Leaving home

Things got away from me for a bit there. For what it's worth I never meant to have such a long layoff (a whole month!) but we're a little busy. It's time to explain and say I should get back to regular programming soon.

Three years ago we thought we were moving to Arizona for my wife's job. This was exciting because my sister, with her growing family, lives there and eventually my parents were planning on being there too. Then the transfer got pushed indefinitely only weeks after it was announced and ever since we've been hanging and wondering what's next. She's still in line to get that job (we think), but we don't know when the company will decide to send her.

In the meantime, Maryland, which we've never viewed as our forever home, has really started to grow on us. Seven years is more than enough time to develop some roots even without intending to have them. There's a lot to love about semi-rural Frederick, with its cute downtown, enjoyable establishments and great surrounding area. We have a church we love, several budding friendships and solid relationships with our neighbors. Our toddler has an in-church preschool that's stayed open and been reasonable about Covid stuff. Plus there's so much to do within a few hours, like many of the historically relevant places I've tried to document here. What I'm trying to say, after this time, is we really like living here. The version of myself from only a few years ago probably wouldn't believe it.

You can imagine our surprise on receiving an opportunity to move back to Minnesota with my wife's company, this year. We didn't expect to return any time soon, if ever, and it's an unusual situation because it'd only be short-term, two or three years, before the next jump to Arizona. After years of more or less pining to get back, we weren't even sure we wanted to take the transfer at all. It didn't help that a week before getting the offer we learned my parents were pulling the trigger and buying a house in northern AZ, where they'll soon live full time. Then we learned one of my brothers and his wife are in the process of leaving the state too. The longtime primary reason for being back in MN, family, is in part halfway out the door. At least my wife's parents remain there (though they themselves have spent a huge chunk of time in Alaska in recent years), which is good, but the timing of what's happening with my family sucks. Selfishly I want the occasional help from them with our kids, because having kids without family around is really tough, but I guess it's not yet meant to be.

The move and everything that goes into it is why I haven't been able to keep up here. Already this summer was a challenge with no preschool for the toddler and an increasingly mobile and awake baby. I used to have time to write during daylight hours! These days I have my hands full, all the time. And with all the other things lately I've simply been too tired on the rare night with free time. We had to get our house ready to list, which itself wasn't too bad, but maintaining a clean and decluttered house with little ones around is essentially an impossible task. We listed while away, in MN, looking for the next house. That trip was even more exhausting. I drove back with the 3 year old and the dog. My wife flew with the baby, who we recently (and luckily) learned does not like being contained in his car seat more than an hour, making the 16+ hour jaunt back to MN simply not an option. We then spent a week going day-by-day driving all over looking at active listings and neighborhoods we weren't familiar with. Happily our fourth formal offer was accepted and we signed an agreement on our house while away, making the trip overall a success. It was certainly a good idea to have all of Labor Day back at home to relax a little. I think the ups and downs of the trip back to MN, and trying to buy and sell in this market, could be its own post, but since that was never meant to be the gist of this one (and so much time has passed) we're going to have to breeze through it.

From today we have just two months left in Maryland. That means we spent the full hot and sweaty summer here and will get the full frigid winter in Minnesota. I'm certainly not looking forward to dealing with the frozen tundra again for the duration, where I'll finally have to wear a winter coat again. It's not only the cold and the snow however, it's the darkness too, which is more extensive since MN is so far north. But weather (and rising concerns about crime) aside, it will for other reasons be nice to be back. It's a place we know and even with dwindling family we have a good number of friends we'll love seeing far more often than we do now. Besides, if everything goes according to plan, it'll only be a couple years before we move again. And I want to better explore the state and see places, like Voyageurs National Park, where I've never been.

Until the trip last week to Minnesota it all didn't feel real. This was a large reason I've struggled to get this post out, even with an outline a month ago. I knew this move was coming but I didn't spend a great deal of time thinking about it. Then the chaos of getting ready to list, and the busy week back in MN, and we're suddenly in the home stretch. We know this house is sold, we know where we're going to be next, and it's all hitting me at once. On top of trying to complete several remaining must-do items, like purging belongings that won't make the move, it's very apparent how rapidly our time here is coming to an end. That's making me retrospective, and in all honesty, somewhat sad because this has become home. Leaving Minnesota in 2014 was unsurprisingly difficult, we didn't know anywhere different. This time is much harder than I ever would've imagined.

Hopefully we can do a few more fun things out east. I want to do much more than we have time for, like revisiting Richmond and Boston and Maine. We haven't been to Cooperstown or Charleston. And that's okay. 'tis what 'tis.

So that's what we've been up to. There's more too, something that could've derailed all our plans in an instant, but I won't get into that any more today (or ever). It's been stressful and busy and so tiring. It's time to have as many more adventures as we can before leaving the place we consider home for a place that, though familiar, now feels much more foreign. It's weird.

Also, while a few weeks ago I would've been well served to put up an update that said...

Today I'll instead say...

At least as much as I can be in the middle of moving. Stay tuned.