happy is...

In three weeks, we make the Big Move!

In three weeks, I get to move into my "own" (rented) three bedroom, two bathroom, laundry-inside-the-house home, five minutes down the road from one of my most kindred of friends.

For me, this move has a deep sense of fulfillment and destiny, as I've been driving through and visiting this little town since I was thirteen or fourteen years old. Because of his love of southern Arizona, my dad tried with all his might to buy land and move us down toward Willcox, or Sierra Vista, or anywhere that he could have land, cows, and a garden. At the ripe old age of eighteen I caught his desire, and started saving toward a down-payment on an acreage I had yet to find. But all of that was not to be. Our plannings all fell through, and my parents instead bought a house in Mesa, while I attended culinary school to learn more about a trade I loved; we also started going to the church where I first met Zao's Daddy. So it was all, indeed, quite serendipitous.

Since we've been married, Zao's Daddy and I have had no shortage of hankerings to leave Phoenix, and have schemed for probably the past two years how to move ourselves "eventually." We liked Tucson, and visiting our friends in southern Arizona, so that was one of the locales we entertained. Zao's Daddy dreamed about even being able to transfer down there, thus not even having to look for or change jobs.

His speculations came to pass this January, when that very position came available, and he applied for the transfer. By the time we had our tax return, we knew that we would be moving to Tucson. As more time passed and we prepared to go and look for rentals, Zao's Daddy learned that his "area" wasn't in Tucson proper or its outskirts as we'd originally thought, but was in fact all of southern Arizona: Benson, Willcox, Bisbee, Sierra Vista, et al. This opened our search for housing quite a bit, and we were especially excited to look into Benson, as we have long-time, dear friends that live there.

We found our house that first night. It is the first we saw that had everything on our "list" and more. It is privately owned, and we really like our landlords. They are good people, and seem very happy to rent to our little family.

We are really excited to live in a small town, and though it certainly has its own set of challenges and changes to which we'll have to become accustomed, I feel very equal to the change. Other than my time spent here in the Phoenix area, I have been a country mouse all my life. The clean air and quiet life are especially calling out to me again.

I will be chronicling our transition here as I can. I have a little bit to do around the house during the next few weeks. ;)