20 DAYS!!!!!!!!

This life changing event that we have been planning for approximately a year is about to take place... in JUST 20 DAYS!  Time. is. flying.  

For a while now, we've kept our move a secret.  Not because we didn't want people to know, but mainly because we didn't want to "count our chickens before they hatched."  

And now that we are telling EVERYONE we see that we are moving, I keep hearing the same misconceptions.  Allow me to clear them up... 

First of all.  Contrary to what MANY people believe, Lake Tahoe is actually NOT in Utah (by far, the most common guess).  Or Colorado.  Or Wyoming.  Or Montana.  

It IS in California AND Nevada.  

Thank you TahoeActivities.com

[We will be living near Stateline, Nevada 

but I will be working in South Lake Tahoe, California]

Secondly, it is NOT near Vegas.  Sadly, we are at least an 8 hour drive from Vegas.  

Third, the lake itself does NOT freeze.  It DOES get very, VERY cold.  But, never freezes.  It is too big to freeze.  It is 22 miles long, 12 miles wide, and approximately 1,600 ft. deep at its deepest point.  That's a lot of water.  The smaller lakes surrounding it are a different story. 

Another common misconception is that we are moving "for work."  In other words, people assume that either Mike or myself has a job that is sending us across the country to work in their "Lake Tahoe office."  Although I sometimes wish this were true, it's not.  We are not moving FOR work.  We are moving FOR FUN!  (And hoping to work enough to pay for food, shelter, etc.)  The truth is, we will both need full time jobs and currently, neither of us has a full time job lined up.  I'm fully aware of how CRAZY that sounds.  

We are moving on BLIND FAITH!  We are risking our comfortable salaries, and taking off into the unknown, and basically praying that God has his hand on us the whole time.  

I have accepted a job at a hospital in South Lake Tahoe, and I am VERY excited about it.  But, right now I'm considered a "per diem" employee, meaning they will call me when they need me.  I have been told that there is a possibility of at least part time hours, and there may even be full time work available but we will have to wait and see what the caseload is like when I start in February.  It's very risky and as I sit here typing this I keep thinking, "what are we doing?"  

Everything about this move has seemed to "fall into place."  We found a house to rent in the location we desired (and also signed a year long lease without actually laying eyes on the place... again I say: BLIND FAITH).  And I was offered a job at the hospital I want to work at.  Whenever I start to really worry about something, we seem to get a solution.

So, we are feeling really good about this move despite the fact that we are leaving in 20 days and there is a lot to figure out.  But, with great risk comes great reward, right???  

[Or... we try it for a few months... and if it doesn't work out... we dip into our savings and move back to NC]

And for those who don't know... I keep a quote book.  I write down quotations (famous or not) in a book, and when I get stressed out or I am feeling overwhelmed, etc.  I randomly open to a page in this notebook and read a quote or two.  It's really neat because SOMETIMES the quote is EXACTLY what I need to hear/read at that moment (and of course, sometimes the whole page of quotes doesn't relate at all to how I'm feeling).  So, tonight I opened it up and the first quote I read was: 

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."   - Joseph Campbell

Now, I don't even know who Joseph Campbell is or where I saw this quote but, I'm sure glad he said it and I'm glad I wrote it down, because it's exactly what I needed to hear.