Update

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything here. A lot has happened since August...

After years of postponement, Dave and I finally decided to take the plunge and make a move out West. We've wanted to live in or near the mountains for as long as I can remember and, for one reason or another, we always found an excuse not to follow our dream. Finally, after a lot of soul-searching, I tossed the idea out to Dave and said, "Why do we keep wasting time? We're not getting any younger, you know. Why don't we just pick up and go?" So started our latest adventure.

We knew we wanted to live close to a University in the Rocky Mountain states. We researched a number of important factors -- local economy, job growth and unemployment rates, crime, housing prices, cost of living, schools for the kids, etc. -- and developed a "short list" of potential cities to explore further. At every turn, Pocatello, Idaho came out on top.

We continued researching Pocatello and surrounding cities in Idaho and fell more in love with the prospect of moving each day. Although we hadn't planned on moving until Spring or Summer 2008, I started looking for jobs right away since it can take months sometimes to find a decent opportunity. Idaho has a central application registry for state jobs and I submitted my information there as well.

Lo and behold, I got a call at the start of September... Idaho State University had seen my application online and were interested in talking with me about a potential job. During the next few weeks, I had a first, second, and third interview and finally received a job offer on October 31.

The mad dash to move our family to Idaho began, as I was to start my new position at ISU on January 2. We had about 6 weeks to get the house fixed up and ready to sell, pack and load our stuff, move our family 1100 miles, find a place to live, unload and unpack our stuff, and get settled in for a few days of rest before I started work.

Whew! We made it, but it was utterly exhausting. I think we were running on auto-pilot most of the time... we just kept plugging away until the big day arrived. We left Omaha a couple days later than planned, on December 22, and arrived in Pocatello around 9:30pm Christmas Eve night. I'll post more details about the move in another entry... let's just say that the move was definitely an adventure and leave it at that for now.

More to come soon! From Pocatello, signing off...