moving

This has been such a profound year of change--I suppose it is only fitting that now we're adding moving to the mix. This week, we're packing up our things and Saturday, we're moving to Redlands, about 15 miles away, my old college stomping grounds. There's a bit of a full circle to all of this--I moved away from Redlands when I was 8 months pregnant; 19 years later, I'm moving back to Redlands, 6 months pregnant.

Both moves were financially motivated, in a way--19 years ago, we were evicted from our apartment after Matt was laid off from his construction job and we fell behind on our rent. We moved as much as we could out of the apartment before it was seized and padlocked, leaving things like our vinyl collection (including a Talking Heads album signed by David Byrne) and much of my college work inside, beyond our reach. Michael and I are not facing eviction now, but I have lost my work at UCR due to the economy, and he's received a 10% pay cut, and the rent on our beautiful house in Riverside is more than we can comfortably handle. We found a place that's almost $500 less a month in Redlands--it's not nearly as charming, but it's a sweet little house with a big yard and should be a cozy, affordable place to land. We were actually hoping to buy--Michael's eligible for a no money down VA loan--but the market is so competitive in Redlands right now, everything that's in our price range ends up receiving dozens of bids. There's a chance we'll be able to buy this rental, which would be a wonderful opportunity, but right now, I'm just glad we're going to be in Redlands at all.

Money isn't the only reason we're moving. Hannah goes to school in Redlands, and the commute is half an hour each way, which means that I'm in the car for about 2 hours every day that I drive her. This is not something I wish to continue once the baby arrives. So it will be much much easier for her to get to school after we move--she can even ride her bike--plus, she'll be closer to her friends, which is so important (and will probably be even more so when there's a baby in the house.)

I've been in nesting mode but have resisted nesting here, since we'd been hoping to move before the baby is born. It will be lovely to be able to settle into the new place and start getting ready for the birth and beyond. As we looked at houses, one of my main questions was "Can I imagine giving birth here?" I'm happy that we've found a home that seems like a great place to begin this next phase of our adventure.