Can you believe it?

I responded to a Craigslist posting for "Model/Fitness - Wear Test/Focus Group," and ended up going in for a casting call yesterday for it. Basically, there is a company that designs all the new seamless sportswear/ undergarments for all the big companies like Patagonia, VS, Nike, Reebok, Banana Republic, etc. They are working on a project for a couple of clients to introduce a new sportswear line for "larger busted women" and need real women of that sort to test the products. So I went in, talked to them, described my level of physical activity, tried on a couple of their products, and got hired. This has got to be the easiest job ever. They will send me home with some of their garments, get me a 24 Hour Fitness gym membership, have me work out in the clothes and give them my feedback. For $50/hr. PLUS somewhere down the line, some of the women in the focus group will be chosen to fly to NY to meet with the design team for further fittings, etc. This may last anywhere from 3 days-2 weeks; all travel & expenses are fully paid, and participants will be compensated at the $500/day rate. What?! REALLY? Pick me! Pick me! Oh, please please please pick me!
But even if they don't, this is still an incredible "job."
No wonder those clothes are so expensive!!

GREAT NEWS!!!

Nope, we didn't buy a house. But it's almost that good. Amelia slept 10 hours straight last night. Previously, she had slept 7 hours once and 6 hours once, but she's had a rough adjustment this month, generally waking every 2 hours. So we are excited, and although she may not do it again for a while, it's a big step in the right direction!

This photo is of her on a hike with her gramps.

Aww...

Well, no big house news yet. We have been talking to our realtor, mortgage broker, CPA, and payroll people at Jeff's work. Since we just moved here, these are all brand new relationships and this whole process is quite an uneventful adventure. We are still a couple of days away from having a solid monthly income number to work from, and we'll go from there. The one house I posted about is still available and our #1 choice. We spent about four hours with our realtor yesterday looking at some pretty depressing homes, and found one other really nice option at about the same price point as the first. It's a good thing we like our realtor, since we have been spending more time with him than anyone else so far! In fact, he and his wife are having us over for dinner tonight-- we're excited to get to know another couple, especially so soon.

Wanted to let you know that our stuff did indeed arrive on Wednesday morning. The bulk of it is sitting unpacked in the garage waiting for a final resting place in another home. We are still trying to get the things we are going to unpack put away. Jeff is at his official first day of work right now, which he has been pretty excited about. We went house hunting Wednesday afternoon and looked at about ten properties. One far outshined the rest, and we are doing some number crunching and calculating to see if we can make the next move. As always, I'll keep you posted! I'll attach a picture of the house and part of the yard. Some specs: built in 1906, 2 bed + bonus room, super high ceilings, and yard on all sides of the house. It is pretty much move- in ready.

We're here.... almost!
An update is definitely in order, now that I've been in Portland for over a week. Jeff made it up safely on Wed. night, and on Saturday we moved into the duplex we're renting. However, we are STILL waiting for the big truck with our stuff to get here. They said that average travel time was two days, which would have meant a Thursday arrival. We have been on the phone a lot, and it finally looks like they'll bring our belongings on Wednesday morning. Finally! We've basically been camping out here, and never expected to have to go without our stuff for so long.
The highlight of our time here so far was having another birthday party for Amelia with NW family members, especially her cousins! We are really thankful to be close to family on both sides.
We have just now caught our breaths enough to start settling into our city. Yesterday, we drove around a bit, visited the local food co-op and joined. I'm excited about this, because they offer a lot of free community activities to the members-- yoga classes three days a week, square dancing on Wednesdays, a weekly farmers' market, etc. This seems like the perfect way for me to meet people and get involved. We have also found a couple of sources for fresh goat milk for Amelia, and are learning about local resources for buying food straight from local farms-- there is so much more access to local organic food up here, it's a dream come true!
The big, exciting event today was meeting with our realtor for the first time. We are so excited about buying a house, and can hardly believe it's really going to happen. We just submitted a long list of properties we'd like to see, and I'll keep you posted.

We have some photos to share, but I can't find the cable I need to get them onto the computer. It will probably show up on Wednesday as we try to sort throught those last boxes labeled "random!"