The Baiters Have Taken Their Talents to Laguna Beach

I don’t post nearly as much as in the past but thought I would share since so much of my adult life has been spent viewing and posting on this board. Once in the past we thought we were leaving Houston for Seattle and I posted our pending move prior to it happening. Of course, things changed when my wife learned that she was with child again and it really threw a wrench in our moving plans. This time I waited until we were actually moved because I didn’t want another Seattle situation.

So, with that being said, as of July 1, we have left Houston and are now living our dream in Laguna Beach, CA! About three years ago, I left my job as a pre-sales engineer at RES Software (now Ivanti) and started my IT consulting company again. In three years, we have grown to about 15 employees, become a Platinum Ivanti partner, and basically corner a niche market selling and implementing automated IAM and BPA leveraging Ivanti’s Identity Director and Automation. I even hired a fellow Clutch BBSer!

During this time, we were able to secure a pretty decent book of business, most of which is in Southern California. Then it continued to grow. I was spending more than half of my time on the road and we could see that it was starting to negatively impact our 5 year old daughter.

Those of you that know me know that my wife is Swedish. In the last two years, we have been able to buy property in Sweden and hope to one day live there full time. The property is great but it just that, land. To build in Sweden is tricky for us because all of our finances are in the US and we have no credit there. We’ve done well the last several years but we are in no way in a position to pay cash to build a house.

I am a native Houstonian and Houston has been very good to me and my family. I am very quick to be critical of Houston but it will always be special to me. I raised my older kids (now almost 21 and almost 18) there, it’s where I met and married my wonderful wife, and we had our two children there. It was VERY emotional leaving our home of 11 years that we built and made the center of our family’s existence.

But....

We have always known and said that we would leave. Life is too short to stay in one place too long and Texas is just not us.

So when we were looking to rent a place in SoCal for the summer and found an amazing cottage four blocks from 1000 Steps Beach in South Laguna Beach, we pulled the trigger. Permanently.

We put our house up for sale and signed a 1 year lease in Cali. The proceeds from our house in Houston will now fund our home in Sweden and we get to see the view in the pic below from the balcony in our new bedroom every single day.

I have only been here about 24 hours and it doesn’t even seem real. I’m not one to be satisfied very often but I feel such a huge sense of satisfaction, peace, and happiness that I rarely experience. You guys and gals have been my friends for much of my life and I once again wanted to share.

Now, off to Dana Point for the beach and fireworks!

Much love, MB