The Adventure.

A lot of things have happened in the past few days. And a lot of changes have been set in motion. And everything that's happening is something Jenifer and I are very, very excited about.

It's no surprise that we all have it rough these days. Everyone is struggling, career or otherwise, and it's taking its toll.

Financially, Jen and I have been struggling since she was laid off last summer. She couldn't find work for 3 months and, to add to the headache, my hours at work were drastically cut down. We were barely making it, even with help from my parents. So, when Jenifer got hired at Target in October, and once I started working nearly full time in January, we've been really steady in terms of being financially ok. We can pay our bills, get food, etc. But the biggest concern of ours is/was that we weren't making enough extra to put anything into our savings. And that sucked because last summer we had to use up all of our savings to get by (which is why we have it, right?).

We've been looking for a new apartment for awhile now, and we found a great place in Brea that's right near our work. However, after talking about it very seriously, we wondered if we'd be able to get ahead, like we want to, or if we'd just continue to barely stay afloat. We had a lengthy discussion and decided we really wanted to save money. So, we made the decision:

We're moving to Pennsylvania.

We'll be staying with my parents for awhile so that we can save as much as we can. As of right now, the manager at Target said that she's almost 100% positive she'll be able to transfer Jen to a Target in York, with her CA salary (yay!). The idea is to be there for a year, save as much as we can, then take it from there. If we're comfortable with what we've saved, we'll move back. If we're not, then we'll stay in PA for a little while longer. And I am fully planning on getting connected with the film/television/theater world on the east coast, which is BOOMING, so I'm very happy about that. There is so much going on in Philly, Baltimore (!), Lancaster, NYC, etc., that, if need be, I can just take a train to an audition and go from there. I plan on continuing writing and working on my projects and, hopefully, finding some people who want to make films out there and setting a few things up.

Jen and I are both very excited about this. I ultimately said the decision was up to her, and she said YES almost immediately. It's been no secret that the longer I've been away from home, the more I miss it. I left for very personal reasons and that's something I need to deal with. And being here on my own for 5 years has just really worn me down. Acting wise, things have beens going extremely well for me. I've taken on the projects I wanted to take on, and passed on the ones I didn't. That's life. It's all about how you measure your own level of success, and I've been very successful.

Plus it will just be nice for my wife and my family to really bond. They've spent time together, but only during Christmas (2006/2009) and when they were out here for our wedding (2008), so it will be really great for them to spend time together. Also, my sister is going into her senior year of high school and I really want to be there for that. My younger brother, Zac, might be leaving for Iraq again next year, so any extra time I can spend with him is a huge plus. And I'm excited that my older brother and I can go to baseball games (ORIOLES!!!!!!) whenever we want, and just spend some time together like we used to. I've really missed my family, and not having them with me for the past 5 years has been difficult. My grandfather and uncle are here in CA, but I only see them every once in awhile, so I'm pretty psyched to be around my parents, aunts, and uncles and to just see everyone for awhile.

Jenifer is pretty excited. I wasn't sure how she was going to handle it, but she's probably more excited than I am. She's never lived anywhere other than Whittier, CA, so the idea that she's going to be experiencing a new living place, she said, is really exciting for her. And I'm so thankful that my family adores her, and she adores them, and that will make everything easier, as well.

The plan, as of now, is to leave around June 17. We're planning on driving cross country (hell yes!), which is something that we have to do now, you know? We don't have kids and I honestly don't know if we'd ever have the opportunity to do it again in the future, so we need to do it now. Plus it will give her and I some quality alone time and time to check out some parts of the country we've never been to before. We're planning on visiting my best friend in Colorado, and then making our way to Kansas to visit her grandma. And, if we can swing it, we'll deteur to Iowa to see the Field of Dreams baseball field (it's a bit out of the way, but when will I be so close again?!!?). It's exciting.

So, while this is all fresh and new and exciting, there is a lot to plan out and think about. And, like I said, we're planning on coming back. We just want to be able to do it on our terms.

We're still very much planning on keeping in touch with anyone and everyone, so don't think for a second that we're just packing up and leaving. We have phones. We have email. We have Facebook. And for those of you more tech savvy, we have Skype. It's all good.

More details to come when the move gets closer, but we'd just thought we'd let you all know!