What a whirlwind!

For those of you who have been wondering what we've been doing over the last several months, here is the long awaited update...

During the spring, Sean and I decided it was time for a change. While he loved many aspects of being a professor at UT, there were other aspects such as working practically every moment that were not so great. The logical choice was Jet Propulsion Lab where he had maintained contact with many people over the years. JPL jumped at the chance to bring him on, so after much ado, here we are in California.

Sean did a great deal of research to find the best area for us to live as the cost of living immediately around JPL was well out of reach for us. Ultimately, we decided the Santa Clarita Valley would fit our needs. Home prices are a little more reasonable (although still significantly more than Austin) and the area has great public schools. At the end of June, Sean and I flew out to California for a house hunting trip intending to get the lay of the land in the Santa Clarita area. After visiting several houses on the first day, we were demoralized as many of them were foreclosures requiring quite a bit of work. Our Realtor suggested looking at new homes, so we took him up on it. The next morning, we found a beautiful new house that was ready for move in. We decided to put our money down immediately as we felt it might not be available if we waited too long. Sean and I never guessed that you really could go out to a new area and find a house within 2 days. While we still had much to do with selling our house in Austin, packing, moving, etc., finding a house in CA made everything much easier. Then the kids could get excited about where they were going to live and they knew what school they would be going to, etc.


Our new house is approximately the same size as our house in Austin. It has gorgeous wood floors, granite counter-tops, and all new appliances. It has 4 bedrooms upstairs so each of the kids has their own room (although Benjamin and Emma slept in the same room for several nights because they were having trouble adjusting to the new house).
One of the best things about the house is the proximity to the kids' school. It's about a 5 minute walk to the elementary. Next year, Alex will attend junior high and it is about 3/4 of a mile away. The elementary is brand new this fall. We're really excited about it as the school has a music focus. All the kids will be learning to play instruments. During our tour of the school, we saw one of the music labs and it was full of piano keyboards. Cool!
We sold our house in Austin in about 5 weeks. We're thankful for that as the market has been VERY slow. There are many houses for sale in our area and numerous price reductions. Over the spring, Sean and I did small repairs and I coordinated numerous contractors to clean up things in the house. We're glad all that hard work paid off quickly. The sale of that house closed last week so we're breathing a sigh of relief.