The Gypsy Life...

This is the e-mail Billy sent to all his peeps...Pretty much sums it up for him...I, however, am still holding out for a miracle - and at this point 10 months seem sooo long.

All:
Our renters (we never sold the house we owned in Birmingham that was supposed to have sold, but never did as I just mentioned at the beginning of this parenthetical phrase) bailed on us a couple of weeks ago and left us with a house in desperate need of repair (updates, paint, flooring, etc).

Try as we might, we can no longer afford 2 mortgages. We’ve done that for a year, and I’m pretty sure that’s not a good option anymore… so we're headed back to Birmingham – where the nights are unbearably muggy, but at least the roaches are huge – to live until it makes sense to try and sell again.

We have been in a lease-purchase situation here in Nashville because of the aforementioned “two mortgages” situation (see “Greenville Debacle, circa 2006”).

The many thousands of dollars lost on the “Greenville Debacle” kind of taught us the lesson that we can't just sit back and "hope" things will happen the way you want them to. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet... and then chew on it for a really long time, no matter how bad it hurts.

It's bittersweet, really. Nashville is home and where we love (and where my business is) and where we have finally decided God wants us to raise our basketball team… But we also love the school Anna Beth will attend in Birmingham and the idea of getting back plugged-in to our church there makes us pretty giddy, too.

At the end of the day, we believe there's got to be some Providential reason for all of this stuff. At least that's what I tell myself when I cannot sleep and we're out of bourbon...


I will rent an apartment (or something) in Nashville (or somewhere here ‘bouts) and travel back and forth several days a week until things calm down a bit and we're able to reevaluate. At the very minimum, we’re looking at 10 months so we do not have to move again mid-school year (Anna Beth has been in three different elementary schools and she's headed to third grade... awesome for self esteem and stability).
And you never know… Bethany and the kids may decide they like Dad being available only on long weekends and by cell phone and email. Maybe we’ll be there forever.

But…

Ivey McCoig is as strong as ever and there is no plan B... So I know we'll figure out how to keep things rolling, no matter what.

I have a wonderful, patient, beautiful, loving, supportive, and (tries really hard to be) understanding wife who loves me in spite of me, and THE four most gorgeous and unbelievable kids in the world… So there’s that. But do me a favor and throw a few good words to the Man upstairs, because, as the guy who served me fried chicken this afternoon said, “These is hard times, ya’ll."
Amen.

So anyway... we just made the final decision this week and now we have 2 weeks to pack up and move. If you know any Mexicans*, teenagers** or ex-military personnel*** who might need a few extra bucks, we could sure use the help getting these boxes loaded up…

Billy
*because they are notoriously hard workers.
**because they are more often than not lazy, but desperate
***because they will probably be able to lift my washing machine