Archive for the ‘Moving’ Category
Well, Shane has finally received his first paycheck. (He is only paid twice a month, not every 2 weeks.) This of course naturally started us thinking of when would we be able to move out of his mother’s. Part of what we want to be able to do is buy a house in the future when Shane has his teaching position. To be able to do that, naturally we have to put money aside now, while he is making a good wage from his programming.
So how do you pay rent and put money aside? Well, you either find the cheapest possible place to rent… or you try to buy a cheap trailer house. To this end, we believe we have found something that could suit our purposes. It’s an older trailer house, 1976 or 1977, a 14×70 with 3 bedrooms and 1 3/4 bath. It’s very rough right now, but at the price we would be able to go in and make improvements before moving in. Naturally we wouldn’t be able to make all the improvements we want right away, but enough to satisfy our immediate needs. Then we would be able to move in and plan to make other changes over time.
If this works out not only would we have the space we need (including an office for Shane), we would also be able to put money aside for a down payment for a home in three years when Shane graduates. Please wish us luck, we can use all the help we can find.
Those of you close to us already know about this, but next week I will be moving the family back to Holmen, Wisconsin where we can be with family and the activities we enjoy. It has been an interesting journey to Minneapolis, Chicago and Kansas City, but I guess the old saying is true, “Home is where the heart is”. It took a while for me to realize it, but I just need to get back to a place where I can do the things I enjoy doing and be with my family.
I’d like to say there won’t be a lot of posts for a couple of weeks with packing and moving and settling in, but a lack of posts seems to be the norm for this site. So get ready for this blog to be normal! Maybe once we are back and we have things to share we will post more. Then again, we will be sharing those things with the very same people who read this blog, so we may not feel a need to update. Geez, what is a person to do?
Currently I am not working, nor is Laura, except to build up our new business venture. Hey, we already have nearly a dozen clients so things are looking up. We will be focusing on the area around La Crosse, WI in the coming months, so if you know someone who wants a cheap web site, send them on over to $150 Sites, OK?
OK, everyone can ignore the last post, because after a week of thinking abou it, and packing, I decided that I want to earn my degree in Elementary Education. Since it is not possible to earn this degree in Minnesota with online courses, we will be staying here in Kansas City. But all is not lost, I will still be working for a company in Minnesota, but will work remote rather then be in the office.
I am so grateful to Charles for working with me on this. I know that I can provide some quality work for him even if I am not in the office. I will be working part time so I still have time for school and quality time with Allyssa and Laura. It will be some long days now and I know I will get pretty tired, but I have worked out a schedule that allows me to try and keep the weekends open for anything I want to do. Let’s see how long I can stick to that schedule – starting on Thursday.
While I am on the subject of school, I finished my first block of classes on Sunday and submitted my final assignments. I should know by the end of the week what my grades will be but I think I did well in both. With the hassle of moving and planning, and a possible degree change, I was not schedule to start my next classes right away so I have the week off. I will be back to it on Monday the 29th with a computer course and another English course. The fun continues…
People used to tell me that I move too often, and they would be very correct. I have lived in more places then I can remember, and this year is turning out to be the worst for moves. We have already moved twice, once to Chicago and then to Kansas City where we are as I type this message. However, at the end of this month the Lambert clan will pack up and move again. It’s comforting to know that we will be moving back to familiar territory, closer to home. I have accepted a job in Minneapolis and will begin on June 29th up there. This comes at a good time since the previous position wasn’t working out for us.
I am going to try and make this the second to last move we make for a while. I am tired of moving and always wondering where my next paycheck is going to come from. So this time I am planning to make this job work long term. I will be working part time while I continue going to school. This will be the second to last move only because we decided to put all of our stuff in storage in Minneapolis and rent a room for a couple of months while we look for a place we can call home for a few years. The timing is perfect, with college students all gone for the summer there are lot’s of cheap rooms available. We’ll be able to save a lot of money this way with no ulitilies and cheap rent.
We originally planned to get a large enough truck to pack all the stuff here in Kansas City, then stop in Wisconsin to get the rest of our stuff in storage there and take it all with us. However, I really don’t want to have to move the stuff in Trempealeau twice, and it’s only two hours away from where we will be so we will likely wait until after Labor Day to deal with that stuff. Besides, our camping gear is there and we will be camping at Autumn Rose in Galesville, WI this September, so it will be near by. It will be nice to get all of our stuff together again, and to have a nice paying, albeit part-time, job that will likely become a full time position, if and when I want it to.
Changes at School
This move will effect the degree path I am following in school. Unfortunately, Minnesota does not allow the Elementary Education degree that the University of Phoenix offers. Though I still think it might be fun to be a teacher, reality has made this decision a lot easier. The highest paid elementary school teachers barely make $40K, and if I am already capable of making near $55K in the IT industry without a degree, think if what I could make with one! I will take a week off of school so we can move and get settled, and start back up on May 29th, with an emphasis on Information Technology, hopefully leading into a Bachelor’s Degree for System Analysis. I will keep you updated as I continue my education.
