[von949]

Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda

I realize that these posts are from 2007, but I got quite a kick out of them this evening.

full = fool???

sespool?

where out of here?

And of course, this loser refers to others as retards.

Can you imagine this "full" attempting to help his kids with their English homework?

Have you noticed that it is usually the most illiterate posters who not only hate Vegas, but appear to be complete failures at life in general?

But its easier to blame it on Vegas.

[931chiro]

Well, I know this topic is old, but I wanted to share my story.

My wife and I moved to Vegas in 2004 from NC, both of us young, no kids. We both got good paying jobs easy (education & healthcare), and overall we found cost of living about the same as it was in NC where we are from. 2005 rolled around, the housing craze begun, homes that were once $150k rocketed to $300k in just over a year. We couldn't afford a home and was forced to rent. Although, being that we were both young, it didn't bother us a lot that we didn't own a house. Then, our first son was born in 2006, my wife grew home-sick for her family and in 2007 we moved back to TN/NC area.

The town we live in now is a city of about 9,000 almost halfway between Knoxville and Nashville. We picked it b/c of low crime rates and we [thought] we wanted our children to be raised in a rural environment like my wife and I both were. We wanted our children to be able to go hiking, catch fish, play in a yard with real grass, run through fields, etc, etc. If you ask me though .. looking back on things I'm wondering if we just didn't watch too many episodes of Dawson's Creek or something.

Now, 4 years later, we have two sons and another child on the way, and we're moving back to Vegas. YEP! We've missed it since the day we left. Schools here in TN are not any better, crime is the same or worse (in the larger cities). Drug problems (meth) here in TN is horrible. Seems everyone knows someone on either meth or pills. We find now that people here seem to be closed minded and too critical of others. There is a lot of negativity in the south I find (and I was raised here). Children seem to be "mean" and get in trouble a lot. Of course I guess that could be because there's not much to engage them here (even though my wife and I feel that is the parents' duty). We have to drive anyway from 30 mins to 4 hours to do anything "cool" outdoors like fishing/hiking/camping. How's that any better than Las Vegas where you have to do the same thing?

The weather here in TN seems like it keeps you inside all the time. Cold winters (we got over 15 inches of snow this year), rain most of the spring and early summer. Hot and HUMID summers! TONS of tree/grass/mold allergens. You only about 5 months out of the year that you can be active outside. We've had two tornados in our county touch down this month (small ones, but still scary). Overall not as wonderful as I thought the south was when I was a kid. Which makes me wonder what kids REALLY remember about their childhood hahaha (and by the way, they remember TIME with family & friends not location).

On the other hand, Vegas was a happy place for us. It was warm and sunny. It could be 60 degrees in the valley, we could drive 45 mins and be in snow if we wanted. People were friendly. Most of our friends in Vegas are 2nd/3rd generation natives. They've all raised their children/grand-children there and they're all normal people (in fact they seem more normal than most of my home-town in NC).

I was more active in Vegas. I went to the gym, ran, took our dogs to the desert to let them run. Now, I find here in TN we sit around alot. There's not much to do here, and it's hard to get our friends that live here to go do things and be active. Cost of living is actually more expensive here in TN, than it is in Vegas now that the housing market has popped (although it's pretty close either way).

We home school our kids, so the school systems don't really matter to us. We socialize our boys with church and community ball games (t-ball, soccer, etc). Yes, kids [people] are exposed to more things in Las Vegas, but good open communication and education can keep problems to a minimal I think. I was pretty much sheltered my whole life, and my first year in Vegas was dismal, the freedom of my wife and I being away from our families went to my head and I partied (drank) way to much. But, thank God, I came to my senses and got that out of my system. From 2005 through the middle of 2007, life in Vegas was almost bliss.

However, there are some negatives about Las Vegas, or any large city for that matter. If you have an addictive personality, I would not consider moving to Las Vegas (or moving anywhere you can get internet access or that has alcohol). Yes there are strippers and escorts around, but in the town I live in now, you hear of married people sleeping with other married people and breaking up families all the time (oh and the strip club is a 30 min drive from here). Can you gamble in Las Vegas? You bet, but google "United States Casino Map" ... that stuff is not just in Vegas.

So, in short, Vegas has it's problems just as the rural town we live in now does. But for us, Vegas is a better match for our family than the rural life we remembered from our childhood. It shocks me to type that, b/c in a million years I'd never thought that would be the case, but times have changed and so has ways of living. Vegas, here we come .. again!

*Edit*: On a side note, we lived in Boulder City when we lived in Las Vegas, but we're moving back to either the Henderson or South-West part of the Valley.

[Nolan05]

I can totally agree with what you said and how you feel.

We left Ohio in 2002 when we had 3 kids in diapers to get out of the dead end area we were in. My wife got into education and I was a manger at Big 5 Sporting Goods before getting into education. We had a great life there and we were all very active in sports as the kids got older and were out everyday at parks and doing the other things that Vegas offers. We had made many friends and progressed in our jobs nicely to the point where she was thinking of going into Admin.

Then we got a call from my mother in 2007 who had terminal cancer and they would not even give her a time frame for the end. She called and asked if we would uproot the kids and ourselves and return to Ohio so she could spend time with them. After 1 month on thinking about it, we thought OK, the kids can go to better schools and Ohio has 2 of the top 5 amuzement parks in the country along with the #1 zoo, plaenty of things to do. We sold our home, one we bought for 129,000, for 435,000 and bought one here for a couple of years.

Well, we never have been to Cedar Point or Kings Island as they are both over $50 per ticket; we do go to the zoo a lot, but that gets boring and the schools are really not that much better. As for the weather, well I will not go there(it has rained for 30 of the last 34 days) The county we are in also has been featured on 20/20 for having the 3rd highest rate for heroin use in the country, while being a county of about 18,000. Oprah was here and did a special about the high drug/suicide/unemployment rate, companies leaving and over 60% of the buildings are abandoned and rotting.

We too are returning, alas a little later than we wanted. Last April, we had lined up jobs at Henderson International, one as a teacher and I as the aquatics director. We sold our house, gave 3 months rent on one in Henderson, and pre-paid the moving company. Then got an e-mail about the school closing some of its branches, meaning we had no jobs anymore. So, we had to rent another house here, put the kids into another school district and start our looking all over again. We all love the Henderon area and consider it our home, and are doing everything to get back.

My mom, who is still kicking(although not very good) jokes that we are going to be driving a moving van in her funeral percession and leave as soon as they throw some dirt in the hole.(YEP!!!) My wife has 4 interveiws set up for next week, and me 3 for the following week. We figure she will come out first and teach and I will stay here with the kids for 1 more year as fall sports are a big deal and one made cheerleading for football. We will all come if I get employment too. I need out of here so I can loose the 30 pounds I have put on being stuck inside from the crappy weather and the state bird, the mosquito!

[CoryMack]

i'm on my way, too.

[tr00th]

So am I friend, so am I.

[Daniel84]

and we bought our pretty Condo in pretty Henderson :-).. The Las Vegas Valley is such a nice place to live!!! Hope soon to be living there....