Ooooo get me away from here I'm DYING

Last night all I wanted was a quiet night on the couch with my husband. I was tired, in pain and had been up since 3 am, and I just wanted to veg for a bit. Finally around 8 the kids were heading to bed, and we were going to settle in....then it happened. A freak, enormous thunderstorm formed over our town....and stayed over us in the deep red, for 2 1/2 hours!

I panicked that we would flood again, even with the gate open, given it rained so hard, for so long. Just when we would think it was ending, it came back! It was a really long couple of hours waiting to see if we were going to flood and waiting to see if the storm would ever move away....not good stress. I have just about had it with Virginia weather, it is by far the worst I have ever endured. I live in SC and while we had nightly storms, they came and went. In NY we rarely had really bad storms, other weather, but not these really scary storms.

Needless to say....we are in full force move mode. Our housing value is slooooooooowly creeping up. My hope is that by this time next year the house value will equal what we owe. We will then try to rent the house for a year while it *hopefully* keeps gaining value and we would like for me to find a job in NY. We would need to rent at least a year, until either we gained enough equity in this house to sell or to use to put a deposit on another house in NY. I am not worried about finding a job, I am more worried about renting this house out and working out all the details.....little does my father in law know, we may descend on him for a month or two while we get on our feet....bet he will LOVE that!

I have to say for the first time in a long time I feel at peace with the idea of moving back to LI. While we cannot have a farm which is my real dream, we may be able to have a cabin upstate at some point. I want to be somewhere where we have help and support, we really have nothing holding us here, and while my inlaws are not my favorite people, they will pick a kid up or babysit occasionally if asked. Ryan also has a ton of friends left on LI, so we have them for support too....not to mention the good pizza, chinese food and beaches!