I'm back

Ok, ok, I know. It's been a while. I suck at this regular blogging thing. In case you only get your Amber news here (in which case, I'm sorry), you probably missed the news that my family and I have moved to Ashland, Oregon. We moved here so tht I could take a job with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. My husband has been able to keep his job and is able to work from a home office. We reduced our driving considerably because Eric no longer commutes at all and my commute is only 3 miles. I only drive it because I drop our daughter off at preschool on my way and I don't yet have a trailer for my bike. We're loving our new hometown and praying that we don't have to move back to CA at the end of my contract in June. I'm expecting that I will get another season's contract that would begin in the fall. I'll have to wait tables or work retail until that happens. Also, there is still the problem of the house we own in Mission Viejo which is sitting empty. It is up for rent, but so far no takers. We checked the comps this past week and we currently can sell it because several units of the same floorplan have recently sold or are on the market for much less than we bought ours for. We know we won't get back our full investment, but we need to sell for enough that we will have something to put down on a house here. But enough of the depressing stuff. Oregon is great and here's a brief list of the things I love here, in no particular order:

1. Everyone here brings their own bags to the store. Most of the stores also expect you to bag your own purchases. So, I'm just one of the normal folks here, not some tree hugging hippie control freak who wants their groceries bagged according to where things go in the kitchen.

2. Pumping your own gas here is not only discouraged, but is actually illegal.

3. In a related note, I only have to put gas in my car every 6 weeks or so. A lot of things are within walking or biking distance from my house, so I don't drive much.

4. There is a limit to the number of drive thru type businesses allowed in Ashland, so we only have 3 fast food restaurants. It has to do with limiting the number of idling cars in town at any one time.

So, please send some good thoughts my way hoping that the house rents soon and that we will be able to stay here without any problems.