We’re still stranded on the loveliest island known as our house. I can’t think of a better place to be stuck (in an upside down mortgage, that is), but every day I dream about how nice it would be to move to Roscoe. Roscoe is the home of Eric’s brand new job! Did I tell you he got a new job? I have been waiting to talk about it until it was completely official. He just finished his first week at a cutting tools company. He is an IT guy, training to be an engineer. He is very excited. He has his own office area with a very large wooden desk. We are all going to be insured, which is a great thing. We’ll even have dental insurance! The pay is much better and there is a lot more potential for growth. This is actually a place he can retire, which is really exciting. I wanted him to find a place to settle down career-wise. Who wants to keep jumping from ship to ship?

His old job was here in Rockford, just 7 minutes from our house. His new job is more like 37 minutes from our house. Our church is in Roscoe, about30 minutes from our house. Eric’s parents live in Roscoe, also about 30 minutes from our house. My parents live just north of the border, about an hour from our house. In short, everything is north and (almost) nothing is in Rockford. I love my house, but I do not love that it is in Rockford anymore. I love that I live so close to my friend Lindsay (four houses away, to be exact), but I am tired of driving a half hour or more to everything else. Sometimes I feel like I am always in the car. I’m also sad that most of the time no one wants to come over because we live too far away. I love to host and I hardly ever get the chance.

I recently e-mailed my realtor and asked him what our prospects looked like for selling. He is just about the opposite of optimistic. I guess I can’t blame him considering the sales of houses in this area lately. But I also keep checking our home value on Zillow. Zillow says our home value continues to rise. It’s nowhere near where it should be yet, but it’s climbing fast. I am more of a glass-half full type person, and I look at these charts and say, “surely we’ll be able to sell next summer, right?”

We need it to get up to around 150K to walk away. We’ve seen it climb from 96K to 126K in the last couple months! That is why I’m really hoping it continues on that path. It would be so great to be able to live within minutes of Eric’s job and our church. It would be great for Micah to live closer to his grandparents as well.

Hey internet, do any of you want to buy an awesome 3 bedroom house in Rockford? It’s just 3 years old and very nice!!! It has 2 1/2 bathrooms, a vaulted ceiling and a fireplace in the great room, a huge kitchen and a 2 1/2 car garage. It is only 15 minutes from Rockford’s main strip (shopping),  just seconds from the bypass which will take you to the interstate. The neighborhood is surrounded by trees and horse farms. The school district is not Rockford, it’s Winnebago (little town, nice school). You will love it, I promise. I will sell it to you for only 152K! You will make my Roscoe dreams come true!