Farmville - it's more than a Facebook game

As a follow-up to my post yesterday about the question of renewing our lease, I'm going to answer the second question that we've been getting asked a lot recently:  "Do you guys actually want to stay in Farmville?"

I know I often joke about the town where we live - about its size, the lack of a Target or any other decent shopping center, about the things that seem strange to us here compared to our old home - but overall, this isn't a bad place to live for a number of reasons.

First, I know the town itself isn't very big or exciting especially when you compare it to living across the Potomac from our nation's capital, but it is bigger than I make it seem.  Everyone who has made the trip down here to visit (TONS of you! Thanks, we love having you!!) has commented that the town is a lot larger and more populated than I make it seem.  This is true, I often exaggerate the rural-ness of the town for entertainment value.  Plus, there are two colleges which often provide free or fairly cheap entertainment, which is wonderful for us!

Second, the location, while not ideal, is really central.  To be honest, we don't often spend an entire weekend in Farmville unless someone is visiting us.  But with Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and North Carolina only one hour away, we stay pretty busy and have lots to do!  Our families both live about 3 hours away and our alma mater is only 2 hours away.  Yes, if I want to buy something they don't sell at Walmart I have to drive all the way to one of those more major cities, but that actually is a positive because we have less disposable income down here anyway - so the distance discourages frivolous spending!

Third, we both enjoy our jobs very much.  Chris is so much happier to be back in athletics and I really love working in study abroad.  Chris still works crazy hours during certain seasons, but it's at least predictable now.  And he's never showed up home from work at 7 am after my alarm went of indicating it was time for me to get up and get ready for work.  Yes, that happened.  We both get to see the direct effects of our efforts at work and are appreciated for what we do.

Lastly, you know how the saying goes "more money, more problems"?  I'm pretty sure that one's true.  Somehow last year we never felt like we were making enough money, and here we are making less than half (almost a third) of what our combined income was last year, yet we're making it work.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes I would love to go shopping and buy something - the only new clothes I've gotten this year were from my mom at Christmas and a $12 dress that I've worn to a wedding and two banquets, but I have plenty.  Our landlord loves us because we always pay our rent on time or earlier, and there's always enough money to pay all our bills.  And guess what?  We're living pretty comfortably!

I know that some people look at our lives, choices we've made, and what we're doing now and think we're a little bit crazy.  But it works for us, and that's what matters.  So do I want to stay here next year?  I don't know, I'm always up for a new adventure, but I certainly wouldn't mind if we did.