We are at DEFCON 3 for MOVING!

Today, after a LONG job search...the longest of his life, my husband gave notice to his current job. He begins his new position on April 11 and we are just completely psyched to finally be moving!

We have been sitting at DEFCON 4 for some time now: my husband started applying for job openings in his field last July and we have spent the last nine months waiting, wondering, planning, and pitching and selling things we knew weren't coming with us. He is a forester by trade and college degree, with a solid career behind him of GIS and reforestation forestry. When he was forced to find a new job 2.5 years ago when Weyerh@euser sold the tree farm he was working on, the only job available was for an inventory analyst position in downtown Portland, which means he has been driving two hours EACH WAY every day in order to get to that job from our little home in rural Oregon.

We thought it was temporary, that another position would come along and THEN we would move. It didn't. Nothing came open. The economy shut down. No one was hiring. That wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world, because our diesel Jetta gets nearly 44 miles to the gallon, but he took a tremendous pay cut to take that job -- the only job around. So to say the last two years have been tight is an understatement of planetary dimensions.
But it's over. It's finally over.

He applied for at least eight positions in the last nine months, which is a lot to have come open in the tiny world of forestry. Some of them he wasn't exactly qualified for, others went to inside people within the company doing the hiring, and at least one wasn't filled at all. That happens, and time went by. After six months of applying, waiting for the closing date to come and go, waiting to see if he'd get called for an interview, waiting for the interview to come, waiting to hear their decision from their interviewing process, we were starting to go a little crazy wondering if anything was ever going to happen. We began to doubt things like the industry itself, the strength of his work history -- but we knew those two things were solid! It was SO frustrating!!

Just when we thought it was over, no more positions were coming -- after all, one of them had had his resume for months and hadn't moved on it -- another position opened and it was perfect! We knew the people who worked there (it IS a small industry!), the position would have taken us to Olympia where we once lived and want to return to....everything was PERFECT. But then another position called and they also wanted an interview. Okay, not the perfect job for him, and it wasn't in OLYMPIA for pete's sake, it was in Longview, Washington...but it was an interview and we were sure it would be better than what he's doing now.

Those two interviews were back-to-back in the second week of March. We were sure one of them would hit. But then he got a THIRD call -- from the company that had had his resume for what seemed like forever! They wanted an interview, too! He scheduled it for the week after the other two interviews, on St. Patrick's Day. Three interviews in a week!?!?!

Sooooo... the Perfect Job was offered to someone else (*rats* we thought!), but the first Longview position offered him a job!!! We couldn't believe the day had finally come. He was ecstatic knowing his days of driving into downtown Portland were coming to a close. And it was more money. Which may sound shallow, but we have three kids we're trying to raise, and they have this annoying habit of growing out of their clothes every six months. Probably because of all that food we have to feed them!

So we thought things were set.
We thought we were done...until he got another call from the last interview he did.
They wanted him and they wanted him bad ---- more money than the first job offer, a signing bonus, moving expenses... it really felt like a box of treasure fell from the sky. And the best part is he will be doing the work he really loves -- reforestation forestry. He goes in once the trees are harvested and he does all of the site prep to get the site ready for the next generation of trees. He is my very own Johnny Appleseed.

Somewhere in there I realized it's not only writing that makes you wait for the right situation to come along. I really believe everything happens when it's supposed to, because he wasn't supposed to have any of those other jobs -- we weren't ready to move, we needed our tax return to make sure we had the cash to pull this off, things like that. Life is a balance and ours finally feels like the pendulum is swinging the other way.

We will only be moving an hour away, but the difference is night and day. I won't have to do all of my shopping in two or three trips per month. We will live closer than 20 miles to a Safeway. It won't take hours out of our day to "run to town" and "buy some stuff." We can rent movies because it won't cost us $12 in gas to return them the next day...just because we live so far from town. I'll miss our big yard, but not really. Somebody has to mow it, and giant gardens are mostly work. I will be VERY happy to become a container gardener with my lavender and rosemary and thyme greeting me as I drive my son to kung fu and my girls to their tumbling/cheer gym.

So the next month is Moving Time. We will reach DEFCON 2 and then DEFCON 1 before it's all over because we have 8 million things to deal with, and the list grows longer every day.

But we will get through it, we will get moved, and we will unpack... and then I will be able to focus once again on my writing. And I will be living in a situation that is MUCH less stressful than where we are at now.

I am now waiting, waiting for DEFCON 5 to return...and that will be a really good day!