I've been away way to long :(

I can't believe I haven't posted in this long wow.... Well, lots of changes have been going on here. I guess the main thing is that I started a part time job in addition to my photography. It's at a retail establishment about 10 minutes from my house. I like it....it's fun and I get a discount on my clothes (in addition to their already amazing sale prices :) ). It's not bringing in a lot of income but at least it's income that I know I'll be getting. I've totally been ignoring my art though which makes me really sad, I feel like I lost something. Although I know it's just a matter of figuring out how to combine it all and prioritize so that I don't ignore anything. It's not even a matter of time .... I still have time to take photos and all the fun after photo stuff but it's keeping my focus. It's entirely a mental thing obviously lol.

Richard and I have also decided we're going to sell our house. This was our dream house when we bought it but since all the kids have moved out, it just seems way to big. And our mortgage is way to big. It seems pointless to struggle with this huge mortgage payment every month when we have all this space we're not using. We're seriously considering moving to Quebec - Montreal. We downloaded the Rosetta Stone language software and we're learning French. I guess we're doing it for a variety of reasons. We're really over the whole small southern town mentality for one. This election really brought to the forefront just how backwards this area is . We're both very liberal and liberal is a four letter word around here. We absolutely love Obama and support this presidency....it's the beginning of an entirely new time period in American history and it's so very exciting. We're comfortable watching it from the distance of Canada though lol. We're really wanting to live in a city that is liberal and artsy and where we'll be around people who think more like we do. We want to be able to walk or take the subway everywhere we need to go. We want to live in a place where there are a lot of jobs in our fields. Richard's a graphic artist/printer and there are TONS of printing companies in Montreal. There are also a lot of galleries and festivals and things where I can sell my art. Another reason we picked Montreal is because it has a very low cost of living as far as rent goes when compared to other large cities. Much lower than any cities in the US. I know taxes are high but it's set up accoriding to income and I don't see us being in a high tax bracket. Plus Richard is working for a company here (basically freelancing) and he'll be able to still telecommute from Montreal. So that will be income that we don't have to have a work permit to do there since he'll be paid by an American company. And selling my art, well, I don't think I'll have to be a permanent resident to do that since I technically won't be working for a Canadian company. We'll only be able to get a 6 month visitors permit (hopefully the border crossing gods will smile upon us lol) but we can always come back and live on the other side of the border for a little while and then go back. I've been looking into areas in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, etc and seeing how expensive they might be and what they offer. Ideally we would be able to go across the border for a week or so and then go back to Canada but I don't know if it would be that simple lol. What we would like is to go over there and get sponsered for a work visa and then get started on the immigration process. Immigration is very long and expensive though so it will be a little while. You have to have a certain number of points for them to even let you in and at this point we don't have enough points.

ANYWAY......lol.....that's just what we're doing right now. First things first. We have a lot to do to the house before it's ready to be sold plus the housing market sucks right now. It will be at least spring before we could even think about putting it on the market. Plus we have to learn French since it's the official language and it would be a serious handicap to us as far as working in Quebec if we don't speak it.