add shelving or a vanity stand for the sink. I don’t know if I have any pictures of the bathroom the way it is now, but you can see it a little in this video we took of the cabana.


If you’ve already seen this video, you can skip to 2:35 to see the cabana bathroom again

Those changes shouldn’t take too long or be too costly and will be some of the first things we do when we arrive. The bathroom in the upstairs bedroom of the wooden house and the bathroom that is located on the northern deck are much bigger projects. For one thing, the upstairs bathroom will need to be completely remodeled. The toilet is disgusting and the sink is tiny. But the biggest thing about a “master bathroom” that would be nice would be to have a shower of some sort. The bathroom on the deck will either need to also be completely dismantled and/or remodeled.

Here is the video of the wood house and the bathroom on the deck as it is now as well as a video that shows the upstairs bedroom immediately after the bee removal:


Wooden house main level with deck outdoor bathroom @ about 2:00


Upstairs after bee removal including tearing into the bathroom wall -bathroom at about :50

Suffice it to say it is a big mess and a big project. But it is not impossible. Britton and I have done many a bathroom remodel in our rentals. Houses are not magical things. They are just a sum of their parts. It’s just for the purpose of saving up of the sum -of money- that we continue to work in Colorado. But as this weather continues to get chillier and the saving gap closes, we are getting really close to leaving!

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