New Home

I have been in my new home about 3 weeks now. I unpacked my last box a week ago and hung up art and enrolled PJ in "school" (more on that later sometime) and I only have a few little things left to do.

It took a while to get internet so I had plenty of time to just focus on how awesome my new town is. The day we arrived in Ojai was a Monday at 2 p.m. When I realized that I was going to need more help than I had, I texted the bishop of the Ojai ward (the day before--yes, he texts.) Somehow, even though it was stake conference he rounded up a bunch of people to help me. I knew it would be tough on a Monday at 2 p.m. But when we got here there were 18 people waiting for us. That's kind of amazing to me. Most were youth or retired guys. We had WAY more help than we needed so much people just hung around and let Phoebe entertain them. I got digits of 3 great babysitters on the spot. 

Our new home is totally awesome. I don't know why I was stressing trying to find a place. God was pre-arranging everything better than I could have imagined. Sometimes I feel like I died and woke up in my dream life. Here is a picture of the view from the front of my house. 

Here is the view from the back around sunrise. See those trees down there... Those are our orange groves. We have fresh squeezed orange juice every day. 

Here is me by the pool. It has been super hot lately so we have been living in it.

Our third night in town we went to the local concert in the park series. I know lots of cities have these kind of thing, but I am used to them hiring different bands to come out every week. Well, this town has it's own big band. And they perform every week for 6 weeks. At intermission they have a parade and all the kids march around with balloons and you can buy popcorn and lemonade. It had a pretty cool small town feel and I realized that I was now a part of this--not just a city visitor.

Phoebe and I danced to the final song along with lots of kids.  

I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with the feeling that we made the right decision in moving here. 

This is me relaxing in my outdoor living room. You can see a fabulous sunset getting ready to happen in the reflection of the window.

Here are some more pictures:

Sunrise. Front of the house.

My cute gate

Phoebe enjoying the neighbor's go cart