A day later

It's easier to look at our situation after some sleep. No, not a good night's sleep-let's be honest, RSD killed that a long time ago. It's not going to be easy, but it can be done.

First order of business is finding a place and signing a lease by the 1st. We have to be out by the 13th. The woman at the law office has actually been very nice through all the phone calls back and forth, the mortgage company was willing to be flexible on the date. We have to have everything out, but we have to leave anything that is 'installed' behind.

We'd deleted the builder's grade dishwasher to buy a top of the line Maytag. As long as there is one installed, they'll be okay with it. We need to see if Ed's mom wants an awesome dishwasher to replace her builder's grade one. This also means we'll be leaving behind the over the stove microwave. At first, they were saying we had to leave the fridge, but the builder didn't provide it (and we spent a pile on this one).

Yesterday, we looked at a house in Ed's mom's neighborhood. Today, we continued driving around Lakeland when the boys got out of school. In a repeat of what I did in spring of 2004, we looked at several neighborhoods in the north end of town. There were a handful of houses for sale, more than a few abandoned homes and some communities that the builders began, but stopped construction. In total, in three hours driving around, we found six rental houses.

Phone numbers were written, pictures were taken and the calls will be made in the morning. We still think that the house around the corner is our best option.

The tax refund was deposited today. Originally, I thought it'd pay off the credit cards and fix Ed's Jeep. Now, it'll pay for the move and first month and security deposit. I don't know what we would be doing if we didn't have a refund.

Earlier in the day, we traveled into Tampa for a job fair. It was a bust: five commission based jobs, the Army, National Guard and two schools out of twenty companies present. One semi promising route sales position for a product we've spent our lives enjoying did come up, though.

We left scratching our heads, because all the recruiters would say the same thing: Apply Online. Uhhh, aren't you there to identify suitable candidates? Isn't that why you got that HR degree? Your employer spent how much on the booth and how much to pay you for you to do less than nothing?

The only booth that had lively and engaged people manning it was the booth for Taco Maker. They seemed very happy that we were familiar with them, but probably thought "darn, they know our product, but don't seem interested in working for us!" It ends up that they are opening quite a few locations across central Florida over the next year and I hope it goes well.

It was a productive day, but I still will feel like I'm spinning my wheels until we've signed a lease and started shlepping boxes...