Moved form Cali to AZ

Yes I am now in AZ, Mesa to be exact... along with Karen Sherwood and
Valerie... What a small world. I hope to meet up with Karen on Sunday for
some torch time and glass talk.

Details... gah I hate being long winded lol. (VERY LONG WINDED)

Let's see...

This has been in the works for about 9 months. Jason and I wanted out of
California badly. We needed to save up $$ for the move and get the ok for
Jason to transfer to another place from his employer. At that time we were
not 100% sure it was going to be AZ. We have pondered the entire west coast,
WA State, Or, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Looked at the economy or all those
places and the job market as I would be quitting my job at "the bead place"
and having to find something that would pay me the same or VERY close to
what I was making there. Phoenix fit the bill. They also have some
laws/legislation that DH was very "into".

So about 8 months ago I out in my notice at the bead place, Yes that's a
huge notice but when you are the Office Manager and have basically run the
company for the last 6.5 years they need lots of notice. LOL. Jason and I
started preparing for the move. Mostly at that time was pinching pennies and
getting bills paid off.

I would say about 6 months ago is when we KNEW it was going to be Phoenix.
Can you see the surprise on my face when I found out that Valerie was also
moving to Phoenix???? HOW cool was that!

Everything went along as planned... we started de-cluttering and de-junking
the place we currently lived in over the next few months. I believe it was
early December that we actually starting packing some things up and ridding
our selves of large furniture (I was needed new furniture anyways. This was
hand me down stuff from when Jason and I moved in together 14 years ago) It
was just time. The local Goodwill loved me... I think I donated about 7
LARGE garbage bags of clothes and shoes.

OK... so now we are down the beginning of March. The countdown is on... we
have 4 weeks until the move. Boxes are taking over the living room and my
torch/glass/beads are all packed up. Work is stressful trying to get someone
trained to do my job when all the girls are only about 5 months new there.
EEKS! I have been spending more time than I wish looking at moving companies
and prices and U-Haul sites! Finally we make a decision and use U-pack.com
and get these things called Relo-Cubes. I am starting to think my brain is
MUCH from all the decisions I have to make about things.



March 23rd... It is my last day of work, I am sad I am leaving... that place
had been like a 2nd family, Dysfunctional at that. LOL It is only one week
until we depart California for the Dry desert of AZ...Things are crazy. DH
works up until 2 days before we leave CA, so I am left to get the last
minute things done.

4 days before we leave... Upack.com (ABF) drops off 3 relo-cubes for us to
pack up in 3 Days. DH gets home and we have 2 full by that evening. I am
really hoping everything fits into just the 3 I have reserved and that we
have not gone over the weight limit on one of them (the one with all the
beads and glass in it)

The relo-cubes get picked up on Friday the 30th and we have a few things
that we are taking a small U-Haul trailer for. (Bed, clothes and computers)

Saturday march 31st... We pack up the cats and are on the road. Late but on
the road, I hoped we would get out of Sacramento at about 9am. We didn't
leave until almost 11am. We made it all the way from Sacramento to Blythe,
CA (12 hours) of driving on the first day. The reason for the hurried pace
was that the friends that were driving our other vehicle down to AZ had to
be in Phoenix buy Sunday at 4pm to catch flights home.

Sunday we headed out of Blythe at about 10am and made it into the out skirts
of Phoenix at about 1pm... Hit MAJOR traffic. They close down the freeways
on the weekends to do construction on; well they closed I-10 down that
Sunday. GREAT! SO we get off the freeway after sitting in stopped traffic
for 1 hour, we head towards the airport on surface streets. THANK GOODNESS
for GPS!

We drop the friends off at the Airport and head to the hotel for the night
because we were unable to get the keys to the new house until Monday April
2nd. SO far the kitties have been wonderful passengers! Not to much meowing
and carrying on. No potty accidents. I am a happy camper!

Monday Morning we went to the property management place and pick up keys and
sign the lease to our new HOUSE... well rental house. We plan on buying in
about a year. (Pictures he http://blackcatbeads.com/house )

Tuesday the Relo-cubed are delivered (one day EARLY) and we had them
unloaded in about 1.5 hours! Had bunch of help here to unload and disperse
the boxes around the house.

Since then we have slowly unpacking and sorting. I have been to about 5
interviews, 3 of them with Placement Agencies, which seem to be the way to
get a good job here. Saturday evening I was feeling a little icky and
thought is was my allergies. By Sunday morning I was so sick with a nasty
cold that has lasted 5 days so far. 2 of the interviews were while I was
sick just because I need to be working! The one on Wednesday was with Circle
K through the placement agency, which many of you know is a convenience
store/gas chain. The job was for a Credit Card reconciler making more money
than I had been making at the bead place. GREAT! I went to the interview
still all sniffly and horse sounding and explained to them I was getting
over a cold and that I couldn't pass up this interview that I felt it was an
awesome opportunity. Apparently I scored BIG time with the interviewers as I
received a call from the placement agency about 20 minutes after I left the
corporate office, offering me the job! Needless to say I screamed out loud
in the car!

Everything seems to be telling me this was the right time and place to move
to. I love the house we are in. We are about 30-40 minutes drive from
Downtown Phoenix. The mountain views are awesome and the weather (SO FAR)
has been awesome, Well other than last night when a dust storm turned into a
Mud storm with the addition of rain! Being from Sacramento we had the Heat
AND humidity.

I am sure I am forgetting so much that happened... but that's the bulk of
it.





Nicole

*************************

http://www.blackcatbeads.com

*************************

Yahoo: blackcatbeads

AIM: Blackcatbeads74

On Apr 13, 8:03 pm, "Black Cat Beads"
wrote:
Yes I am now in AZ, Mesa to be exact... along with Karen Sherwood and
Valerie... What a small world. I hope to meet up with Karen on Sunday for
some torch time and glass talk.

