It's not a Craftsman, but it's cool!

We nabbed a great one-year rental last week, up behind Southern Oregon University (SOU). It's owned by an artist who did the remodel herself, and it was written up in the paper. Go here if you want to check it out: http://www.aliciamannix.com/mailtrib1-05.pdf

Two days after we put down our deposit, the owner/artist asked if we'd like her to leave much of it furnished, which is wonderful and hilarious since just the day before I'd written a huge list of stuff we'd have to buy to furnish the place. Things like extra couch, area rugs, coffee table, guest bed, kitchen table, etc., etc., can now be scratched off my list, and can save us some big bucks for a while.

We also told her (only half-jokingly) we'd be happy to display some of her art that admiring guests might want to buy -- we have no large wall hangings and this house looks good with a few of them -- and she said sure! I hope we get to choose which pieces to display.

Other than loving the house itself, it's in a sweet location: within walking distance to the kids' new school, Walker Elementary, and a grocery store. It's also within biking distance to the Y, where we'll probably get a family membership in August.

While in Ashland last week, at the tail-end of our three-week road trip, the kids attended YMCA Super Soakers camp with their cousins. They loved it. They got to bring squirt guns, go to sprinkler parks and water slides and swimming pools, and do silly camp games. To top it off, they got to come home every afternoon and swim in their cousins' pool.

We're back in Marin City now, but we're looking forward to heading up there again. The only catch is that we move out of the apartment on August 1st, we can't move in to the new place until August 15th, and Mick has new job training for two weeks in Eugene somewhere in there. It should be interesting... Kai and Dana might have a guest house available by then, but whatever the case, with some fancy footwork, I'm sure it'll all work out.

P.S. The house has a great yard with a lawn and trees and low-maintenance landscaping. There's a chance she'll sell the jacuzzi before we move in, but we're still crossing our fingers.

BRIEF LIFE/JOB UPDATE FROM THE ROAD

We've been on the road for a week and a half. Mick graduated the 15th, we left for Disneyland the 17th with the kids when we got his PASSING boards scores (the last hurdle of graduating -- it took us only 2 hours to plan the trip and leave for it! see blog below), and then headed north to look for work.

The day we headed north, June 23rd, with interviews only in WA, we got a morning email from a Medford clinic -- from an associate in Eugene we had said 'no' to months ago, b/c the only Oregon town we wanted was Medford/Ashland -- and they said they had a sudden Medford opening they needed to fill! Note: with lots of looking, we hadn't come up with any opportunities in Medford/Ashland yet! We were starting to envision ourselves in Bremerton, Olympia, or Bellingham again, but not entirely excited about the weather...

After interviews throughout the PNW and the lone interview in Medford, Medford gets our vote. Mick signs his rockin' two-year contract on Monday with Hayden Family Dentistry, and this family's moving to ASHLAND! We're so excited. Love the place, and love that Mick's cool bro and fam will live there too.

Of course, there's all this deep sadness about leaving Marin, which I've expressed to anyone who will listen before, but I'm a bit assuaged knowing Ashland's just 5 hours from Marin. And I get to keep much of the weather and cultural climate I've loved!

There's also this deep sadness about moving away from SO MANY friends and family who live in Washington, but our big hope is that Ashland will be an appealing destination for them to visit, shacking up with the Reynolds' any day of the year. (We also see WA as a sweet destination point, so they need to keep the air mattress handy for us, too.)

So, we'll be in Ashland next week trying to line up a rental home near downtown (I'm crossing my fingers for a craftsman with a yard) and then we'll be in Marin the last couple weeks of July, hopefully packing up to move.

If I left any details out, leave your comments and I'll spritely write back.

MICK PASSED HIS BOARDS - LET'S GO TO DISNEYLAND!

Here's what happened:
Our last guests left our apartment on Tuesday the 17th at 9:30 a.m.
At about 10:30 a.m. we got word that Mick had passed his WREBs test. That meant no more waiting to get licensed to start practicing and no more wondering if we'd need to spend another $2000 on tests that would delay us another three months.
By 1 p.m. we had 3 nights' hotel lined up in Anaheim and four 2-day passes to Disneyland purchased.
By 1:30 p.m. we were driving on I-5 in a rented Hyundai Elantra with four backpacks and some bottled water.
Here's how it went at Disneyland:
FABULOUSLY!
The kids were total peaches, we had a hotel with a swimming pool, and on our second day we were in the right place at the right time and got free DISNEY DREAM FAST PASSES for Disneyland and California Adventure. That meant every single ride that had an hour to two hour line => zero, zippo, no wait for the Reynolds family. That's right, the ride attendants said, "Head straight to the front of the line, you lucky suckers!"
Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, California Screamin', Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster, Grizzly River Run, Tower of Terror, etc., etc., were all ours for the taking. Basically, we squeezed in about 10 more rides than we would've otherwise been able to finagle!