This is the craziest story ... In February of 2018 Mark learned that his company was closing their office in Louisville. The plant is being moved to Memphis. Mark was asked to move to San Jose, CA but he turned it down (way too expensive to live). So he was offered the opportunity to stay with the company until the office closes at the end of September. If he stayed until July 1st, he would receive his severance package even if he didn't stay until September.
The time was getting closer. We were in Utah in July for the birth of our beloved grandson, Cayson when Mark found out that the office would not close until November 4th and they asked if he would stay on until then.
Around August 20th, Flex asked Mark if he would be interested in staying with Flex but transferring to the Memphis office. We accepted the offer.
We had to act fast to get the the house cleared out (staged) and a ton of stuff in storage, painted, carpet replaced, garage door replaced, and other things fixed around the house so that we could get it listed by a realtor ASAP.
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| New Carpet |
We missed the rush - school already started and the housing market slowed (way) down. We had a few viewings but nothing like we should have if it were still the summer. IT all worked out okay because, I either wanted the house to sell right away, or not until after Christmas. I lucked out.
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| 6104 Laurel Lane, Prospect, KY 40059: Our home for 17 years |
The house didn't sell. We were able to have all the kids come home for Christmas (except Robert, of course); which was wonderful for us to have them all come home one last time before we sell the house. It also was fantastic because we were hosting Devon and Sierra's wedding reception at the Glen Oaks Club House and wanted to still be in our home for that. YEAH!
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| Traditional Christmas Eve Dinner |
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| With adorable Cayson |
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| 2018 Christmas: Devon and Sierra, Tate - Jessica and Cayson, Marissa, Mark and Betsy |
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| Devon's wedding reception |
So around January, Mark introduced the option of moving to Dallas instead of Memphis, since he travels through Dallas so much and there is an office there. We were both very excited at the prospect of moving to Dallas. I would be near cousins, and the weather and the crime rate are much better. The church is also very strong there. It was not official but we were given reason to hope from Mark's boss.
One month later, (one year after this whole thing started) we got an offer on the house. It was contingent on the sale of their house in Indian Springs. Our realtor assured us, the market was shifting, and their house was in a much easier price range to move - it would sell in two weeks. Guess what? It did.
On March 2nd, we had a ligament offer on our house - the only problem was we still didn't know where we were moving - and we agreed to be out of the house by March 29. YIKES!!! I have just over 3 weeks to get everything packed up, sold, or given away before we move - move to where though!!!
While Betsy was in Utah in March we found out that Dallas was not approved (bummer) but Austin, Texas was!!!! We are moving to Austin, TX. Betsy flew from Utah (after her trip taking care of Cayson - and the four birthday celebration) to Austin to find a home. We have decided to down size so it was hard finding the right home... but eventually Betsy found (not the perfect home) but the near perfect home that we can move into immediately (and not have to wait to have the perfect home built).
She flew from Austin, TX to Louisville on March 15, 2019. She had 12 days to pack up the entire house, sell what we decided not to take with us to Austin, order PODS, order people to load the PODS and move out.
Everything was so stressful, but also going according to plan - that is until 4:00 pm on the day the movers are loading the PODS. The lead man comes in and informs me that not all of our stuff is going to fit - WHAT!!!!??? So I call U-haul - they don't do one ways anymore. I call Enterprise - they don't do one way anymore. I search on the internet for one way truck rentals and call PENZKE. They have a truck available. I send Mark to pick up the truck. He does - whosssh. We had the men help us load the last of our stuff into the Penzke before they leave for the night. Then we still had to clean the house - can I say I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted. At 11:00 PM we decided to ditch the idea of sleeping on an air mattress and cleaning the rest of the house in the morning, and checked into the Courtyard for $49 for the night. VERY GOOD DECISION!!!! We had a good night's sleep.
On Thursday, March 28, 2019, Mark and I signed papers for the sale of our home at 6104 Laurel Lane, Prospect, KY t40059 the new owners. At the same time we signed papers to purchase our new home at 300 Saturnia Drive, Georgetown, TX 78628.
While at closing our friend, Sarah Dodson - whom is supposed to take care of our cat for a month while we travel to Seattle, California and Utah, decided she could not take care of our cat. WHAT!!!!! Okay, so she brought the cat to us and we had to board him for a week. It got even more crazy from there.
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| Jasper |
I was going to change my flight from Seattle to Austin TO Seattle to Louisville, and then I would take the car we left there and drive Jasper to Austin BUT Alaskan Airlines wanted $1000 to make that change. NO WAY! So I had them shorten my trip to come back to Austin on Wednesday evening, so that I can book a different flight from Austin to Louisville on Thursday and drive Jasper home over the weekend. However, Mark had a better idea - so we thought. He had a business trip in Memphis, so he said he would fly from Memphis to Louisville instead of flying to Austin, pick up the car and the cat and drive back to Austin through Memphis. It was a perfect idea since most of the expense would be covered on his business trip (it saved us the cost of my ticket there).
Well, the trip didn't go so well. Mark was able to fly to Louisville, pick up the car and the cat and drive back to Memphis. The next morning, Saturday, April 6th Mark left early in the morning on his drive to Austin. He didn't get very far... the car broke down about an 1 1/2 hours before he made it to Little Rock, AR. He had to sit on the side of the road for 3 1/2 hours waiting for a tow truck. Then the CHEVY service center said it was a big job - a few days - the timing belt. Betsy had reserved a hotel room, but Mark asked her to cancel it - he wanted to get on the road. He rented a car and drove the rest of the night to Austin. He and Jasper arrived at our new home at 11:00 PM.
At the same time Mark is trying to drive from Memphis to Austin, the movers are supposed to come to the house at 2:00 pm to unload the three PODS. (that was also a mess, because the POD people would not deliver my PODS on the street). I had to have one POD delivered to my drive was, and the other two PODS sat on the dirt of the vacant lot next to my house. Well, just before 2:00 pm, it started to rain. I had faith that it would stop, but the movers didn't want to wait around. I lucked out though, the rain stopped and I convinced them to unload my PODS. After the one POD was emptied, they said they had to go to another job, but they would be back - WHAT??? Again - no sense! So they left, and came back after 6:00 PM. They had two PODS to unload before the sun set - let's skip ahead - that didn't happen. They didn't finish unloading the last POD until 11:00 PM - which happens to be the exact time Mark pulled in with our cat.
Luckily, a friend of mine, Elizabeth Loderup stayed with me the whole time the movers were here so that I would not be alone with them. Her husband did not feel good about me being here by myself with them. She and I listened to the second session of Saturday conference while I unpacked boxes. She was soooo sweet.
So after nearly 17 years of raising our family in the same home, attending the same schools and having the same, most wonderful friends, we have MOVED to AUSTIN, Texas - we are north of Austin... and we love it.
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| Our new home |
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