Just venting about not being there . . . yet.

My husband and I met, fell in love, got married and lived on St. Croix until my father passed, forcing us to move back to Louisiana. We have been desperate to get back ever since. We visit St. Croix every single year, to celebrate our union. I feel your pain and want you to know, you are not alone with your love affair of the island. We feel exactly the same way. Good luck to you and may the trade winds flow through your hair sooner than later.

Sharon

I feel your pain. My wife and I have our move planned down to the penny and down to the hour but...

Since the market tanked, we now have to wait until we can just break even on our house so we can move! The trick now (other than waiting on home values to go up some more) is to NOT make financial decisions that will further prolong the wait like buying a car and financing it, etc, or having a baby!!!!

We feel your pain! You are NOT ALONE!!!

For now, we'll just have to live with "visits" until the big move can happen!!!

Signed - Patiently Waiting

I made the move after three pre-move visits. I came with two bags and no responsibilities.

I've taken Bobby McFerrin's advice: "Don't worry. Be happy!"

It's possible.

Sometimes I could just scream, but I know it does not good. (And, on occasion when I have, my husband just thinks I am crazy.) LOL

sewbtc - We got married on the beach, at sunset, in front of the F'sted webcam, at Sand Castle. That was September '06. It was his first visit down and he didn't want to get on the plane to come back to Georgia. I had too many obligations at the time AND I was three months pregnant with my family's first boy. The pressure to do the "right thing" was very strong. He is now three and asks daily to go to the beach. And, I would like to point out, not just any beach. He wants to go to the beach where the "fish swim around your legs". That kid is just like his parents.

DukeFin - THE HOUSE . . enuf said. (Should have left it on the market in '05 when I originally thought to do so after my April '05 visit.)

Edward - I am trying to get to 2 bags. I am a pack-rat and have things in boxes that others throw away. Maybe not a pack-rat, but a HISTORIAN. 🙂

One day, guys.

mnjj

Boy do I understand where you are all coming from! I feel as if I am sitting in the midwest watching someone else live my dream life.

We bought a condo 3 years ago and spent 3 months on island renovating it. Although living in a place while renovating was not easy we loved just being on the island (STT) and meeting all sorts of new friends and discovering new beaches. We know that we have at minimum 3 more years until our youngest son graduates high school before we can actually make the big move. We plan on taking our youngest daughter with us. Our son is a gifted student who wishes to pursue a field in engineering whereas our daughter is a natural in the water and loves diving and underwater photograghy and anything else to do with the ocean.

With that said, I have a lovely family renting our condo long term living their dream and doing a great job at it. Love reading her Facebook blogs and pictures of everything from Sunday potlucks at the beach to whatever other adventure they are up to.

Maybe I am just too conservative but I think that it would be selfish to pack up the kids on a wing and a prayer and hope that all goes well. It does work for some people, my tennants are living proof but they only have 1 child where my husband and I have 7, five of which are grown.

I suppose for the moment I'm just an armchair islander waiting for my turn!

mnjj, can you rent out your house? I have a townhouse in Phoenix which I haven't even bothered to try to sell because the market is so bad, but I'm moving anyway on July 3. I ended up not renting it out because I hope to come back and stay in it occasionally, but after talking with other people who have done cross-country rentals, it actually does seem very doable.

As for the job... it sounds like you're ready to dump the current one, but I agree... it's tricky to move somewhere so far away without a job, especially when you have a family to support. Maybe you could do another PMV and do some job scouting?

I know you weren't looking for solutions, but I'm just trying to trouble-shoot because I know what it's like to want to be there and not be there!

mnjj,

I can only imagine what you are feeling now. I can't wait to move to STX and I have never even been there for a visit yet. I know several people who visit at least once a year and absolutely love it down there. Hearing them talk about it, made me want to go - permanently. I thought my husband would call me crazy, epecially since we have a 2 1/2 year old daughter, but he is actually all for it. I am trying to decide now if we save up and do a pmv then have to save up all over again to move or just go for it. I want to move down there while our daughter is still really young. That way if we end up not liking it as much as we thought we would, we could move back here before she is too settled into school. Good luck with everything. Hope you can move down there soon 🙂

We have tossed around the possibility of renting the house out. Because of several factors, I don't know that we will be able to rent out at enough to cover all expenses (mortgage, HOA fees, etc.) Still a consideration, but definitely option B. (Option A = get rid of all the overhead in Georgia now and not have to deal with it later.)

After speaking with a few folks currently on island, their feeling is that I won't have a problem obtaining employment fairly quickly, so that actually made me feel better concerning that. Because of my current employment situation, taking more than a week off isn't possible and, in my opinion, a employment search PMV for a week would be money spent that could be used for the actual move.

So, in the meantime, I will do what I can to prepare and save as much money as I can for the move.

mnjj