This is in response to bkg.
I have lived in the Dallas area for the past 15 years. My parents moved there about 12 years ago. My husbands family live just outside of Tulsa which was just 4-5 hours away. My life was complete. We had a house that we could more than afford and we put a lot of work into it. We had a large group of friends who we hung out with frequently. My kids had their friends and we lived in an excellent school district.
I was forced to move to crappy southern California because my husbands work closed the office in Dallas and moved all the designers to CA. Now I am house poor and live in a house that cost three times what it would cost in Texas. While our house in Texas needed no work the house in California that cost three times our house in Texas needs work. We just replaced the carpet in the bedrooms (the rest of the house is wood and tile). It needs to be painted both inside and out, two windows need to be replaced (but they are nice windows), the roof has some cracked tiles that need to be replaced to the tune of about $800, one bathrrom needs remodled (and I want to redo the master bath too), the wood floors need to be refinished....that's all I can think of now.
To top it all off we have taxes and fees coming out our ass. I want my walmart and target stores, the walmart and target's here suck big time. They don't even have a Super Target, can you friggen believe it? Also no DILLARDS. I also used to take my mom with me when ever I went to the store. I miss my mom...sniffle.