Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We finally did it.  We're back home on the farm.

It was a long process getting here.  We listed the place again in June of last year.  I'd already been hinting about moving home for several moths.  Hubby consented that, if it didn't sell during the next listing, we'd move back.  We were tired, broke, and it wouldn't be too long before our old cars would need to be replaced.  The prospect of trying to add a car payment to our already stretched-thin budget was scary!

Our savings being mostly depleted, I started scrimping to save enough to cover the move.  $1700 to move out in 2009 plus countless pickup truck loads that we moved on our own.  Moving back would be different - we would need to clear out of the rental and wouldn't have the luxury of making dozens of trips over the next two years moving odds and ends.  So, I figured we'd need twice the moving truck capacity.  I planned to have a $3400 moving budget by the time we were ready to go.  The listing on the house would be up the end of October, so we thought we could get it all squared away by the end of the year.  We'd start 2012 back on the farm.

Then the fun started!

I've not been an overly energetic person for a long time.  I have issues with my back that cause me to sit a lot.  While sitting, I can conquer the world. When I stand to actually do it, the pain reminds me that I'm not going to conquer much between rests in the chair.

At some point, I started getting really tired.  I was exhausted at the end of the work day.  I was exhausted after taking my shower in the morining.  I was exhausted after walking thru the house.  Then I started losing weight.  My face looked great.  The bags under my eyes disappeared, and the little jowls on my jaw went away.  My fingers go so thin I could wear rings that I hand't worn in years.  Finally, the constant need to pee NOW! coupled with drinking gallons of water a day tipped me off.

Trip to the doctor, pee in the cup, yep, lots of sugar there.  Type II diabetes.  Yee Haw!

Blood glucose tests the next day were over 500.  Bugger.  Doc started me on metformin, Crestor, and lisinopril for my blood pressure that refused to come down.  I started a low carb lifestyle.

After a couple of weeks, my energy started to return, I wasn't so groggy and listless, and I just felt better.  One follow-up trip to the doc, I told him that I didn't realize how bad I felt until I started feeling better.  It was an amazing turn around.

Unfortunately, this delayed the move by more than a month because I was literally unable to get packing.

In January/February, Hubby came down with a nasty case of pneumonia that seemed to take forever to get over.   Even though I was planning to do most of the move work, I needed him to help with some things, and he just wasn't up to it.  Postpone another month.

In March, Hubby hadn't completely recouped from the pneumonia, and was having bouts of coughing and shortness of breath.  He complained one day that he was getting too old to mow the lawn in one afternoon.  On the day that he walked from the driveway to the kitchen table, sat down and dropped his head into his hands, I made him go to the doctor.  I took him that afternoon, the doc sent him over to the emergency room, and there he was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in both lungs.

Has this been a roller coaster, or what?

Four days in the hospital and many blood thinners later, he came home to finish recouperating.  It was several weeks before he was back to normal, but I was just completely thankful that he was alive. 

Some time in March, we actually gave our notice to the landlord, and last month the moving trucks packed us up and brought us home. It cost $3100.  We had $300 to start over with.

It's been a rough almost-three years.  One thing is for sure, there's no place like home.