Yeah, we have finally managed to clear out the 10×20 storage locker we have had in Trempealeau, WI since fall of 2006. Of course we haven’t lived in Trempealeau since Nov of 2007, but we still kept our storage locker there.
Well today we finally have that storage locker completely cleaned out. Of course it took two additional trips to visit family in Holmen, WI since our move to Kansas City last month. But it’s good to see family.
It’s great the storage locker is all cleared out, the not so great thing is that now everything that was in the storage locker which we’re keeping and haven’t been able to take to Kansas City yet are now in a 10×12 storage locker in Trempealeau.
Why all the trouble to move it from one locker to another? Well, originally we had intended to take everything down to Kansas City with us last weekend when we were in town. We had planned our trip to do many things all in a long weekend. These things included going to the La Crosse and Three Rivers Train Show, a party on his side that combined Shane’s birthday, Allyssa’s birthday, and Easter, as well as the moving of our things in the storage locker.
Unfortunately things did not work out that way. In the end we were not able to rent a truck to haul our things to Kansas City. And since we had planned on having it all out by April 1st, Shane had given notice on the locker. When we found out that we wouldn’t be able to get a truck we attempted to see if we could keep the locker another month, but unfortunately they already had it rented out for April. So we needed to find an alternative. We did. It was a different storage facility in Trempealeau, and it was a little smaller.
Last weekend we donated some of the furniture we had in storage which we decided we weren’t keeping to a nearby church rummage sale. And then started moving things to our new unit. We had things about 3/4ths of the way moved before we left town last Tuesday, but it was raining on Tuesday and we really didn’t want to finish the move in the rain with an open pickup truck.
We make the 8 or so hours drive to family yesterday, and today we managed in three loads to move everything we had left to the storage locker. The few last remaining things that we did not want when to his mother’s for curbside pickup. (Whether it be freecyle or trashman we don’t care at this point.)
Yes, we have now been in Kansas City for a little more than a week. We are attempting to settle in which includes the process of attempting to find new places to store all your things. One of the things that makes this process a little harder in our new home, is that it’s an older complex. It was built in the mid-sixties from what I found, and naturally it doesn’t have all the closets and storage areas that newer homes now have. We are taking it bit by bit, and we do have a storage area on site which will help with this.
One of the things I really like about this place is that it has an enclosed outdoor area. It has a 4′ stone wall and than a 5 – 6′ wood fence above that, so it’s nice and private. It’s going to make a wonderful play area for Allyssa once we have a few toys out there for her to play with. It’s a northern exposure and right now in it’s completely in the shade of the building which I personally LOVE. I’m told that as summer approaches it will receive some sun, but I actually prefer the shade because how sensitive I am to sunburn. Yes I am much more sensitive to sunburn than Allyssa is. I can and have been burned just sitting under shade trees, and at the same time she’ll barely turn the lightest pink. When I pink up under the trees she doesn’t in the slightest.
The other really nice thing about this place is the fireplace. It has a brick enclosed woodburning fireplace in the living room. We arrived last Friday, Feb 27th, and on Saturday we had to purchase some wood to burn in the fireplace. It was really nice to have a fire on Saturday and Sunday.
Allyssa and I have been to one playdate so far, and intend to go to more. We have also found a park where she loves the slides, the library and Barnes & Nobles (the last 2 for their storytimes). I have found some mother’s forums in the area so that we will meet others for us to get to know.
Yep, you heard me, another move. Sounds like we will never get settled. 
The job in Schaumburg, IL with Verizon Wireless just wasn’t the right job for me. I thought it would be fun to not have to write code any more, but I ended up managing a couple of WordPress installs and that just isn’t what I want to do. When this new opportunity came up I had to take it.
Oh, yeah, this time the move is to Kansas City, Missouri where I will be working with someone I have known and worked with for over 2 years. I will again be writing code and building web sites and promoting the weight loss program that I know works – still down about 25 pounds from the first run and getting started to do it again.
We have spent this past week at Laura’s dad’s home in Holmen, WI, catching up with family and taking care of things that needed to be taken care of here. This time we have a condo waiting for us when we get there, so I packed up the necessary items from storage yesterday and will drive down tomorrow morning. The condo is a perk from the employer so we don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a hotel room while we look for a place. It’s a small, 1 bedroom condo but it’s much larger then then hotel room we lived in for 6 weeks. It’s also close to shopping and entertainment so we’ll save money on driving everywhere.
Hopefully this one will be the one that lasts a while. As soon as we get settled we will share photos of our new digs and try to keep you updated as life continues for the Lambert clan. Now that we will be nearly 8 hours away from family and friends this blog will become an important lifeline to keep you all updated on the trials and tribulations of raising such a beautiful young lady.
