Anyone want to buy a house?

The past week has been a bit exciting in our house.
I got a new job.
It's the job I've wanted for a very long time. The job at a newspaper that I've wanted to work at since I was in high school. The same newspaper where my husband works. And now we can move to where we want to raise the girls, be minutes away from my parents and closer to his.

It has been a holy shit kind of week.

This past year has been difficult for us as a couple. The husband started his new job almost exactly a year ago. He's been driving 50 minutes one way while I drive about 35 in the other direction. All the while, we've been hoping that I would get a new job. We've had a few ups and downs and have been living in limbo the entire time. I don't do well with limbo. It stresses me out. And just when I thought I might have to look for a job outside of newspapers, it happened.

This is an amazing opportunity for me both personally and professionally. The job itself will be challenging and exciting. And for our family, we get to live where we want to live. To be honest, it really hasn't set in yet. Everything we've hoped for is starting to happen.

Now we just have to sell our house. (It's lovely. Really. Anyone want to buy it?) It's not going to be easy but after going through the past year, I realize what the husband and I are capable of if we stick together and work as a team. I've already put myself in the mindset that we aren't going anywhere for a year. We have to be realistic about our prospects.

But, when the house sells, we will get to move. Our office is downtown Columbus. When I was there last week at lunch time, there was a farmers market with fresh food, jewelry and clothes, food trucks and even a band playing on grounds of the statehouse.

I'm leaving behind a great company with some wonderful people and mentors who gave me incredible learning opportunities that led me to this new job. It wasn't an easy decision for us to leave here but ultimately we wanted to live Columbus.
Relief doesn't even begin to describe my feeling. We've been looking at houses and are narrowing down exactly what part of the area in which we want to live. We've even looked in the same neighborhood where I grew up, rode bikes with my friends to the pool, walked to school, and ran through backyards to get to my friends' houses.
Almost 12 years ago, I wrote my first article for this newspaper as an intern. It was about the world's oldest black rhino at the local zoo. (Sadly it died weeks later.) My sister had the article framed for me and it is hanging in our basement.



Now, I'm returning to that same paper.
We are so, so lucky that this is happening and I truly could not be happier.