Details... gah I hate being long winded lol. (VERY LONG WINDED)

Let's see...

This has been in the works for about 9 months. Jason and I wanted out of
California badly. We needed to save up $$ for the move and get the ok for
Jason to transfer to another place from his employer. At that time we were
not 100% sure it was going to be AZ. We have pondered the entire west coast,
WA State, Or, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Looked at the economy or all those
places and the job market as I would be quitting my job at "the bead place"
and having to find something that would pay me the same or VERY close to
what I was making there. Phoenix fit the bill. They also have some
laws/legislation that DH was very "into".

So about 8 months ago I out in my notice at the bead place, Yes that's a
huge notice but when you are the Office Manager and have basically run the
company for the last 6.5 years they need lots of notice. LOL. Jason and I
started preparing for the move. Mostly at that time was pinching pennies and
getting bills paid off.

I would say about 6 months ago is when we KNEW it was going to be Phoenix.
Can you see the surprise on my face when I found out that Valerie was also
moving to Phoenix???? HOW cool was that!

Everything went along as planned... we started de-cluttering and de-junking
the place we currently lived in over the next few months. I believe it was
early December that we actually starting packing some things up and ridding
our selves of large furniture (I was needed new furniture anyways. This was
hand me down stuff from when Jason and I moved in together 14 years ago) It
was just time. The local Goodwill loved me... I think I donated about 7
LARGE garbage bags of clothes and shoes.

OK... so now we are down the beginning of March. The countdown is on... we
have 4 weeks until the move. Boxes are taking over the living room and my
torch/glass/beads are all packed up. Work is stressful trying to get someone
trained to do my job when all the girls are only about 5 months new there.
EEKS! I have been spending more time than I wish looking at moving companies
and prices and U-Haul sites! Finally we make a decision and use U-pack.com
and get these things called Relo-Cubes. I am starting to think my brain is
MUCH from all the decisions I have to make about things.

March 23rd... It is my last day of work, I am sad I am leaving... that place
had been like a 2nd family, Dysfunctional at that. LOL It is only one week
until we depart California for the Dry desert of AZ...Things are crazy. DH
works up until 2 days before we leave CA, so I am left to get the last
minute things done.

4 days before we leave... Upack.com (ABF) drops off 3 relo-cubes for us to
pack up in 3 Days. DH gets home and we have 2 full by that evening. I am
really hoping everything fits into just the 3 I have reserved and that we
have not gone over the weight limit on one of them (the one with all the
beads and glass in it)

The relo-cubes get picked up on Friday the 30th and we have a few things
that we are taking a small U-Haul trailer for. (Bed, clothes and computers)

Saturday march 31st... We pack up the cats and are on the road. Late but on
the road, I hoped we would get out of Sacramento at about 9am. We didn't
leave until almost 11am. We made it all the way from Sacramento to Blythe,
CA (12 hours) of driving on the first day. The reason for the hurried pace
was that the friends that were driving our other vehicle down to AZ had to
be in Phoenix buy Sunday at 4pm to catch flights home.

Sunday we headed out of Blythe at about 10am and made it into the out skirts
of Phoenix at about 1pm... Hit MAJOR traffic. They close down the freeways
on the weekends to do construction on; well they closed I-10 down that
Sunday. GREAT! SO we get off the freeway after sitting in stopped traffic
for 1 hour, we head towards the airport on surface streets. THANK GOODNESS
for GPS!

We drop the friends off at the Airport and head to the hotel for the night
because we were unable to get the keys to the new house until Monday April
2nd. SO far the kitties have been wonderful passengers! Not to much meowing
and carrying on. No potty accidents. I am a happy camper!

Monday Morning we went to the property management place and pick up keys and
sign the lease to our new HOUSE... well rental house. We plan on buying in
about a year. (Pictures hehttp://blackcatbeads.com/house)

Tuesday the Relo-cubed are delivered (one day EARLY) and we had them
unloaded in about 1.5 hours! Had bunch of help here to unload and disperse
the boxes around the house.

Since then we have slowly unpacking and sorting. I have been to about 5
interviews, 3 of them with Placement Agencies, which seem to be the way to
get a good job here. Saturday evening I was feeling a little icky and
thought is was my allergies. By Sunday morning I was so sick with a nasty
cold that has lasted 5 days so far. 2 of the interviews were while I was
sick just because I need to be working! The one on Wednesday was with Circle
K through the placement agency, which many of you know is a convenience
store/gas chain. The job was for a Credit Card reconciler making more money
than I had been making at the bead place. GREAT! I went to the interview
still all sniffly and horse sounding and explained to them I was getting
over a cold and that I couldn't pass up this interview that I felt it was an
awesome opportunity. Apparently I scored BIG time with the interviewers as I
received a call from the placement agency about 20 minutes after I left the
corporate office, offering me the job! Needless to say I screamed out loud
in the car!

Everything seems to be telling me this was the right time and place to move
to. I love the house we are in. We are about 30-40 minutes drive from
Downtown Phoenix. The mountain views are awesome and the weather (SO FAR)
has been awesome, Well other than last night when a dust storm turned into a
Mud storm with the addition of rain! Being from Sacramento we had the Heat
AND humidity.

I am sure I am forgetting so much that happened... but that's the bulk of
it.

Nicole

*************************

http://www.blackcatbeads.com

*************************

Yahoo: blackcatbeads

AIM: Blackcatbeads74

Isnt Moving an adventure your rent house looks just like the one my
step daughter brought does yours have a 2nd floor! Good luck to you
and yours with all the new ness! Vicky