Pleasure Island NC, Here we come

Ben and I spent the past weekend on Carolina Beach, North Carolina. This was where we had dreamed of finding a place to live and work! We woke up the morning after we spent 13 hours driving here from Indiana. When we woke up, we both mutually decided that today was the day we would find it! We drove around all day looking for "For Rent" signs, reading news papers, and looking online for apartments or homes to rent. At the end of the day we had some appointments set up to walk through a couple places. The 2nd place we walked through was this beauty at the top of this paragraph. We left with butterflies in our stomach and opted to try and not get too excited because we had a couple more to look at on the mainland. Although we both secretly knew that we REALLY wanted that 2nd condo! As the day wore on and we met all of our appointments, Ben and I agreed, we wanted the condo on Carolina Beach more than anything. So we called the man back who showed us the place and told him we were more than interested, that we wanted to get the ball rolling and sign some papers! The next morning, we were in our future kitchen with him signing papers, taking pictures, and reveling in our new place. God answered our prayer we had that morning over breakfast. We asked Him to provide for us, lead us in the right direction, and lend us patience to endure a day of searching. Ben and I could not feel more blessed as we have found our 2nd home since our marriage in 2006 and it is even better than the 1st! We feel as though moving to the beaches of North Carolina will not only bring us back to where we fell in love, but it will hopefully be a place full of prosperity and of course, a lot of fun. 

In the picture, our Condo is on the 1st floor with the American Flag. Our master bedroom has a balcony that looks out to a lake. Out of our front balcony connected to our living room, we can see the ocean! It is located just 2nd row from the ocean front homes. So we literally can cross the street and walk over the beach access. In a couple weeks we will be heading down there with our furniture and belongings to start our life ocean side. 

Wow, what a drive.

13 hours and 31 minutes passed when Ben and I finally decided to pull in for the night. We could have gone longer but felt that Nebraska and Iowa were just about killing us! We left Boulder CO. early on the morning of the 2nd of February. To be exact we left at 6:04 am. 

During our stay in Boulder, we naturally tried to acclimate but found it to be quite difficult. The wintery conditions and altitude were rejected by our bodies almost immediatly. Ben got a head cold the first day and I began running a fever 2 days into it! We kept saying that we were allergic to winter. Our friends could only laugh at how lame we were being about being in a real winter climate. We were coming by honestly about all of this though. I tried to laugh it off but felt like my head was detached from my body most of the time. Except for our minor illnesses, we had some fun mixed in. We visited Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. 

We also spent some time sampling local breweries and mostly catching up with good friends. Two of our friends, Sarah and Grant, had just moved to Denver and so we took a couple days to check out their new digs and raise a pint in honor of their new home! We really enjoyed being around them because they seem to have some good dreams up their sleeves. I also consider Sarah one of my sweetest and dearest friends. 

                            Me, Tina, and Sarah

By the end of our time there Ben and I were VERY ready to get a move on. We could not wait to get back to Indiana to begin our search for jobs and homes. We plan on networking as much as possible and hopefully moving to North Carolina by the first week in March.  We arrived in wintery Indiana on Tuesday evening just in time for dinner and nice big hugs from my parents. We stay at my parents house when we are home because they have a set up where we have our own personal space to spread out. 

As far as our trip goes, I view it as a sweet success. We were able to revel in the California sun as long as we could and also experience more of our most beautiful country we have. Blessings abound and dreams are coming true. My advice to everyone is to seriously, never give up.